[NLA] Phoneme Awareness is the Key
Daphne Greenberg
alcdgg at langate.gsu.edu
Thu May 23 19:44:31 EDT 2002
Although it is important to prevent reading difficulties in the early grades, I disagree with your statement that: "there is a window for "getting it." There is imprinting going on." Do you know of research to back this statement up?
What I understand from the research is that children who are behind, fall further behind because they are in classes where the assumption is that everyone has a certain skill level. Therefore, children who do not have that skill level, cannot benefit from the instruction that is taking place, at least not as well as the others who are at that skill level. Then, what you have is a dominoe effect, where children start falling behind in all kinds of areas-if you can't read at grade level, you will not pick up the vocabulary for that grade level, you will have difficulty learning science and social studies content, because you can't read the books, and you will have difficulty in math with word problems that you cannot read.
In terms of a critical time period for obtaining phonemic awareness, researchers such as Morais and colleagues have shown that there is no critical time period, that adults who have never been schooled can pick up phonemic awareness with training.
If there is a critical time period, then we would be wasting our time with adult learners. As many can tell you, this is not the case. It may take longer for adults to learn some of the basic skills because they have to unlearn some compensatory habits, but this does not mean that they cannot learn.
Daphne
>>> tzurinskas at yahoo.com 05/23/02 15:56 PM >>>
Thanks Andrea for the gem below.
I attended the Workshop on Adolescent Literacy May 20
in Baltimore. It was stated there that 60% of the 9th
graders in Baltimore are testing at 5th grade level in
reading. This is happening across the country, and
from the data below it appears that these kids will
never "get it" as well as they could have if they got
reading help in grades 1 through 3. We now know that
teachers can't put off reading remediation until later
grades. There is a window for "getting it." There is
imprinting going on. If no child is to be left
behind, our 1st to 3rd grade teachers are crucial. I
congratulate our President and First Lady on their
initiative.
Data show that there is one criterion that best
predicts reading success in later grades, phonemic
awareness (Stanovich, 1993-94). English spelling
inhibits phonemic awareness. In fact, countries with
irregular spelling (such as English) have twice the
number dyslexics as countries with regular spelling
(such as Italian) (Paulescu 2001). Paulescu says that
spelling "causes dyslexia" and that simplifying
spelling would help relieve it. This may not be
possible, but what is possible is simplifying phonetic
spelling to achieve the phonemic awareness that is so
important.
If I were to ask those in attendance at the workshop
to spell phonetically the sounds of "ah", "eye", 'awe"
I doubt many could do it. These are special symbols
in our dictionaries that can't be typed (unless
special software is installed). Most of us using
pronunciation guides generally trace these symbols to
keywords to say them. How are we to achieve phonemic
awareness, which is the primary key to reading, when
we can't spell our phonemes, crippled by such outdated
guides that are not keyboard friendly and not even
internationally standardized?
On the table before the Adolescent Literacy Workshop
was left a free CD that can serve as a phonemic
awareness assessment tool. It uses truespel
"pronunciation guide" spelling. The phonemes in the
60k truespel dictionary are written in a regular
letters compatible with USA English accent. The CD
tests how well participants can link phonetic spelling
to the sounds the hear using this simple phonetic
spelling. Nonsense words are used in training and
testing for accent and language independence. Copies
of this CD can be obtained from truespel.com or
truespel at hotmail.com. Researches are encouraged.
The aim of truespel, the world's only "pronunciation
guide spelling" is to replace dictionary pronunciation
guides which consists or special symbols. Truespel
conversion is free to all at
http://www.foreignword.com/dictionary/truespel/transpel.htm.
It can be used to show USA accent for English. As a
future application it can serve for youngsters as
their initial spelling system. When they associate
the 40 sounds of English to 40 spellings, they can
spell any word they can sound out, even the long ones.
Phoneme awareness begins here. Dictionaries will
have the pronunciation guide spelling first so that
words can be looked up as phonetically spelled.
Computers will return traditionally spelled words when
phonetic ones are entered. Other languages are being
truespeld so that one qwerty phonetic spelling applies
to all.
We have got to not only help our kids but also save
our kids. Seven of 10 prisoners cannot perform basic
reading and writing task. Phonemic awareness is the
key to reading. Truespel, I believe, is a tool that
will greatly help us get there and beyond. .
Tom Zurinskas
Creator of truespel
--- AWilder106 at aol.com wrote:
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I have written a summary of Dr. Reid Lyon's talk at
> the recent Learning and
> the Brain Conference in Cambridge, MA. While the
> talk was about children's
> learning, many apply the concepts to adult learning
> because the basics are
> more or less the same, as far as we know. I hope
> the following is clear, the
> talk was not quite presented like this, but the
> meaning here should be clear.
>
> My addition: studies by VPurcell-Gates, Heath,
> Taylor and Dorsey-Gaines,
> Taylor, give nuance to Lyon's remarks.
>
> Lyon started with 5 questins
>
> 1) How do children learn to read?
> 2) Why do some children have difficulty learning to
> read?
> 3) How can we prevent reading difficulties?
> 4) How can we remediate reading difficulties?--kids
> are often "teaching
> disabled," we do not provide teachers with the
> knowledge they need to teach,
> so some hold more closely to philosophy than
> science.
>
> Reading is the most visible behavior in schools; if
> you can't do it you feel
> dumb, may develop classic ADHD symptoms, which are
> really escape and
> avoidance behaviors.
>
> 1) Learn to read
>
> #1. Substantial ORAL LANGUAGE interactions from
> birth onward; extensive
> LITERACY INTERACTIONS from birth onward. (see Hart
> & Risley, Snow, Louisa
> Moats for SES differences) Moats, DC: 90% of kids
> at risk, majority had
> never seen a book, teachers not trained to take up
> the slack. Literacy
> interactions: read to, letters on fridge, language
> play, etc. Low SES = 1/2
> of words/hr. that higher SES children hear.
>
> #2. Have developed an understanding that words are
> spoken, can be segmented
> into abstract sounds (phonemes)
>
> #3 People handle words as acoustic bundles, ex:
> CAT is one sound;
> acoustically, rhymes are an ordinary way kids learn
> to break the code--BAD.
> SAD, MAD; CAT, HAT, MAT. low SES kids, probably
> less practice.
>
> #4 Kids learn: print represents the sounds of
> speech; letters and letter
> patterns are connected to speech sounds; learn how
> to decode accurately and
> rapidly; use cortex to confirm decoding,
> pronunciation of unknown words; use
> phonics for unfamiliar words (do not predict
> unfamiliar word use from
> context; have developed background knowledge,
> vocabulary, to connect to what
> is read, known.
>
> 2) Reading difficulty.
>
> #1 Kids who do not have an early start are at risk
> for reading deficits at
> 10 years.
>
> #2 Early start = knowledge of 5 principles
>
> Alphabetics (the use of letters in an alphabet to
> represent spoken words)
> made up of two parts:
>
> 1. phonemic awareness = knowledge of speech sounds
> 2. word analysis = letter-sound knowledge
>
> 3. fluency = ability to read with speed and ease
> (see Maryanne Wolf's work)
> 4. vocabulary = knowledge of word meanings
> 5. comprehension = understanding a text or
> "constructing meaning"
>
> #3 A major reading deficiency = slow movement from
> visual area (back of
> brain) to frontal cortex (organizing area) means
> less FLUENCY Both low SES
> kids and dyslexic kids may have this problem. Low
> SES kids = less practice;
> dyslexic kids = neurological problems. [Also,
> Tallal's work on sound
> segmentation and kids who have trouble hearing VERY
> QUICK sounds is another
> part of dyslexia.] EG, there is a problem in
> linking the brain areas.
>
> 3) Prevention
>
> #1 Teachers need to directly, explicitly teach what
> is going on with the
> five principles. 38-40% of kids do not read when
> whole language/literature
> approach only is used. (3-5% = neurological
> problems with reading)
>
> #2 NB--kids from disadvantage share the same brain
> pattern while reading as
> do dyslexic kids. IQ/achievement = invalid marker
> as it will reflect BOTH
> DISADVANTAGE AND DYSLEXIA. Need literacy, language
> practice from earliest
> school years on. [AW: Reading is a skill that can
> be learned.]
>
> #3. Select a reading program which will work for
> most kids, then adjust it
> to work for the other kids.
>
> 4) Remediation
>
> #1 Educate teachers. Teachers will use methods
> that bring results. Hold
> colleges of education accountable for turning out
> capable teachers.
>
> #2 Use books which are enjoyable for kids to read =
> 95% are at their
> instructional level. Motivation overcomes
> plasticity, motivation is critical.
>
> #3 Need aggressive peer review at state levels of
> reading programs beore
> investment.
>
> (Above is the result of work since 1985, studied k
> and grade1 to learn risk
> factors. Began early intervention and prevention
> trials. Early assessment
> models: Snow, Torgeson. NICHD has a Reading
> Research Program, 44 sites in
> N.America, Europe, Asia. 33 years, 39,802 children
> and adults. 21,860 good
> readers. 16, 942 with reading difficulties. Have
> tested every theory,
> every SES, every ethnicity. Results have to be
> generalizable. Measure 3x/
> yr, find kids who do quite well, not quite well,
> horribly.) [AW: for more
> particulars, get in touch with Lyon's office at
> 1-301-496-9849]
>
> NB: The "Report from the Work of the NIFL/NCSALL
> Reading Research Working
> Group (Strategies For Teaching Adults To Read)"
> draws from "Preventing
> Reading Difficulties in Young Children for Adult
> Learning and Literacy."
> (Snow, Burns, Griffin, 1998). See also "Lessons
> from Preventing Reading
> Difficulties in Young Children for Adult Learning
> and Literacy, " (Snow and
> Strucker) in "The Annual Review of Adult Learning
> and Literacy, vol. 1,
> NCSALL " (2000, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco)
>
> Andrea
>
>
>
>
>
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=====
Read all about truespel at truespel.com.
Convert text to truespel USA accent by copy/pasting it at: http://www.foreignword.com/dictionary/truespel/transpel.htm
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