It’s strange but true. A growing number of Nigerian adults DO NOT ENJOY reading. Apart from sports, politics, or entertainment, reading for more serious purposes (e.g. for personal and professional development) rarely interests them. Except when it’s related to some immediate monetary or other benefit.
In other words, adult Nigerians have – what is for the most part – an unconscious dislike for reading.
Most will however often explain this inadequacy away by saying they do not have enough “time”.
The irony is however that those who DO read, often tend to be busier and more productive than they are!
The cause of this aversion for reading is that those affected were not taught to read in the proper way. And that’s due to our educational system traditionally encouraging learners to “memorize” rather than “understand”.
That’s why the “look-say” method of reading is more common in our schools. However, as is normal in life, there are exceptions where some schools teach reading using phonics, in part or fully.
How do people learn?
I’ve read several very enlightening write-ups on this theme, written by seasoned academic professionals. Those works helped me realize why I’m such a successful reader, and why people who are not, struggle.
It has to do with how each of us was introduced to reading, from our early years in school!
Learning using the whole word approach is not the best way to learn. This is because people who use that approach have to employ a lot of guessing and memorizing. And that makes them inefficient learners, which later affects them negatively in life.
A person taught to read using phonetics will often be able to pronounce a strange or new word without help. But one who did not learn using phonetics will tend to struggle to pronounce complex and unfamiliar words.
And that’s why I’m keen to help my kids develop their phonetic reflexes as well.
As the author of one of the papers I read noted, English is a phonetic language.
And he explained that phonetics is a more efficient method for learning to read, because only 44 sounds need to be memorized.
On the other hand those who choose to learn reading by using the whole word approach, have to recall correctly (i.e memorize) 1 million words.
This latter approach is similar to what people learning to read in a picture language like Chinese or Japanese, need.
But we know that most countries that have phonetic languages do teach using phonics.
The author also pointed out that kids learn to speak by listening to and imitating sounds, which they combine to form words. It only makes sense therefore that they learn to read the same way they learned to talk.
Certain symptoms are common to people who do NOT learn to read using the phonics system:
Among others they tend to be slow readers, and often demonstrate poor comprehension. They readily get tired from reading, and will often display poor spelling skills.
All of this results in their deriving little or no pleasure for reading.
The symptoms listed above in my experience based opinion, are easily noticeable in many Nigerian adults!
I say this with every sense of responsibility.
Please stop and think for a minute because this may just help you appreciate how our traditional educational system has affected even you!
In truth, our schools are turning out sight readers!
It has been said that the phonetic reflex developed by phonetic readers, is what makes them read and write effortlessly. And that makes them mature into “independent readers”.
In contrast, a sight reader (who does not read phonetically) must depend on memory recall of individual words, and also contextual interpretation to correctly identify the word. This latter approach is naturally prone to error, and is naturally cumbersome and less pleasurable for the reader.
This is not surprising, since the “look-say” method favoured by sight readers, was originally developed for teaching deaf people!(as explained by Sam Blumenfeld)
No wonder its use for teaching perfectly normal children to read has been so unsuccessful!
So, why do we still use it – especially in Nigeria?
Maybe most of our educationists do not yet know this fact. Also, our experts could be waiting, as is our practice – for the Americans or British to stop before we do the same thing! (Actually in most cases they already have, at least compared to us, but we are never really up to date on such issues are we?)
Again, it could be because we think it takes less effort to get majority of children to learn via the "look-say" method.
Most teachers/schools want to “teach” as many children as possible in as short a time as possible. Particularly here in Nigeria, where the turnover in each class is directly correlated with the ability of the school to pay teachers leaving a “profit” for the owners.
Sounds nasty doesn’t it? But it’s the truth in many cases here in Nigeria.
That’s why when a child is identified to have difficulty learning using this traditional method, s/he get quickly labeled as a dunce and dumped or stigmatized etc.
What’s worse is that some parents, rather than try to get close to their child and understand her, instead also apply pressure to get her to be like those other kids.
The result is often a child lacking self-esteem, introverted in addition to having poor learning skills, also developing an intense dislike of learning generally.
I was lucky to have a mother who worked as a very keen practicing educationist
She took time to help me – and my siblings – learn to read and write via the phonetic methods.
Later in life, using books like those written by Tony Buzan, I would rapidly build on that comparatively advantageous foundation to become a much faster reader and comprehensive learner than most others around me.
Today, using the techniques I learned from Buzan’s book about Speed Reading and Mind Mapping, my productivity in reading/learning as well as creative thinking and writing has grown in multiple folds. And the evidence can be seen in my seeming ability to do many useful things simultaneously.
The foregoing is what has led me to become a multi-skilled entrepreneur (multipreneur) today. Just like I was a highly successful multi-skilled manager back in my days in Guinness Nigeria Plc.
Final Words: When a child gives teachers problems, poor reading skills could be the cause…
Based on what has so far been said, one begins to appreciate that when a child finds it difficult to understand what he is being taught, s/he may "protest" by being uncooperative.
Unfortunately, since majority of other children like him/her may not have similar problems (or have learnt to be docile and submissive), s/he would be the exception in the class.
This would naturally make the teacher feel the child is not "normal", or is being naughty.
S/he would consequently simply ignore the child (as I learnt happened to my younger sister in Nursery school, until my mother took her up for a week) or worse, s/he may decide to sanction the child.
It is instructive to note here that this same child, prior to starting school, would probably have shown no signs that s/he could not learn like others her age.
In fact, history has shown that children that give teachers problems of this kind, often tend to end up extremely successful in life later on.
A good example is Albert Einstein – who famously denounced the traditional schooling system for its heavy emphasis on rote learning (or memorization).
Learn more (References):
1. Read the full article by Sam Blumenefld: Dyslexia: Man-Made Disease found on the official website of Practical Homeschooling Magazine:
http://www.home-school.com/Articles/BlumenfeldDyslexia.html
2. Tony Buzan’s Speed Reading Book” provides illuminating evidence/explanations…
It was written by Tony Buzan who is regarded as a world authority on the brain, memory, creativity, and speed reading.
Buzan is also the inventor of the world-famous Mind Maps© taught in management/ training institutions like Lagos Business School among others in Nigeria.
Get a copy of Buzan’s book. It offers information and education every parent needs to help his/her child learn more successfully.
Visit the Buzan centre at www.Mind-Map.com.