I have always been concerned about what happens when children read silently to themselves and encounter words that are not in their spoken language.
My suggestion is that many children tend to 'skip' words when reading silently. If they do not come up with a pronunciation for new words (that is, words not in their existing oral language) then they are not likely to recall the new words for their spoken language. This means they are not increasing their oral vocabulary as much as they could.
I raised this issue with the DDOLL network and Katherine referred me to the video below.
The video presentation includes various research projects to compare the teaching of new vocabulary with, and without, print (the spellings) and this is very important for teachers and parents to appreciate - but in particular, Linnea lists 'Implications for Vocabulary Instruction and Learning' at 48mins 40 seconds - on slide 40 - which is very much linked to my concern about silent reading where children will skip new words in preference to coming up with a pronunciation. Whilst children may well get the gist of these new words, they cannot take them into spoken language without a pronunciation being allocated to them in the first place:
Linnea expands on this list during her presentation:
https://vimeo.com/15994972*Systematic phonics instruction for beginning readers to acquire orthographic knowledge and decoding skill
*Strategy of pronouncing spellings of new vocabulary words: don't skip words
*Teachers should display spellings of new vocabulary as part of instruction
*Researchers: recognise role of spellings in phonological memory for words
My observations:
Children will skip the reading of new words for a number of reasons:
1) They do not recognise the words automatically and it is too much like hard work to take time to 'decode' them to come up with a pronunciation - or they can't because of inadequate phonics alphabetic code knowledge and blending skill.
2) The children's reading reflex is not automatic decoding of new words because they have been taught to 'skip' and guess words habitually through an emphasis on multi-cueing reading strategies. Children being provided with texts to read which do not match their alphabetic code knowledge is likely to promote the guessing of words.
3) The children can still get the overall gist of the text even if they do not decode the new words to come up with a pronunciation so they skip or blur over ("slight') the words they don't recognise or know. Without a pronunciation for a new word, however, they cannot increase their spoken vocabulary.
Linnea's findings show the importance of seeing the spelling (the printed word) for learning new vocabulary - and show the importance of children reading aloud to pronounce the new words, and to ensure focus on new words and their spellings rather than skipping new words - a state of affairs that may be unbeknown to the teacher or parent.
I have long since worried that teachers and parents/carers may be unaware as to just how much 'skipping words' takes place when children are reading silently to themselves!
Please ensure plenty of reading-aloud for your pupils or your children!
Teachers would really benefit from watching this presentation. There are questions at the end of the presentation so the presentation itself is about 50 minutes long.
[DDOLL network: Developmental Disorders of Language and Literacy Network]