Return-Path: <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h6BJjtC13658; Fri, 11 Jul 2003 15:45:55 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 15:45:55 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <178.1d74ad06.2c406d53@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: MWPotts2001@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-4EFF:2417] Overcoming reading plunge X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Mac sub 39 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: O Content-Length: 3026 Lines: 69 Adding to list for Tom Sticht. Emphasis on Adult Research Meta Potts, Moderator 4-EFF list Overcoming The Fourth-Grade Plunge In the Spring 2003 issue of the American Educator, E.D. Hirsch, Jr. and Andrew Biemiller cite research by my colleagues and me on the need to develop oral comprehension as a foundation for reading comprehension. What I find particularly interesting is that the research cited was done to better understand adult reading education, not childhood reading. Almost 30 years ago, to aid in the better understanding of adult literacy issues, colleagues and I wrote Auding and Reading: A Developmental Model [auding refers to learning by listening] to provide a summary and synthesis of how the "typical child," (a theoretical abstraction of course) born into our literate society grows up to become literate in the judgment of other adults. This was done to provide a frame of reference for better understanding how it is that some children, unlike the "typical child," grow up to be less than adequately literate in the judgment of other adults and might benefit from participating in an adult literacy program. Auding and Reading offered guidance for adult reading instruction that presaged the present guidance in the American Educator for K-12 education. For instance, on page 122 of Auding and Reading we stated the need for: "methods for improving oral language skills as foundation skills for reading. In this regard, it would seem that, at least with beginning or unskilled readers, a sequence of instruction in which vocabulary and concepts are first introduced and learned via oracy skills would reduce the learning burden by not requiring the learning of both vocabulary and decoding skills at the same time. It is difficult to see how a person can learn to recognize printed words by "sounding them out" through some decoding scheme if, in fact, the words are not in the oral language of the learner. Thus an oracy-to-literacy sequence of training would seem desirable in teaching vocabulary and concepts to unskilled readers." Auding and Reading goes on to discuss concepts of automaticity in decoding, which underlie fluency of decoding in both auding and reading and explain why it is important to develop fluency (automaticity) of decoding. There remains a need for further understanding of the life-span changes that affect reading. The fact that adults change across the life span argues for more research to better understand literacy development in adulthood beyond what we have learned to-date and what we can glean from studying the literacy development of children. Interestingly, as American Educator illustrates, what new learning we acquire about adult literacy development across the life span may have additional, important implications for K-12 literacy education. This adds weight to the importance of policies that emphasize the need for research on adult literacy education Thomas G. Sticht International Consultant in Adult Education El Cajon, Calif.
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