Synopses & Reviews
"Understanding Reading" revolutionized reading research and theory when the first edition appeared in 1971. In the sixth edition, Smith's purpose remains the same: to shed light on fundamental aspects of the complex human act of reading - linguistic, physiological, psychological, and social - and on what is involved in learning to read.
Synopsis
This sixth edition--a classic in the field of the psychology of reading--explains fundamental aspects of the complex human act of reading--linguistic, psychological, and social--and what is involved in learning to read. Fully updated, it examines current theories, instructional practices and controversies.
About the Author
Frank Smith is a writing and researcher with current research interests focusing on the social, psychological, and educational consequences of all aspects of human technology, including language. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Western Australia, and his Ph.D. in psycholinguistics is from Harvard University. He has been associated with many research projects and has published over 20 books and numerous papers related to literacy, thinking, learning, and education. Dr. Smith was a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and the Linguistics Department of the University of Toronto for 12 years, and for three years was Lansdowne Professor of Language in Education at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. In 1992 he was distinguished visiting professor and head of the new Department of Applied English Language Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Table of Contents
Ch. 1. The essence of reading -- Ch. 2. Comprehension and knowledge -- Ch. 3. Spoken and written language -- Ch. 4. Information and experience -- Ch. 5. Between eye and brain -- Ch. 6. Bottlenecks of memory -- Ch. 7. Letter identification -- Ch. 8. Word identification -- Ch. 9. Phonics and mediated word identification -- Ch. 10. The identification of meaning -- Ch. 11. Reading, writing, and thinking -- Ch. 12. Learning about the world -- Ch. 13. Learning about written language.