Posted on 12/16/2011 4:49:36 PM PST by BruceDeitrickPrice
Fake reading theory is the slave trade of our era. Conscience demands that it be opposed.
A hundred books, perhaps two hundred, have been written on the reading wars. Finally those millions of words come down to a few dozen. English is a phonetic language and must be learned phonetically. Whole Word, the opposing theory, is a mirage, without merit.
The great sophistry of the 20th century was to create the illusion that Whole Word could actually work or, one step lower, that there was a legitimate choice between the two approaches to reading, as there is between fahrenheit and centigrade temperatures. The sophists urge even today: let’s use both.
Please don’t. In truth, there’s no debate, no choice. Whole Word is a lie.
One architect of Whole Word casually stated that most people could memorize “fifty to a hundred thousand” sight-words. Not true. In fact, only people with photographic memories could memorize even 20,000 sight-words. Ordinary people have trouble reaching 1,000. Many children cannot reach 100 sight-words. Virtually no one actually reads with sight-words.
Fortunately, most students finally see the phonics inside the sight-words and learn to read in a normal phonetic way. Unfortunately, the students who don’t see the phonics (the sounds) usually remain illiterate. They also become damaged and deeply unhappy. Many end up on Ritalin.
It’s important to say decisively that Whole Word is a fake, a scam, a hoax, I would even say a crime. The people promoting it are too smart not to know what they’re doing. That is my reluctant conclusion....
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(Excerpt) Read more at rightsidenews.com ...
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Of interest to homeschoolers.
I think children should be allowed to use whichever approach works best for them.
I don't fully agree.People with sense do not agree with this drivel.
I think children should be allowed to use whichever approach works best for them.Different folks learn differently. Congrats, sense!
No mention of one of the driving forces behind whole word, none other than Noam Chomsky.
Noam Chomsky, a man who has done more to keep black Americans down than anyone before or since. He is the great oppressor, responsible for the despair and poverty of millions.
And nothing he might ever do, no pain he might ever suffer, will be enough reparations to make up for that.
The cunuiform wedges are just marks ~ you have to look at groups of them to see the stylized hieroglyphs ~ but there's several thousands of years of development behind that system.
The first Chinese hieroglyphs are arguably derived from the Sumerian system ~ although they have a very powerful component that is strictly Eastern ~ or American Indian in origin. That is an elaborate SIGN SYSTEM inside the main system that's based on the configuration of the human body. It's pretty much the same as American Indian Sign Language.
The Chinese may also have incorporated an older shamanistic "sign system". In the end Chinese hieroglyphs/and symbols have changed seveal times so today's system looks nothing like the oldest systems.
To Metmom and Homeschoolers. There is a second article that ties in with this one. “Is English a Phonetic Language? Of course. 100%.”
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/42480
Since Semitic speakers (Egyptians) were using hieroglyphs, special signs, and signs tied to specific sounds, it made sense for them to develop the first alphabets ~ but they didn’t use them instead of their hieroglyphs ~ they developed them OUT of their hieroglyphic system. The earliest alphabets passed through many hands over hundreds of years.
I learned to read by whole word. I am an excellent reader and spell well. I do not know what is best for most people. Maybe, I read well cause I do also have a great memory. Not quite photographic but close. Use what really works well. I want people to read and read well. Nothing will make you as successful and happy in life like reading. You can lean anything if you love to read. And, it is very fun.
Thanks for the links.
I taught my kids phonics and they were all reading at an early age.
Phonics works especially well when you know it thoroughly. There are many odd exceptions to sounds that you need to learn as well as the basics.
Once they were able to sound words out, they could often figure out the word based on context before finishing sounding it out.
That plus many English words are just best plain memorized, and you have to learn those exceptions as well.
Outside of that there's no secret or "best way" to learn to spell. BTW, learning Pre-Norman French English won't help. They used to use "hw" back then, when today we use "wh" ~ and the "w' in "sword" was still properly pronounced. Then there's that "ask/axe" and "task/tax" question ~
This comes up periodically ... I learned whole word as did my children.. ..guess what ?? We all read on a college level..
So is my youngest daughter.
She excelled at all her schoolwork until she reached algebra. For some reason she was struggling.
It took me a couple of sessions to realize what the problem was. She didn't really understand how to handle fractions. Algebraic manipulations rely on knowing how to combine fractions, find common denominators, and multiply to eliminate denominators.
It was her high intelligence which allowed her to find alternate solutions or guess at answers when handling the simpler pre-algebra problems. Only when she had to apply the general principles did it become apparent that she simply didn't understand.
That your very intelligent son can thrive while processing words as pictures has very little relevance to what should be taught for the average child to read fluently. It should be obvious that what has been happening has been a disaster. My three year old grandson can read better than far too many high school graduates.
It seems like there are thousands and thousands of counterexamples to this very dogmatic statement. Apparently there are some much more phonetic languages. Just the fact that English has absorbed words from so many sources would seem to limit the reliability of phonetic pronunciation rules.
I got an email that had the middle letters of the words all mixed up, but the first and last as they should be. It said that my mind automatically corrected the order of the middle letters since I knew the words by sight.
It was interesting.
That being said, I learned phonetically and taught both of my kids before kindergarten the same way. They are both excellent readers.
I teach a class at my church and sometimes I have the kids(teenagers) read aloud. It is brutal to listen to them struggle over the simplest words.
As in learning anything, the foundation is what counts.
That said, I've also been a teacher for 30 years, and the "whole word" is still hooey. Phonics takes the logical leap from an aural set of information to a visual/written set. Once a kid knows the basic rules, he or she can read anything they want. As reading increases, yr brn fls in th gps wth wrds u alrdy knw. But without that foundation, it's harder for kids to read. And as we are less and less a print society, it is becoming increasingly difficult to impress upon kids the importance of reading. ESL kids don't have the vocabulary background, so they are at a disadvantage in learning how to read English, but they can do it. We have two generations of people who have been taught with whole word, and look at the results. They tried to ram this down me in the educational theory (read: boring, stupid, give me practical experience instead!) classes, but I got my grade and tossed the book and the handouts in the trash when it was done. Many of the researchers who come up with these theories haven't been in classrooms in years; Chomsky probably hasn't darkened the door of a real classroom in decades.
Let the revolution begin....
Phonetics is what allows a reader to be able to read and say a word like diethyldimethyltoluene without having encountered it before. Trying to learn the English language with Whole Word when it is 90% phonetic is absurd.
I have no memory of ever sounding out a word in my entire life.
I was read to by my family, that was about it. Was reading before Kindergarten.
As a child I easily read and understood (from context) words like "Archaeopteryx" without any attempts to sound them out.
Could I then pronounce it correctly? Of course not. But some kid tediously trying to "sound it out" isn't goung to end up pronouncing it correctly either.
There is more than adequate empirical evidence that vast numbers of children are not well-able to learn in that manner, and that phonics works for most of them. That our education establishment insists on a one-size-fits-all approach is insane.
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