decode, s/he can still engage with a story book or a pictorial non-fiction book in a meaningful way, making connections with the images and symbols of the book, perhaps even assigning sequence to a pictorial narrative. S/he will also make connections with previous books that have been encountered. Figure 1.3 Tale of a tadpole (Wallace, 2009) Take, for example, the book shown in figure 1.3. Without being able to recognise or decode the word or even without knowing that text ‘Tadpole’ carries meaning, a child can engage with this book; can know that this book is about frogs and tadpoles: can share this book with a friend or adult; can reinforce or learn something new about tadpoles; can satisfy an interest in non-fiction books; can navigate through the book, knowing where to start and in which direction to continue; and can take enjoyment from engaging with the book. The decoding of the text is thus demonstrated to be one facet of reading, and not even, chronologically, the first facet that a child develops. One might therefore argue that if a child is to want read this book, an interest in tadpoles must precede an interest in phoneme/grapheme correspondences. Meek (1994) observed that “everything that children eat, wear, play with or pass in and so the act of reading is not confined to the the streets has a sign or symbol” (p.2), interpretation of books, or even to organised texts. Children learn to read through
decode, s/he can still engage with a story book or a pictorial non-fiction book in a meaningful way, making connections with the images and symbols of the book, perhaps even assigning sequence to a pictorial narrative. S/he will also make connections with previous books that have been encountered. Figure 1.3 Tale of a tadpole (Wallace, 2009) Take, for example, the book shown in figure 1.3. Without being able to recognise or decode the word ‘Tadpole’ or even without knowing that text carries meaning, a child can engage with this book; can know that this book is about frogs and tadpoles: can share this book with a friend or adult; can reinforce or learn something new about tadpoles; can satisfy an interest in non-fiction books; can navigate through the book, knowing where to start and in which direction to continue; and can take enjoyment from engaging with the book. The decoding of the text is thus demonstrated to be one facet of reading, and not even, chronologically, the first facet that a child develops. One might therefore argue that if a child is to want read this book, an interest in tadpoles must precede an interest in phoneme/grapheme correspondences. Meek (1994) observed that “everything that children eat, wear, play with or pass in the streets has a sign or symbol” (p.2), and so the act of reading is not confined to the interpretation of books, or even to organised texts. Children learn to read through
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