Reading involves looking at graphic symbols and formulating mentally the sounds and ideas they represent. Concepts of reading have changed 1 over the centuries. During the 1950"s and 1960"s especially, increased attention has been devoted to 2 the reading process. 3 specialists agree that reading 4 a complex organization of higher mental 5 , they disagree 6 the exact nature of the process. Some experts, who regard language primarily as a code using symbols to represent sounds, 7 reading as simply the decoding of symbolssintosthe sounds they stand 8 .
These authorities 9 that meaning, being concerned with thinking, must be taught independently of the decoding process. Others maintain that reading is 10 related to thinking, and that a child who pronounces sounds without 11 their meaning is not truly reading. The reader, 12 some, is not just a person with a theoretical ability to read but one who 13 reads.
Many adults, although they have the ability to read, have never read a book in its 14 . By some expert they would not be 15 as readers. Clearly, the philosophy, objectives, methods and materials of reading will depend on the definition one use. By the most 16 and satisfactory definition, reading is the ability to 17 the sound-symbols code of the language, to interpret meaning for various 18 , at various rates, and at various levels of difficulty, and to do 19 widely and enthusiastically. 20 reading is the interpretation of ideas through the use of symbols representing sounds and ideas.