How do we learn to read?

Question

i am writing an essey of 1000 words about how we learn to read.

Answer 1

First you learn what sound each letter makes. Then you start out with small words such as cat and hat. You say each sound and put them together saying them faster and faster each time. Eventually in school you will learn the clusters and so on.

Answer 2

Learning to read is really natural. We really need a lot of time for people to learn to read and write. Some mothers / nursery teachers uses some of these methds to teach. They first draw the alphabet in the proper order. They draw it on one big paper forthe children to understand. The teacher pronouns the letter for a long time and asks the child to repeat. They do these into all the letters in their alphabet and they start to teach them the combinations of the sounds of letters but mostly with vowels in them. Remember, reading comes with writing!

Answer 3

There is no easy answer.  How we learn to read depends on :

1.  How old the child is.

You can’t teach a 7 month old child to read the same way you teach a 5 year old.  For one thing he/she will not understand spoken rules.  The fact still remains that such children can and do learn to read in parallel with learning to speak.  That is because the earliest years are THE time for language acquisition.

A rather sad example of this is an 11 year old boy I once taught.  He was very willing but couldn’t read.  Now in fact he had a number of difficulties but the one that held his reading up was that he could not follow a spoken explanation (eg ‘look at the last letter of the word) so I had to ask him to choose between words such as ‘lens’ and ‘lend’ until he got used to looking at the last letter.  Eventually he was only a year behind the rest of the class which for him was a real breakthrough  

2.  How is the written language constructed?  

Reading Chinese and English require different strategies.  There is absolutely no way a Chinese child learns the alphabet first

3.  Who does the teaching?  

It could be a teacher, a parent or the child itself

Also you must understand that the set of techniques a child uses to read at the age of 5 to 10 is not the same set of it will use at 25 to 30.  The idea that one method will do for all ages is wrong.  It wont.  That is why some people insist on saying you can’t teach a child under 2 to read in spite of the fact that even to my knowledge the occasional parent has been doing this for 200 years.  The method has to be appropriate to the age and development of the child.

If you are teaching a preschool child my recommendation would be to use ‘Look and Say’ gradually introducing the idea of phonic rules just before the child goes to its primary school.  You don’t want to be teaching the same rules in a different way, but it’s not a bad idea to make the child aware that there are rules.

Answer 4

repetative patterns

Answer 5

If you want to learn to read English in pre school it is a

good idea to start with Children's books which can be

found in the Library.  Nursery rhymes are great---the

words are simple---they are full of wit and you will

enjoy them later in life---we adults still sing "Old

MacDonald----"  etc

Books on Phonics using syllable sounds to learn

words with Similarities EX:   Joy,Toy,Boy   also

cat.rat.hat,sat,fat,at ---see what I mean?

For more advanced reading movies with English

dialogue and Eng. subtitles are available.

There are Children's and young adults versions of

"Three Musketeers"  "Jane Eyre" "Romeo and

Juliet'   to introduce to the joys of what is in store

for you in reading !   There is nothing like it----

its better than TV for your mind and spirit !

Not to knock TV  seeing "Lonesome Dove"

(after reading the book ) was one of the great

joys of many of us who are "literate" !!!

Answer 6

I've no idea, but in Yankland lots of people don't bother.

Answer 7

I would say learning to read is a long process that begins in infancy.

*Sounds discrimination, listening to words and language, are part of a baby's development.  They gradually learn that certain sounds have specific meaning, like mama, dada, milk, cookie.

*Young children begin to recognize environmental print, which includes recognizing common logos, signs, and symbols as well as words.  WalMart, McDonald's, STOP, EXIT, are common first words that young children "read".

*Children gradually come to understand that letters are symbols that represent sounds, and words are symbols that consist of those letters (symbols) put together to represent things, actions, etc.

*A smart person never stops learning to read!  They will always be hearing new words and building vocabulary by using a dictionary or computer or asking questions to learn to read and understand new words!

Hope this helps a little!

Answer 8

Exposure to the written word - I was brought up behind my parent's news agency and looked at/read everything on the shelves - including soft p**n. But I was an early reader!

I was always an inquisitive child which, when I went to primary school, at age three, I always asked questions and wanted to learn! - encouraged by my parents.

If we are in the right environment ( parents, school, friends and "environment") we will learn  given the stimulus of our  environment.

I know I have repeated the same word but it is important.

Answer 9

we start to learn to read by following sounds. e.g phonics,

Answer 10

Check out these articles

http://www.reading.org/downloads/positio...

http://www.learningrx-franchise.com/arti...

http://idea.uoregon.edu/~ncite/programs/...

http://www.time4learning.com/reading_ski...

the five key areas in learning to read are phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency.

Answer 11

First learn letters and their sounds.

After that, learn simple word families: the "at" family, hat cat sat mat pat and start by manipulating ONLY ONE SOUND AT A TIME.  First try just the beginning sound.  

It hit sit wit bit kit lit etc etc

After manipulating beginning sounds with good accuracy, move on to manipulating the ending sounds  -- rap rat rad rag ran ram--- big bit bin bid biz   etc etc

After many families of those with accuracy, move on to manipulating middle vowel sound  bat bet bit bot but--- lad led lid lod lud (nonsense words are good too)  Remember, only change one variable at a time; don't try to change a beginning and middle sound all in the same lesson--just isolate one sound at a time that you want to manipulate.

After many families of this move on to more complex word patterns.  The first one we just did is the CVC pattern (consonant-vowel-consonant)

Try another more complex one- such CVCV (with tricky e) and teach the long vowel sounds; again with same strategy- first manipulate JUST the first letter:

Examples:

bate late rate mate gate date fate hate (nonsense words are okay too)

tire wire mire dire hire

woke joke coke poke yoke

Another one:  CVVC (first vowel long, second vowel silent) -- boat coat goat       meat feat heat beat seat

After this there are many more word patterns and rules. Just introduce one at a time and only one variable at a time--stick with families.

While learning the patterns, simultaneously you need to build their sight word bank (words that do not conform to patterns and are extremely common, such as THE)   Google "Dolch List" and you can get the sight word lists for each grade level.  The lists need to be gone over regularly and words pointed out when reading big books or other materials.  Flashcards are good too since these have to be learned by sight.

So in a nutshell; phonics instruction; word patterns/ rules, while simultaneously reviewing sight words is how we learn to read.  Practicing over and over (repitition) is the last key ingredient.

Answer 12

I work with 5 yr olds. First they learn the alphabet, through phonics they recognize which letter makes which sound.  Gradually they must put 2 letters together A-T, at! Throughout the school year they have learned to put much larger words together.  If you look up teacher resource websites they give lesson plans for a preschool- k teacher. They are very helpful and self explanatory.

Answer 13

In addition to what has already been said - relating to letter sounds /  blending to gether to read words etc,

it is very important that children have good listening / discriminating skills starting at a basic level ie hearing sounds and being able to identify them ie car plane etc.

then move on to rhymes, learning rhymes, being able to offer words which rhyme.

then onto sounds (not yet linked to the written letter) in words blend / breaking up words .

when children have the verbal / listening skills, you then start  with the phonics skills that others have already listed.

In the UK - the government have just released ' letter and sounds' which highlights a lot of pre reading / reading skills.  If you are in the uk it would be a good document to quote from.

Answer 14

Look up the letterland alphabet. Its what most schools use now to teach kids. It will explain why it works

Answer 15

It is just the human mind was made, it has that capability.

Answer 16

I don't know that! but I do know why we read. We read to make our lives much easier and happy.

Answer 17

Learning to read is a process,

Listening, talking, learning names of things, animals, things around the house, colors and sounds things and animals make. I beleive that learning to say words and sentences, and recognize pictures and eventually recognize words, is the way it goes. Thats the way I taught my daughter, and it seems to be working with my grand kids. Good luck

Answer 18

u need 2 get d answers from preschool teachers.

Answer 19

Good for you.