The Process of Learning to Read, Essay Example

Learning Conditions and Principles Related to the Process of Learning to Read

Introduction

Cognitive science has been developed to study mind in the whole complexity of its processes, and to develop ways to improve the brain productivity. Mental processes also called cognition include attention, performing and processing language, remembering, making decisions, and solving problems. Cognitive science is applied to a variety of fields such as linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, artificial intelligence, and education. There are five general principles based on cognitive science learning – constructivism, context, change, distribution, and social learning (Five General Principles of Learning from Cognitive Psychology, n.d.).

Students construct new knowledge though connecting what they know and the information they receive; this construction process depends on the context of processing information. The learning process is accompanied with producing significant conceptual change through a range of known mechanisms. The principle of the distribution function means that individuals show considerable variations in their learning styles; moreover, the advancement of learning is significantly influenced by social interactions. These principles are applied to the process of learning to read in order to understand and overcome difficulties pertaining to this process.

Proper insight into the works of Nevills and Wolfe (2009), Caine and Caine (1990), Cambourne (1999), Vygotsky (1950s-1980s), and Ausubel (1960s) shows that psychological and cognitive development of the personality depends on various functions of brain zones. The proper development and functioning of literacy skills such as speaking, reading, writing, etc.,  rely on the development of the corresponding brain areas. These studies reveal that the human brain is able to perform a range of learning procedures; brain functions serve to enable a human being to develop intellectually, to gain and absorb new information, to process new experience, and to conduct critical thinking operations.

The process of comprehending a text occurs at three levels – the visual features of letters and words, the phonological representation of the words, and the meaning of those words read. Hence, the fluency in reading can be achieved only if a child is able to decode the text and to translate it into a speech form (Nevills & Wolfe, 2009); to do that, the child should also possess an ability to understand spoken language. Although these brain abilities are inherent to everyone to accumulate his or her literacy skills, many children experience difficulties while acquiring basic reading skills. These difficulties are caused by the morphophonemic system of the English language, and are accompanied with various biological and environmental factors (Ricketts et al., 2009).

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of cognitive science in the process of learning to read, as it is the fundamental basis for personality development. There is a need to identify the conditions resulting in acquisition of skills, and to determine improvement ways of the process of learning to read. Since there are many principles of a brain-based approach to learning and teaching reading skills, one has to study them in detail, to analyze the findings, and to make conclusions of how to optimize the learning process for the sake of optimizing the process of learning to read.

The Importance of Reading Skills; Challenges in Their Acquisition

The fundamental basis of all school learning in the contemporary world is the development of reading skills; reading ability is an initial precondition for gaining opportunities in the fields of academic and further occupational success. There is a theory developed by Nevills and Wolfe (2009) claiming that the difficulty in learning to read is caused by an unnatural origin of this skill. While speaking and vision abilities are organized genetically, there are no genetically foreseen neural mechanisms for reading; thus, the brain has to assimilate structures initially designed for other purposes (Nevills & Wolfe, 2009, p.7).

The brain obtains reading skills through constant synthesis of written word forms and their pronunciation to create a clear connection between a letter and its sound. Learning to read in English is more complicated than in other languages, since English is a morphophonemic system where orthography does not coincide with spelling. Hence, it is understandably difficult to determine the sound-symbol relationship when the same symbol has different sounds; however, finally, the brain obtains all the reading procedures. There is a strong need in continuous practice in decoding symbol-sound relationship in the language to make this process automatic. Over time, the brain masters all procedures involved in the exercise of reading skills, and makes it an unconscious process called an implicit memory; however, many children experience severe difficulties in learning to read (Nation, 2009).

Biological Conditions of the Process of Learning to Read

Besides the morphophonemic nature of English language, the difficulties pertaining to the process of learning to read involve some other factors – biological and environmental ones. Biological condition of reading difficulties concerns the inheritance of dyslexia, the disease reflecting troubles in understanding the symbol-sound connection; unfortunately, the researchers have not identified exact parts of the brain responsible for this disorder (Berninger, 2002). Dyslexia can be developed or acquired after some brain injuries such as trauma, stroke, or tumor; however, both types of the disease have a disruption in the neural pathways responsible for reading. Dyslexia cannot be overgrown; even if a person learns to read fluently, he or she still experiences difficulties with reading unfamiliar words as the reading process is not automatic (Nevills & Wolfe, 2009, p. 30).

Such genetic factors as labor events or adverse pregnancy can also lead to further reading and learning problems. A child with poor eye health experiences visual processing problems that result in defects and problems with decoding written words. The presence of auditory processing problems caused by hearing impairment, deafness, or chronic ear infections also negatively affect language development and, consequently, reading skills. The brain is unable to obtain the implicit memory of the reading process as it cannot identify the connection between auditory sounds (phonemes) and written words (Nation & Cocksey, 2009). Nevills and Wolfe (2009) assumed that

“although many reading difficulties can be attributed to visual or auditory processing deficits, more often the central difficulty appears to be a deficit in the system that integrates the sensory input from both the ears (auditory/temporal) and the eyes (occipital/visual) into a language system for reading” (p. 32).

The language/reading brain pathway takes place as the development of high- and low-level skills. The neural systems at higher levels process semantics responsible for the language meaning, syntax responsible for the comprehensive word organization, and discourse responsible for speaking and writing. These brain abilities are based on the lower-level phonological skills designed to decipher the reading code; hence, while reading, the brain takes back and forth shifts between decoding and comprehension (Nevills & Wolfe, 2009, p. 32). The child brain is open for change and has an ability to obtain and process information; thus, it is possible to overcome a biological factor preventing a child to become a fluent reader.

Environmental Conditions of the Process of Learning to Read

Environmental conditions also play a significant role in a child’s progress in reading; Nevills and Wolfe (2009) figured out three types of environmental factors – instructional, socioeconomic and ethnic ones, and factors of early literacy development. Proper and adequate instruction should include five components for the effective development of reading skills – “phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary development, and reading comprehension” (Nevills & Wolfe, 2009, p. 11). Hence, teachers should have strong knowledge, excellent preparation, and constant access to the findings of new researches aimed at providing best instructional practices as they are the central elements in achieving reading success (Nevills & Wolfe, 2009, p. 11). Today, the majority of public schools provide an appropriate reading instruction; however, some children still fail to acquire proficient reading skills caused by inconsistent school attendance, change of schools, or long-term absences due to frequent illnesses.

A lack of advancement in a child’s literacy is also caused by the social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds; numerous studies show that many nonwhite and nonnative speakers of English experience difficulties with obtaining proper reading skills (Nation & Cocksey, 2009). This can be a result of the difference between the English language forms such children study and speak at school, and the language forms they hear and use at home. Another obstacle for becoming a proficient reader is a factor of low socioeconomic status, although there is no scientific evidence of its impact. Probably, such children go to schools with a low amount of educational opportunities. Baker et al. (1995) and Hart and Risley (2003) claimed that children with low socioeconomic status lack such home environment-based opportunities as “visits to the library, joint book reading, play with print, independent reading, and frequent conversations with direct involvement with youth (as cited in Nevills & Wolfe, 2009, p. 12).

The early language development of a child increases his or her potential to acquire fundamental abilities in reading much faster as there is an inseparable relation between language and reading. Thus, literacy-based interaction from the early years leads to further ability of children to achieve reading proficiency. Though current studies show that contemporary electronic sources are developed to be excellent sources of entertainment and education for kids, it is essential to limit them to several hours a day. Therefore, genetic and biological factors of the child influencing his or her ability to become a fluent reader can be overcome as they just build block in the personality development while environmental factors are the on-the-job foremen (Nevills & Wolfe, 2009, p. 13).

Principles for a Brain-Based Approach to Learning to Read

Caine and Caine (1990) supported the idea that reading skills are an acquired act of the human brain; they developed and offered twelve principles of brain-based learning to improve the advancement in literacy studies. The main focus of their study is that the greatest challenge of the human brain is its complexity, vastness, and potential to acquire, comprehend, and store information. The brain is a parallel processor that is able to perform various functions simultaneously; this ability is essential to achieve reading fluency when the printed text is decoded and comprehended at the same time (Caine & Caine, 1990). It is important to take into consideration that the brain is initially a complex physiological organ that is negatively affected by stress, boredom, and tiredness; therefore, the educational environment should provide an encouraging atmosphere to connect positive emotions and cognition to acquire new skills including reading (Jensen, 2008).

Another basic element of brain functioning is the search for meaning; the brain simultaneously needs to register the familiar and searches novel stimuli. Hence, the educational environment should provide stable familiarity together with novelty (Caine & Caine, 1990, p. 67); while learning to read, a child needs to review previously acquired skills and to discover new phonemes combinations, vocabulary, and rules. Moreover, the brain’s natural capacity is to process and pattern information on its own; that is why it is unable to comprehend isolated pieces of information. The best way to teach reading is to present information in the way that will allow the brain to extract patterns; thus, the learner can create his or her own meaningful and relevant patterns and retrieve them from memory when necessary (Allen, 2008).

There is evidence of differences between right and left hemispheres of the brain in terms of their impact on learning to read; however, these hemispheres are interactive in information organization in separate but simultaneous ways. While the one processes information in parts, the other comprehends and deals with it as a whole set; thus, language development should be conducted through involving vocabulary and grammar in whole-language experiences (Caine & Caine, 1990, p. 67). Another essential ability of the brain is its simultaneous focused attention and peripheral perception of the incoming information; the brain codes, finds associations, and symbolizes every slight sound or visual signal. Hence, the process of learning to read should be accomplished with various charts, illustrations, etc., and music background; unconscious signals of teacher enthusiasm and encouragement signalize the brain the importance of what is being learnt (Allen, 2008).

Understanding of unconscious learning importance can positively affect the advancement as a person is mostly unaware of the peripherally perceived information. Nevertheless, the brain records not only what a person was told, but also what he or she experienced at that moment; this later either emerges in the consciousness or influences decisions and motives (Jensen, 2008). The review of unconscious experience allows students to analyze how and what they learnt; thus, the process of learning to read should be taught through the usage of analogous phoneme and word combinations to assist children in recognizing the material in their personal valuable and meaningful ways (Caine & Caine, 1990, p. 68). The engagement of the child’s personal world is essential because any human brain has two types of memory; a spatial memory system is responsible for the general experience during the study session, while a set of systems for rote learning work on the relatively unrelated information, and store it (Caine & Caine, 1990, p. 69).

The best way to achieve advancement in reading skills is to embed natural spatial memory in the learning process. As the spatial memory does not need constant repetitions and memorization of facts, the process of learning to read should involve ‘real life’ activities. Classroom demonstrations, group discussions, reading projects and performances, and other language-related activities give a boost to reading fluency (Caine & Caine, 1990, p. 69). The potential of the brain productivity can be increased by educational challenge and reduced by threat and stress; the educational environment should encourage children to achieve results in reading, but not cause a fear of failing (Caine & Caine, 1990, p. 69). It is good to organize and conduct reading competitions and challenging tasks and to eliminate ordinary assessments of children effectiveness.

The last and the most critical principle of brain-based learning is the awareness of the unique nature of each brain. Though everyone has the same set of physiological and emotional systems, they interact differently with the brain and each other. Caine and Caine (1990) claimed that learning even changes the brain structure, so the more a person learns, the more unique his or her brain becomes (p. 69). Hence, the process of learning to read should include visual, auditory, emotional, and tactile experiences to allow the brain to process and comprehend the acquiring information in its full range (Jensen, 2008).

Cambourne’s Model of Brain-Based Learning

Cambourne (1995) provided a dynamic and evolving model of brain-based literacy learning; the model consists of eight mutual and interconnected conditions: “immersion, demonstration, engagement, expectations, responsibility, employment, approximation, and response” (as cited in Rushton et al., 2003, p. 12). According to Cambourne (1995), each of these conditions provides support for both the teacher and the student in their learning process and assist with context within which to learn. These Cambourne’s (1995) Conditions of Learning develop a dynamic interaction between the student and the learning content. This paper relates Cambourne’s theory of literacy development to the process of learning to read.

In accordance with Cambourne’s (1995) theory, all students need to immerse into the knowledge, curriculum, and culture to identify their own learning behaviors, styles, and content. This point supports the idea offered by Caine and Caine (1990) that every student should understand the learning process and be aware of how he or she processes and comprehends information. Thus, a child struggling to acquire reading skills needs integrated instructions to let his or her brain to pattern information on its own. The second condition of successful learning by Cambourne (1995) is an obligatory provision of stimulating and exciting demonstrations aimed at assisting the learner to experience the desired outcomes (Cambourne, 1995). This condition echoes the thoughts of Caine and Caine (1990) who suggested the development of encouraging educational environment to achieve success in any studying including reading skills.

The third Cambourne’s (1995) condition is the necessity of the learner’s engagement in the learning process through writing and creating personal guidelines and formulating objectives (Cambourne, 1995). In the process of learning to read, this principle can be transformed into various reading activities performed alone, in pairs, and groups such as poems performances, finding analogy exercises, and reading fluency competitions. The challenging task is an essential part of a child success; nevertheless, teachers should set high expectations simultaneously eliminating the risk of a student failure (Rushton et al., 2003, p. 12). Thus, Caine and Caine’s (1990) work and Cambourne’s (1995) theory expressed the same idea that the teacher is responsible for creating an encouraging learning process with a minimized threat and stress of possible failure.

A child provided with the conditions stated above is able to comprehend the content and to take his or her own responsibility for learning to ensure sufficient results (Rushton et al., 2003, p. 12). While acquiring reading skills, a child can determine the best appropriate learning style to remember relations between phonemes and printed letters and word combinations. It is a teacher’s job to provide the learner with various opportunities to employ “the learning both individually and in a social setting” (Rushton et al., 2003, p. 12). These opportunities allow the learner to approximate the desired advancement experiencing no fear or stress to be criticized; for the contrary, the teachers should provide a constant feedback to response to all possible student needs and thus, assist learners to achieve high results (Rushton et al., 2003, p. 12).

Both Cambourne’s (1995) Conditions of Learning and Caine and Caine’s (1990) principles of brain-based learning contain Piaget’s (1954) ideas of constructive learning, which is one of the principles of cognitive science (as cited in Rushton et al., 2003, p. 11). Elements of constructivism found their reflection in the work of Vygotsky (1978) who considered that the learner’s interaction with the social environment creates the understanding of the learning process (as cited in Rushton et al., 2003, p. 11). Vygotsky (1978) offered a concept of mediation as the main mechanism of personality learning and development when all human mental processes are mediated by a variety of psychological tools like language, symbols, and signs (as cited in Karpov & Haywood, 1998).

Vygotsky’s Mediation Types

Karpov and Haywood (1998) distinguished two types of Vygotsky’s (1978) mediation – cognitive and metacognitive. Metacognitive mediation “refers to children’s acquisition of semiotic tools of self-regulation: self-planning, self-monitoring, self-checking, and self-evaluating” (Karpov & Haywood, 1998, p. 27). Such mediation of psychological processes is based on a child’s interactions with peers, adults, and teachers. For example, when a child is prohibited to do something dangerous or inappropriate by the mother, he or she is supplied with a self-regulation tool (Karpov & Haywood, 1998, p. 27). Thus, the child’s behavior is regulated by someone’s external speech, this speech transforms into the child’s egocentric speech, and the child starts regulating his or her own behavior through the usage of the inner speech (Karpov & Haywood, 1998, p. 28).

Metacognitive mediation relates to the process of learning to read in the way that a child should be involved in the learning process and understand it to allow his or her brain to process and comprehend information in its own meaningful patterns. The cornerstone of fluent reading skills is a morphophonemic system of English language where the same morphemes and their combinations produce different sounds. Therefore, the teacher should not only explain the reading difference between examples of the rules and exceptions, but also provide a variety of analogous configurations. This allows the brain to analyze and to store the acquired information in the long-term memory and to retrieve this knowledge when coming across with an unfamiliar parallel word.

Cognitive mediation of Vygotsky’s (1934; 1988) concept “refers to children’s acquisition of cognitive tools that are necessary for solving subject-domain problems” (Karpov & Haywood, 1998, p. 28). Cognitive mediation begins when a child goes to school where he or she is taught scientific concepts in contrast to previous spontaneous ones. Spontaneous concepts are caused by generalization of everyday experience with the absence of scientific instruction; scientific concepts reflect the generalization of the humankind experience that is fixed in science and taught in the form of a systematic instruction in educational institutions (Karpov & Haywood, 1998, p. 28).

Karpov and Haywood (1998) claimed that cognitive mediation is not enough to solve subject-domain problems; there is a necessity to acquire procedural knowledge. Hence, the development of meaningful knowledge is possible through uniting concepts and procedures; children should be demonstrated the links between them (Karpov & Haywood, 1998, p. 29). In terms of the process of learning to read, a child should be taught not only to read phoneme and word combinations; it is essential for a teacher to provide proper explanation of any reading aspect and educate the child to analyze and identify the differences and consistent patterns to ensure his or her reading proficiency.

Ausubel’s Assimilation Theory

Another follower of Piaget’s (1954) constructive learning is Ausubel (1960s) who developed the Assimilation Theory of learning, the main concept of which is the acquisition and usage of knowledge (as cited in Bouchard, 2008). The theory claims the necessity of making the learning process meaningful to be effective; thus, each student should develop his or her own learning style (Bouchard, 2008, p. 2). According to Ausubel (1960s), meaningful learning is a process when teachers act only as information managers; they assist in the process through providing various strategies and encouragement. The exact learning is carried out by each learner as it is an individual process; the learner controls the learning process when new information is attributed to previously acquired knowledge. Therefore, there are three components of meaningful learning – relevant prior knowledge of the learner, meaningful material, and the choice of strategies (Bouchard, 2008, p. 2).

There are six principles of Ausubel’s (1960s) assimilation theory – subsumption, superordinate learning, progressive differentiation, integrative reconciliation, obliterative subsumption, and advance organizers (Bouchard, 2008, p. 3). Subsumption refers to processing new information; derivative subsumption references a new concept to the previously acquired and stored one, and correlative subsumption reflects the enrichment of a previous concept through processing new knowledge (Bouchard, 2008, p. 3). Superordinate learning occurs when the brain relates a more general new concept to already known examples of the concept (Bouchard, 2008, p. 3).

Progressive differentiation is only possible with special memory learning as it refers to the development and refining of the existing cognitive structures (Bouchard, 2008, p. 3). Integrative reconciliation performs connections and new relationships between various concepts in mind; it is a type of progressive differentiation (Bouchard, 2008, p. 3). Obliterative subsumption refers to the information forgot by a learner; Ausubel (1960s) claimed that the degree of meaningfulness associated with the information acquisition affects the amount of recall that a learner can achieve (as cited in Bouchard, 2008, p. 3). Advance organizers are information organization and presentation aimed at relating new concepts to previously acquired ones. Ausubel (1960s) inclined that these materials “introduce new information and facilitate learning by providing an idea to which the new idea can be anchored” (as cited in Bouchard, 2008, p. 4).

Conclusion

One may make some conclusions after summarizing the conditions and principles pertaining to the process of learning to read. The advancement in reading skills depends on biological and environmental conditions; while biologically-based factors can be overcome by appropriate instruction and practice; environmental factors such as inadequate teacher instructions, low socioeconomic status, ethnic background, and lack of interpersonal communication are the on-the-job foremen. Early school years should provide children with priming skills for reading such as attention development, ability to focus and to concentrate, involvement of order and organization to the thinking process, and information storage in working memory. Thus, teachers should be able to identify those children with difficulties to acquire the skills and provide instructional adjustments aimed at affecting students’ motivation to obtain information essential for successful reading.

Children should be aware that phonemes (sounds of the spoken language) have their print forms and can be arranged in different way to make a number of words as decoding print is the essential stage of learning to read. These skills are likely to be acquired when a teacher understands how the brain learns best; thus, orthographic rules should be explained with examples, chants, and songs. The earlier involvement in the language development assist a child to become a proficient reader; that is why nursery rhymes, jingles, and discussions in kindergarten are essential for the reading success.

The ability of the human brain to recognize whole words automatically plays a significant role in the achievement of fluent reading and comprehension. When the brain processes a certain configuration of letters for a number of times, this configuration is stored as a single bit of information; the process of expanding the limited processing space in the brain is called working memory. This ability is necessary to comprehend the text read; while the brain decodes unconsciously and automatically what is being read, its conscious processing functions connect the text being read to earlier acquired information. It is difficult for a child to concentrate on the comprehension, if he or she experiences difficulties with reading mechanics; thus it is critical to engage in ongoing practicing, talking, rehearsing, responding, experiencing, and developing new vocabulary.

Each brain is unique and it changes as a result of personal experience. Thus, enriched learning environment with ‘real life’ activities increases brain potential and productivity; moreover, the encouraging educational atmosphere and absence of fear of failure or criticism influences student progress in studies. In addition to the significance of positive emotions, the essential role in educational effectiveness is played by a student involvement in the learning process when a number of brain areas are simultaneously activated. Learning should be meaningful when a student chooses his or her own learning style and allows the brain to perceive and generate information in its own meaningful and valuable patterns.

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