閱讀理解的定義(Definitions of Reading Comprehension)

 

　　從一般意義上看，漢語的“閱”是指看(文字)，“讀”是指看并念出聲或者看并理解其義;“閱讀”主要是指看(文章書報)并領會其內(nèi)容。

 

　　在英語中，"Reading”的意義相對較多。從詞源上看, " read"是地道的英語詞匯;它來自同屬日耳曼(Germanic)語系的古英語raden，與荷蘭語raden和德語raten同源，早期的意思是“advise; guess; interpret( a riddle or dream)".

 

　　現(xiàn)在，在不同的語境中，"reading”可以分別表示“閱讀，看書;學識;讀物;原文;見解;解釋;(儀表)讀數(shù);讀議案;朗讀”等意義。在《新牛津英語詞典》中，對“read"和“reading"的主要釋義為:

 

　　(1) Read-1. look at and comprehend the meaning (of written or printed matter) by men-tally interpreting the characters or symbols of which it is composed.

 

　　2. speak(thewritten or printed material that one is reading) aloud, typically to another person.

 

　　3. discern (a fact, emotion, or quality)in someone's eyes or expression.

 

　　(2)Reading- 1. the action, practice or skill of reading written or printed matter silently oraloud.

 

　　2. an opinion about the meaning of a statement. set of events, etc.;an inter-pretation.

 

　　3. a figure or amount shown by a meter or other measuring instrument.

 

　　4. a stage of debate in parliament through which a bill must pass before it can become law.

 

　　一The New Oxford Dictionary of English (2001)

 

　　普通詞典的釋義比較寬泛概括，它總結(jié)出在日常交際中，人們使用“read"和“reading"時所要表達的主要意義。但另一工具書，《朗文英語教學和應用語言學詞典》的解釋，或許更有助于我們加深對“reading”的理解:

 

　　(3)Reading-1. perceiving a written text in order to understand its contents. This can be done silently (silent reading). The understanding that results is called reading com-prehension.

 

　　2. saying a written text aloud (oral reading). This can be done with or without an understanding of the contents.

 

　　-Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching&Applied Linguistics(2003)

 

　　從嚴格的意義上說，閱讀是一個接受言語信息的心理語言過程;理解是一個處理言語信息的心理語言過程。所謂閱讀理解，是指在原有的語言知識和語境知識的支持下，對書面的言語材料進行信息加工，并在自己的頭腦中積極主動地建構(gòu)意義的過程。比如，看到‘`dog”這個符號時，我們知道它代表汪汪吠叫的四足動物;看“Take care!”時，我們知道這是表示要自己當心、注意，周圍可能有潛在的危險存在，這說明我們理解了這些詞語的意義。

 

　　閱讀理解不但依賴于對言語符號的正確感知，而且還依賴于讀者原有的知識和經(jīng)驗。正確感知視覺的言語符號是閱讀理解的基礎，但閱讀理解并不是簡單地把有形宇符所表達的意義移植到自己的頭腦中去的過程(那實際上是學習語言的過程)，它是一種主動地、積極地建構(gòu)意義的過程。可以說，“意義”實際上早已存在于自己的頭腦中，讀者需要做的只是借助原有的知識或經(jīng)驗，在自己的頭腦中想象、整合出特定言語所呈現(xiàn)的情景，并通過期待和推理來領會特定育語符號所蘊含的意義。

 

　　以“Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder where you are!”這句詩為例，有的人可用它來練習發(fā)音，有的人可用它來練習書法，有的人可用它來練習打字。如果在處理過程中，人們并沒有有意識地在自己的頭腦中積極主動地建構(gòu)它可能的意義，那么，雖然這個句子可能已在自己的大腦中轉(zhuǎn)過很多圈，但也只能說是在朗讀、抄寫或打字，而絕對稱不上是閱讀或理解，因為它缺少了調(diào)動自己原有的知識經(jīng)驗進行加工思考的過程。

 

　　閱讀理解的核心，是特定讀者積極主動地在自己的頭腦中建構(gòu)特定語符的意義。美國學者Irwin L. Joffe(1991)曾就此作出過生動的描述。他說道:

 

　　(4)Reading is an active process and requires concentration. Have you ever had the fol-lowing experience? You prepare to read a textbook (or perhaps a novel). You make yourself comfortable and begin to glance at the reading material. You go through one page, two, three, four, five pages. Suddenly you look up and say,“My Gosh!

 

　　What have I read?" You don't know. You've done an eye exercise. Although your eyes faithfully followed every word on these pages, your mind was elsewhere. You were thinking about what you planned to wear to the dance Saturday night or what

 

　　time class would be over tomorrow or even that it was warm or cool or noisy outside.Reading is an active thinking process. When you read-really read-your whole mind is on the task at hand.

 

　　Can you read a foreign language just because you can verbalize or sound out the letters? No. Reading is thinking. Therefore, a reader has to understand the author'sthoughts, not merely words. The words are an intermediary step, just as the score is in music. An author expresses thoughts in meaningful groups of words (meaningful phrases). The word the by itself means nothing. Boy by itself means little. Run byitself means little. Put the three words together, and you have a thought. Now ithas meaning. You must see the sentence "The boy runs" and think the IDEA "Theboy runs.”We even have an expression that points this up. The expression "I readyou" means“I understand you.”Reading is understanding, and making sense of symbols。