Initial teaching of reading in the European Union

European Commission Directorate-General For Education And Culture

Description

Education policy

Sujets

• Basic education
• Education
• Member state of the European Union
• Primary education

Informations

• Publié par: EUROPEAN-COMMISSION-DIRECTORATE-GENERAL-FOR-EDUCATION-AND-CULTURE
• Nombre de lectures: 15
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 25 Mo

Extrait

EDUCATIO N
TRAININ G
YOUT H
Studies
Initial teaching
of reading in the
European Union
EUROPEA N
COMMISSION • * •
• •
•
•
*• *
EDUCATIO N
TRAININ G
YOUT H
Initial teaching of reading
in the European Union
Studies
EUROPEA N
COMMISSION European Commission, DG XXII/A
Education, training and youth — Action in the field of education, implementation of Socrates
Contact: Mr A. J. Hingel, DG XXII/A.1
Address: European Commission, rue de la Loi 200 (B-7 7/24),
B-1049 Brussels — Tel. [phone]; fax [phone]
A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet.
It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu.int).
Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication.
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1999
ISBN 92-828-5424-8
© European Communities, 1999
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
Printed in Germany
PRINTED ON WHITE CHLORINE-FREE PAPER PREFACE
In the area of both communications and knowledge, the third millennium will be especially noteworthy for a
greater volume of exchanges at global level and the intensive use of information technologies. The ways in which
the written word is published and disseminated are already undergoing fundamental change. This cultural and
technological revolution will call for new and better reading skills. The abundance and diversity of information in
new forms will make its essentials much harder to grasp. It is more than ever necessary for everyone to develop
the ability to understand the written word quickly and easily, whatever its form or function. Never has the abil­
ity to identify, integrate and articulate the essential ideas of information been such a vital basic skill.
Thanks to efforts on the part of all European education systems in the course of more than a century, most peo­
ple now receive a basic education. Yet many fail to turn to good account the reading taught at school. In our
societies today, the proportion of functionally illiterate people — those who have learned to read, but use the
skill rarely or badly — is around 10 %. Admittedly, this rate varies from one country, and even one investigation,
to the next, given the difficulty of getting to grips with a problem whose apparent nature also varies with
different cultures or systems. Persistently unequal access to the written word remains no less disturbing. The
educational world is thus faced with the need to find appropriate solutions, while adapting to meet
renewed demands for access to reading for all.
To respond to this challenge, one possible approach is to turn to research for an account of the new findings
available to all those concerned with teaching, including senior staff responsible for curriculum management in
education systems. The European Commission (DG XXII —Education, Training and Youth) thus wished to
contribute to this reflection by initiating the present study. Besides summarising the results of the main lines of
academic research on the question at issue, the study also provides a comparative analysis of the curricula and
guidelines produced by education authorities. Through its publication, the Commission hopes not only to en­
courage greater awareness of the need to consider the initial teaching of reading as one of the priorities of
primary education, but also to lend its support to all innovative approaches aimed at improving the quality of
teaching in this subject.
EDITH CRESSON
Member of the Commission responsible for research,
innovation, education, training and youth. Contents
General foreword 9
PART I - THE CONTRIBUTION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Introduction 13
CHAPTER - THE ROLE OF EXPERT READING IN INITIAL TEACHING 16
1.1. What is expert reading?
1.1.1. Expert reading and phonemic assembly 1
1.1.2. Towards a generalised interactive model7
1.1.3. What should be remembered for initial teaching?8
CHAPTER 2 - STRATEGIES FOR BEGINNERS9
2.1. Reading acquisition models
2.1.1. Developmental models for word recognition
2.1.2. Differential models for reading acquisition 21
2.1.3. Conclusions? 2
2.1.4. What should be remembered for initial teaching?4
CHAPTER 3 - METALINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE OF BEGINNER READERS OR CHILDREN
WHO DO NOT COME TO SCHOOL IN IGNORANCE5
3.1. Lessons to be drawn from psycholinguistics
3.1.1. The evolution of children's representations of written language when they
are starting to read
3.1.2. Conclusions?9
3.1.3. What should be remembered for initial teaching? 2
3.2. Lessons to be drawn from cognitive psychology 30
3.2.1. Is phonemic awareness a cause or a consequence of the acquisition of the
alphabetic principle? 3
3.2.2. Is phonemic awareness a prerequired ability?2
3.2.3. Conclusions?
3.2.4. What should be remembered for initial teaching?3
3.3. Lessons to be drawn from social psychology 34
3.3.1. Knowledge of the functions of reading
3.3.2.e of the technical language used in education6
3.3.3. What should be remembered from initial teaching?
CHAPTER 4 - TWO ISSUES ABOUT THE ORGANISATION OF EDUCATION - MANAGEMENT
OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES - CONTINUITY BETWEEN THE SCHOOL
ENVIRONMENT AND THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT 38
4.1. Management of individual differences
4.1.1. Types of intervention 3
4.1.2. Aptitude groups9
4.1.3. Learning and teaching time 41
4.1.4. What should be remembered for initial teaching?3
4.2. Continuity between the school environment and the social environment 44 4.2.1. The role of the family environment 44
4.2.2. The role of books and libraries5
4.2.3. What should be remembered for initial teaching?6
SUMMARY 48
CONCLUSION AND SOME HELPFUL GUIDELINES 51
BIBLIOGRAPHY 5
PART II - ANALYSIS OF CURRICULA
CHAPTER 1 - OBJECTIVE AND LIMITS OF THE ANALYSIS 67
1.1. Nature and designation of the documents analysed
1.2. Content of the documents analysed
1.3. Contextual data and the level of practical implementation of the curriculum . . 68
1.4. Coverage of the documents used for analysis8
1.5. Year of publication of the documents analysed9
1.6. Content analysis method 6
1.7. Relationship between official instructions and teacher's practices 71
CHAPTER 2 - COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS 72
2.1. General organisation of the curriculum 7
2.1.1. Commencement of compulsory education and of the teaching of reading ... 7
2.1.2. Number of hours of teaching the language
2.1.3. Areas of languageg4
2.2. Objectives and assessment criteria5
2.3. Taking individual differences into account
2.3.1. Learning skills
2.3.2. Linguistic differences7
2.3.3. Other types of individual differences 7
2.4. Organisation of content
2.4.1. The traditional concept of initial instruction8
2.4.2. Strategies for the seeking of meaning
2.4.3. Code and meaning9
2.4.3.1. Juxtaposition of code and meaning
2.4.3.2. Integration of the code and meaning: strategic reading 7
2.5. Methods and material 80
2.6. Links between official recommendations and the results of research 8
2.7.snls and teacher's practices1
2.8. Conclusions and outlook
CHAPTER 3 - NATIONAL DESCRIPTIONS3
Belgium
I. French- and German-speaking Communities
II. Flemish Community8
Denmark 9
Germany7
Greece 104
Spain9
I. Territory administered by the ministry 110
II. Documents from the seven autonomous communities which have full powers in
educational matters
France 11
Ireland 121
Italy5 Luxembourg 128
Netherlands 132
Austria5
Portugal
Finland 14
Sweden
United Kingdom9
I. England and Wales
II. Northern Ireland 153
III. Scotland7
Acknowledgements 161