The Bases of Reading Acquisition

Abstract

PROPOSES A MODEL of the reading process in relation to recent research in psycholinguistics. In particular the work of both Lenneberg and Chomsky is reviewed and the parallel is drawn that the inadequacy of learning theory in explaining oral language development may also be true of its application to reading. The model is a portrait of adult reading competence based upon adequate oral language development and focuses on the integration of certain psychological and linguistic mechanisms. It is suggested that analysis-by-synthesis processing of articulatory coding provides considerable insight into how children begin to read. Specifically, an acceptable oral rendering is recognized as a significant linguistic event preliminary to further processing.