VISUAL FACTORS IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF READING IN NIGERIA

VISUAL FACTORS IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF READING IN NIGERIA

INTRODUCTION

 Reading is both physical and physiological. Reading involves the complex integration of visual, phonological and semantic information.  Reading is essential in the context of education. Education is generally understood to encompass literacy, defined as “the ability to read and write” (Concise Oxford Diction­ary, 2009). For individuals who do not have easy access to print materials because they are visually impaired (that is, those who are blind or have low vision) this process of acquiring knowledge through reading requires additional effort and accommodations. Braille literacy is of critical importance to the achievement of independence and employability of those who are blind or visually impaired (Ryles, 1996). The following factors influence reading:

Neurological and Cognitive Factors

A student’s problem in reading can be linked to intrinsic neurological and cognitive factors within the individual student. Every teacher has had experience with a student who struggles with reading difficulty, despite having a dedicated family, a nurturing school environment, average or above-average intelligence, and many economic advantages. For more than 100 years, medical researchers have tried to detect those neurological factors within the brain that are related to reading problems. As early as 1896, W. P. Morgan, a physician, described a condition he called “word blindness.” Hinshelwood (1997), an ophthalmologist, reported the case of an otherwise normal teenage boy who could not learn to read. Other medical researchers reported similar cases of students who had great difficulty learning to read. However, it is only recently that researchers have begun to use new technologies to actually study the brain as the individual reads. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology, brain research has led to clues about the role of Neurological and Cognitive Factors Factors Associated with Reading Disability Environmental Factors Intelligence and Intellectual Factors Language Factors

Physical Factors

Neurological factors that are associated with an individual’s reading problem. The brain research shows strong evidence of differences in brain function between poor readers and normal readers (Shaywitz, Morris, & Shaywitz, 2008).The term dyslexia is sometimes used to describe individuals with severe reading disabilities, individuals who acquire reading abilities with extreme difficulty. Genetic differences in the brain make learning to read a struggle for children with dyslexia. Luckily, much of our brain development occurs after we are born, when we interact with our environment. This means that teaching techniques can actually retrain the brain, especially when the instruction happens early (Shaywitz et al., 2008). Studies with fMRI scans compared English-speaking and Chinese-speaking children with dyslexia. Chinese children and American children with dyslexia are different. The research shows that dyslexia affects different parts of the brain depending upon whether the child uses an alphabet-based writing system (such as English) or a symbolic writing system (such as Chinese). Learning to read in English, an alphabet-based a writing system requires awareness of the sounds of language (phonemic awareness). In contrast, learning to read in Chinese, a symbol-based writing system, requires abilities with pictorial and visual symbols (Hotz, 2008; Siok, Niu, Jin, Perfetti, & Tan, 2008). When we consider neurological or cognitive factors, we take into account the way in which an individual’s brain operates during the process of learning to read. The term cognitive processing refers to the mental activities that an individual uses in learning, such as visual processing, auditory processing, memory abilities, or language-related abilities. Cognitive processing deficits can interfere with the way that students understand the information presented to them. For some students with a reading disability, cognitive processing deficits can play a major role. Cognitive processing differences are also recognized in special education law, specifically in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA-2004). Students with learning disabilities are identified as having “disorders in psychological processing.” Research shows that poor readers display more differences in cognitive processing than good readers (Lerner & Johns, 2012; Shaywitz et al., 2008).

Working Memory

Working memory (WM) is defined as a processing resource of limited capacity, involved in the preservation of information while processing the same or other information (Swanson & O’Conner, 2009). WM plays a major role in integrating information during the task of comprehending text. Swanson and O’Conner found that WM plays a major role in moderating overall outcomes in text comprehension. Difficulty with WM was a major problem in children with specific learning disorders (Morris et al., 2012; Schucardt, Maehler, & Hasselhorn, 2008).

Cognitive Strategy Instruction

Cognitive strategy instruction (CSI) focuses on how students learn rather than on what they learn. It is an explicit instructional approach that teaches students specific and general cognitive strategies to improve learning and performance. Many students with reading problems are inefficient and ineffective strategic learners. Cognitive routines help students regulate and monitor their reading comprehension. The ability to identify and utilize effective strategies is a necessary skill for reading comprehension. Students who use cognitive strategies ask themselves questions, they connect new information with what they already know, and they try to predict what will come next

(Krawiec & Montague, 2012).

Environmental Factors

Environmental factors are associated with reading disability. Students live and grow in several different environments, and each environment has a strong influence on student desires and abilities to learn. Environments include the student’s home environment, school environment, social environment, and cultural environment. Each of these environments can affect a student’s reading. Figure 2.2 illustrates each of these environmental factors and their interaction.

The Home Environment

The home is the child’s first environment. The child’s home environment can be the foundation for tremendous cognitive growth and development. The child’s experiences that occur during the critical first 5 or 6 years of life have powerful influences on a child’s development. In the home environment, parents can provide emotional well-being as well as intellectual stimulation. For example, a child’s early development of self-concept is dependent on the support and encouragement of parents. Studies that compare good and poor readers show that students who experience success are much more likely to have a favorable home environment. Parents can also stimulate their child’s love for reading. Parents who read to children, take them to libraries and buy books as presents teach children to value reading.

When children observe parents who are readers, the parents provide a role model for literacy. Further, the parental role continues to be crucial even after the child enters school. Youngsters who experience difficulty learning to read need satisfying family relationships. Parents can alleviate some of the psychological and emotional consequences of reading failure by what they do in the home environment. Parents can provide love, acceptance, and other opportunities for success.

The School Environment

A substantial portion of students’ waking hours is spent in school, and so the experiences and relationships in the school environment profoundly affect their lives. For the poor reader, school experiences are often unhappy ones. At times, even a well-meaning, stable family may not be able to prepare a child for the school situation. Even in affluent neighborhoods, teachers are noticing changes in the home environment, such as an increase in family breakups. School problems are multiplied in less-fortunate settings. As family instability increases, teachers in all schools are instructing at-risk children (Lerner & Johns, 2012). Some school practices can actually contribute to a child’s reading problems. For example, in some cases, teachers might give up entirely on trying to teach a child to read, and instead simply read everything to the child. During reading time, these children might be expected to sit quietly and do nothing. In such situations, the school system does little to help the child with significant reading problems. In the school environment, students with reading problems do not read as much as students who are good readers. In an extensive line of research, Allington (2009) compared the time spent and amount of reading in low achieving and average students. Unskilled readers spent less time reading in school than did average students. Poor readers read only a third as many words as average students in school. Students who already have reading problems are not practicing enough to improve their reading skills (Lerner & Johns, 2012). Students with reading problems often have unsatisfactory relationships with adults in the schools. Studies show that poor achievers tend to be perceived negatively by teachers, paraprofessionals, and principals. Teachers often identify poor readers as aggressive, lacking self-discipline, and unmotivated. Low achievers receive less praise or acknowledgment from teachers, and they are more likely to be criticized. Instruction that does not meet a student’s needs can be an important factor in a reading problem. For example, when immature children are given formal reading instruction before they can profit from it, they may become frustrated and develop reading problems. If children do not receive sufficient instruction in critical skills, they may fail in the initial stages of learning to read.

The Social Environment

Successful interactions with friends provide students with many satisfactions and opportunities to gain confidence in themselves. Many students with reading problems, however, also have social difficulties. These students have difficulty making friends, have problems interacting with others, and do not understand the nuances of social situations. A sizable body of evidence shows that social unpopularity tends to accompany school failure. Poor achievers often are rejected or ignored by classmates and are uninvolved in extracurricular activities (Lavoie, 2007). When children develop typically, they learn social skills in a casual and informal manner. Through many incidental experiences, they learn appropriate ways of acting with people what to say, how to behave, and how to give and take in a social situation. Students with reading and social problems, however, may not be sensitive to social nuances, and they may be unaware of how others interpret their behavior. Further, in contrast to normal achievers, low-achieving students tend to overestimate their own popularity. They seem unable to recognize their own social shortcomings and have difficulty relating to peers in a social setting. Often, students with reading and social problems may be unable to accommodate themselves to another person’s point of view.

The Cultural Environment

The number of students in U.S. schools who come from diverse cultural and linguistic populations is rapidly increasing. Many students come from homes in which a language other than English is spoken; these students are English language learners (ELLs). They are not proficient in understanding and using oral English. ELL students are discussed in greater detail in this chapter under the section on language factors. The population of North America is a composite of hundreds of different ethnic and cultural traditions. In today’s society, ever-changing patterns of immigration and movement occur as new groups of people add their cultural riches to the schools. A few decades ago, Americans assumed that everyone would be assimilated into the “melting pot” of the dominant culture. Now we try to value and maintain diverse cultural traditions. One of the greatest challenges schools face is providing an excellent education to students of all cultures, whatever their geographical origin, socioeconomic status, or language. Because significant numbers of U.S. families live below a specified poverty level, teachers need to be aware of the possible effects of poverty on students’ academic performance. A recent study shows that poverty can take a toll on the brain development of children, leading to learning disabilities as well as behavior and emotional problems. Although individuals with incomes below the poverty level come from diverse backgrounds, they tend to have certain similarities. Parents are likely to have less energy to devote to their children’s development if they are necessarily concerned with basic survival needs. Often, children from these families must care for themselves at a young age and may come to school with relatively limited background experiences (Ortiz, 1997). Cultural differences, particularly those arising from a culture of poverty, may lead to intense suspicion and discomfort toward individuals perceived to be in the dominant culture (Lerner & Johns, 2012). These generalizations do not, of course, hold true for all low-income students. In many poor families, education is cherished, the values of the school are upheld, and family members are encouraged to read and achieve. The opportunity to progress from poverty to economic security is a fundamental promise of democratic nations.

Emotional Factors

Failing readers, particularly if they have a long history of failure, often have accompanying emotional problems that impede reading. Emotional problems tend to increase as a youngster moves up through the elementary years and enters adolescence. Sometimes it is hard to determine whether a reading problem is the result of an underlying emotional disorder or if emotional problems have developed because of a reading disability. Often, a constructive approach is to help the student experience success in reading, and this success, in turn, becomes a kind of therapy. A therapeutic approach to the teaching of reading can build confidence, establish self-esteem, and capture the pupil’s interest. However, students with severe emotional disorders may need psychotherapy or counseling (Silver, 2006). Students react to having reading problems in different ways. Although some failing readers seem to have little evidence of emotional reactions, many display a variety of emotional reactions. One helpful informal assessment measure that can be used by teachers is the sentence completion activity. The sentence completion activity is a series of beginning sentence fragments that the student completes, such as “I like.” In finishing these sentences, students often provide insights into their thoughts and feelings. The activity can be administered orally or in writing. A sample sentence completion form is given in Figure 2.3. In interpreting results, however, bear in mind that it is only an informal measure. Although it may suggest ideas about student attitudes, these hypotheses should be verified through the interview, observation, and perhaps the administration of formal measures. Occasionally, teachers may need to refer a student to mental health specialists (such as psychiatrists, psychologists, or social workers) for further evaluation and possible psychotherapy or counseling. Such referrals are needed when emotional problems are so severe that they interfere with reading progress to the extent that the student achieves little growth over an extended period of instruction.

Intelligence and Intellectual Factors

A student’s intelligence may provide an estimate of his or her ability to learn. Teachers have long noted a variation in their students’ response to reading instruction: One student grasps the lesson quickly, another student learns the lesson in an unusual or unique way, and a third student has great difficulty catching on. This variation is often attributed to “intelligence” (Morris et al., 2012).

Using Intelligence Tests to Determine the Existence of a Reading Disability

A reading disability is sometimes measured in terms of the difference between the student’s expected reading level (usually a student’s grade placement) and the student’s actual reading level. Another method uses intelligence test scores to determine whether the student has a reading disability. Using this method, teachers can determine whether a significant discrepancy exists between the student’s potential for reading achievement (as measured by an intelligence test) and the student’s actual reading performance as measured by a standardized reading achievement test. A large gap, or discrepancy, between reading potential and reading achievement indicates a reading disability because the student has the potential to read much better.

Language Factors

Language is recognized as one of the greatest of human achievements, more important than all the physical tools invented in the last 10,000 years. The language permits human beings to speak of things unseen, recall the past, and verbalize hopes for the future. People communicate with each other through a communication process. One person sends a message; the other person receives the message. Students’ ability to express and receive thoughts through oral language provides the foundation for reading; in other words, reading is based on language development.

It is therefore not surprising that reading is an integral part of the language system of literate societies. Some students with reading problems have underlying problems with language. This section describes many different components of language.

Oral and Written Language

Language is an integrated system linking the oral language forms of listening and talking to the written language forms of reading and writing. As children mature, language plays an increasingly an important part in the development of thinking and the ability to grasp the meaning. Words become symbols for objects, classes of objects, and ideas. As children gain competence using language in one form, they also build knowledge and experience with the underlying language system, and this learning carries over to learning language in another form. The oral language provides a knowledge base for reading and writing. Similarly, practice in writing improves both reading and oral language. Oral language problems can contribute to reading disability. About 8% of children fail to develop speech and language at the expected age (Tallal, Miller, Jenkins, & Merzenich, 1997). Children who have delayed speech and language development often experience problems in reading.

Receptive and Expressive Language

An important distinction needs to be made between receptive language (understanding through listening or reading) and expressive language (using language in speaking and writing). Usually, people’s receptive abilities exceed their expressive ones; that is, they understand more words than they use in speech and can read more words than they can write. At times a student may appear to have poor language abilities because he or she engages in a little conversation or gives one-word replies to questions. However, oral expressive language can be influenced by a student’s comfort level. Therefore, teachers must consider the student’s language abilities in both receptive and expressive language.

Visual Impairment and Vision Problems

The ability to see clearly is critical to the reading process. However, the relationship between reading and vision is complicated. A particular visual impairment may impede reading in one individual, but another person with a similar problem may be able to read effectively. Several types of visual impairment are of concern to the reading teacher. These impairments include myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, binocular vision problems, and color perception. Myopia, or nearsightedness, is the inability to see objects at a distance. Myopia is caused by an elongated eyeball that focuses visual images in an improper way. Although the problem of myopia is not highly related to reading difficulty, a student with myopia could have difficulty seeing objects such as writing on the blackboard (Lerner & Johns, 2012). A substantial portion of the population is myopic; the condition often begins between the ages of 9 and 12. Myopia is usually correctable with eyeglasses. Hyperopia, or farsightedness, is the inability to see objects clearly at near point (that is, 13 inches or less). In children, it is often caused by an eyeball that is too short to permit focusing. Children are typically hyperopic until they reach the age of 7 or 8; thus, primary-grade textbooks generally contain large print. If hyperopia is a continuing problem, it can be corrected with lenses. Because reading is done at the near point, hyperopia can affect the ability to read.

Conclusion

Numerous factors are associated with reading disabilities. Experts recognize today that a student’s reading problem can be linked to intrinsic neurological and cognitive factors. Neurological and cognitive factors within the student affect reading achievement. Considerations include differentiated instruction, working memory, and cognitive strategy instruction. Environmental factors include the home, school, cultural, and social environments. The home is the child’s first environment, where the critical learning of the early years occurs. The school environment is another important system for the student, one that is often difficult for students with reading problems. Students with reading disabilities tend to have difficulty in their social environments. The cultural environment is another system that affects attitudes and interest in reading. Methods of assessing environmental systems include several systems of observation.

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