Kenneth S. Goodman

Reading: A psycholinguistic guessing game

(1967). Reading: A psycholinguistic guessing game. Journal of the Reading Specialist: Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 126-135.

Analysis of Oral Reading Miscues: Applied Psycholinguistics.

PRESENTS a theoretical argument that reading must be considered a psycholinguistic process. In discussion of this process, the reader is viewed as a user of language who processes three kinds of information, grapho-phonic, syntactic, and semantic, as he reacts to the graphic display on the page. In comparing unexpected responses in oral reading to expected responses, the phycholinguistic reading process is revealed. A taxonomy of cues and miscues in reading is presented for the depth analysis of oral reading phenomena. This taxonomy has been developed in close relationship to the theory and has been perfected in use in a continuing series of depth studies of oral reading.

The Reading Process

Scholars from many disciplines are involved in studying reading. These include, but are not limited to psychologists, linguists, literary critics, psycholinguists, sociolinguists, semioticians, anthropologists, ethnographers, neurolinguists, educational researchers, curriculum workers, and those who study reading development and the teaching of reading. Except for occasional collaborations, each field has tended to work on its own, using its own methodologies and asking questions significant within the discipline. Sometimes attempting to bring these diverse vantage points together is like trying to construct an elephant from the descriptions of the blind men of Hindustan of their personal encounters with different portions of the elephant.

Whole-Language Research: Foundations and Development.

Whole language is a grass-roots movement among teachers that is based on research. It integrates the holistic, psychological research of Piaget, Vygotsky, and schema theorists with the social, functional-linguistic research of Michael Halliday. It uses the research on the reading and writing processes and on reader response to literature. This research base is unified with the strong humanistic traditions of holistic movements in education that go back at least as far as Comenius. Whole-language teachers have a philosophy of education with this strong base in theory and research that they use to make practical decisions and to plan innovation. They take responsibility for knowing the research. In many cases they become researchers and co-researchers in their own classrooms. For these reasons, whole-language practice is getting ahead of theory and research. Researchers have the opportunity to do research in authentic holistic learning settings that were not available in traditional schools. So they can explore literacy and cognitive development, as well as learning and teaching, in innovative ways. Whole-language teachers are eager for the support of researchers, but it is up to the researchers to demonstrate their relevance.

Vygotsky and education: Vygotsky in a whole-language perspective

In this passage, Vygotsky expresses his belief that written language develops, as speech does, in the context of its use. It indicates his holistic inclinations and his awareness of the need for learners to be immersed in language for literacy learning to be easy. Such a view is the essence of whole language. Whole language is more than anything else a philosophy of education. It draws heavily on Vygotsky, among others. As we relate the developing conceptualizations of whole language to the work of Vygotsky, we will explore (1) what whole language is; (2) what it takes from Vygotsky; (3) how whole language can contribute to the application and development of Vygotskian psychology; and (4) how it departs from or goes beyond Vygotsky.

The 13th Easy Way to Make Learning to Read Difficult: A Reaction to Gleitman and Rozin.

guage is psychoacoustic are challenged. It is noted that the syllable is subject to the complex relationships between morphology and dialect. The contention that children can understand what they can pronounce is also refuted. It is stressed that children are masters of the morpheme and display linguistic competence with words and larger elements more abstract than syllables. The syllabary method, it is argued, does not consider reading as a psycholinguistic process.

Making Sense of Written Language: A Lifelong Journey.

So many of my interests, contacts, struggles, ideas, arguments, and achievements are represented in this old paper trail. It’s like reading my autobiography. I’ve unearthed a letter from a young Dave Pearson asking for help in getting published. I’ve also found correspondence with Frank Smith that led to a joint article for the Elementary School Journal, our only formal collaboration (Goodman & Smith, 1971).

Spelling Ability of a Self-Taught Reader

Some children learn to read before they go to school. This is a fact that teachers and educators have been aware of for some time, for considerable attention has been given to early reading (1). Less attention has been given to other literacy skills-spelling, for example-that children may develop before they begin formal instruction. We have undertaken a study of the language and literacy skills of one selftaught reader. We are reporting here our findings on the spelling techniques she used and the generalizations she developed. At the time of the study, Kay was six years and five months of age. She is an intent child who loves to learn. Her keen attention and her love of learning may account in part for her ability to read and comprehend materials at a fifth-grade level, as measured by Grays Standardized Oral Reading Paragraphs. Kays environment is rich in language experiences. She has always been read to, listened to, and talked to. Singing, poetry, nursery rhymes, and oral family language games are daily fare in her home. She has puzzles and picture lotto games, but her favorite recrea ion at home is to pretend that she is a teacher or a librarian; she sets up three or more dolls in front of her and reads to them. With no instruction Kay was reading independently by the age of five years and six months. At the time she was studied, she had had four months of formal reading instruction in school. Her teacher uses a sight-word approach and pays some attention to beginning consonant sounds. Kay had received no formal instruction in spelling. For those who feel that such knowl-

Access to literacy: Basais and other barriers

A Metaphor for Literacy In Umberto Ecos The Name of the Rose, William, a detective-semiotician, becomes aware of a 14th century library with a magnificent collection of books. He learns, however, that the library exists not to make the knowledge of the ages accessible, but to keep the books it contains from the eyes and minds of those they might educate. Built in the form of a maze, the library itself is a metaphor for literacy and learning. In the end it burns down and with it is destroyed the hoarded treasure of books. But literacy itself, and not the books, is the real treasure, because literate people can create new knowledge to store in books. Access to literacy needs to be seen in this context. Literacy exists to make it possible to extend the functions of language beyond the immediate face-to-face functions that oral language serves so that communication can take place among people over time and space. In a literate society, access to literacy means access to the social knowledge and to full participation in society. But literacy, in and of itself, is not empowering. Only when literacy is part of a general empower-

The Linguistics of Reading

To many who have labored long in the field of reading it must certainly appear that linguistics has literally burst on the reading horizon. Sessions are devoted to the subject at meetings of the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. Books are appearing. Journal articles are multiplying. And publishers seem to be tripping over one another in a race to be the first out with a reading series that carries a linguistic label. Linguists as well as educationists are showing grave signs of missing the essential significance that linguistics has for the teaching of reading. Reading materials, reading curriculum theory, and reading teaching have suffered from a lack of accurate knowledge of the language. This lack is not the fault of the workers in these fields. The lack