The Role of Decoding in Learning to Read.

Abstract

c5_red_part_roleofdecod.pdf As anyone knows who has both read to young children and watched them begin learning to read, there is a great difference in the sophistication of their abilities in the two arenas. As an illustration, consider a typical activity in a first-grade classroom. Twenty-six first graders are sitting on the floor around their teacher, Ms. Jackson. She opens a copy of McCloskey’s (1941, 1969) Make Way for Ducklings and shows the children a double-page picture of two mallards flying over a pond. Jackson tells them that the birds are mallards, which are a kind of duck, and begins to read. As the teacher reads, the children’s attention, facial expressions, and giggles (for example, when a policeman stops traffic to let the mallards waddle across the road) suggest that they are enjoying the story. Their giggling also provides evidence that they understand the story. Even stronger evidence of their understanding is found in the discussion Jackson initiates. For example, one of the questions she asks is why the mallards didn’t want to live next to foxes and turtles. The only information given in the story is that “[Mrs. Mallard] was not going to raise a family where there might be foxes or turtles.” The reason is not explained, yet the children are able to infer that Mrs. Mallard doesn’t want to live next door to foxes and turtles because they might harm the ducklings. The discussion also provides evidence that the children have control over some sophisticated language structures. Consider such complicated syntax as “But the people on the boat threw peanuts into the water, so the Mallards followed them all round the pond and got another breakfast, better than the first.” When the teacher asks several of the children what that sentence means, none has difficulty capturing the notion that the mallards liked the peanuts more than what they had gotten to eat on their own. Most children entering school have fairly sophisticated knowledge about language and stories. The children described here had enough knowledge of syntax, vocabulary, story elements, and aspects of the world around them to comprehend and enjoy Make Way for Ducklings. But no story in any first-grade preprimer can match the literary quality and level of language found in Make Way for Ducklings. Why? Because the children will be unable to read many words and therefore have no reliable way to translate the written text into their familiar spoken form of language. Until their word recognition skill catches up to their language skill, they are unable to independently read a story that matches the sophistication of their spoken vocabularies, concepts, and knowledge. There has been much legitimate criticism of the reading materials used in early reading instruction. Although these materials need improvement, it is important to acknowledge that because children can recognize only a limited number of words, even the most creatively developed materials cannot compete with stories such as Make Way for Ducklings. Our goal as educators is to quickly provide children with the tools they need to read some of the marvelous stories gifted writers have created for them. The major tools we can give children are ones that allow them to decode printed words for themselves. To facilitate a discussion of the issues associated with helping children gain control of the code that links the printed word to the spoken word, let us first define some terms.

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