Readings for Week 4

Chapters 3&4 of the Freeman book cover English Phonology and the implications that come along with it.

Chapter 3 went into depth with the subject of phonology and allowed me to digest the previous material that I read in the book. It also covered exactly what happens within the human anatomy when certain sounds are made. The chapter implied that knowing and understanding phonology can better equip educators when teaching English. It seems that English has a lot of phonemes! (40 in total) The book said that Spanish has about 22 phonemes. From these facts, I did not know what to think. Does that mean that English is a more complicated language? I just don't know. Either way, learning a second or foreign language, no matter what language it is, should not be seen as an easy task.

Chapter 4 went into the two views on phonemic awareness, Word Recognition vs. Sociopsycholinguistic View (say that one 5 times fast!) It seems that there are valid arguments for both view points but I tend to lean towards the Sociopsycholiguistic View. It seems that reading can be taught but most of it is acquired and it is best when it is presented in context and not isolated. I think I am bias because I think of how I learned to read. My sister taught me when I was 4 and she handed me a book and taught me. Bless her heart because although I wanted to quit she had me go through this entire book. It was a pretty big book for a 4 year old but the thing that my sister did not know then, is that she was teaching me how to read using the Sociopsycholinguistic View. I had visual clues from the pictures and this is an example of graphophonic cues.

On page 75 there was the discussion about a book written by Stanovich, "Matthew Effects in Reading" This was not a new concept to me but I just love the way it is explained and it makes perfect sense. The whole idea that rich get richer and poor get poorer in the reading department. It seems that reading can have a snowball effect and it can roll either way. For example, when a child likes to read they of course continue to do it. Through reading children acquire a faster reading rate (which leads to greater comprhension) and a greater vocabulary. This in turns leads the child to enjoy reading because they are good at it and the cycle continues. Now the opposite can happen also, and it seems from my encounters with people who do not enjoy reading their are very firm in that thought.

To conclude, I feel much better about the readings of last week. It seems there was a lot of material but it was an introduction of what we would learn later.