Tag: research
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A Finale: Learning to Read and Write is a Remarkable Human Feat
What have I learned from my exploration of whether learning to read is natural or unnatural? It’s complicated.
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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 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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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…
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Language and Cognition
There was a fascinating summary thread I came across recently that I want to dig into, as there’s some really interesting and rich areas of tension to unpack. Here’s the thread: The final plenary of @ICCG_11 #icc1 is by the brilliant @ev_fedorenko: "The language system in the human mind and brain" pic.twitter.com/oqg6O0Cixf — Michael Pleyer…
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Universals of Language
In my last post, we looked at a wonderful paper, “Universals in Learning to Read Across Languages and Writing Systems“, that outlines operating principles of reading and writing across languages, as well as some key variations. Continuing on this theme, I wanted to highlight another recent paper, “The universal language network: A cross-linguistic investigation spanning…
Language & Literacy 