Reading as a Social Process.

In addition to being a communicative process, reading is also a social process (for, as Labov, 1972, points out all communication is social). That is, reading involves social relationships among people: among teachers and students, among students, among parents and children, and among authors and readers. The social relationships involved in reading include establishing social groups and ways of interacting with others; gaining or maintaining status and social position; and acquiring culturally appropriate ways of thinking, problem solving, valuing, and feeling. For example, when students are asked to read a story, they must do so in socially appropriate ways: silently or orally, individually, competitively, or cooperatively with other students, in a round-robin manner, etc. Students who read orally without error or who appropriately answer teacher questions may gain social status within the classroom. Students who read with error, give inappropriate answers, or who sit quietly, may be viewed as outcasts or nonparticipants. Further, students may have to understand the story in a way appropriate to the classroom values and roles. For example, consider a story about a child who worked hard to succeed above his peers. Within the classroom, students may have to interpret the story as a positive role model, while outside the classroom such individual, noncooperative, competitive behavior may be a negative role model. The purpose of this article is to describe three dimensions of reading as a social process. First, all reading events involve a social context. Social interaction surrounds and influences interaction with a written text. Second, reading is a cultural activity. That is, reading has social uses which are an extension of people's day-today cultural doings. And third, reading is a socio-cognitive process. Through learning to read and through reading itself, children learn culturally appropriate information, activities, values, and ways of thinking and problem solving.