Reading is often divided into two different skill areas, word recognition and comprehension. To learn to read, both skills have to be developed. Adult literacy training manuals often refer to word recognition skills as print skills and to comprehension skills as meaning skills. Within these two skill areas are the basic components of reading. These components are the foundation of adult literacy instruction. Each reading strategy reinforces one or the other of these skills components.
Phonemic awareness training teaches a learner to detect, think about and manipulate the individual small sound-parts within words. This in turn helps a learner understand how the words in our language are represented in print. It moves from an understanding of rhymes through an awareness of words in a sentence to an awareness of syllables. Research shows that some struggling readers cannot hear the difference between the various sounds we make in speech. This can be quite difficult to teach, and those with a reading difficulty may never hear all the sounds we make.
Decoding instruction includes teaching a learner about phonics and sight words. Phonics is the correspondence between our language’s sounds and the letters we use to represent those sounds. Phonics instruction teaches the sound of each letter as well as teaching about syllables, prefixes and suffixes. Research shows that some learners need to be taught phonics directly. Sight words are words that we learn as a complete unit, by automatic recognition.
Fluency development is learning to read as easily as we speak. It involves knowing all the words in a printed text and being able to focus on meaning instead of decoding each individual word.
Vocabulary development builds knowledge of the words used in a language and extends the range of words known to an individual.
Comprehension strategies help learners to actively understand what they read.
NOTE: It is crucial to remember that readers learn these skills at the same time, not one after another. Tutors need to focus on all these skills in each session.
Based on McShane, S. (2005). Applying research in reading instruction for adults: First steps for teachers. Washington, D.C.: National Center for Family Literacy and National Institute for Literacy: The Partnership for Reading. www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/applyingresearch.pdf.
Handout 6.2