Content area
Full text
A Reading of Gaps
If reading is about actively attempting to make sense of print within the contexts of the reader and text (cf. Church et al., 1995, p. 6; Rhodes & Shanklin, 1993; Rich, 1998), rather than simply unlocking a sound/symbol code, then trying to understand the processes of reading and meaning-making becomes an incredibly complex endeavour. While there is ample research which applies a constructivist framework to the oral and written aspects of language arts, Marie Clay (1998) claims that this theoretical framework has yet to be sufficiently used in the study of reading phenomenon in young children (pp. 252-253). Indeed, it seems that the old axiom "decoding first and comprehension later" (p. 253) retains its firm grip on literacy teaching and learning. As investigations into the reading and writing connection continue (cf. Comstock, 1992; Fulps & Young, 1991; Hancock, 1992; 1993a; 1993b; University of Western Ontario, 2001), it is hopeful that some of the methodology used to grasp writing processes will rub off on the apprehension of reading processes (Clay, p. 253). Yet while constructivism and the muchneeded attention to the transactional qualities of reading may deepen and extend our knowledge of what children do when they are engaged with print, I remain skeptical that any research methodology, method, theory, and/or practice, can in fact fully explain the relationship between reader, text, time, and place. This is such, as problems of epistemology and even ontology become raised, when we consider the presence and functions of "gaps" in the reading process.
Gaps exist between many levels of reader and print transaction, including letters, words, and whole texts. First, consider Frank Smith's (1994) research on how we make sense of letters. Smith demonstrates that it is not what a letter is that gives it meaning, but what it is not. What, for example, makes an "A" an "A," is that it is not a "B." Smith begins his explanation of how this is possible by observing that letter identification is a "special problem within the broader theoretical area of pattern recognition - the process by which any two visual configurations are 'cognized' to be the same" (p. 106). This problem, he continues, is:
...of classical philosophical concern because it has been realised for...