ABSTRACT

One of the major themes of this book and the conference on which it is based is the importance of considering nonphonological aspects of reading because learning to read involves more than simply establishing an efficient phonological decoding mechanism. Another theme of the conference was the application of research to instructional practices. In the first part of this chapter, I discuss some of the problems with the phonological view of reading and consider why researchers have focused more attention on word recognition than comprehension processes. In the second part of the chapter, I consider the questions that need to be asked to adequately assess how well a student understands a text and the qualities that characterize a good reader. Drawing from current research, I argue that the best way to improve comprehension is by explicitly teaching vocabulary, background knowledge, and the flexible use of specific strategies.