Is the Influence of Psycholinguistic Research Evident in Preservice Teachers' Views of the Reading Process?

The overall aim of this investigation was to attempt to determine whether the psycholinguistic view of the reading process was being reflected in the views of preservice teachers. IS THE INFLUENCE OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH EVIDENT IN PRESERVICE TEACHERS' VIEWS OF THE READING PROCESS? Mary Jane Gray LOYOLA UNIVERSITY, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS Psycholinguistic research which has been conducted for about twenty years has been persuasive enough to challenge some of the traditional beliefs teachers held about reading instruction. Holdaway (1979) tells us: Essentially, the psycholinguists insist that reading is not a matter of perceiving or recognizing words first and then getting to meaning but rather that meaning guides and facilitates perception. The influence of meaning in reducing uncertainty greatly limits the amount of visual detail which must be processed and in so doing makes perception more rapid and efficient, while at the same time allowing the greater part of attention to be directed toward comprehending. (p.87) Goodman (1974), Smith (1975), Clark (1976), Artley (1975) and a number of other investigators have provided sufficient evidence to cause educators to question some traditional methods used in the teaching of reading. The overall aim of this investigation was to attempt to determine whether the psycholinguistic view of the reading process was being reflected in the views of preservice teachers. Subject Selection and Procedure The subjects consisted of two groups of preservice teachers who were preparing to teach elementary school children in regular classrooms or in special edUcation programs, specifically those children with behavior disorders. The students were enrolled in an urban university during the spring semester of the 1981-82 academic year. Their beliefs about reading were checked by asking them to respond to a self-rating scale which was developed by R. D. Robinson, E. J. Goodacre, and M. C. McKenna for their study entitled "Psycholinguistic Beliefs and a Cross-Cultural Study of Teacher Practice." (1978) The scale was based on a verbatim list of statements introduced by F. Smith (1973). T. Bean (1980) (Author's Note--I wish to acknowledge the contribution of Suganda Tapaneeyangkul, a recent Ed. D. graduate of Loyola Uni versi t y , in helping me to carry out this research project.)