Reading

by Frank Smith

lightly shelf-cocked book, mild sunning to spine, creasing to spine and front cover, chipping to corners of cover, previous owner's book-label on front cover, previous owner's name on half-title page, minor soiling to page block, text clean and tight

Genres: Psychology, Books About Books, Nonfiction, Language

176 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 1982

About the author

Frank Smith was a psycholinguist recognized for his contributions in linguistics and cognitive psychology. He was contributor to research on the nature of the reading process together with researchers such as George Armitage Miller, Kenneth S. Goodman (see Ken Goodman), Paul A. Kolers, Jane W. Torrey, Jane Mackworth, Richard Venezky, Robert Calfee, and Julian Hochberg. Smith and Goodman were singled out as originators of the modern psycholinguistic approach to reading instruction.

Reviews

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

God, how many people have I bought this book for over the years? Reading this book is difficult in the sense that you constantly are thinking about reading while you are doing it, and that can make you feel a little sick, but Smith gets you to see what it is that you are doing while you are reading and it is quite remarkable.

In fact, the more you think about it the more improbable it seems that we are able to read at all. Essentially the message is, reading is a meaningful action and it is only while we 'read' for meaning - rather than to decode text or unscramble letters or whatever else we think we are doing when we read, that we really are reading.

I taught adult literacy for a few years at nights and this book structured the way I thought about what reading is. Is saying that Frank Smith is a God going too far?

[Alba Regojo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very logical and full of sense as to how we learn to read and the intersection of reading, writing and our comprehension of the world. I think it’s intended for teachers but the book landed to me through Dick and it’s been quite the introduction to the world of linguistics!

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok I'm glad to finally have this off my bedside table. I can see now why I was never taught grammar in school. Being (like most goodreaders) a very, shall we say, strong reader, from a young age, who had books shoved (willingly!) down my throat (my mother was all about books and reading and taught remedial reading), I do feel that Smith's central theory of reading being best learned simply by reading, and gradually acquiring sense (as we learn spoken language) seems fairly obvious. But this probably indicates the strength of his influence. Interesting final chapter in my 1988 edition about computers: I'm sure he would have appreciated the concept of the 'digital native'. It's good to read this as my two year old is becoming ever-more verbal. The other day when I was shoving books down his throat ahem reading to him, he started pointing out the letters in the book title and trying a theory: "number two" he said. I explained that they were letters and they made up a word yadda yadda. Then we just got on with reading our book. Interesting, how it begins. Smith is thorough but somewhat dry and repetitive (it's an academic book really, though the style is perfectly readable it's not seductive in any way). I liked the part that emphasises the visuality of print. When I've tried to learn languages, I find I can't retain a word or phrase until I've seen it written down. So much of this book sits intuitively well with me. Oh, and it has this cracker of a quote: "it is not even necessary to be very smart to learn to read; indeed, it is being able to read that makes many people seem so smart." That's telling me. Anyway, thanks Mum for this gift of loving reading.