READING encyclopedia topics

reading, process of mentally interpreting written symbols. Facility in reading is an essential factor in educational progress, and instruction in this basic skill is a primary purpose of elementary education. The ability to read was not considered important for most laymen until sometime after Johann Gutenberg's invention of the printing press (c.1450) and the Protestant Reformation, with its emphasis on individual interpretation of the Bible. Until that time reading was generally restricted to the clergy and certain members of the nobility. Although illiteracy is still a problem in many areas of the world, compulsory childhood education laws have assured that most citizens of advanced industrial nations can read.

Physiological and psychological studies suggest that the process of reading is based on a succession of quick eye movements, known as fixations, across the written line, each of which lasts for about a quarter of a second. In each fixation more than one word is perceived and interpreted, so that a skilled reader may take in more than three words per fixation when reading easy material. Depending on the rate of fixations and the difficulty of the material, an adult can read and understand anywhere from 200 to 1,000 words per minute.

There has been considerable difference of opinion about the best method of teaching children to read. By the end of the 20th cent. the educational concensus was largely that a combination of phonics, which emphasizes sound, and the whole-language method, which emphasizes meaning, is the most effective way to teach the skill. Most educators also agree on the importance of remedial work for students whose progress is impeded by impaired vision, faulty eye movements, developmental disabilities such as dyslexia, or personal handicaps resulting from poor teaching.

Bibliography

See G. Hildreth, Teaching Reading (1958); I. A. Richards, How to Read a Page (1959); G. Cuomo, Becoming a Better Reader (1960); H. Diack, Reading and the Psychology of Perception (1960); J. S. Chall, Learning to Read: The Great Debate (1967); M. Cox, The Challenge of Reading Failure (1968); M. J. Adler and C. Van Doren, How to Read a Book (rev. ed. 1972); M. C. Robeck and J. A. R. Wilson, Psychology of Reading (1974).

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mind reading

mind reading: see parapsychology; telepathy.

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lip reading

lip reading, method by which the deaf are able to read the speech of others from the movements of the lips and mouth. It is sometimes referred to as speech reading, which technically also includes the reading of facial expressions and body language. Lip reading is a medium of education in many schools for deaf children (see deafness). It came into wide use after World War I in the rehabilitation of shell-shocked, or otherwise deafened, soldiers.

See publications of the National Association of Hearing and Speech Agencies (formerly American Hearing Society); O. M. Wyatt, Teach Yourself Lip-Reading (1961, repr. 1969); E. Hazard, Lipreading for the Oral Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Person (1971); J. Jeffers, Speechreading (1971).

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Reading, University of

Reading, University of, at Reading, England; established 1892 as a university extension college affiliated with Oxford Univ. In 1926 it received its charter as an independent university. It has faculties of letters and social sciences, science, agriculture and food, and urban and regional studies, as well as a school of education. The National Institute for Research in Dairying is part of the university, and the College of Estate Management is affiliated.

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Reading, Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st marquess of

Reading, Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st marquess of, 1860-1935, British statesman. Called to the bar in 1887, he achieved great success in his profession. He entered Parliament as a Liberal in 1904, became attorney general in 1910, and in 1912 was given a seat in the cabinet. Involved in charges of buying stock in the American Marconi Corp. while the government was contracting with the British branch of the firm, he was, however, exonerated and in 1913 was created lord chief justice. During World War I he served the government in financial operations, becoming (1915) president of an Anglo-French loan commission to the United States, where he subsequently served as special envoy (1917) and special ambassador (1918-19). In 1921 he was made viceroy of India at a time when the temper of the people, partly under the influence of Mohandas Gandhi and partly as a result of the massacre at Amritsar (1919), was roused against British rule. Faced with the passive resistance of the Gandhi adherents, Isaacs authorized the imprisonment of Gandhi and felt compelled to allow the hated salt tax. He returned to England in 1926 and was created a marquess (having already been created in succession baron, viscount, and earl), but he was much criticized for his administrative acts in India. He was (1931) foreign secretary in Ramsay MacDonald's National government.

See biographies by his son G. R. Isaacs, 2d marquess of Reading (2 vol., 1943-45), H. M. Hyde (1967), and D. Judd (1982).

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Reading

Reading, city (1991 pop. 194,727), S central England, on the Kennet River near its influx to the Thames. The city of Reading, which was the seat of the former county of Berkshire, is a market center with iron founding, engineering, malting, brewing, and biscuit and seed industries. It was occupied in 871 by the Danes, who burned it in 1006. A gateway and ruins of buildings, surrounded by a public park, remain of a Benedictine abbey founded in 1121 by Henry I, who is buried there. Several parliaments met in the abbey. In 1643 the town surrendered to the parliamentarians under the 3d earl of Essex. There are a 15th-century grammar school, the Reading College of Technology, and the Univ. of Reading (1926; formerly a college, founded 1892, of Oxford Univ.). Oscar Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol was inspired by his imprisonment there, and Reading is the Aldbrickham of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure.

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Reading

Reading. 1 Town (1990 pop. 22,539), Middlesex co., NE Mass., a suburb of Boston; settled 1639, set off from Lynn and inc. 1644. Printing is the major industry. A 17th-century tavern is in Reading. 2 City (1990 pop. 12,038), Hamilton co., SW Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati; platted 1798, inc. 1851. Chemicals are among its various manufactures. 3 City (1990 pop. 78,380), seat of Berks co., SE Pa., on the Schuylkill River, in the Pennsylvania Dutch region; laid out 1748, inc. as a city 1847. Once an important industrial, commercial, and railroad city, Reading has become a major factory outlet center. Its many products include foods; semiconductors; plastic, metal, and paper products; textiles; crushed stone; detergents; vehicle components; dyes; and machinery. Industrial growth began in the late 18th cent. Reading was an early iron-producing town; cannons were made there during the American Revolution, and it was a Union ordnance center during the Civil War. The completion of the Philadelphia and Reading RR added to the city's economic growth, which was also spurred by the production of automobiles there in the early 1900s. Reading is the seat of Albright College, Alvernia College, and the Berks Campus of Pennsylvania State Univ. Also in the city are the county historical society, a museum, and a planetarium. Nearby points of interest include the birthplace of Daniel Boone (a state historic park) and the Pagoda, a Japanese-style observation tower on Mt. Penn.

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North Reading

North Reading, residential town (1990 pop. 12,002), Middlesex co., NE Mass., on the Ipswich River; settled 1651, set off from Reading and inc. 1853. Athletic footwear is manufactured there.

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Reading

town and unitary authority (pop., 2001: 143,124), county seat of Berkshire, England, west of London. Reading was a Danish encampment as early as AD 871. It was given a town charter by King Henry III in 1253; that charter was confirmed by succeeding sovereigns. Between the 12th and 16th centuries Reading was dominated by a struggle for privileges between the Benedictine abbey founded in 1121 and the emergent merchants' guild. By the 17th century the town's trade, notably in clothing, had begun to decline. In the 18th century the chief trade was in malt. In the city's public gardens are the ruins of the abbey, which was dissolved by Henry VIII. The structure was destroyed during the English Civil Wars, during which time the town in general also suffered severely. In Reading Gaol, adjoining the ruins, Oscar Wilde was imprisoned, and it was there that he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol. The city is now an agricultural centre noted for the bulbs produced in its nurseries. It is the site of a university, and its industries include computer production and malting and brewing.

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