Reading and Vocabulary

This month's cover story in American Libraries, "It's All about Books -- Not!," deals with the ever popular issue of teens and reading.

I think this is an interesting topic to discuss since it addresses the shift in teen reading behavior. I think it's good that the National Endowment for the Arts is going to study teen reading specifically. Although the adult report's definition of reading was a little bit stingy, it was very interesting. The area that I have trouble with is when the article includes reading text messages as a form of reading.

Let's be realistic. Text messaging is a quick form of communication comprised primarily of acronyms and gossip. I don't really see how texting, instant messaging and other like formats should really qualify as a shift in teen reading behavior. I understand that it's really popular and highly used, but how does that play into education and learning? It has been proven time and time again that the more a person reads the larger their vocabulary is and the better they do in school.

While the library can use these tools to get in touch with teens, schools and libraries still need to promote the concept of reading. And by reading I mean physical books, with words printed on the page. I doubt that teenagers are using complex words, spell check, or a thesaurus in their text messages to each other.

In this fast-paced world being able to sit still and read a book for fun is not often looked upon as important. Like I stated before, the effects of reading, especially classic literature has a huge effect on vocabulary development and comprehension.

One of the more prestigious Police Departments I applied for, uses as its first elimination step a reading and vocabulary exam. 1100 people took the exam with me and only 100 people made it onto the next step. I owe my high test score almost exclusively to the extra-curricular reading I did during high school and college. People might be surprised that fields like law enforcement require knowledge of reading comprehension and spelling, but it shows that these are the basic skills that everyone needs to be successful in this world. What's more embarrassing than having a police report, which is an legal document, full of errors and inaccuracies when it's read in a court room? Enough said.