While doing some general reading to inform my use of instructional strategies to develop reading competence, I encountered some intersting concepts pertaining to the process of decoding and reading instruction in general. This brought some much needed clarity; reading, truly, is a complex enterprise involving prior knowlwdge, phonemic awareness and phonological awareness which would best be taught in context and promoting oracy can definitely support enhance language skills mastery.

The process of decoding involves a recognition of letter-sound correspondences, the ability to blend letters together to make words, being able to use chunks of letters (e.g. –ick, ill, and etc.) and comparing words (e.g. strike with like)-- McKenna (2009).

“Phonological awareness refers to a sensitivity to any size unit of sound.…Users of an alphabetic written system record the smallest unit of sound of their spoken language in print” Yopp (2002): Putting the National Reading Panel Report into Practice: Articles from the IRA.

Speaking as Process: “...the speaker has to choose elements of language that are temporal and sequenced. [Oral] language is [a] most effective form…because it also forces speakers to select an ordered sequence of items that occur in rule-governed patterns” Wilkinson (1965).

“Background knowledge and prior experience are critical to the reading process….Language development has been found to correlate with reading success….It is important to provide students with daily positive experiences involving stories and other literature, such as reading and telling stories through literal, interpretive and critical discussions” (Braunger and Lewis (NCTE, 2006).