Students who, despite knowing how to read, do not have a minimally acceptable reading comprehension are more than what is usually thought. Between 5% and 10% of students suffer from congenital difficulties (developmental dyslexia) and require more support. But many others who do not suffer them do not reach adequate performance. Both at 9 years and at 15, 25% of Spanish kids do not reach the minimum level of reading competition, according to international PIRLS and PISA evaluations, which lasts their academic and professional career. He has just published How do we learn to read? And how to teach reading according to science (). A book that analyzes how to decodify and understand the human brain the texts, and in which it offers the kids, their families and the school information about what techniques they work and which do not so that students learn to read well and can face, as they advance in the educational stages, to increasingly complex works. The book is based on the findings of more than 400 investigations that have approached the question in depth in recent decades. Despite this, it is not uncommon to find in the classrooms examples of – such as shift reading aloud – while others that give better results – like a specific method of reading in pairs – are quite unknown.
Oral language is, according to the definition of American evolutionary psychologist David Geary, a “biologically primary” knowledge. His early childhood learning occurs apparently spontaneously, simply by the immersion of children in a community of speakers. This happens because the brain has specialized structures (neuronal frameworks) aimed at incorporating that ability. It is a characteristic that accompanies the Homo sapiens Since its origins, about 200,000 years ago, and it is the product of an evolutionary process that surely began with our hominid ancestors and was perfected by the adaptive advantage it provides. Reading and writing are, however, a very recent cultural invention, and are part of what Geary calls “biologically secondary” knowledge. The brain does not have specialized mechanisms to learn to read, but manages to do it, with effort, thanks to its plasticity. The difference is important, says Ruiz, because some educational currents advocate exposing children to written language, without carrying out express teaching, in the belief that they will learn to decipher it as they do with the oral language, something that lacks a scientific basis. A part of the kids will manage to learn like this, but in reality, the psychologist adds, they will do it rather despite the method.
Research shows that reading learning begins with oral language, and what has been called phonological awareness. Children have to realize that the word, syllable and phoneme (speech sounds are limited; between 20 and 40 in almost all languages). And once they are capable of decomposing them (knowing that ‘salt’ is formed by the sounds ‘s’, ‘a’, ‘l’) can learn to represent them with letters, write them and read them.
Free attention
The next step, which is achieved through practice, consists in improving the decoding process until automating it. Achieve it, explains the cognitive psychologist, allows the new reader to release the so -called working memory – “the mental space in which we support the information we are paying attention to at every moment” – and to focus on understanding the messages he is reading. The sum of fluidity in decoding and linguistic understanding leads, simplifying, to a good reading comprehension.
Both elements are necessary. “If there is no decoding automation, it is very likely that the reader is cognitively costly reading, which will not help you enjoy reading. And this, added to the difficulties in understanding what was read, will have a negative impact on your motivation to read,” says Ruiz. Reaching such fluidity is not, however, sufficient. Someone may not understand a text for not having minimal knowledge on the topic ―While Spanish readers would be lost, for example, reading the chronicle of a baseball match. And we must also count on a wide enough vocabulary so as not to be tripping continuously during reading. Several research – as published in 2011 by Norbert Schmitt, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics applied at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom – suggests that if more than 2% or 5% (according to the authors) of the words of a text are unknown, reading comprehension looks remarkably diminished, and tends to lose motivation to continue reading.
The amplitude of children’s vocabulary is very unequal. The brand, from the entrance, the socioeconomic and educational level of their parents (the differences are already observed at three years). This lexical imbalance is one of the factors behind what researchers have baptized as a primary room crisis. At 9 or 10 years, almost everyone has learned to automate decoding. But those who know more words are motivated to read and tend to do it more, which leads them to become more experts and continue expanding the gap with their less outstanding companions, who, in parallel, feel a growing detachment towards reading. LEGAL LEARNING PSYCHOLOGY Matthew effect To this process for the biblical phrase: “who has the most, will be given, and the one that has even been removed” -. A classic study showed that at 10 the most voracious readers read up to 4 million words a year, while the least inclined to do so read 60,000 (the article was published in 1988 by the psychologist of Education Richard C. Anderson, and it is likely that the figures have varied due to changes in reading habits, but the difference between what the kids read is still huge).
Learn words explicitly
To compensate for inequality for family reasons, Ruiz raises, according to what some investigations have shown, that apart from the words that the kids learn naturally and practicing reading alone – devising them from the context or consulting their meaning -, the school explicitly teaches them seven new new words of relatively cultured record a week. That would do about 350 a year and 3,500 throughout compulsory schooling, which according to these research has a “relevant” impact on linguistic understanding. The words – according to a classification popularized by experts such as Isabel L. Beck, from the University of Pittsburgh – can be divided into three groups. The first is formed by the most common use, that the speaker of a language normally knows, as casa, fasto think. Group III is made up of specific words of certain disciplines, such as cell o Antonomasiathat the kids learn in the corresponding subjects. Ruiz’s proposal is therefore directed to those of Group II, more sophisticated than those of the first group, but common enough in the written language (in literary works, press articles or essays) to condition reading comprehension, as exhaustedindulgent, bouquet o attribute. It is not worth it, he adds, to waste a lot of time to discuss whether a word form or not part of Group II, since it is a flexible classification. The idea is not to learn by memorizing their definition of the dictionary, but using them in various activities.
The psychologist recommends several strategies to promote reading outside the classroom. Among them: recommend readings and also allow the kids to choose them, but maintaining a degree of advice so that their complexity implies a challenge and at the same time do not demotivate them; Avoid giving them something in exchange for reading – some investigations point out that it can be counterproductive, for example, in case of boys who already read, if such reward is implanted and then retires; facilitate access to books – through, for example, of a good school library; Or continue reading with them at home aloud, even if they already know how to do it – to give them a fluid reading model and have the opportunity to comment with them, they work the understanding.
TRADITIONAL TECHNICAL TECHNIQUES
Some of the techniques traditionally used in class to teach reading, are, according to research, not recommended. This is the case of reading aloud by shifts – competent readers tend to get bored, and those who have difficulties have a very bad time, and the usual thing is that a part of the class disconnects when you do not have to read. Or that each student silently reads their own book without any subsequent activity – good readers take advantage of it, but it is not so useful for those who need to improve, that in some cases they can limit themselves to simulating that they read and feel frustrated for not being able to do the same as their classmates.
Science does support, on the other hand, says Ruiz, several techniques (mainly oriented to primary school), such as the paired reading. A couple is formed with a more competent student than the other (the ideal is that the first is of a superior course, to avoid shameing the least). Both begin to read aloud simultaneously, so that the most advanced supports the other. When he wants to continue alone, he touches his partner’s doll, to follow him in silence. And the most competent only read again when he is made again a gesture or see that his partner stuck. Another effective technique is repeated reading, in which the kids read a text several times to do so with ease. The ideal, says the cognitive psychologist, is to give it a purpose, how to expose reading at the end in public (or another person), for which poems or theatrical texts can be used. And, also in this case, kids can practice it in pairs or in small groups, thus enhancing a social aspect of reading that also facilitates learning.
There are ways to make the silence in all class more effective, Ruiz continues. How to offer the kids a barter: this reading time, which can be half an hour, are offered as standard class alternative, reinforcing the idea of reading as an activity linked to enjoyment. But in return they are asked that at the end they demonstrate that they have effectively read – for example, filling a brief questionnaire, which according to Ruiz diverse platforms provide for hundreds of books, organized by chapters, and just have two or three minutes to complete. Among the methods that according to science give good results are also the so -called choral reading. In it a text of 200 or 300 words is chosen, the teacher advances the vocabulary that can be more complicated, and after making a first reading, which the students are still silent, it is repeated with the entire class (including the teacher) by reading it aloud to unison.
