Re: How long doe it take to learn to read?

John_Kane wrote:
> In another ng a poster, in making an argument, made the rather
> throw-away statement that "it takes 5 minutes to learn to read".
> This was in a discussion about literacy in the medieval period and the
> poster was making the argument that learning to read was a relatively
> low effort or low cost activity.
>
> While 5 minutes is probably not true, does anyone know even roughly
> how long it would take a person, either a child or an adult, to learn
> to read, assuming that the language is English? Note that the
> question is about learning to read not to read and write.
>

I asked Mrs Dean (ex-teacher, English graduate, feisty debater and
all-round good egg). As I suspected, the answer is "it depends".
It's close to impossible to imagine anyone coming to the "learning to
read" process without some prior exposure - like a 4-year-old kid might
well be able to recognise a name seen on eg a packet of breakfast cereal
presented in a different context. Happened with our grandson who saw
"sainsbury's" in a newspaper advert after seeing it on his breakfast
cereal box every day and was able to say it and know what it meant. This
is a year before anyone made any attempt to "teach" him.
And just as kids are likely to have assimilated some textual experiences
(from general household objects, from adverts, from books which they are
read to out of from) how much more will illiterate adults have stored
some experiences (even if it's only to note the difference between the
neon signs that flash "bar" and those that flash "taxi".)
And then there's the whole business of enthusiasm and willingness. An
adult who chooses to learn to read after having missed the opportunity
as a kid is probably highly motivated. The kid that adult used to be
might have been a total goof-off.
Then there's intelligence. It seems probable that almost anyone can be
got to at least a basic reading level, but it will be a faster process
with the brighter pupil.
And there's the ability of the teacher - how flexible? how willing to
adapt to the pupil's capacity?
But cut the horse***, Mrs Dean, I hear you wishing me to say. Try to
imagine an "average" child with limited previous exposure to text.
Suppose you could teach that child to read for two hours a day, five
days a week (assuming that concentration will waver if more then two
hours is allocated). How long before a typical 5-year-old would have the
reading age of a 5-year-old?
The smart money says in around two months. That's about 80 hours
tuition.
And for adults?
Assuming, again, "average" capacity but assuming, because it's pretty
much inevitable, commitment and enthusiasm, half that or less. So you
could perhaps get an illiterate adult up to the level where they could
read (and comprehend - I've been taking it for granted you don't just
want people to reproduce the sounds - like I can read Spanish with a
fine accent but understand less than 10%) a typical Brit tabloid paper
in maybe a week if they would stick at it eight hours a day, weekend
included.
And to show what might be done in the more exceptional situation, here's
a case history. One of our neighbours is Chinese. Came here a few years
ago as a trained nurse on a work permit and has been able to renew the
permit and eventually have her family join her.
Her daughter arrived in England a year ago, aged 9. She had a smattering
of conversational English but could not read it at all. Had spent her
entire life reading Chinese characters and did not know the Roman
alphabet. Was and is, however, very bright.
She was put in the class appropriate for her age in the local school so
she was mixing with English-speaking nine-year-olds all day in the class
and the playground and was immersed in Roman alphabet text all day. Her
parents are very committed, very supportive and ensured she continued to
work on her English in the evenings. Additionally, the school provided
learning support on a one-to-one basis to assist in learning English.
However, the support was for two hours a week only.
One year later, the girl is 10, speaks English with considerable fluency
and the same tests used to evaluate all Oxfordshire children at that age
confirm she has a reading age of 13.
That's perhaps as near to the "Lord Greystoke" scenario as you will get
in real life and confirms that the ability to go from zero ability in
reading English to a significant standard of literacy in short order
clearly exists.
--
John Dean
Oxford

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