Improving students’ reading comprehension. Content Introduction Chapter 1: Theoretical foundations of the formation of reading skills in primary school Main body

1.1.4. Stages of mastering the skill of reading.
In methodological science, there are three stages in the formation of reading skills: analytical, synthetic and the stage of automation ( T.G. Egorov ).
The analytical stage is characterized by the fact that all three components of the reading process in the activity of the reader are “broken” and require separate efforts from the child to perform specific operations: see the vowel, correlate it with the syllable - fusion, think about where to read the letters outside the merger, voice each seen graphic syllable, i.e. pronounce smoothly, so that you recognize the word and understand it. Reading by syllables is a sign that the child is at the very first stage of skill formation - analytical. It is generally believed that the analytical stage corresponds to the period of learning to read and write. However, the teacher must remember that each child has his own pace in development in general and in mastering the skill of reading and in particular.
The synthetic stage assumes that all three reading components are synthesized, i.e. perception, pronunciation and comprehension of what is read occur simultaneously. At this stage, the child begins to read in whole words. However, the main sign of the reader's transition to this stage is the presence of intonation during reading. It is important that the child does not just comprehend individual units of the text, but correlates them with the holistic content of what is being read. Intonation during reading is manifested under the condition that the reader keeps in mind the general meaning of what is being read. This usually happens in the second year of elementary school.
The automation stage is described as the stage at which the reading technique is brought to automatism and is not realized by the reader. His intellectual efforts are aimed at understanding the content of what is being read and its form: the idea of a work, its composition, artistic means, etc. The automation stage is characterized by the desire of the child to read to himself. The main sign that children have reached the level of automatic reading is their immediate emotional reaction to the work they read on their own, their desire to share primary reading impressions without additional questions from the teacher, and their desire to discuss what they have read.
Such a path - from the analytical stage to the automation stage from the analytical stage to the automation stage - can be passed by a child within the framework of elementary school, provided that the teacher provides a certain mode of work in the classroom:
1) reading exercises should be everyday;
2) the selection of texts for reading should not be random, but should be carried out taking into account the psychological characteristics of children and the literary characteristics of the texts;
3) the teacher should conduct systematic work to prevent erroneous reading;
4) the teacher should use an expedient system for managing mistakes made when reading;
5) training in silent reading should be specially organized, involving several stages: reading in a whisper, silent articulation of what is being read, “quiet reading” (in terms of inner speech), reading to oneself [ Lvov, 2000:122 ].
Having outlined the starting points of view on the process of forming skills, let us turn to an analysis from this point of view of the skill in reading.
The first, analytical, stage in the process of reading formation proceeds in two forms: in the form of mastering letters and in mastering the fusion of sounds into syllables and words. Two types of students' activities do not coincide in time, and each of them is characterized by psychological characteristics.
In this regard, two special stages can be distinguished in the analytical stage: a) the stage of mastering letter designations and b) the stage of syllabic -analytical (syllabic) reading.
The beginning of the stage of mastering speech -sound symbolism refers to the so-called pre -letter or preparatory period, to the moment when students, under the guidance of a teacher, decomposing words into syllables and sounds, master the sound structure of our speech. It continues until the end of mastering the primer.
The key moments of this stage in the development of reading skills are the restructuring of phonemic hearing in children, the formation of new phonemic representations, the mastery of letters, the combination of letters into words, and, finally, the correlation of words and phrases of the printed text with the corresponding words and phrases of oral speech.
All these tasks are solved by children who have just started learning to read and write at the same time. By the end of the first period of children's mastery of reading, children master the solution of all these problems so much that they do not cause any further difficulties [ Egorov, 1953:29 ].
The peculiar nature of the orientation of the reader at the first stage determines the originality of the pace of reading, the nature of errors and understanding of what is read [ Egorov, 1953:30 ].
Already at the first stage of mastering reading, the decisive role belongs to the main task of reading - understanding what is being read.
Reading comprehension is the process of understanding written material. The study of eye fixation shows that comprehension is influenced by factors such as the presence of rare words, the integration of important phrases, and inference. Knowledge, both situational and acquired over the course of an individual's history, also influences understanding [ Solso , 1996:342].
Understanding the text at the first stage of reading development is characterized by originality. A characteristic feature of this period in mastering reading is, firstly, that understanding is still separated from the process of perception: the child first reads the word, and only then realizes its meaning.
The second feature is that the reading of sentences and even short stories proceeds here mainly according to the principle of joining words to each other. Words are read separately without combining them into phrasal intonation. At this stage of mastering reading, it is extremely rare that the part of a phrase that is read affects the perception of subsequent words of the same phrase [ Egorov, 1953:31 ].
The next, second stage of mastering reading is characterized by the fact that students already know the letters. Such processes as recognizing letters, merging sounds into syllables, combining syllables into words do not cause great difficulties and do not require special efforts on the part of children.
The unit of reading at the second stage of development of this process is not a letter, but a syllable.
An important feature of this period in teaching children to read is that syllables lose their independence and act as parts of a whole - words
level of syllabic -analytical reading is typical for the second half of the first year of study, but is often found among children in the first half of the second year of study [ Egorov, 1953:33 ].
The next, third stage in the development of reading can be called the stage in the formation of integral methods of perception. It covers the second and partly the third year of study. This stage represents a new phase in the development of reading - the phase of the reader's transition to integral acts of perception. Words at this stage of reading ceased to be loners in the text and became members of a phrase. However, the synthesis in the process of perception is characterized here by insufficient maturity.
The weakness of synthesis at the third stage of reading development slows down this process. The reader in many cases is forced to check the words he has read, to make corrections to them. The brakes arising in connection with this often lead to the fact that students lose the semantic thread of the story. Hence, there are often cases when special attention is required from children in order to connect the meaning of the read phrase with the previous presentation.
A child of the third stage of reading development feels problems in his work. He strives to correct mistakes. But he does not always manage to warn them. Therefore, the stage of formation of holistic reading techniques is characterized by a large number of errors of gross discrepancy between what was printed and what was read.
The next, fourth stage in the development of reading can be called the stage of synthetic reading. This stage is characterized by the emergence of a more or less complete synthesis of not only the letter of the whole visible word and, accordingly, the articulatory fusion of sounds into syllables and words, but also the synthesis of words into a phrase system. In this regard, the understanding of the text is dramatically improved. The main task of reading - understanding what is read - is now solved through integral processes of perception [ Egorov, 1953:37 ].
At this stage of reading development, there are cases when the student, allowing permutations, substitutions, and other types of errors, changes the meaning of the phrase being read. But the meaning of the altered phrase still turns out to be one that does not violate the logic of the story.
The pace of reading at this stage of development already reaches considerable speed. The synthetic stage of reading development is a long period covering all secondary school classes [ Egorov, 1953:38 ].
Speaking about these stages of the development of reading, it is necessary to emphasize the moment of their connection, mutual transition into each other. This connection must be understood primarily in the sense that each successive stage prepares the previous one. In the previous stage, those elements are accumulated that determine the transition to the next, higher stage of development. In the alphabetical period of learning, children master not only letters, but also sound -letter combinations of the simplest type [ Egorov, 1953:40 ].
Reading aloud is provided by a more complex mechanism than silent reading. Reading aloud, as a rule, serves primarily the listener, not the reader. In school education, it contributes to orthoepic literacy, the formation of skills for perceiving and reproducing the intonational and rhythmic-melodic structure of speech, enriching the vocabulary and a set of structural models, and thereby improving the student’s oral and written speech. When reading aloud, the visual, speech-motor and auditory channels, as well as the apparatus for the semantic processing of the perceived information, are actively active. But the rate of visual perception, mental processing of information, sound recoding of the text read aloud depends on the capabilities of the speech-motor channel.
When reading silently, the psychophysiological mechanism is simplified, since the processes of information processing are limited to the reader, and the process of issuing it is absent. But due to the weakening of the effectiveness of the auditory and more or less significant reduction in the activity of the speech-motor channel, the processes of understanding, memorizing and assimilation of what is read can be intensified. The rate of visual perception doubles. Removing the need for oral reproduction of what is read contributes to the strengthening of semantic processing, that is, the formation of parallel thinking skills. Silent reading ensures the development of love for the abundant reading of books. However, the method of teaching reading has not yet developed effective ways to manage and control the quantitative and qualitative parameters of reading “silently”.
Without denying the need for children to master silent reading, many teachers push it to later stages, on the assumption that it will spontaneously develop later on the basis of the ability to read aloud fluently acquired in elementary school. However, reality refutes these assumptions [ Omorokova, 1990:30 ].