Rozwój umiejętności czytania

Abstract

W książce podjęto problem złożonej czynności czytania. Opisano zmiany, jakie zachodzą w procesie nabywania umiejętności czytania w trakcie pierwszych dwóch lat nauki (kl. 0-I). Analizie poddane zostały następujące zagadnienia: dekodowanie i jego sposoby, rozumienie treści, najczęściej popełniane błędy, procesy poznawcze zaangażowane w czytaniu, a także znaczenie płci w trakcie przyswajania umiejętności czytania. Dokonano przeglądu rozwojowych modeli nabywania czytania. Na podstawie własnych badań podłużnych porównano przebieg procesu przyswajania czytania polskich dzieci z popularnym modelem Uty Frith, opracowanym na podstawie badania dzieci anglojęzycznych, uznawanym za uniwersalny na arenie międzynarodowej. Wykazano, że w okresie pierwszych dwóch lat formalnej nauki u polskich dzieci, przebieg procesu przyswajania czytania nie jest zgodny z modelem Uty Frith.

The aim of the research was to characterize the process of reading acquisition during the initial two years of formal learning. In particular, I wanted to establish what types of reading strategies Polish children use, and whether those are compatible with the three-phase model of Frith. The existing models of reading acquisition stem predominantly from the research on English-speaking populations. Despite many specific differences between them, they also share several core similarities. They typically construe reading acquisition as a sequence of phases of stages, each characterized by a different dominant processing strategy. The initial phase involves visually based, global recognition of written words. It is only some time later when the proper decoding develops, which involves using the correspondences between individual letters and sounds. It was anticipated that, in line with Uta Frith’s proposal, a transition will be observed from the visual-logographic strategy (dominant during the first few months of learning to read in the reception year) to the phonological-alphabetic one (dominant in grade 1). The results revealed some specific features of learning to read in Polish that are not consistent with the Frith’s model. The project was a longitudinal one. Approximately 100 children were tested six times during their first two years of formal reading instruction. Children were reading lists of words and texts, as well as matched lists of pseudo-words and pseudo-texts. All the results consistently show that, in the very beginning of learning to read, Polish children use predominantly the alphabetic-phonological reading strategy. Direct visual word recognition becomes more important only later, during grade one. This transition is evidenced by the gradual elimination of sounding out and blending in favour of direct naming of words; increase in the magnitude of the lexicality effect, and change in the pattern of errors. It must be stressed, however, that the data suggest a gradual change in the dominant reading strategy, but not a phase transition from one strategy to another. Both sub-lexical (decoding) and lexical (direct recognition) reading strategies are already present at the very beginning, and continue to be present till the end of the study. Overall, there is no evidence for an initial logographic phase in learning to read, as proposed by Frith (1985). Polish children start off as predominantly (though not exclusively!) alphabetic readers. The whole word recognition strategy that was becoming increasingly more important as children became older and more experienced in reading should not be interpreted as the logographic strategy - that is, a purely visual, wholistic and non-phonological process. Instead, it probably reflected the gradual emergence of the orthographic strategy. The role of gender in early reading development in Polish children was investigated. Gender is a robust predictor of reading achievement among Polish children during the first two years of schooling. On all measures of reading, girls significantly outperformed boys.