-> According to research director Reid Lyon, the study found that in
-> normal children the eye "decodes" every single letter, then melds the
-> letters into sounds and words so effortlessly that the process cannot
-> be observed by the human eye. Indeed, Lyon says that the very speed
-> of the decoding process is probably what caused California's whole
-> language proponents to claim that the mind skips over and guesses
-> words from context. Unfortunately, they used this misbegotten belief
-> to insist that children were being forced into "unnatural" and
-> "joyless" skills-based reading methods.
-> Says Lyon, "Fluent readers decode so fast that they don't even know
-> they are tearing each word apart. It is unconscious and automatic.
-> They spend all their time considering the meaning of what they read.
This bit made me feel a lot more secure about my recent response to
Erica Long. She had asked whether I read every word or skip over some
when I read, and I am even more convinced than I was at that time that I
do read every word.
Sheila
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