According to Kenneth Goodman, reading is best described as

• A. Reading is decoding letters and sounds only
• B. Reading is speed-focused
• C. Reading is the interaction between thinking and language
• D. Reading is a set of rules to memorize

Answer: (C)

Reading is an active act of constructing meaning through the interaction between a reader’s thinking and the language of the text. Kenneth Goodman emphasized that reading isn’t just about sounding out letters or applying fixed rules; it’s about how a reader combines their own knowledge, expectations, and the cues in language to make sense of what they’re reading. He described reading as a psycholinguistic guessing game: readers use context, prior knowledge, and linguistic clues to predict and interpret meaning, and they continually revise their understanding as they go. This view helps explain why comprehension depends on more than isolated skills—it's about how the reader and text work together to create meaning. In classroom terms, this means supporting oral language, background knowledge, and strategies for making meaning, not just focusing on speed, decoding alone, or memorized rules.