The Act of Reading

 It all starts with looking deeply on the arbitrary marks and lines drawn in black against white (or opposite if it’s a slate). This one deep look fires millions of neurons in different parts of the brain, bringing in front of us a world distinctly born from our imagination. 

Despite the 22nd century of exponential technology, something of the sort that happens in our brain when we read is still waiting to be invented. In other words, the very experience of reading a novel which our brains conjure for us quite effectively is yet to find its replica in the material world.  

But where lies the wonder of reading? And most importantly, what understanding do we come to when we look more closely at the mechanisms of comprehensibility, imagination, fluency, cognition, and motivation?  

The 5th December report of Livemint stated that a staggering 287 million people in India are completely outside the purview of reading and writing. 12 million children don’t go to school and this piece of statistics is just the tip of the iceberg.  

However, one thing is certain: this act of inspiring human imagination (the act or ability of reading) is but a privilege in India. It is also something that we, the literates, take for granted, instead of understanding the complex physiological and psychological faculties at play. 

Reading, Recalling, and Reproducing 

Reading is a multi-sensory and multi-faceted act of language cognition, recognition of words, understanding capability of sounds, fluently grasping the meaning of individual words (including their cultural nuances), and forming a steady pathway of continual formation of visuals in the brain. These visuals will motivate the reader and cement his imagination further along the path in a quest to satiate their (the reader’s) curiosity.  

We come to two points of understanding from the aforementioned definition.  

• An act of complete reading inevitably involves the process of recalling and reproducing silent visuals in our minds. One has to recall letters, join them to form words, recall the meaning of these words, and continue this process over a significant period of time.  

• By extension, the very act of reading is also the facilitator for further reading. You get motivated to read only by reading more and more. There lies the motivation to continue your imagination or the excitement of comprehending something new simply by supplying your brain with the necessary knowledge. 

These two points are very crucial to understand the act of reading and the problems associated with it.   

On Recall 

Here’s the key to reading anything under the sun: you learn to master the act of recalling.  

From remembering the notes of a song we learnt in our childhood, to the last-minute mugging up of notes and ‘vomiting’ them on the paper, to responding to answers in an interview, everything depends on recalling the exact piece of knowledge at the required time and harnessing its energy completely. 

Let’s divide the above statement into different kinds of recall mechanisms in our brain: 

Instant recall 

This type of recall denotes, as the name suggests, the ability to recall something we read just now. So, with respect to this blog, it will be the definition of recall I wrote three sentences back. If you can remember its gist (however roughly), your reading has been optimal.  

Immediate recall 

This recalling capacity found most of its use in our childhood.  

Remember those times when our friends summed up those long answers into really crisp points and we would just drop them on to the answer sheets as truth bombs?  

These crisp points were always kept as last-minute suggestions in our notebooks.  

During the exam, our immediate recall faculties would be at full swing! It referred to the knowledge body amassed between 5 minutes to 5 days, and sifted through the relevant strands of knowledge (we had more than one exam, right?), and reproduce everything on paper. 

This is the department of immediate recall. 

Remote recall 

As and when we grow up, the immediate and instant recall mechanisms relay all their strength to the remote recall faculty. This department informs us of all the cultural, political, economic, and historical nuances and continues to establish dialogue with everything that we have learnt over the years.  

The remote recall faculty helps us comprehend and articulate our world view, and instantly borrow from the vast background knowledge (formed from learning and experiencing) that we have amassed throughout our life.  

However, while we talked briefly about the various recalling mechanisms underlying reading, ‘reading between the lines’ occupies the central stage in this discussion. 

Reading between the lines: Getting inside the mind of the writer 

The wonder of a great book lies in making us believe that we will get to have all the answers asked within those few pages. And forcing us to try to imagine exactly what the writer meant!  

In the real world too we do this every day. Ever so often with one colleague we don’t like (office diplomacy), or maneuvering our children with trickery of words to steer them away from their desirable things. Children’s lack of complex language comprehension allows us to divert their minds, while it is the same faculty we rely so heavily on for adult communication.  

Reading between the lines, in essence, means understanding things that are not directly mentioned. Here one needs to pay attention to tones, feelings, syntax, cultural contexts, and every other element that contributes to the formation of the sublime text.  

Therefore, the ability to read visual cues in daily life is intricately connected to understanding what the author of a book doesn’t mention.  

Especially reading poems or watching films make use of this faculty the most. In both the cases, meaning is formed by joining shots or words together, and you read the memory of a synthesis.  

Take the case of this Japanese haiku: 

“A World of Dew” by Kobayashi Issa 

A world of dew, 

And within every dewdrop 

A world of struggle. 

It is your imagination that is primarily responsible to fill up the gaps and make meaning out of three random pieces of imagery.  

And this brings us to the next section of our investigation: the significance of fluency, punctuation, and expression in reading. 

Fluency, Punctuation & Expression: The Wonders of Decoding & Encoding 

One of the crucial cornerstones of reading is fluency. It is the source of energy and inspiration that allows the reader to move along the pre-destined path set by the author. The neurological pathways among the three recall faculties constantly power up our departments of cognition and imagination.  

In order to ensure that the pathways are not disrupted midway, you need to maintain the steady flow of words (the source of meaning making) for the brain to comprehend. An average adult can read between 230 to 350 words per minute and fully comprehend their meaning, including their cultural and historical contexts.  

Fluency is a critical aspect of decoding the text in front of us.  

Any disruption in the pathways will only delay the synthesis of different words, and therefore, hamper the overall experience of comprehending a text.  

However, fluency is only one side of the Rubik’s cube. It is rendered incomplete without the active presence of expression (tonality of a text/nuances of speech/different characters of a novel), which is again informed by punctuation. 

We briskly overlook a comma or an exclamation mark because our subliminal minds always pick them up in the process of reading. Our brains are so attuned to the idea of language that we can make meaning out of sentences in real time even before finishing the act of reading. For instance, you knew how the previous end would be ending with a full stop, right? This is because you have been trained in a specific module of reading the English language, so much so that the rules have got ingrained in your psyche. 

The combination of fluency, punctuation, and expression form the bedrock of reading, continually informed by all the recall faculties in our minds. But to go further deep into the discussion, we have to talk about decoding and the idea of phonemic awareness. 

Decoding & Phonemic Awareness

The most anomalous aspect of the world of language is the vast gamut of rules tightly binding the syntax, grammar, pronunciation, and punctuation of languages. But if you really think about it, you will be amazed to look at their arbitrariness. The thorough studying of this arbitrariness is called decoding. 

A mango is called man-go not because of any inherent ‘mango-ness’ of the yellow coloured fruit, but simply because it is not called ‘apple’. There is no more apple-ness in an apple than there is mango-ness in a mango.  

It is a collection of arbitrary symbols assigned certain meanings, used infinitely by people, and further solidified by time. In order to execute the function of reading, one has to be thoroughly aware of all these rules and get into the core of syllables and phonics. Phonetics is the science of speech, intricately linked to how various sounds of letters conjoin and coordinate to form a specific meaning.  

All these minuscule sounds integrate and ingrain in the mind of a reader to the point of automaticity, where we don’t ponder on the meaning of each word. Instead, we unconsciously undertake a holistic approach to every sentence, our guiding force being the punctuation. 

Phonemic Awareness 

In the traditional approach to reading, one was taught singular alphabets used in pronouncing certain words. The big picture of the letter ‘A’ is associated with its pronunciation ‘ay’ (as used in the word ‘apple;). Thus, with each letter, the child is associating an entire word. 

However, the amount of time taken to perfect the association of the letter ‘A’ with its visual (the picture of the letter ‘A’) and auditory application, is equal to the time taken to learn the gamut of various sounds associated with the letter.  

In other words, teaching the various sounds one can make using each alphabet is far more efficient than associating every letter with a word. The latter also poses confusion because one letter often has more than two auditory applications. For instance, ‘a’ is pronounced as ‘ay’ in ‘apple’ or ‘application’ as well as ‘e’  Area, or like ‘u’ in afar.  

This is all the more relevant in a language such as English whose phonics interact quite arbitrarily among the words.  

Teaching phonologically refers to identifying the different sounds associated with a specific letter. If a child learns 10 sounds and their various nuanced applications, he can correctly spell over 3000 words in a language. Additionally, the quotient of confusion is practically nil here because the brain is aware of all the sounds and their tonal quality.  

However, in the case of traditional teaching, a child will only learn 10 words associated with 10 letters. One has to slowly learn the rest and eventually develop a huge stock of words which they need to use regularly to prevent forgetting.  

Identifying Sight Words & Problems in Reading 

As you read along in the traditional method, you will find there are words which do not follow the general rules of phonics. For instance, the word ‘one’ where ‘o’ is pronounced as ‘w-a-a’ and not ‘o/o-o’. Such exceptions are called sight words. 

The key to fluency in phonological training is to take note of the exceptions and remind oneself of all their applications systematically. In the case of traditional reading, one simply has to remember another kind of exceptional pronunciation attached to a specific letter.  

Another concept of sight words as developed by Edward William Dolch talks about a list of 400 words aimed to improve fluency of young students. This list comprises almost all the commonly used words and knowing how to use all these words will give a person a fair idea of reading in the English language.  

And this brings us to the final section of this blog. In order to make the task of spelling and pronunciation in English easier, you must learn to catch the symptoms pointing towards radical problems in reading.  

For children, these problems can be identified from the following: 

• - Notice the discrepancy your child may face while reading aloud and reading to their own self. Investigate what is the quality of meaning generated in both the cases. 

• - Does your child put finger under every written word while reading?  

• - Do they spell out every letter before pronouncing the entire word? Or, do they read word by word, where expressions and punctuations take a back seat? 

• - Does your child hesitate to read aloud? If yes, you need to note down the possible reasons behind the same. Here are some probable causes for the symptoms: 

• - Problem with fluency. (Anxiety is often a determining factor behind the neurological pathways responsible for fluent reading in any language) 

• - Unsure about the meanings of words and their phonic decoding. 

• - Hesitation also manifests in the form of making unconscious sounds while students are stuck decoding a word.  

• - Dyslexic children or children of shy personality traits also exhibit reading difficulties. 

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Each of the aforementioned causes can be identified and rectified with phonic teaching and rise of phonemic awareness. When a child slowly becomes an expert at decoding, he starts responding to the world with a state of heightened awareness and inquisitiveness. 

The ability to make sense of written text also enables one to comprehend the world around them with renewed vigour.  

This is because it is the same faculties that inform us about our presence in the world that again take us to the zenith of our imagination while we read a book. All the more so for a child!  

This is where the saying goes, ‘We are what we read. We are what we think!’