Language Development and Learning to Read: The Scientific Study of How Language Development Affects Reading Skill.LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING TO READ: The Scientific Study of How Language Development Affects Reading Skill. Diane McGuinness. Cambridge, MA: The MIT MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2005. 494 pp. $45.00. Language Development and Learning To Read is a review of the research about reading predictors and language development. Diane McGuinness, a reading consultant and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of South Florida • • [ , has written seven books on reading and learning, including a companion book to this one, titled Early Reading Instruction. Part I examines theories of how phonological awareness Phonological awareness is the conscious sensitivity to the sound structure of language. It includes the ability to auditorily distinguish parts of speech, such as syllables and phonemes. develops, and how it affects the ability to read and write. Part II explains expressive language development and its impact on reading and academic success. Part III assesses the language-reading relationship. McGuinness analyzed the past 30 years of reading and language research. The central message of this book is that "The [reading] research question 'What's wrong with children who can't read?' is a bad question scientifically, logically, and pragmatically, and has been extremely unproductive" (p. 426). She concludes that phonological awareness is not developmental; rather, the "method of instruction ... makes the child ready" (p. 411) to read. McGuinness finds language development research to be more logical and systematic than reading research. It is inductive inductive 1. eliciting a reaction within an organism. 2. inductive heating a form of radiofrequency hyperthermia that selectively heats muscle, blood and proteinaceous tissue, sparing fat and air-containing tissues. and addresses instructional methods, especially those that teach starting at the phoneme phoneme Smallest unit of speech distinguishing one word (or word element) from another (e.g., the sound p in tap, which differentiates that word from tab and tag). The term is usually restricted to vowels and consonants, but some linguists include differences of pitch, level. Her critique of the research on reading is that reading research is methodologically flawed, inductive research is absent, and the researchers often do not create theories based on sound knowledge. McGuinness found that the following factors place a child at risk for reading failure: delayed language development, being in the bottom 5 percent on vocabulary tests vocabulary test A component of IQ tests in which a person is asked to define words of varying level of difficulty, and use them in context, which provides the examiner with a measure of the person's intellectual achievement and aptitude. See IQ test. , poor verbal memory, weak oral-comprehension skills, and being male (p. 423). The glossary that is included is necessary because much of the book uses technical terms. The intended audience would be reading instruction professionals who are looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. the best practices for literacy instruction. Reviewed by Rebecca Ness, School Psychologist, Adelanto School District, Adelanto, CA |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion