Proficient reading is all about two things according to Willingham: decoding—which is spelling—and the knowledge needed for comprehension. The spelling plus knowledge for comprehension equation works!
根据威霖瀚教授的说法，熟读的关键在于两个因素：解码能力——就是拼写能力——以及需要理解知识的能力。拼写加理解知识等于全过程。
使用清晰和直白的语言描述大脑阅读区域中拼写的主要作用，威霖瀚教授指出两个解码的过程：
1) sounding out words using phonics which research shows is essential for beginning reading;
念单词使用的是自然发声法，研究表明自然发声法对于刚开始阅读很有必有；
The second method [of decoding] uses spelling: you directly match letters on the page [when reading fluently] to your knowledge of how words are spelled. That spelling knowledge is also connected to meaning. -Dan Willingham in Raising Kids Who Read (page 132) [Brackets added by this author.]
第二种[解码]方法使用拼写方式：直接将书页上的字母[如果在阅读流利的情况下]与如何拼写的知识匹配起来。那个拼写的知识与单词的含义也有联系。——威霖瀚《Raising Kids Who Read》(page 132)
Willingham goes on to say, “…using word spellings to read requires very little attention, if any. You see it in the same way you just see and recognize a dog.” He continues:
接着说，“使用单词拼写法阅读仅需要少量的注意力，如果有的话。你可以把它理解成只是看见，就可以辨认出那是一条狗。”还有：
As your child gains reading experience, there is a larger and larger set of words that he can read using the spelling, and so his reading becomes faster, smoother, and more accurate. That’s called fluency.” (page 133)
“正如你的孩子有了大量的阅读经验，他就可以使用拼写的方法阅读大量的文章，所以他阅读的速度就会越来越快，越来越流畅，越来越准确。这就叫做阅读流利。”