The Linguist On Language

 Growth in literacy is experienced to the extent to which readers progressively comprehend and draw meaning from texts and appropriate them into their lives.

 Literacy has a technological component in the mastery of reading, writing and the comprehension of texts and a metaphorical dimension that resides in transactions between the reader and the text in which meaning making and significance lies beyond the text into that of appropriation, however variously that may be defined.

Whether learning to read or learning to learn is or should be the central focus of adult literacy education is a matter of some dispute, which has not been resolved within the literature of the field. There is substantial middle ground within these perspectives via the medium of balanced reading theory and a context-derived educational program that focuses on employment, family education, civic literacy, and lifelong learning (Stein, 2000). Nonetheless, tensions between the operative assumptions of the New Literacy Studies and advocates of phonemic-driven approaches to reading are particularly sharp in their articulation of competing definitions of literacy. In moving toward a dialectical resolution that incorporates balanced reading theory within a context-based adult literacy framework, my working hypothesis, much clarification is required."

"Higher-order thinking"

Many English language teachers and literacy teachers feel that to help their learners learn to read, they need to teach them how to think and to give them strategies for reading. The assumption is that the language teacher is qualified to teach these elusive skil s. I have never found this to be the case. Most people seem to be able to think on their own.

I googled "pre-reading tasks" and found 325, 000 pages!!! I read through a few of them. To me it seemed that pre-reading tasks were al about creating classroom activities that change reading from something inherently interesting and stimulating, into another make-work classroom task. The process of reading is divided into stages and tasks are introduced to complicate what are real y a natural task, learning, observing and thinking. Reality is simpler.

The more we read the broader our knowledge base and the better our ability to read.

Rather than teaching artificial reading strategies, I think that it is more important to find ways to stimulate the readers' curiosity and create pleasure in reading. It is more useful to let the students choose content of interest to read. If they have trouble reading, let them have sound to listen to. Read to them in class, or even better have them listen on their iPods. Spend the classroom in discussion, as a group or in focus groups. Encourage students to express their views and to critique the views of others. Reading is just one part of communicating through language.

When I googled "higher-order thinking skil s" I got over one mil ion pages. I cannot say that I remember my teachers at school being necessarily al that logical al the time. I am not sure that an English teacher is equipped to teach an ESL student about "higher-order thinking", whatever that is supposed to mean. I believe that if we can encourage people to read, and encourage them to listen, in order to help them read; and if we use the classroom as a place where people discuss ideas, and accept different points of view, and are forced to find justification for their own points of view, then we wil natural y stimulate higher -order thinking.

In my experience, teachers are often quite unwil ing to accept students chal enging their points of view. This is particularly the case for "political y correct" ideological positions foisted on students in our schools and col eges.

Language is not math

Thinking, evaluating, analyzing, these are things we al do. The more experience we have, and the more we read, and the more we are obliged to state points of view and defend them, the better we get at critical thinking. Language is not science or math. It does not require complicated explanations or laboratory experiments. Language is best acquired naturally, through exposure and use. Language is natural, like breathing. As long as people are al owed choice, given freedom, and encouraged, most people manage quite wel . Teaching "pre-reading skil s" and "higher-order thinking" seems to me a little like teaching people how to walk and how to breathe.

Language learning is simple. You need to create connections in your mind. It starts with words in interesting content. These words connect to sounds, to meanings, to other words in phrases, to episodes you have enjoyed, to feelings and you have to learn these connections and make them part of you.

Critical thinking

I feel that it is the right and privilege of readers to misinterpret, partly understand or interpret in their own way, what they read. I see any effort of the teacher to impose a certain