The psychopedagogical basis for Zigzag Reader

The act of reading is complex because it requires the reader to execute many different tasks at the same time: identifying letters and words; mentally assembling words into groups of words, comprehending the meaning of words, of groups of words, and the general meaning of the text being read; making inferences; automatically evaluating his comprehension during reading and being able to readjust if incomprehension arises. 

Even an expert reader cannot simultaneously dedicate his attention to all these tasks (or processes). His cognitive resources would be insufficient. In fact, the expert reader has already automatized a good number of processes (visual word recognition, for example), which allow him to dedicate all of his attention to the processes that are less or not automatized (or even, "automatizable"). During learning, low level processes are automatized more quickly and more systematically than high-level processes. The automatization of the low level processes is a necessary condition for freeing the "mental space" needed for higher-level processes.

One of the major challenges of teaching reading and writing, in first and second language teaching, concerns developing linguistic automatisms. But this can only be achieved effectively and with consistent results within the framework of a reading (or writing) activity in all its complexity. It is normal to teach a new language concept (or a rule) in the simplest context possible in order to improve the learner's chances of understanding. However, that is only the first step in the long and arduous learning task ahead. The real challenge resides in the second step, namely making use of the acquired concept in more complex reading (or writing) activities. Has the learner internalized the new concept well enough to master it and reuse it without needing to devote all of his attention to it? This kind of learning cannot be achieved through artificially simple and repetitive exercises. The learner is only brought to effectively manage and even automatize his cognitive processes when asked to accomplish more complex and varied tasks.

The time factor contributes substantially to the complexity of a given task. To see why, consider the following two examples: understanding a sentence given the amount of time desired or needed, and understanding the same sentence given a time constraint. The second condition clearly places added pressure on the reader. Similarly, knowing how to check for agreement in already written words is one thing, but developing the automatisms for agreeing the words while in the process of writing them down is another entirely, and requires much more of the reader. The reason is that many things must be done at the same time. When no time limit exists (as is generally the case in traditional paper-based learning activities), the learner can counter the temporal constraints by doing one thing after another - which is precisely contrary to the development of linguistic automatisms.

This is where the Zigzag Reader computer program shines, both as a learning tool and an evaluation tool, to be used with this knowledge of a temporal factor in mind. It provides insight into the degree of comprehension of a text that was read within a given time constraint. As many studies have shown, speed and comprehension in reading are closely related. But we must take care in interpreting such statements. While many researchers agree about the pertinence of time in reading as an indicator of the complexity of the reading task (all other things being equal), they also agree that speed is not the only indicator. This is why many pedagogues prefer to use the term speed of comprehension as being the targeted objective.

Admittedly, teaching or evaluating speed of comprehension is not an easy task. In a classroom, the fastest reader is often not the one who has understood the best. Occasionally, it is even quite to the contrary. How can we resolve this dilemma? And how can we make the reader aware of the importance of a time limit without imposing a constraint of the type "You have two minutes to read this text", a constraint that has little pedagogical use and is often even counterproductive?

We believe that Zigzag Reader is a flexible computerized environment that allows for the conception and use of in-class activities that favour the development of linguistic automatisms, both in the first and the second language.

Innovations in version 2