Reading

History

One could think that the history of the reading is the same one as that of the writing: one can estimate that the first Hiéroglyphe S were drawn 5.000 years ago, the oldest Alphabet S phonetics are approximately 3500 years old.

However, the evolution of the supports also had a great influence. The first works were written on rollers of papyruses rolled up in Volumen in a cylinder. They thus authorized only one vision partial of the text to reading.

As from the 2nd century at the 4th century, the introduction of the Parchemin allows the drafting of the works in Codex composed of sheets folded and bent together. The book will not then undergo practically more modification of structure. This new presentation makes it possible to consult the works in a linear way: it becomes possible to divide into sheets to reach directly a passage of the text.

To the surroundings of the 10th century the words were written the ones following the others, without white nor punctuation ( Scriptio continued ). The reading aloud was thus quasi systematic. So texts dating from the Ve century before J.C attest that the quiet Lecture was practiced in Greece, it remained probably exceptional during long centuries. In its Confessions Augustin d' Hippone explains his amazement when he sees Ambroise of Milan practicing the quiet reading. The reading remains a collective activity in the middle-class mediums until the middle of the 18th century. Among the workmen, the serialized story continues to be read with high voice until the shortly after the First World War. In Europe, the oral, sometimes sung reading or psalmodiée occupies a central place today still in the ceremonies of the religions Jewish, Christian and Moslem. The speed of word makes it possible to read approximately 9.000 words per hour. An average practitioner of the Speed reading (and thus quiet) is approximately three times faster.

For a long time, the reading remains held for an elite. During the XIXe century, the majority of the Western countries begin in the Alphabétisation of the population. It a little earlier spreads in the countries of Protestant religion , where each one must be able to read the Bible.

Physiological principle

The physiological process of the reading was studied for the first time at the end of the 19th century by Emile Javal, director of the laboratory of Ophtalmologie of the university of the Sorbonne. The reading is not a continuous sweeping of the text but a succession of photographs: during 250 milliseconds the eye fixes a whole of letters then the eye moves in 25 milliseconds towards a new group of letters. The rate of travel is relatively constant from one individual to another. On the other hand, whereas a slow Lecteur can fix only five at ten letters, a good reader can at the same time fix more than one score of letters. Measurements on Chinese, Japanese or Arab readers showed that the alphabet used did not have a major influence on the mechanism of the reading.

The pause of the eye at the time of “photography” is called a point of fixing. The measurement of the number of letters perceived simultaneously is named the empan.

the reading is not a neutral activity: it brings into play the reader and animates it complex relations with the text. But, when the book is closed again, that becomes the reader? Is simple a glouton able to digest the juice of the letters? A logger whose single task would be to clear the literary landscape? By listening to some readers speech of their voyages between the lines, I tried to follow them and recall their singular way. Far from the usual justifications, traditional injunction: “it is necessary to read! ”, how can one define the stakes which the reading represents for the formation of the subject? Because, if to read is important, that can appear only in the history of the reader and not on official decrees. In the middle of the reading and secrecy of the words, I invite you to travel, to let to you tell a history of reader.

Extracts from Texier, Francois, Traces of readings, paths of readers . To see, an act of formation to the daily newspaper, Harmattan, Paris, 2006.

The training of the reading

The Lecture is one of the essential trainings of the elementary school with the writing and the Mathématiques, and the first goal of the Compulsory schooling.

The training of the reading is a subject which interested many pedagogs. After years of controversies, it would seem that none the various methods of training brings a decisive advantage. For certain specialists, if their influence is marginal it is because in any of them one does not find what constitutes the act even lira.

detailed Article: Training of the reading

Techniques

The location consists in quickly finding information while being based on the typographical resources of the text. It is particularly adapted to the works like the dictionaries or the directories and to the texts with a plan very arranged hierarchically.

The creaming is him used when the structure of the text is not sufficiently marked. It consists in reading the text in diagonal while stopping on the key words carrier of information.

The speed reading combines strategies supported on the technique of the " écrémage" and vertical reading of at a single glance seized whole lines each one in their turn. The eye must remain at a sufficient distance from the page.

The speed and the accuracy of mouvement of the eye are essential, this is why the cognitive Oculométrie is used for the study of the performances of readers.

detailed Article: Speed reading

Illiteracy

For UNESCO, the Analphabétisme is the incapacity to read and write simple texts in connection with the daily life. In 1980 one estimated that 30% of the world population were illiterate. In the Industrialized countries, approximately 4% of the population suffers from Illettrisme: although having learned how to read, these people gradually lost the practice of it. However, of many polemics exist on the criteria defining these populations. The figures can vary the simple one with triple. One will thus remain careful on the quantitative estimates. The term of “Illettrisme” was creates in 1978 by the association DTA Fourth World in order to describe the situation of the people who having however been provided education for, do not have the capacity to use the writing in an easy way. This term is in competition with that of functional elimination of illiteracy which one finds out of the French borders. The term of “Littératie” currently takes a more important place. It raises in an explicit way the question of the capacities to treat the writing in “an economy of knowledge”. If the question of the elimination of illiteracy is carried by UNESCO, that of the litératie is carried by OECD.

The Dyslexie is a functional disorder of the training of the reading.

See too

External bonds

Oculométrie cognitive in reading * High voice Workshop of reading and pedagogy of French
Lisons.info literature for all
method ABC-with Haan a method to relearn to read with the problem child
List of the accessible French books on line with the project Gutemberg

Simple: Reading

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