SIXTH EDITION UNDERSTANDING READING A Psycholinguistic Analysis of Reading and Learning to Read This page intentionally left blank SIXTH EDITION UNDERSTANDING READING A Psycholinguistic Analysis of Reading and Learning to Read FRANK SMITH LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS 2004 Mahwah, New Jersey London Copyright © 2004 by Frank Smith. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written permission of the author. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers 10 Industrial Avenue Mahwah, New Jersey 07430 Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Smith, Frank, 1928- . Understanding reading/ Frank Smith.—6th ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8058-4711-1 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 0-8058-4712-X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Reading. 2. Learning, Psychology of. 3. Written communi- cation. I. Title. LB1050.S574 2003 372.4—dc22 2003060718 CIP Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 32 1 Contents Preface to the Sixth Edition vii Chapter 1 The Essence of Reading 1 Chapter 2 Comprehension and Knowledge 12 Chapter 3 Spoken and Written Language 31 Chapter 4 Information and Experience 55 Chapter 5 Between Eye and Brain 72 Chapter 6 Bottlenecks of Memory 95 Chapter 7 Letter Identification 110 Chapter 8 Word Identification 125 Chapter 9 Phonics and Mediated Word Identification 138 vi CONTENTS Chapter 10 The Identification of Meaning 156 Chapter 11 Reading, Writing, and Thinking 178 Chapter 12 Learning About the World 194 Chapter 13 Learning About Written Language 212 Notes 233 Glossary 325 References 333 Author Index 361 Subject Index 369 Preface to the Sixth Edition Here are extracts from the reports of two anonymous reviewers of the fifth edition of Understanding Reading: Reviewer 1: "Frank Smith's research summarizes a generation of in- vestigations across disciplines ....In one succinct, readable volume it comprises what I consider a thorough and incisive summation of core research, theory and interpretation. It represents a new main- stream in progressive reading research .... Its major strength is its straightforward, compelling presentation of approaches to reading and writing that are meaningful and salient to children." Reviewer 2: "This volume contains partial truths, contradictions, and cites only references that support the author's view. Either the author is not familiar with the current research literature, or he deliberately avoids citing evidence that is contrary to his point of view .... This book is no recipe for improving reading skills of children, especially beginning readers and poor readers; it is a recipe for disaster." Both reviewers are professors at university schools of education, experts in the field, with access to the same professional literature and with the same professional concerns. Yet a chasm separates vii VIII UNDERSTANDING READING their points of view, one of which is expressed with vehemence and indignation. This head-on clash of attitudes currently permeates every as- pect of theory and research into reading and reading instruction, among practitioners, politicians, and the general public. It has be- come a focus of legislation and litigation. One has to turn to reli- gious fundamentalism to find another issue that arouses such bitter controversy. There is no other academic discipline where so many people claim sole possession of truth and declare those with a different point of view "unscientific." The first edition of this book, in 1971, set out to be an objective (and scientific) review of every field of study that had anything rele- vant to say about reading and about learning to read, with the un- complicated aim of "understanding reading." Every edition, including the present one, has steadfastly resisted giving teachers a recipe for teaching reading while aiming to help them make their own decisions, based on research about reading, which is accessi- ble to anyone, and their experience and personal knowledge of their students, which only they possess. But it is impossible to write a book about reading, however de- tached the intention, without being caught in the cross fire of how reading should be taught. I have never professed any doctrinal alle- giance, yet people who believe one thing accept this book as sup- port for their point of view while those who take an opposing position anathematize it. Who is right? I don't think that's a useful question at present. Each side believes it has the monopoly on truth, and few of the ma- jor protagonists would even consider the possibility of being wrong. If a crucial experiment or unanswerable argument existed, one side would have disappeared from the scene years ago. A better question might be, what constitutes the grounds for people on both sides to feel so sure they are right and the other side wrong? That is the issue I focus on as I endeavor to bring the latest edition of Understanding Reading up to date. But because of the clamor of the controversy it is not enough for me to lay out the facts of reading and learning to read as I see them. The controversy itself must be examined, to ascertain why such ex- treme divergences of opinion can come about. All teachers of read- ing, and ultimately all parents and other interested observers, must make up their own minds about why these conflicting points of view exist, unless they blindly submit to the assertions of the people who shout loudest or wield the biggest sticks (or carrots). That is the rea- son I include a brief statement of "issues" at the end of every chapter. PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION IX THE GREAT DEBATE The fifth edition of Understanding Reading, published in 1994, included a lengthy summary of the "Great Debate" then raging be- tween proponents of "whole language" and those of "direct instruc- tion." I commented that it would be comforting not to have to include the section in a sixth edition, but that the portents were not auspicious. My prognostication was correct, but not quite for the reasons I anticipated. If the great debate no longer has the same intensity, it is because direct instruction carried the day. Whole language has been sidelined rather than vanquished. The direct instructional view, with its assumption that reading is a matter of decoding letters to sounds, has been taken for granted by those arguing for accountability, standardization, high-stakes testing, and external control of classroom instruction and teacher education, from the highest political levels down. In many parts of the English-speak- ing world—particularly the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand—whole language (or "real reading") has become a subversive, underground movement. Resistence to the control exercised by mandated tests and curriculums has become more of a confrontation over teachers' freedom in classrooms than over technical and philosophical issues related to reading instruction. Proponents of direct instruction concede that there must be a place—usually late in the course of instruction— for meaningful reading and for "teaching comprehension," and whole-language teachers and theorists deny that they ever proposed abolishing all reference to phonics in teaching reading, only against giving phonics priority and predominance. The old schisms have been papered over, and a new dispute—it can hardly be called a debate—has arisen over political issues. WHAT'S NEW? What justifies a sixth edition of Understanding Reading? The facts are the same, but the perspectives are different. Many of the basic facts about the nature of reading have been known for at least a century but, as Edmund Burke Huey observed in 1908, disputes over them seem always fresh. My regular excursions through mountains of related literature reveal that little of substance has changed since the first edition of Understanding Reading was published in 1971. The main contro- versies persist (what it means to be a reader, how written words are