1. DEVELOPMENTAL READING
Reading is an active and interactive dialogue between the writer and the reader. It is also an
intricate course of action of unlocking codes which represent specific meanings and convey the
writers’ and the texts’ message.
Miles Zintz (1972) claims that the efficient reader is expected to be able to perform the
following mental activities:
1. Word perception
The ability to pronounce the word as a meaningful unit. It involves sensation. This requires
the ability to use sight vocabulary and configuration memory and context clues to determine
pronunciation and meaning of words.
2. Comprehension
The skill in making individual words construct useful ideas as they are read in context. On
the literal level, one reads to understand the passage-its main thought, specific details,
sequence, ad directions to be followed. This skill helps the reader to grasp the total meaning of
the passage.
3. Reaction
A judgment on what the author has said. It includes the ability to judge accuracy,quality, or
worth. Reaction occurs only when comprehension is fully realized. One’s reaction to any
reading text is affected by culture. Culture controls the quality and quantity of experience
available to the reader.
4. Assimilation or Integration
The ability to assimilate idea or concept into one’s background of experience so that it is
useful as part of the individual’s total experience. It is determined by the reaction of the reader.
If the ideas are accepted, they become part of his total experience. They are integrated with all
previous related experience.
Importance of reading
1. Reading helps in mental development and stimulates the muscles of the eyes.
2. It is said to significantly help in developing vocabulary, and reading aloud helps to build a
strong emotional bond between parents and children.
2. 3. The children who start reading from an early age are observed to have a good language skills,
and they grasp the variances in phonics much better.
4. It helps us stay in-touch with the world and makes us sensitive to global issues.
Processes that affect reading
Miles Zintz (1972) summarizes them as follows:
1. Reading is a social processes.
It is affected by one’s attitudes, loyalties, conflicts, and prejudices.
2. Reading is psychological processes.
Emotional stability determines one’s comfort in the reading situation.
3. Reading is physiological processes.
One needs skills in auditory and visual discrimination, verbal expression, and eye-hand
coordination to have successful reading experience.
4. Reading is a perceptual process.
It utilizes perceptual clues: size, shape, color, combinations of sounds and letters,
relationships of the parts of a whole, ordering’ and sequencing.
5. Reading is a linguistic processes.
It requires sound-symbol relationships. It is dependent on context meanings and
grasping ideas in whole thought units. It requires acceptance of social variations in language,
non-standard usage, figurative language, and slang.
6. Reading is an intellectual processes.
It is dependent on vocabulary, memory, verbal reasoning, perceiving relationships,
generalizing, critical judgment, and accommodation to extreme individualized differences.
Kinds of Reading
Reading can be classified according to the rate or speed at which a person reads as well as to
his purpose in reading.
1. Skimming is reading by the sign posts or clues in the selection. It is fast reading in which the
reader reads headings and topic sentences and spot-reads parts of paragraphs. It gives the
reader an overview of the material.
2. Scanning is glancing through a page to locate a particular kind of information.
3. 3. Exploratory reading is done when one aims to get a fairly accurate picture of a whole
presentation of ideas.
4. Study reading is used to get a maximum understanding of the main ideas and their
relationship. The SQ3R reading formula is a good example of the procedure. S stands for survey,
Q for question, and 3R’s for READ, RECITE, and REVIEW.
5. Critical reading is done to consider facts carefully. This does not require to read fast. This is
the kind of reading used on periodicals, books, and advertising materials which are loaded with
propaganda devices designed to sway opinions or sell products.
6. Analytic reading is the type that demands careful attention to each word and its relative
importance in relation to other words in the sentence or paragraph.
