The strategies that we use to construct and make sense of texts are the same strategies we use to construct and make sense of our lives.
There are striking parallels between the study of reading comprehension (which looks at how people make sense of the written word) and the study of psychology (which deals with how people make sense of their lives):
A more thorough examination of the correspondence between reading comprehension or text literacy and meaning of life may reveal important insights into ways in which each field can contribute to the other.
Introduction
Reading the literature on reading comprehension and literacy, I am struck by the correspondence with the psychological strategies we use to construct our world and ourselves and make sense of it all.
Metacognitive awareness
Reading comprehension research (Brown 1985) has long suggested the importance of self awareness of the process of reading amongst skilled readers. For the most part reading is an automatic, continuous process, dependent on the smooth flow of ideas in order to construct a clear and comprehensive meaning from the text. At the same time, the reader is aware of his own thinking processes, making guesses or assumptions, connecting between information etc. in order to build a comprehensive picture (Goodman 1967). Most of this occurs automatically, below the conscious level of awareness. However, the reader is consciously aware of his reactions to the text, actively brings in information of his own, compares and contrasts ideas and weighs them in his mind, either accepting rejection or adding reservations. When he runs into problems with the text, the automatic process of reading is halted and he focuses on the area of particular interest.
In the same way, in living our daily lives, we usually function automatically, filling in the gaps in order to make sense of things and form a complete picture. We go through the process of constructing meaning and making sense of events in our lives. We become so efficient in doing this that we no longer retain conscious awareness of many of the meaning making strategies we use. They have simply been internalized over the years and have become habitual parts of the way in which we function. Just as a reader can’t help understanding a word like “man” or “dog” when it appears on a piece of paper, so too with us in our lives, when familiar or well known events, thoughts, feelings or happenings occur. However in times of crises or change or uncertainty, we may turn our attention again to those simple events which we would normally take for granted, questioning their precise value or meaning.
The words man and dog, for example, seem so ‘obvious’ and clear, that there would hardly seem to be any room for arguing over their value or meaning. However, when we take these words out of their dictionary contexts as signs directly representing physical objects in the world, and look at them rather as symbols whose meaning depends largely on their context of use and the semantic range of understanding that the reader brings with him, then we see them as ambiguous and far ranging in interpretation and value. For example:
He worked like a dog.
It’s a dogs life
He acted like a dog.
The sentences immediately raise the question of what we mean by the word dog and what does the word dog symbolize in each of these contexts and of the question whether or not they adequately symbols what they represent. Dog in the sense used in the second sentence represents the slave, subject to others, miserable and deprived. The symbolic value of dog ranges from hard working and long suffering, to lazy, indecent and cruel: all depending on the context of use. So just what type of a dog we are talking about has a lot to do with how the term is constructed out of the context in which it is used.
The same process of symbolic construction occurs when we examine the word “man”. A man’s home is his castle.
Man has been around for thousands of years.
Hey, man, what the hell are you doing?
A feminist critique of the first two sentences would point out the way in which they reflect the social relationships between men and women. Man in the second sentence represents both men and women, but from the point of view of a male-orientated, hegemonic society: man as the king, tyrant, master, owner of property and of women. The last sentence symbolizes a mode of speech or `slang’ particular to a specific historical period and cultural minority group in the USA, and could be translated roughly as brother or friend. But the precise meaning can’t be pinned down by these two words only, but can only be understood through understanding the social context of its use in the USA.
Now, if we reflect for a moment on the meaning of life as we make sense of it, then we can see the correspondence between the making sense of symbols in texts to that of making sense of symbols in life. In the same way that no word is a direct reflection of any object, but a construction or interpretation in the mind of the reader, so too, no event is a direct experience of reality, but an interpretation in the mind of the experiencer.
For example, most of us don’t think much about brushing our teeth and combing our hair in the morning. Usually these are things we do automatically, out of habit, every morning. Such events are performed regularly, for years. We no longer question why we do it every time that we do it, nor do we give much conscious attention to what we do, or to the meaning behind these acts. We don’t try to analyze the value of combing our hair and brushing our teeth, but take it for granted. It becomes part of the background of our daily living, something to be handled subconsciously, unless some event occurs that makes us pay attention again.
Lets say that you read in the paper tomorrow that combing your hair contributes to baldness or that tooth brushing has actually been connected to an increased risk of tooth decay ( as a matter of fact, one study did find such a relationship amongst dogs). You may realize for the first time that events which you have taken for granted as natural and healthy, may not be so. You begin to see that these events have a history and particular context. Not all societies brush their teeth. It’s a strange custom, if one really thinks about it. Why should we do it? Why don’t we brush the teeth of our pets? Why don’t they seem to need it? Perhaps oral hygiene is not important to dogs, or their diet is different. Are the arguments provided really that convincing? Where has the custom come from? When did it originate and how did it spread? Do even dentists know the answer to this? Aren’t there other means of dental hygiene, besides brushing one’s teeth?
If we had to question every event in our lives or action that we take, we would not be able to function. When stand up to get dressed, we may ask ourselves why we are bothering to stand up, which could lead to an existential debate on the value of rising and participating in the daily struggle of life and the meaning of it all, and we would end up by not getting out of bed. As a matter of fact, this does sometimes happen, after a particularly difficult week or day, or if we are feeling ill. Often, we do start to question the value of rising, but usually this is momentarily, or at most for five minutes, and then we do get up.
Now that we are up, we have to get dressed. But if we were to stop to think about the value of this item of clothing compared to that and the appropriate dress to choose, we could end up spending hours laboring over what to wear, as in fact many people do. However, if we have an important event, such as a ceremony or interview to attend, we do tend to give more time and attention to our dress than normal.
At every stage of the day, through the thousands of actions that we perform and thoughts that we feel, at some level we make interpretations and construct the value of what we are doing and thinking. A large part of this occurs automatically, without us having to consciously think about it, unless we have a breakdown, in which case even the most elementary actions and thoughts require intense effort to construct.
Goal orientated behavior
Reading is a goal orientated process. We read for specific purposes, whether for gaining information or entertainment etc. The same thing can be said for life in general. We usually have a purpose for doing something.
Reading and Dreaming
Freud had a lot to say about dreams. So did Jung and others. Dream interpretation remains a central aspect of psychotherapy. Yet, what does dreaming have in common with reading?
Both have to do with the representation of our experience of reality, through symbols.
The connection between reading theory and psychological theory
The major discoveries and movements within the field of psychology and the social sciences in the 20th century have been reflected in movements in education, linguistics, language teaching and reading comprehension.
Not surprisingly, advances within one field have been reflected by corresponded advances in the other and also in related fields.
View of the reader as passive recipient of meaning, as tabula raza, or blank slate. View meaning as inherent within the text. Breakdown of reading into isolated skills.
The whole approach, reflected in Goodman breakthrough paper of the 1960’s, pointing to the role of the reader in filling in and actively constructing the value of the text.
Focus on the reader in isolation of the context of use and function of literacy within society. Viewed reading from a totally cognitive perspective.
Brought relativism into the field of reading comprehension. Meaning, like everything else in life, is relative to the observer.
Reflected in critical theories in linguistics and literature, and the deconstructivists, who seek to take apart the common, familiar and taken for granted to arrive at a new understanding of the hidden relationships within the text that could point to a totally radical interpretation, when considered at this level or from this perspective.
When is reading not like living?
Lest the reader becomes carried away by the marked correspondence between text and life, and like the proverbial Don-Quixote change the symbolic representation of reality into the living representation of the symbol, we may point out why reading is not like living.
The description of a dog doesn’t bark, bite or scratch.
You can always close the book or put away the text.
You can always reread the text.