World Book Day is observed on March 3 every year. In this article, I reflect on and share the benefits of reading silently or aloud, at home, school or anywhere.
Reading forms the basis of literacy. A reading nation is a literate nation. Reading gives citizens the power to recognise print as a carrier of information. The ability and power to read is one of the most powerful weapons an individual can have. A citizenry empowered to read can read for itself, is informed and not amenable to misinformation, manipulation, abuse or propaganda.
Active reading stimulates the mind and makes the reader alert to new information. The reader becomes keen and enthusiastic, taking in text, often enjoying it, anticipating and comparing it to previous knowledge.
Exercise is to the body as reading is to the mind. In active reading, as opposed to passive, the mind is engaged in questioning, figuring out, agreeing with or rejecting, expressing like or dislike, providing freedom of choice of what to read or not read. This nurtures critical thinking.
Young readers acquire new vocabulary by first using them when speaking. When the spoken word is seen in print, it is easier to learn. Secondly, new words are learnt by listening to adults read to learners. Such words are easier to identify in context.
Let me use a nonsense word to illustrate this: Her grandmother added lokrin, a white powder-like flour, to her milk and stirred it. She tasted it. The milk was as sweet as honey. From the context, lokrin must be some sweetener such as sugar. The reader does not need to check it up in a dictionary, because it does not disrupt the reader's understanding.
Thirdly, readers gain new vocabulary through extensive and intensive reading using contextual clues and at a higher level, a dictionary when absolutely necessary.
Reading empowers the reader by increasing vocabulary. Words are power, and the learning and mastery of new words give the reader power, providing mental growth increasing communicative competence and fluency. This builds self-efficacy and enables the reader to confidently interact with others in discussions, public speaking or debates. In schools, learners use more expressive forms of spoken and reading and written vocabulary. Words give power of expression.
Parents are expected to read aloud to their younger children. This enthuses the youthful listeners, sharpens their curiosity and deepens their liking for reading, laying the foundations for literacy and a lifelong love for reading.
Children go to distant places through reading or listening to reading and meet and make new friends. Some of the people and animals they meet through stories read to them are admired and emulated for their courage, friendliness and intelligence, some, such as witches, wizards, one-eyed ogres, ghosts and dragons, are feared and detested.
The child learns to choose at an early age between the good and the bad guys, the beautiful and the ugly, the victors and the villains, providing them with an informed growth path and choices. Reading aloud to children builds strong bonds of love and trust between the two parties and inculcates a reading culture in the family.
Reading helps the young to explore their own and other people’s experiences and emotions. Is the thief going to be arrested? Is the witch going to catch the child in the story? If so, is she likely to inflict any harm? Is the child’s aunt who is watching all this going to help the child escape?
Will the bad guy fall over the bridge and drown in the river? Will the burning house be saved by firefighters? How will the leopard that fell into a trap be safely freed? Are the poor girl and the charming prince going to get married? Such incidents, in quality literature, contribute to the emotional growth of the reader and enhance critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Reading aloud to children by parents, teachers or peers increases attention span. Children tend to be distracted easily, but when they are read to in a captivating way, they are compelled to listen attentively. This strengthens their attentive listening skills and increases the length of time they can pay attention. This is attention span.
This is particularly so when they know that they may be asked a few simple questions about the stories they have just listened to. Many examples can be found in children’s classical literature. What happened to Little Red Riding Hood? Did Goldilocks find the three Bears? What did the three bears find on their return? Who is Cinderella and how did she meet the Prince? You may use fables, folktales and other stories found in the community, and stories told by children themselves.
Make reading enjoyable and a source of fun and excitement for young readers. Yes, you can. Let children read to you as well. Let them build on their skills of reading from texts that they enjoy. Give them the freedom to choose from home or class library collections. Let them enact or dramatise the stories in their own way by playing the roles of some of the people or animals in the stories. Let them enjoy, have fun.
Reading is meant to be enjoyed and to provide entertainment. Reading aloud allows the words to fly off the printed page and come to life, assume their own existence, not just as words read, but as words spoken. Enhance enjoyment by guiding the reader in injecting voice variation, stress, pause, speed or tempo, rhythm, rhyme, tone and intonation in the reading, or in a poem recited or in dramatic piece enacted. Let the words breathe and come to life.
A variety of modern multi-media make access to reading much easier than in the past. There are well illustrated and colourful storybooks, picture books, newspapers and magazines and cartoon strips. This is the world of print media. There are various digital and electronic devices from which readers listen to podcasts, radio broadcasts, audiobooks and watch as well as listen to YouTube videos on computers, tablets, television or even on mobile smartphones.
From the proliferation of the internet and these digital devices has emerged the need for regulation, some degree of supervision and surveillance so that young learners are not hurt by undesirable content, a new challenge to parents and teachers.
A prolific reader explores new worlds, discovers meaning, connects ideas, applies knowledge, lives in new settings, meets heroes and heroines and gains competitive advantage in all the school subjects that use the same language of instruction. Give the child the ability and the skill to read at an early age and let the child fly into knowledge, unaided. Reading skills are wings to fly on a voyage of discovery, from which no reader returns—a life-long joy of discovery.
At an advanced level, reading to understand or reading comprehension is a skill, composed of scanning, or going through a text looking for only certain specific information such as dates, names or price and skimming which is going for only important and main ideas. For example, reading the first lines of paragraphs only in a text is skimming, and gives you the general feel of the text before the reader settles down to read intensively, line by line.
At an adult level, reading engages the mind in a complex way. This aspect was best explained by educationist Benjamin Bloom (1913-1999), who said that the reader’s ability in reading comprehension is assessed through the ability to – in ascending order from the simple to the complex – remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate and finally to create or innovate.
Parents and teachers must provide an enabling environment for learners to grow through reading by reading to children, having class and home libraries, which are built over the years by a collection of printed and digital materials; organise reading tents annually; hold reading competitions, community level poetry recitations and drama festivals; readers may act as news anchors at school assemblies.
Adults must be good examples of readers themselves. A good adult reader and scholar carries a book to read and a notebook to write on at all times. I have seen such people at airports, bus and train stations, immersed in reading while waiting to board, while on board, using every spare time to read, to gain new knowledge.
Just imagine how much time you waste by sitting without reading a thing, in a bus from Nairobi to Malaba or on the Mombasa-Nairobi train? Reading and writing are two sides of the same coin. Good writers are good readers; conversely, good readers are often good writers.
Readers and writers are the transmitters and pillars of a nation’s culture; they are a nation’s shakers and movers; they are history makers. Stop staring at that mobile phone. Pick up a book to read today. Pocket a notebook and pen. Keep on reading all your life. Be a reader, a writer, a scholar, a person of letters, of culture—an all-rounded person. Hey, what are you waiting for?
Dr Hukka Wario holds a PhD in Linguistics Science from the University of Reading (1993), is a member of the Creative Writers Association of Kenya (CWAK), and has written a number of books used in schools, published by Moran Publishers (EA) Ltd. He is a former Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Moi University, a retired civil servant, served as Chair of Council at Garissa University and at present is serving as Chair of Council at Egerton University, Njoro, Kenya.
