Reading as a Social Process
(An Insight into the Sociology of Reading)
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Reading is usually conceived of as a solitary activity in which the reader interacts with the text in isolation. However, practical evidence shows that reading lessons are generally anything but solitary (Nunan, 1991: 72). In fact, reading is an activity that someone chooses to do for a variety of personal, social, or academic reasons.
As a social phenomenon, reading is one of the prominent characteristics of civilized, literate societies. Printed materials provide the most illuminating and varied records of human experience that are now available. In the context of the current world-wide availability of printed materials, the question of how and to what effect people use the materials of reading becomes crucial.
The sociological aspects of reading are as important as its individual, psychological and linguistic aspects. Research in the sociology of reading has been concerned with the examination of reading as a social process, the appraisal of the status of reading particularly among adults, environmental influences upon reading, the characteristics of reading materials, and the consideration of increasingly more specific effects of the interaction of people and print (Harris, 1969:1070).
Since reading is associated with a particular language and society, the environmental influences of that society play an essential role in determining the reading achievement of its members. This state of affairs necessitates the manipulation of the reading text not only as a linguistic event, but also a social one. Adult readers' habits, interests and purposes need to be taken into consideration in any attempt at selecting instructional reading materials as well as providing for readership preference for reader books, newspapers and magazines. In such a selection, it is important to consider certain characteristics of the reading materials, especially its readability.

References:
- Harris, T. L. (1969) "Reading". In Encyclopedia of Educational Research, (4th ed.) , ed. N. Ebel and Bauer, pp. 1069-1074. London: Macmillan.
- Nunan, David (1991) Language Teaching Methodology. New York: Prentice-Hall.