Category: Language
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The Relation of Speech to Reading and Writing
In this post, we examine another argument made against the naturalness of reading by Alvin Liberman in 1992. The distinction, according to Liberman, may be that one is biological in evolution, while the other is cultural.
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An Interlude: What do we mean when we say learning something is unnatural?
An interlude reflecting on what we’ve learned from the Goodmans and Gough and Hillinger on the debate of whether learning to read is natural or unnatural.
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Learning to Read: An Unnatural Act
In this post, we’ll explore a strong counterargument to the Goodmans’ argument that learning to read is natural. And it has something to do with the distinction between a code and a cipher.
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Learning to Read is Natural
In this paper, the Goodmans claim that learning to read is natural. Are they right?
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What is (un)natural about learning to read and write?
What is (un)natural about learning to read and write? In a series of posts, we’ll examine three seminal papers investigating the nature of literacy development and its relation to language learning.
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The Science of Reading Across Languages
Digging into “Is the Science of Reading Just the Science of Reading English?” by David L. Share
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The Sound and the Fury of Phonemes and Reading
Here is my Yule time gift to my fellow reading nerds: I am honored that a version of my blog post about my shift in thinking on phonemic awareness has been published in the latest Nomanis. Do check out this newer version for the research goods. And a big thank you to Tiffany Peltier for […]
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Irregularity Enhances Learning (Maybe)
In this paper, the author makes an argument that the contrasting forces of “discriminability” and “regularity” both serve to make language something we pick up pretty much naturally, even if we don’t know all the words in the language.
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Language Within and Beyond the Brain
As I was preparing for a session I was facilitating recently, I went down a rabbit hole on language use and cognition. I know saying “went down the rabbit hole” typically bears a negative connotation, but I gotta say, I love me some getting lost in meandering exploratory nerdy byalleyways. While rabbit holes may oft […]
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The Science of Reading and Cancer
I have somewhat eclectic book reading habits, and I take pleasure in reading haphazardly (i.e. whatever I happen to come across). After growing bored with Moby Dick recently, I happened across a copy of Siddhartha Mukerjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. The book is compellingly written, narrating an expansive overview of […]
Language & Literacy 