It has long been argued
that learning to read, like learning to understand spoken language, is
a natural phenomenon. It has been often suggested that children will learn
to read if they are simply immersed in a literacy-rich environment and
allowed to develop literacy skills in their own way. This belief
that learning to read is a natural process that comes from rich text experiences
is surprisingly prevalent in education despite the fact that learning to
read is about as natural as learning to juggle while riding a unicycle
backwards blindfolded. Learning to read is just about the most unnatural
thing humans do.
At the outset of this discussion,
it should be made clear that there is a difference between learning to
read text and learning to understand a spoken language. Learning
to understand speech is indeed a natural process; starting before birth,
children tune in to spoken language in their environment, and as soon as
they are able, they actively seek out and begin to incorporate a language.
If the linguistic environment is not rich enough or if it is confusing,
the innate drive to find a language is so strong that, if necessary, children
will create a language of their own (e.g. twin languages or pidgin languages).
There is no doubt that given the opportunity, children will naturally develop
language comprehension skills with little structured or formal guidance.
Reading acquisition, by contrast,
is not at all natural. It is useful to remind ourselves that, while
the ability to understand speech evolved over many, many thousands of years,
reading and writing were invented by man (about 7 different times and in
different cultures), and have only been around for a few thousand years.
In fact, it has really only been within the past few generations that some
cultures have made any serious attempt to make literacy a universal skill.
Reading and writing simply have not existed long enough to be described
as a "natural" phenomenon.
Clearly, if reading was natural,
everybody would be doing it, and we would not have to worry so much about
dealing with a "literacy crisis" or a "literacy gap." Over 40 million adults
in this country alone are functionally illiterate, and despite our best
educational efforts, approximately 40% of our 4th graders lack even the
most basic reading skills. These staggering numbers are indications
that reading is a skill that is quite unnatural and very difficult to learn.
Clearly, if more children are to learn this difficult skill, it will require
the most focused and artful instruction from the most knowledgeable and
skilled teachers. Merely immersing a child in a literature rich environment
is not at all sufficient to guarantee the development of healthy literacy
skills.
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to 10 Myths of Reading Instruction
