Reading is understanding written language. Spoken words are displayed in graphic characters, lines, circles, sticks and arcs. We call this set of graphic signs “writing”. Each character (letter) refers to a sound, however small, a phoneme. Dutch has 34 characters, the graphemes. There is a close relationship, an agreement between graphemes and phonemes.
Reading starts with visual perception
When people read, their eyes move in jumps of about eight to nine letters along a line. After such a jump, the eyes stop for a moment, about 200 to 250 milliseconds. Such a fixation is necessary for word recognition. During such a fixation we store the information in memory. This word recognition takes place via letters or letter combinations (such as gr-bl-str-rst), via syllables (such as da-mes-fiets) and via the recognition of the whole word. To recognize a word, the spelling of a word is important but also the structure of a word. The position and order of letters often determine which letters follow. Certain combinations of consonants may or may not go together. (For example, a b can never follow a pl, a br never a v).
Word recognition plays a major role in the beginning of reading. Novice readers convert the letters into sounds. They put those sounds one after the other and arrive at a word (such as: b-oo-m becomes boom). If children master this sequence, so can convert printed words into sounds, then they can read. Experienced readers will also first (unconsciously) pronounce difficult words before they recognize those words.
Reading comprehension starts with recognizing words. Children who are weak in reading comprehension therefore recognize words poorly or not. As a result, they are so preoccupied with recognizing words that they fail to read sentences and texts, let alone understand them. Reading is very important for beginning readers. When reading aloud, the goal is for the listener (s) to understand the reading.
The Three Stages in the Development of Reading (Ehri)
Logographic phase
In this phase, graphemes (written letters or sounds) are used to read a word.
Alphabetical stage
In this phase, graphemes are tuned to phonemes (spoken letters or sounds) to recognize a word.
Orthographic phase
Orthography is the spelling, the way of writing. In this phase, the use of spelling is exploited to recognize words.
In the first two stages, children discover that written words are made up of sounds. Children first learn to read the sound-pure words (rose, me, Kees, moon, fire). Sound-pure words are spoken as they are written. Only when mastered do the other sounds follow.
The orthographic phase
In the orthographic phase, children discover regularities in series of letters, they see patterns recurring.
For example: spare-spear-track-muscle. When children have successfully completed the alphabetical phase, they recognize words by analogy. For example, start-hitting-job-cock.
In the structure of our language, letter groups are common and are in the same kind of place. Others, on the other hand, simply cannot, they do not exist. Children start to see those structures. Also the spelling patterns that deviate from the phonemes (such as aai-ewe-oei-sch-ng-nk).
When children recognize syllable structures, they can also easily recognize long words. The compositions are easy then (such as kitchen cupboard-room door-garden gate). The prefixes (such as be-ge-ver) are then also known and help to understand a word. However, the words with open syllables (tree-path-life) often cause problems. The spelling rule is often known (via rules at school, such as: long sounds are unlucky, I just remove a letter), but cannot be applied yet. When words are read and / or written often, the memory stores them and they are no longer a problem, they are often recognized in one go. Writing learned words promotes their storage in the memory.
Word meaning and context
Many words contain a core to which letters or characters have been added (such as table-dining table-coffee table-table-tables). If one knows the structure of the keyword, the word with the addition is also easy to recognize. A word that is in a context is also easier to recognize. The meaning of a word can be seen from the context. (Read back a bit, read a bit further, then the meaning becomes clear). So the child has arrived here in reading comprehension.