A History of Reading Strategies: Primitive/Ancient
Egyptian Hieroglyphics
The study of reading strategies begins with the employment of writing strategies. Whether charting battle plans in the sand, commemorating great hunts on cave walls or locking in business deals with clay tally marks, written representation has been a natural means of communication for people of all times.
Unique drawings or diagrams worked in many situations, but as great civilizations emerged and written information became valued for clarity in memory, trade and legal issues, common codes were needed. Logograms (picture=word) evolved into simpler graphics with more precise meanings.
Old Persian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphic writing developed from pictographs, which were later modified by determinants, becoming more abstract and phonological.
Which came first, phonics or wholelanguage?
The pictographs developed in ancient times could be read using comprehension strategies we refer to today as:
1. literal responses
2. inferred responses
3. critical/evaluative/personal responses
Word solving strategies referred to as reading strategies and behaviours were needed more as the writing became more coded and figurative. With only comprehension in question, the first reading system used would have been 'whole language.'
Phoenician Phonics Anyone? Alphabetical System
Truly phonetic reading was achieved by the Phoenicians, a seafaring merchant people of the eastern Mediterranean. They divided their language into consonant sounds and created a 22 letter alphabet to represent them. Because of their constant contact with other countries, this new convenience was adopted by other Mediterranean nations. Learning to read with an alphabet required more direct decoding, but the sound rules could be used to read a variety of languages.
Vowel sounds were added by the Greeks to more distinctly represent their language. This raises the question of the importance of vowel sound study. (F h cn rd ths, h dsnt nd vwls.)
Although Phoenicians introduced sound by sound decoding, they were still dependent upon context for meaning when words sounded alike. (rd - road? ride? rid? red? rod? etc.)
Even those who inspired the word 'phonics' were not solely dependent on sound/symbol relationships for meaning.
The world of reading had moved from picture-meaning to symbol-meaning and finally to symbol-sound-meaning.
Works cited:
Ancient Egypt Online, Introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphs http://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/hieroglyphs.html
Ancient Scripts.com, a compendium of world-wide writing systems form prehistory to today.
http://www.ancientscripts.com/cuneiform.html
Omniglot, the online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages. 1998-2013, Simon Ager. Web.
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/phoenician.htm
Vowel sounds were added by the Greeks to more distinctly represent their language. This raises the question of the importance of vowel sound study. (F h cn rd ths, h dsnt nd vwls.)
Although Phoenicians introduced sound by sound decoding, they were still dependent upon context for meaning when words sounded alike. (rd - road? ride? rid? red? rod? etc.)
Even those who inspired the word 'phonics' were not solely dependent on sound/symbol relationships for meaning.
The world of reading had moved from picture-meaning to symbol-meaning and finally to symbol-sound-meaning.
Works cited:
Ancient Egypt Online, Introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphs http://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/hieroglyphs.html
Ancient Scripts.com, a compendium of world-wide writing systems form prehistory to today.
http://www.ancientscripts.com/cuneiform.html
Omniglot, the online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages. 1998-2013, Simon Ager. Web.
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/phoenician.htm