READING LITERACY AS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONCEPT

Abstract

The article analyzes the essence of the concept of reading literacy within an interdisciplinary framework. The evolution of the interpretation of literacy is traced–from its traditional understanding as the ability to read and write to a comprehensive characteristic of the individual encompassing cognitive, communicative, activity-based, and value-oriented components. The approaches of the international PISA study are taken into account, in which reading literacy is defined as the capacity to understand, analyze, interpret, and evaluate texts in order to achieve personal and socially significant goals. It is emphasized that in the context of societal digitalization, information overload, and hybrid threats, the role of reading is being reconsidered: it ceases to be solely an individual cognitive activity and emerges as a form of collective interaction and a symbolic space for constructing meanings and values. Under these conditions, reading literacy correlates with an individual’s ability to navigate digital and hypertextual formats, critically process information flows, and participate in public dialogue. Philosophical, cultural, sociological, psychological, linguistic, and linguodidactic approaches to understanding and interpreting the phenomenon of reading literacy are characterized. It is stressed that within the hermeneutic tradition, reading is viewed as a process in which meaning is not merely reproduced but co-constructed by the author and the reader in the act of interpretation. It is substantiated that reading is not only a receptive type of speech activity but also a complex cognitive-creative activity associated with meaning-making, author–reader dialogue, interpretation, and reflection. Particular attention is devoted to the issue of developing reading literacy among international students in higher education institutions of Ukraine. It is demonstrated that the effective organization of teaching reading in Ukrainian should be based on a comprehensive approach integrating psychological mechanisms of text comprehension, linguistic analysis of textual structure, and the communicative-cultural context.