by Claire Beaumont

Created on: February 17, 2009

Children learning to read: Facilitators and impediments.

Introduction:
The aim of this paper is to discuss the factors contributing to the effective acquisition of reading in schools. It will do this by examining the different theoretical perspectives associated with teaching reading. In addition the paper will illustrate the positive or negative effects these strategies have on children's learning and the school environment.

This discussion will identify the various theories behind reading cognition to help understand how the brain accommodates this complex process. It will then consider the rationale behind the recent call for review into how to teach reading. The document will then consider the theoretical perspectives associated with reading, and identify the various reading approaches and the practicality of implementing these systems into the working environment of a school. It will do this by comparing and contrasting the approaches to identify what aspects are beneficial to the education of children. Following this, the paper will identify key controversies associated with the reading debate. One such controversy being that children should not be expected to comprehend what they read, but simply to identify the words on a page (Rose, 2006).

Therefore, to complete the study it will be necessary to draw heavily on papers by Rose (2006), who focuses on the significance of high quality phonics work in effective reading acquisition. It will also be necessary to draw heavily on papers by Goodman (1967) who argues that reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game. Furthermore, the discussion will incorporate various other relevant papers into the document to support the main findings.

Theoretical Perspectives on Learning to Read:

Learning to read is an art typical of all learning. It is a process that takes place from birth. It is an ability that enables other forms of learning to take place and it is a skill that can be extended almost infinitely. (Cullingford, 2001:1).

As Cullingford (2001) identifies here, the learning to read process is the first major hurdle to be crossed in every child's life. It is a tremendously complex undertaking (Widlake, 1977:184), and if mastered, it will help them throughout their life. However, the process of learning to read is under constant scrutiny, with different researchers promoting different theories.

Initially, Frith's (1985) alphabetic principle theorised that reading cognition occurred in a series of three stages, (Logographic,

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