Reading Theorists

Question	Answer
Jeanne Chall (1983)	Described 6 stages of reading development based on her research on the effectiveness of different reading approaches. The ages for each stage are approximate. Reading development at each stage depends on the instruction given in the classroom/at home. Development in each stage is dependent on development in prior stages. The stages are continuous and overlapping. This all means that educators should conduct assessments to determine students' level of development to help children advance to the higher levels.
Stage 0	Up to age 6. Pre-reading stage characterised by the child's growth in knowledge and use of spoken language. Some beginning understandings of the sound structures of words. Learn that spoken words can be broken into parts and parts can be put together to form words. Some knowledge of print. Some learn to hold the book right side up and turn the pages in "pretend reading".
Stage 1	Childen learn the letters of the alphabet and gain a general understanding of the spelling-sound system. Direct teaching of decoding accelerates development in stage 1. Leads to pronunciation of words.
Stage 2	Confirmation of stage 1. Children learn to apply their knowledge and recognise words with increasingly complex phonic elements and read stories with increasingly complex words. Through oral reading practise stories and passages become more fluent and sound like talking.
Stages 1 and 2 together	"learning to read" stage. Recognise most words automatically and read passages with ease and expression. Cognitive capacity is freed for processing meaning. Children are ready to make the important transition from "learning to read" to reading to learn".
Stage 3	Children begin to learn new knowledge, information, thoughts and experiences by reading. In phase A of this stage, when vocabulary and background knowledge are limited, reading is best developed with materials and purpose that focus on one viewpoint. In phase B students start to confront different viewpoints and begin to analyse and criticise what they read.
Stage 4	High school. Children must deal with more than one viewpoint because of topics in textbooks. Study skills and practice in efficient reading are beneficial at this stage.
Stage 5	Ages 18 and above. Readers select materials to suit their purposes. They balance their own comprehension of the words with their analysis of the content and understanding from reading what others have written.
Goodman (1969)	He first coined the term "miscue analysis" , basing his approach on the 2 cueing systems he believed underlay the reading process: grapho/phonic, syntactic and semantic. He suggested that the pattern of miscues can show a reader's strengths as well as weaknesses and aren't necessarily bad.
Miscue analysis	The kinds of incorrect guesses a reader makes. These will give the listener clues about how familiar/unfamiliar the reader find the content matter and how easy/difficult they find the text to read.
What does non-response show?	The learner may have little idea of the grapho/phonic system. The may rely on a visual approach - sight words. They are unwilling to hazard a guess and are probably not used to using context to help. They may be anxious, unwilling to fail in public. How does the learner respond to an unfamiliar word?
What does substitution show?	If the words are acceptable (close to the grapho/phonic system and semantic system) it may be that the learner is rather impulsive and needs to slow down a bit. If the miscues are far from the original then they may have poor graph/phonic skills and are not using context to predict. If miscues are of small common/familiar words it could show weak sight vocabulary.
What does insertion show?	The learner is drawn by the word to come and is already trying to make it semantically acceptable to themselves. They may be reading too fast but if inserted words do not affect the meaning, don't overstress the miscues. If insertions are additional endings (syntactic errors like full(y)), it can sometimes alter the meaning. This matters.
What does omission show?	If it's of small regular words it can be ignored so long as it doesn't affect the meaning. Reading a little too quickly may be the cause or weak sight word vocabulary. If lines are omitted it could show poor eye tracking skills. Where are the words left out?
What does repetition show?	If these are frequent the learner is searching for and consolidating meaning - this is what a good reader does. If repetitions are too frequent it may mean that the text is too hard and the flow is interrupted at the expense of comprehension. If these come before a tricky word the learner may be buying time to prepare to decode the word.
What do corrections show?	Good corrections show semantic understanding. If they're frequent then the learner may be reading too fast and is drawn visually to the shape of the word before applying meaning. Too much overcorrecting may ultimately affect the learner's understanding of the text. A learner who doesn't see him/herself as a good reader may miscorrect accurate reading.
What does reversal show?	Reversal of words/phrases in a sentence may have little detrimental effect on the overall meaning of the text and needn't cause much concern. May have an effect on grammar and lead the learner to compensate for the altered order of thoughts e.g forcing different verb endings. Reversal within a word itself often happens with small high-frequency words. It can have an effect on meaning sometimes.
What does hesitation show?	A hesitant learner who may doubt their reading abilities. Weak grapho/phonic and/or visual skills may force hesitation. The text may be too hard. If hesitations occur before a tricky/unknown word the reader may be preparing for it. If it's at the start/end of a new line it may indicate that the learner is not tracking the text very smoothly.
Reading cue	A strategy a child uses to help them decode unfamiliar words.
Miscue	When the learner uses a strategy to attempt a word but gets it wrong. E.g: bet instead of pet would be a grapho/phonic miscue.
Grapho/phonic cue	Using the relationship of letters to the sound system, recognising graphemes and understanding what sound they represent. The child may break words down in order to do this.
Structural syntactic cue	The learner uses their knowledge of word classes to determine the likely word class of the unfamiliar word. E.g: The small cat was sitting (standing) by the window.
Non-structural syntactic cue	When the child uses their knowledge of word classes incorrectly to guess a word, creating a grammatical error. E.g: the small cat was (sat) sitting by the window.
Semantic cue	The child uses the words around the unfamiliar word and use a word that makes sense in the sentence. This kind of cue can be meaning or not meaning e.g: the small cat was (purring) sitting quietly by the window - meaning. The small cat was sitting (quetty) quietly by the window - not meaning. The rest of the sentence doesn't make sense as a result of the error.

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	Created by Hazel Meades about 9 years ago