Reading Essay Examples

Reading is a process of interpreting symbols so as to come up with meaning. Symbols in this case stand for words. Reading is a means of language attainment, communication and sharing of ideas and information. It is a skill that is attained during childhood through being taught. Before one can be good in reading sentences, they are first taught how to read single words. After one has been conversant with reading words they are then introduced to reading simple short sentences then later they are taught how to read complex and long sentences.
Different methods of teaching are used so as to teach the children on how to read. In this case, we are going to look at two main methods used that have brought in a huge debate on which one is the best to be used in teaching children on how to read. These methods are; the word method and the phonic method and we are going to discuss them so as to argue on why I agree that the phonic method is superior to the word method.
The word method involves teaching children to read by the recognition of words as whole pieces of language. In this method, children are given words to read and the words are used over and over again so as the child builds up a sight vocabulary of common words over time. This method is viewed as very dull and repetitive. In this method, the introduction of new words is done at a very sluggish rate so as to aid the children to memorize effectively.
The phonics method on its part is a methodology of teaching the young children to read and spell words. It attempts to break written language down into small and simple components. In the phonics method, there exists a structure whereby the children first start to separate the 44 separate sounds of individual letters and also in long and short vowel combinations. As such, the child gains the phonemic knowledge which is vital for them to become fluent readers. In order to show on why I agree that phonics method is superior to the word method, I came up with the following experiment to illustrate this.
In our experiment, we would consider the word chicken. A child that is taught in phonics would break the word down like this: ch! + i! + ck! + e! + n!. As such, we have two digraphs (ch and ck) and three basic letter sounds (i, e, and n). On the other hand, a child taught in word method would not break it down into its basic sound units but instead would memorize it. For them to remember, they might be taught using flashcards that have a picture of a chicken on them with the word itself written underneath. To bring out the difference between the children taught with these different methods, we would just introduce to them a new word that is unfamiliar to them and ask them to read. Let’s take for instant a word like chin. When we bring in such a new word, the child who has been taught by the phonics method would be able to read it as they would break it to different sounds as earlier taught that is; ch! + i! + n!. On the other hand, the child who has been taught through the word method would not be able to read the word since it is not familiar to them and they haven’t yet memorized it.