READING AS A PROCESS OF PROCESSES
A reading teacher, specifically a remedial reading teacher, should have a comprehensive view that reading is a
complex process composed of sub-processes namely: 1) sensory process; 2)perceptual-cognitive process; 3)
language-communicative process; and 4) memory process (Dechant, 1991).
Firstly, according to Dechant (1991), reading is a sensory process that includes the task of letter recognition and
word recognition which are enabled by the factors and skills in visual processes, eye-movement skills, visual
perception, left-to-right progression or directionality, and kinesthetic perception. Additionally, she argues that it
includes the task of the association of sound with the symbol and this association is enabled by the factors and skills
of hearing and auditory perception.
Secondly, she argues that reading is also a perceptual-cognitive process that involves the task of associating meaning
with printed symbols. This association is enabled by the factors and skills such as one’s world experience, concepts
and conceptual systems, culture, fund of linguistic experience, topical knowledge, vocabulary and word meaning,
within-text context, and within-mind context.
Penultimately, she also argues that reading is a language-communicative process that includes the task of having the
facility in language. This is enabled by the factors and skills in listening and speaking proficiency, and in
understanding the phonological, syntactic, and semantic systems.
Furthermore, it is also a process that involves the task of the communication of meaning from writer to reader and
the apprehension of the meaning by the reader. This is enabled by factors and skills such as commonality of
experience and similarity of personal schema, familiarity with writer’s mode of expression, and adequacy of cues in
the text to assist the reader in matching personal schemata with text schemata.
Finally, she forwards that reading is a memory process that includes the task of the registration of the visual features
of the word in the sensory store and in long-term memory. This task is enabled by factors and skills in selective
attention, rehearsal, chunking, organization, semantic decoding, and retrieval.
IMPLICATIONS ON READING ASSESSMENT AND DIAGNOSIS
Based on the four sub-processes that were identified by Dechant (1991), one can infer that in order for the remedial
reading teacher or the reading specialist to effectively provide a more accurate picture of a learner’s reading
problems or difficulties, he or she has to recognize that learners or readers have to use combinations of abilities and
resources in order to reasonably understand a reading selection or material. This suggests that after assessing the
reader’s ability or inability to use these resources and finding out which resource is untapped, most likely, the
difficulty lies in that skill area.
The remedial reading teacher, reading specialist, or reading diagnostician also has to recognize that learners use text-
based, reader-based, and context-based resources in order to make sense of the text. This implies that it is usually
inaccurate to globally label a child a reader or non-reader just by basing conclusions on a single assessment of the
reader without considering the text variables and context variables of the reading event. According to Buehl (2001),
citing Cook (1986, 1989), these variables are necessary elements of the reading process.
Usually, assessment and diagnosis of reading problems should require the reading specialist, remedial reading
teacher, or reading diagnostician to search for evidence of the reader’s weakness in: 1) activating background
knowledge; 2) setting purpose for reading; 3) retrieving memories relevant to the text’s topic; 4) vocabulary
knowledge; 5) perceiving the reading context or situation; 6) recognizing print conventions; and 7) using linguistic
cues. Additionally, the reading professional should also assess the domain of the text in terms of: 1) content; 2)
format; 3) readability; 4) concepts; 5) organization; and 6) author’s purpose. Furthermore, the reading professional
should also assess how the reader uses comprehension strategies in order to integrate information derived from
reader-based, text-based, and context-based resources.
In other words, the assessment and diagnosis of reading problems do not only lie within the reader’s domain but they
also lie on the assessment of text features or characteristics and contextual variables. More often than not, teachers
usually generate conclusions based on assessment of reader variables alone. They rarely assess reading selections
and they tend to forget that sometimes, the reading materials are just too difficult or that there were no opportunities
for learners to build schema relevant to the text. It is a hard pill to swallow but the reading difficulty is sometimes
attributable to poor teaching of reading rather than just on the reader’s lack of reading skills or abilities.
It is imperative, therefore, that when a reading specialist, reading diagnostician, or remedial reading teacher assesses
or diagnoses a suspected struggling reader, the professional should be able to provide impressions of readers’
difficulties which may be reader-based, text-based, or context-based.
The subsequent topic in this module will deal with a discussion on reader-based difficulties andhow they are
assessed using two frameworks for reading diagnosis.
