These data suggest that most people in our society learn to read/decode reasonably well-it is lack of languaging and conceptualizing which are the major factors in "functional" illiteracy; that is, the inability to perform a given set of reading tasks. Therefore, even if people could "do as well by eye as they do by ear" in dealing with language, the major reading problems would not be solved, because many people cannot comprehend well by ear-that is, both auding ana reading competencies are underdeveloped. For comments regarding the improvement of these competencies, see Chapter V, Hypothesis 4.
Auding and reading are considered to be similar' processes because both require the use of language and languaging, and because, with identical messages, both result in the formation of a single, mutual internal conceptualization.
Given that a languaging component is common to auding and reading, characteristics of languaging must share in both of these receptive processes. One of these characteristics is that of the sequential processing of information. In languaging, units of information are processed on a serial basis, or one after another rather than simultaneously. Because of memory factors involved in this activity, current processing is affected by previous processing. Even though strategies (e.g., chunking) which lead to the development of the parallel processing of message portions may evolve, the entire message must be sequentially processed. Moreover, the speech and print displays themselves, by the method in which they present information, necessitate this serial processing.
Another common auding/reading languaging factor pertains to the redundancy of information contained within both the auding and the reading message. That is, both messages consist of elements and processes that provide for predictability. For example, spelling patterns, grammatical structure, and syntactical rules exhibit certain regularities and entail certain invariants which suggest what will follow. They render some indication as to the immediate progression of the message, and permit the auder/reader to anticipate what is coming next, improving the efficiency of information processing.