John Downing

Concepts of Language in Children from Differeing Socio-Economic Backgrounds.

AbstractAn investigation of concepts of language in children from differing socio-economic backgrounds was conducted. The hypotheses were: I) that kindergarten children from schools in higher socio-economic neighborhoods would have significantly more advanced concepts of language than children in lower socio-economic areas, and 2) that this conceptual development would be correlated with more conventional measures of reading readiness. A total of 787 kindergarten children divided approximately equally into high, middle, and low socioeconomic groups were tested twice, in the second and ninth months after beginning kindergarten. Three tests were of concepts of language. Three others were conventional measures of perceptual ability in reading readiness. The data generally supported the hypotheses.

Conceptual and Perceptual Factors in Learning to Read.

Summary A structured interview was conducted individually with 310 Canadian kindergarten children selected as a representative sample of pupils in their community. The interview had four parts: I Recognition of acts of reading and writing; II Concepts of the purposes of reading and writing; III Concepts of features of printed materials; IV Visual perception (similar to one part of the Frostig Test). Most children achieved near perfect scores on Part IV. Part I was slightly more difficult. Part II was considerably more difficult and Part III was the most difficult of all. It is concluded that teachers should be more concerned about the development of these linguistic concepts than visual perception.

The cognitive clarity theory of learning to read

We have by now completed the review of the research evidence from psychology, education, linguistics and psycholinguistics that forms the foundation for the cognitive clarity theory of learning to read. But before we come to that particular theory let us establish a context for it by a brief survey of the current situation in popular theories and methods in the teaching of reading.

Linguistic Awareness, English Orthography and Reading Instruction

One common characteristic of reading instruction is the teachers attempt to describe the “phonic” rules of the writing system. But modern linguists question whether English spelling is related simply to what phonic teachers call “sounds.” The classical linguistic view of English orthography was that it is a graphemic code for the abstract units of speech technically termed “phonemes” but that this code is marred by numerous irregularities of grapheme-phoneme relations. In recent years this has been challenged in two revolutionary proposals. Though their theories are different, both Chomsky and Venezky deny that English orthography is a phonemic system. A third possibility is that neither the classical nor the revolutionary view of English orthography is correct. Albrow, Lefevre, and Vachek have each independently proposed that English orthography is a system of systems. One system is phonemic but, in addition, there are others representing non-phonemic aspects of language. Teachers of reading who believe that their pupils need to understand the underlying system of English orthography must consider these alternative explanations if they are to choose which one should be the basis of their instruction. This article reviews the evidence for these alternative descriptions and discusses their feasibility as a basis for teaching young beginners.

Making Literacy Equally Accessible to Females and Males

In his survey of literacy customs in traditional societies, Goody (1968) found evidence of many social influences on the extent of literacy within cultures. For example, a very common cause of restriction on literacy has been the preservation of secrecy as in religious or magical books. Goody concluded that “such restrictive practices tend to arise wherever people have an interest in maintaining a monopoly of the sources of their power” (p. 12). In this paper, I shall attempt to show how restrictive practices continue to discriminate between the sexes regarding the accessibility of literacy and I shall suggest some ways that may lead to greater equity in this respect.

Sensory handicaps and the initial teaching alphabet

This review surveys published and unpublished reports of the use of the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) with several types of sensory handicaps. The evidence is slighter than in other areas of learning disability, but the subjective reports from teachers who have used i.t.a. with cerebral palsied children and partially‐sighted pupils is interesting and encourages further research on the use of this tool of reading improvement. The effectiveness of i.t.a. depends chiefly on its simplification of the relationships between spoken and printed language. This may facilitate the childs understanding of the learning task. This may help children with sensory handicaps by reducing their total burden of difficulties enough to allow them to cope with the learning situation.

Cognitive Clarity and Reading Disabilities

One of the most striking developments in the past decade has been the parallel but independent thinking of two groups of psychologists interested in skill acquisition. On the one hand, psychologists interested in skills related to physical education have come to recognize that these so-called “psycho-motor” skills are no less intelligent than those conventionally labelled “verbal” skills. On the other hand, psychologists interested in reading behavior have realized the implications of categorizing reading as a skill, and recognizing its essential similarity to other skills which were thought of separately as “psycho-motor” skills. Both groups of psychologists have arrived independently at the conclusion that all skills have an essential common basis and that in this the cognitive aspect is of primary importance.

Discussion Review of Reading Comprehension Education in Fifteen Countries

McCullough. For the benefit of the readers, I will begin with a brief summary of what this significant pioneer study is about. Essentially the book is a brief report of an international study that was carefully planned, cooperatively executed, processed with sophistication, and interpreted with admirable circumspection. Beginning in 1959 the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement made pilot studies to determine the feasibility of reliable tests across languages. Having satisfied itself that translations need not mean distortion of content or intent, it established the International Reading Comprehension Committee chaired by Thorndike (United States) and consisting of Lily Ayman (Iran), Franqoise Bacher (France), Alan Brimer (England), and Jan Vastenhouw (the Netherlands). Participating countries were Belgium (Flemish and French), Chile, England, Finland, Hungary, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, Sweden, and the United States.

Transfer of Grapheme Discrimination from Cued to Traditional Orthography

Sixty prereaders were trained to discriminate the graphemes within words by having them assemble the Words using only those graphemes that corresponded to the phonemic structure of the words. The children were first trained using orthographies that provided cues emphasizing the graphemic structure; either i. t. a. or one of two cued orthographies retaining the English alphabetic characters. The children then assembled the same words printed in the traditional orthography (t. o.) which provides no graphemic cues. As hypothesized, transfer to t. o. was easier for Ss initially trained with cued orthographies retaining English characters than for Ss trained with i. t. a. In addition, transfer from i. t. a. was facilitated when combined with one of the orthographies retaining English characters.

CAUTIONARY COMMENTS ON SOME AMERICAN i.t.a. REPORTS

Dr. Downing takes issue with some American reports on i.t.a. for misrepresenting his own published work on the subject by omitting certain essential qualifications and by associating them with alien implications, such as that i.t.a. is itself a teaching method rather than a vehicle for several alternative possible teaching methods.