Books

How Children Learn Language (Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics)

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Compilation of Research
Fascinating!

How Children Learn Language (Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics)
William O'Grady
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

How Languages Are Learned (Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers S.)
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Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course
Second Language Learning Data Analysis

ASIN: 0521531926

Book Description

Demonstrating how children learn to produce and distinguish between sounds, and their acquisition of words and meanings, this book explains their incredible mastery of language. William O'Grady provides readers with an overview not only of the language acquisition process itself, but also of the ingenious experiments and techniques that researchers use to investigate this mysterious phenomenon.

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Adults tend to take language for granted - until they have to learn a new one. Then they realize how difficult it is to get the pronunciation right, to acquire the meaning of thousands of new words, and to learn how those words are put together to form sentences. Children, however, have mastered language before they can tie their shoes. In this engaging and accessible book, William O'Grady explains how this happens, discussing how children learn to produce and distinguish among sounds, their acquisition of words and meanings, and their mastery of the rules for building sentences. How Children Learn Language provides readers with a highly readable overview not only of the language acquisition process itself, but also of the ingenious experiments and techniques that researchers use to investigate his mysterious phenomenon. It will be of great interest to anyone - parent or student - wishing to find out how children acquire language.

Customer Reviews:

Compilation of Research.......2006-07-14

I have a 13 month old who is still babbling, and turned to this book for direction with her language development. While I found some of the information interesting, it is mostly a compilation and description of all of the relevant research associated with language development. There were a lot of examples and (unnecessary) visual aids, but nothing that really gave me the insight I was looking for (i.e. how to aid her in attaining this milestone). Basically, they proved that there is nothing specific one can do and that children will begin talking when they are ready. I wish I had simply read the summary first, as it would have saved me a lot of time!

Fascinating!.......2006-03-19

As a father, grandfather, and former pediatrician, I have observed many children acquire a language. However, only recently did I become deeply curious about this mysterious process. This book proved to be exactly what I needed. The presentation is orderly, well-written, and very readable. The process of language acquisition is analysed and described clearly. The clever methods of researchers in this field are made understandable and fascinating. The mysteries remaining to be explained are presented frankly. This is a book that both parents and professionals can read for both pleasure and enlightenment.

The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn the Languages of the World

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Overview of current research on language acquisition
Great book about language acquisition
Original insights into great human mysteries
Infinite gift of infinite jargon
How kids learn language--and how Chomsky thinks about it

The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn the Languages of the World
Charles Yang
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Knowledge and Learning in Natural Language (Oxford Linguistics)

ASIN: 0743237560

Book Description

A child's very first word is a miraculous sound, the opening note in a lifelong symphony. Most parents never forget the moment. But that first word is soon followed by a second and a third, and by the age of three, children are typically learning ten new words every day and speaking in complete sentences. The process seems effortless, and for children, it is. But how exactly does it happen? How do children learn language? And why is it so much harder to do later in life?

Drawing on cutting-edge developments in biology, neurology, psychology, and linguistics, Charles Yang's The Infinite Gift takes us inside the astonishingly complex but largely subconscious process by which children learn to talk and to understand the spoken word.

Yang illuminates the rich mysteries of language: why French newborns already prefer the sound of French to English; why baby-talk, though often unintelligible, makes perfect linguistic sense; why babies born deaf still babble -- but with their hands; why the grammars of some languages may be evolutionarily stronger than others; and why one of the brain's earliest achievements may in fact be its most complex.

Yang also puts forth an exciting new theory. Building on Noam Chomsky's notion of a universal grammar -- the idea that every human being is born with an intuitive grasp of grammar -- Yang argues that we learn our native languages in part by unlearning the grammars of all the rest.

This means that the next time you hear a child make a grammatical mistake, it may not be a mistake at all; his or her grammar may be perfectly correct in Chinese or Navajo or ancient Greek. This is the brain's way of testing its options as it searches for the local and thus correct grammar -- and then discards all the wrong ones.

And we humans, Yang shows, are not the only creatures who learn this way. In fact, learning by unlearning may be an ancient evolutionary mechanism that runs throughout the animal kingdom. Thus, babies learn to talk in much the same way that birds learn to sing.

Enlivened by Yang's experiences with his own young son, The Infinite Gift is as charming as it is challenging, as thoughtful as it is thought-provoking. An absorbing read for parents, educators, and anyone who has ever wondered about the origins of that uniquely human gift: our ability to speak and, just as miraculous, to understand one another.

Customer Reviews:

Overview of current research on language acquisition.......2007-04-04

The book interprets the current research on language acquisition for the non-academic. There is a lot of meat here. While it's presented in a very readable way, it is not for the casual reader.

It gave me a better understanding of how grammar as an organizing concept plays out in first language development and once established provides impediments to learning subsequent languages.

For someone interested in languages, there is a lot of food for thought, such as the compounding of words in Eskimo and that the vowel shift that we see in the US is also observable in the speeches of Queen Elizabeth II.

The last chapter on the superiority of the German language lost me. As a non academic, I don't have the tools to refute the thesis. It would seem, though, that even on the hypothetical desert island, to predict the surviving language, more variables than grammar should enter into the equation. English (a grammatical child of German) did survive Latin and French on the Islands of Great Britain. I'd be interested in a discussion of the commonly considered factors (adaptivity, King Alfred, literature, etc) against grammar.

Great book about language acquisition.......2007-01-30

This is a great book if you want to have an informed view while you watch your (grand)children learn their native language. It is fascinating to watch children do just what current theory says they will do!

This book is mainly for people who are used to thinking about technical and abstract stuff. I already knew a little about the subject and found the book at just the right level -- the author communicates the basic ideas but does not get bogged down in excessive detail.

Original insights into great human mysteries.......2006-11-19

In this wonderfully readable and compelling book, Charles Yang, a noted professor of linguistics at Yale, uses evidence from children's babbling, biology, neuroscience, and historical literature to provide deep insights into the nature and origin of language and how children accomplish the remarkable feat of learning a language. The book is clearly written and understandable to a broad audience, and poses and answers some of the key questions about understanding what makes humans unique.

Infinite gift of infinite jargon.......2006-09-25

This book was referred to me by someone who read about it in the local paper and thought I would enjoy it. Indeed I did find certain portions of the book quite intriguing as the author does a marvelous job of discussing in an almost narrative format otherwise dry topics such as language morphology, evolution of grammar, etc. As the parent of a five-month old, I also enjoyed reading about the author's personal experiences with his own child's early language production.

Unfortunately I thought the book was very heavily riddled with linguistic jargon and therefore a bit stilted and overly technical. I studied language acquisition and linguistics in college so much of the terminology was familiar to me, but there were still some chapters that sent me running to my old Linguistics textbook for a refresher. Those without a Linguistics textbook or at least a twisted appreciation for SVO languages, declensions and labio-dental fricatives might prefer a less scholarly text.

Like Webster, Merriam and other linguaphiles out there, Yang's book might be better received if it were abridged.

How kids learn language--and how Chomsky thinks about it .......2006-08-25

This is the book to read for a clear and deep and ORIGINAL
account of how children "learn" language. It is also by far
the best accessible account to the linguistics of Noam Chomsky,
an intellectual accomplishment that has spread to many other
fields, and whose excitement Yang communicates very well.

How Children Learn Language: A Guide for Professionals in Early Childhood or Special Education

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How Children Learn Language: A Guide for Professionals in Early Childhood or Special Education
James McLean , and Lee Snyder-McLean
Manufacturer: Singular
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1565936833

Book Description

Presents the most modern psychosocial model of early communication and language development. Describes the cognitive knowledge bases that children must have to acquire language. Designed specifically for childhood education students. Ideal for SLPA language development course. TEXTBOOK

Spanish All Talk Basic Language Course (4 Hour/4 Cds): Learn to Understand and Speak Spanish with Linguaphone Language Programs (All Talk) (All Talk)

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Spanish All Talk Basic Language Course (4 Hour/4 Cds): Learn to Understand and Speak Spanish with Linguaphone Language Programs (All Talk) (All Talk)
Linguaphone
Manufacturer: Linguaphone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 0747309515

Product Description

On-the-go Instrction Because your time is valuable... All Audio All on the go! Beginning level instruction is presented in an all-audio format on 4 digitally-recorded CDs. You have the opportunity to learn on the go, taking advantage of time normally wasted. Study in your car, while exercising, doing yard work anywhere you can safely listen to a CD player. No accompanying books are needed to help you complete the lesson activities. Why can t learning be fun? It can! Linguaphone has chosen to present the allTalk series in an entertaining, soap-opera format. No dry old teacher with a monotone voice putting you to sleep, you follow the adventures of a visitor to a Spanish-speaking country as she interacts with individuals in a variety of interesting situations, learning the language and beginning to understand the culture. Actually learn the language Tired of spending money on language courses that don t work? Did you ever think the problem could be with the course and not you? With Linguaphone s unique learning sequence: Listen, Understand, Speak, you will find yourself actually using the language in no time at all! You are presented with a unit of the language, it is then broken down and explained to you, then you put it back together with greater understanding than just repeating what you may not have understood in the first place. . . . and learn it well! The all Talk methodology not only teaches well, but will have you speaking and understanding basic spoken Spanish in no time at all. Other popular all-audio courses require four times the cds, four times the money and four times the time to do what Linguaphone s allTalk Basic does with 4-one hour CDs.

The Secret of Natural Readers: How Preschool Children Learn to Read

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The Secret of Natural Readers: How Preschool Children Learn to Read
Ada Anbar
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0275984249

Book Description

Interactions that involve the printed word occur spontaneously between young children and adults in the context of daily life activities. This is true, to a greater or lesser degree, in essentially all socioeconomic and cultural environments. Recognizing the critical importance of the early years for the development of literacy, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the International Reading Association (IRA) formulated, in 1998, a joint position statement regarding early literacy. That statement included a set of general recommendations for teaching practice. But following the Bush administration's "No Child Left Behind" legislation of January 2002, and the establishment of the Reading First and Early Reading First programs, early childhood educators are now under heavy pressure to be more specific and to issue standards, or shared expectations, for the literacy development of all children below kindergarten age. Utilizing the actual experiences of six preschool children, The Secret of Natural Readers documents the process of reading development through stories of their early years. The author discusses the implications of natural reading development and its feasibility among preschoolers from different segments of the population. She also spells out, for parents and early childhood teachers, critical information on how preschool children should learn to read.

How Children Learn the Meanings of Words (Learning, Development, and Conceptual Change)

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What a great book!
A Marvelous and Readable Synthesis
Excellent book about children's language development

How Children Learn the Meanings of Words (Learning, Development, and Conceptual Change)
Paul Bloom
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized

ASIN: 0262523299

Book Description

How do children learn that the word "dog" refers not to all four-legged animals, and not just to Ralph, but to all members of a particular species? How do they learn the meanings of verbs like "think," adjectives like "good," and words for abstract entities such as "mortgage" and "story"? The acquisition of word meaning is one of the fundamental issues in the study of mind.

According to Paul Bloom, children learn words through sophisticated cognitive abilities that exist for other purposes. These include the ability to infer others' intentions, the ability to acquire concepts, an appreciation of syntactic structure, and certain general learning and memory abilities. Although other researchers have associated word learning with some of these capacities, Bloom is the first to show how a complete explanation requires all of them. The acquisition of even simple nouns requires rich conceptual, social, and linguistic capacities interacting in complex ways.

This book requires no background in psychology or linguistics and is written in a clear, engaging style. Topics include the effects of language on spatial reasoning, the origin of essentialist beliefs, and the young child's understanding of representational art. The book should appeal to general readers interested in language and cognition as well as to researchers in the field.

Customer Reviews:

What a great book!.......2000-10-30

I have a two year old and a newborn. This topic is of immediate interest to me. But this isn't why I bought it.

As a product designer I wanted to gain some perspective on how we acquire language in the first place and found most of the documentation weak. Then I found this book.

I realy enjoyed reading it. I left my copy on the plane on a trip overseas and was greatly disapointed by the airlines failure to recover it (I sure hope the cleaning crew enjoyed it!). So I bought another copy immediately and continued reading.

One of my favorite books this year.

A Marvelous and Readable Synthesis.......2000-10-23

This book is a marvelous synthesis of research, by the author, his students, and many others, on how children learn the meanings of words. It makes clear why learning the meanings of words is a difficult task requiring explication, which is not immediately obvious, and then presents a great deal of evidence bearing on how it is done. As someone accustomed to reading very critically and frequently finding faults and gaps even in arguments to which I am sympathetic, I was amazed at how rarely I could find anything to quibble with. The book is also very balanced theoretically; the author considers a wide range of possible factors, from innate constraints on lexical semantics to general principles of theory of mind, and argues his case very fairly.

The book is not always easy reading, but it is always clear and pleasant. In a few cases the interpretation of an experiment described will not be entirely clear to someone with no background in psycholinguistics; in a few others, linguistic ideas are referred to without much explanation. Overall, however, the book should be accessible even to those without specialized trainng in linguistics or psychology.

Excellent book about children's language development.......2000-04-18

This is a wonderfully informative, readable, and engaging book about how children learn words, and more generally about children's early conceptual knowledge and understanding of the minds of other people. Anyone interested in how children learn language, or in the relationship between language and thought, will enjoy this book. The author surveys a large body of the latest, most exciting research findings about how children learn words, and presents his own very interesting proposals, covering such issues as: The prelinguistic concepts that infants and young children possess, how they read the minds of others in order to decide what a speaker is referring to when they hear a new word, how they attend to certain aspects of the world at the expense of others when considering possible meanings for a new word; in short, how children are able to perform such a remarkable feat as learning a language in their first few years of life. The book also addresses such deep and interesting issues as whether the language one learns influences how one sees and thinks about the world. I highly recommend this book to those who are interested in children's early language and thought and its development.

Growing Up with Language: How Children Learn to Talk

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Language acquisition at a glance

Growing Up with Language: How Children Learn to Talk
Naomi S. Baron
Manufacturer: Da Capo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Young Children with Special Needs
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ASIN: 020162480X

Customer Reviews:

Language acquisition at a glance.......1999-11-13

Growing Up With Language is Naomi Baron's fifth book about language. Baron writes this book for "parents, medical practitioners, educators and students." Since her graduate work, Baron has tried to reconcile the gap between studying in academia and practice and research with real children. Three questions remained unanswered. The first "How do you teach language?" The third and most difficult , "How do children crack the language code?" Any new parent or parent to be who has read Infants and Mothers by T. Berry Brazelton, will feel comfortable with the format of this book. Brazelton describes the development of three babies that he calls "Quiet," "Active," and "Average." Baron also chooses three styles of language learners that she identifies as, Sara, Ryan, and Alex. Throughout the book Baron includes a myriad of anecdotes to illustrate each language learning milestone for each of her three learners. When reading the book from cover to cover, you will discover that information is often repeated. Some readers will read specific chapters dealing with grammar, or baby talk, and will find the repetition of information helpful. Others will find it redundant. Each chapter concludes with an "Ideas and Alerts" section. These sections and the concluding Notes section are invaluable. Baron also chooses three "normal" children. In Chapter One, Baron introduces her three subjects and gives an outline for the remaining chapters. Baron identifies seven phases of language development and four themes. The first theme involves the "Conversational Imperative." The imperative compels people to talk to babies, pets, and stuffed animals. Theme II is the "Phantom Normal." All parents are yearning to know that their child is "normal." Theme III is "Language Orienteering," this is Baron's term for how children learn language. "Language Saturation," is how language learning is measured. Language is a social activity. Parents and children engage in a "duet" of conversation. Chapter Two illustrates the conversational relationships of the three children and their families. Baron discusses the common features of babytalk and the development of language from birth to the emergence words. Biology impacts language development. Changes take place with the palate, tongue and larynx that allow an infant to first use his mouth for nourishment and later for communication. Short hand allowed secretaries to conserve time and space without losing content. Children create their own spoken shorthand when communicating with others. Young children exploit their expressive vocabulary confident that they have maintained meaning, even when adults need an interpreter. Chapter Three, "Language on a Shoestring," illustrates through a variety of anecdotes how children attempt to communicate using their limited language resources. Adult language and phonology requires young linguists to perform tongue calisthenics. Because of the difficulty of sequencing certain sounds, water becomes "wawa" and Thank you becomes "Tanku." Depending upon the volume of language modeled for children, each child develops a language learning strategy reflecting his language environment. Katherine Nelson named the early word users as "referential." Referential children use recognizable words at 9-10 months. Referential children begin using grammar and creating their own word combinations using analysis of modeled parental language. "Expressive" children will have their first words appear at 12- 14 months. Their language is "echo" the speech of adults, and are less likely to take risks. Baron states that many children fall between these two groups. The two learning styles mirror the parental learning styles. Referential parents ask many questions and talk about objects in the environment. Expressive parents use language related to social activities and conversation. Preschoolers establish a vocabulary, then they must work and mold their grammar. Most adults do not remember their children's colloquialisms, however Chapter Four, gives examples that will be familiar to most parents. Using words analogies children create new words of phrases as needed. Use of analogy caused Alex to respond." I changed up my mind." Alex had heard response, "I made up my mind," numerous times. It seemed a logical response to also "change up" your mind. "Bags on the Banks," is the title of Chapter Five. The subtitle is "Orienteering in Meaning, Sound and Conversation." What are "bags on the banks?" To any preschooler, they the bags that are often put on parking meters, when they are not in use. To a preschooler who does not know the term "parking meter," bags on the banks is a logical way to express meaning. As children become "saturated" with language, they begin to create humor, and see relationships between events. Children begin to have "language awareness," and are able to manipulate the language, sometime creating unexpected humor. Once you understand the concept of a sunset, would a rainset, or snowset seem impossible? Chapter Six, demonstrates a child's ability to manipulate language. Chapter Seven, focuses on emerging literacy. Baron discusses the impact that Sesame Street has had on many modern preschool children. While singing the praises of Sesame Street, she does not consider the television as a substitute for parental communication. Susan Foster-Cohen, author of An Introduction to Child Language Development, suggests that there are two responses to language research. One is that of an observational response and the other a logical response. Cohen considers Baron to be the former and herself the latter. Foster-Cohen suggests that Baron's book is for people" with little or no familiarity with linguistics." Growing up with Language, will give parents and teachers of young children an insight into how they develop language, and offer a variety of suggestions to aid in this process. It would be a useful resource for professionals who are communicating with parents about language development. A reader of Growing Up With Language will understand the meaning of morphology, pitch, intonation, and the importance of glides and liquids. Anecdotes will bring back memories or perhaps provide a few chuckles. The resources and notes listed give ample suggestions for continued study. It is a reader friendly book, that is not intended to offer a course in linguistics.

Whole to Part Phonics: How Children Learn to Read and Spell

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Very precise, easy to read, easy to use.

Whole to Part Phonics: How Children Learn to Read and Spell
Henrietta Dombey , Margaret Moustafa , Myra Barrs , Helen Bromley , Sue Ellis , and Clare Kelly
Manufacturer: Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0325001200

Book Description

Significant recent research in literacy learning casts serious doubt on the effectiveness of traditional phonics instruction. Researchers have discovered that traditional phonics, with its emphasis on letters, sounds, and words, ignores the complexity of children's natural learning processes, including children's inclination to focus first on the text, then on whole words, and then on their constituent parts. Whole to Part Phonics offers a concise, accessible introduction to this research and proven strategies for translating it into effective classroom practice.

The contributors to Whole to Part Phonics recognize that children need to understand letter-sound relationships in order to become independent and fluent readers. But, they argue, this knowledge is of little value unless children learn how to use it in context. Accordingly, the authors maintain that children's encounters with print lay the groundwork for effective phonics learning. By drawing on children's wider experience of reading and on their preferred modes of learning, whole-to-part phonics offers an exciting alternative - students focus on the construction of meaning rather than the decoding of text.

In Part I, Henrietta Dombey explains how phonics works in English and surveys the research evidence for whole-to-part phonics. Margaret Moustafa then offers advice on using whole-to-part phonics strategies in a rich, literature-based reading program. Olivia O'Sullivan of the Centre for Language in Primary Education (CLPE) surveys research that investigates the connection between developmental spelling and reading. In Part II, the staff of the CLPE offers a set of detailed, practical suggestions for promoting the knowledge children need to learn letter-sound relationships and use them effectively in both their reading and writing.

Customer Reviews:

Very precise, easy to read, easy to use........1999-09-19

The first thing that made me want to read the book, other than the title, was that is was unbelievably short. After reading it, I was impressed with how much the information made sense and how easy it would be to try. I have a low class this year and decided to give the Whole to Part theory a chance. I was very impressed to see my students making connections after only one week. Many of my students do not speak Englis as a first language so I wasn't sure how well this would work. My students are enjoying learning to read this way and feel very successful, even my special education students. I will be using this information for a long time to come. Many teachers I work with have seen my success and are interested in reading this book and trying it for themselves.

Thanks, Marilyn V.

Beginning to Read and the Spin Doctors of Science: The Political Campaign to Change America's Mind About How Children Learn to Read
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How a pack of lies and ideologues hijacked education

Debunks Pseudoscience in Reading Research

More spin

Taylor Reverses Pro-Phonics Spin

Beginning to Read and the Spin Doctors of Science: The Political Campaign to Change America's Mind About How Children Learn to Read
Denny Taylor
Manufacturer: National Council of Teachers of English
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0814102751

Customer Reviews:

How a pack of lies and ideologues hijacked education.......2001-07-02

Bumpy at times, shrill at others, this book is nevertheless a compelling and convincing history of our very recent past. And anyone involved with or concerned about educational reform should read it, alert to the dictum that "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Taylor documents in excruciating detail the grim story of how a dedicated group of ideologues "reformed" reading teaching in California and spread their insupportable beliefs throughout the country and (now) even into mathematics teaching. That they did so by lying may be no surprise - this is always the path of ideologues. But that they lied so baldly, that so many politicians rolled over so supinely, that so many anxious parents jumped to the raised fist of these demagogues is an eye opening story.

When Taylor and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) published this book in 1998 it was seen by many as a finger-in-the-dike against an incredible wash of success of the pro-phonics movement in turning reading education in this country on its head. Many had watched in surprise as a small handful of mere drafts of narrowly conceived research studies were fronted as proof that wholly new approaches to reading education were demanded. But the surprise turned to horror as, sometimes in mere months, this sheaf of papers pulled from a pumpkin was turning California and other legislatures toward a frenzy of legislation implanting phonics-as-policy. Turning them, even to the extent of legislatures defining what would heretofore be allowed to be called "research" in support of a reading program. Twisting, even, when the circulated draft studies were shown to be built on narrow assumptions and flawed statistics. Spinning, still, when the final, published copies were similarly flawed but suspiciously lacking some of the lies that, in draft form, had convinced legislators to leap into the parade.

While the other reading teachers association, the International Reading Association (IRA) was nervously twiddling its thumbs in committees discussing the need for balance and accommodation of all views, the NCTE, at least saw the paint splashed on the wall and commissioned this work. Within months of California and other states enacting sweeping legislation this book exposed the incredible suite of lies and manipulations underlying the successful campaign leading to that legislation.

But it is a campaign that is to this day continuing. Mouth the words "Whole Language" in public in 2001 and you will notice the knee-jerk responses quickly engulf you in a fog of disdain. Yet the `Whole Language' approach to reading instruction - an approach that included but did not offer primacy to phonics - was at the heart of a research-based model for reading instruction that was embraced by large numbers of teachers, parents and administrators as recently as five years ago. Now they mostly shake their heads and talk about "what works", pointing to California (or Texas where the flawed studies took place).

Only three years later, we now see the juggernaut of lies, emboldened, turned with the same religious zeal, against the past decades of reforms in math teaching. The now successfully tarnished "whole language" terminology is turned to denigrate these reforms as "whole math." Even some of the same reading "experts" turn up as newly-minted, and outspoken, authorities in mathematics!

This can be a tough book to stay with. It was written in the midst of a tornado that has now settled into a national storm. Some parts are polemic, some personal. But it is still critical "primary documentation" of a public policy hijacking that continues to diminish the educational opportunity of huge and growing numbers of children. If you care about and endorse progressive changes in education you should read this book and speak out. Certainly we don't want, sometime in the future, to be mouthing the phrase "first they came for the reading programs, and I was silent, then they came for..." A strong analogy, perhaps, but a generation rendered ignorant and lethargic by rote drill and meaningless schooling will certainly be one that is ripe for the plucking of the basest of ideologues.

Debunks Pseudoscience in Reading Research.......2000-12-11

Unlike Brett Reynolds (who wrote a mostly bad review of this book for Amazon), I quite like this book. If you really want to know what the political agendas are behind the reading wars, read this book. If you think that there is any solid research on "phonemic awareness", find out (1) how little of it there is and (2) how even the awful stuff is branded "science" and used to make decisions at the very top (a truth that will resound if Bush takes office as president).

More spin.......2000-10-16

The whole point of the book is that government and researchers are twisting the truth to suit their own agendas and reap large profits from authoring teaching materials. Although there are some good points in the book about poor research design, overinterpretation, misuse of statistics, and undisclosed conflicts of interest, the author is blatant in her own selective quoting and spin doctoring. She suggests that the overwhelming consensus about importance of phonemic awareness is based on a very few flawed studies that everyone cites. The fact is that there are hundreds of well designed (as well as the mediocre, and poor) studies.

The author keeps harping on Marilyn Adams and Keith Stanovich as she rails against "direct phonics only" legislation, yet both Adams and Stanovich are explicit in their support for extensive reading of trade books.

Lots of sarcasm. Lots of non sequiturs. Heaps and heaps of quoted text. And a few good points.

(P.S. I'm not an American, and don't live there, so I focused more on the research and less on the political side of the book. What the politicians are doing sounds awful.)

Taylor Reverses Pro-Phonics Spin.......1999-01-10

In Beginning to Read and the Spin Doctor's of Science, literacy researcher and author Denny Taylor examines the pro-phonics legislative campaign afoot in the US, which has the dual goals of controlling how children are taught to read in this country, as well as changing, shaping, and delimiting public and professional discourse on how children learn to read. The book explores the assumptions behind this campaign, as well as how language and policy-making are being used, and abused, by pro-phonics forces to shape perceptions of reality. The Spin Doctors of Science focuses on the players, but Taylor never lets readers forget that it is children who will suffer the consequences of this religiously, politically, and profit-motivated campaign to control how they are taught to read. Filled as it is with deconstructions of research, explanations of reading theory, and senate testimony so banal and filled with doublespeak as to have a sedative effect, The Spin Doctors of Science could have been a deadly dull book. But Taylor, in this narrative tour de force, keeps readers on the edges of their seats. The stakes are too high for her to let our attention wander. Taylor's writing "puts us there." We are in Texas, listening to Foorman, or in California, listening to Doug Carnine. And Taylor's ironic, and painfully hilarious, running commentary on these events makes readers feel as if she is sitting in the next chair, whispering like-minded asides as we writhe in silence while another "expert" stands up to disseminate lies, damn lies, and statistics. Taylor steps further into the fray by showing us the tools we must use, the literacies we must learn, if teachers and professors and parents are to learn how to stand in noticeable opposition to the spin doctors of science and their corporate-friendly sponsors. This is a brilliant book. It is too bad it had to be about a nightmare.

Action Meets Word: How Children Learn Verbs

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Action Meets Word: How Children Learn Verbs
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek , and Roberta Michnik Golinkoff
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0195170008

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