Oral Language and Reading: Papers Collected from the 1967 Spring Institutes on the Elementary Language Arts
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 071.099 CS 200 339 AUTHOR Walden, James, TITLE Ed. Oral Languageand Reading: Papers Collectedfrom the 1967 SpringInstitutes on the Arts. Elementary Language INSTITUTION National Councilof Teachers Ill. of English,Champaign, PUB DATE 69 NOTE 117p. AVAILABLE FROMNational Council of Teachersof English, Road, Urbana,Ill. 61801 1111 Kenyon (Stock No. 26974,$1.95 non-member, $1.75member) EDRS PRICE MF -$0.65 HC-$6.58 DESCRIPTORS *Applied Linguistics;Dialects; Elementary *English Instruction; Education; Inservice TeacherEducation; Language Arts;Language Learning Research; Linguistics; Levels; Language *Oral Communication;Oral Expression; OralReading; Development; *Reading Psycholinguistics;*Reading Instruction; ReadingPrograms; Reading Research;Teaching Methods ABSTRACT This book dealswith the topics is relatedto reading and of how orallanguage how the Englishteacher can exploit thisrelationship. The effectively the 1967 NCTE contents of thebook arepapers from spring institutesfor elementary supervisors. WalterJ. Moore examines teachers and and points out the role of the the value ofthis book for reading teacher education inlinguistics. A directing inservice relation to the knowledge ofpsycholinguistics in teaching ofelementary language John B. Carroll. arts is discussedby Jean Berko Gleasonoutlines recent children uselanguage at various findings on how findings to age levels andrelates these teaching practices.Wick R. Miller reading-language discusses the acquisitionrelationship and methods are lessimportant than suggests that teaching Henry J. Sustakoski the child'spersonal initiative. summarizes recentdiscoveries in illustrates theirrelevance for linguistics and classroom problems English teachers.Three types of David W. Reed, involving linguisticsand reading and thereasons for using are examined by dialect are setforth by Roger more than one English in language W. Shuy. Thefunction ox: oral learning andsome ways in which language other aspects of it can becombined with the linguisticprogram are suggested Loban. (Thisdocument previously by Walter announced as ED029 026.) (LIO 1 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS SEEN REPRO. OUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIG INATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPIN IONS STATED 00 NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EOU CATION POSITION OR POUCY El RAE WINO:1416E41N13 REf1131146 Papers Collected from the1967 Spring Instituteson the Elementary LanguageArts Edited by James Walden, IndianaUniversity NATIONAL COUNCIL OFTEACHERS OF ENGLISH 508 South Sixth Street Champaign, Illinois 61820 NOTE COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATIONS Robert F. Hogan, NCTE Executive Secretary, Chairman Charlotte S. Huck, Ohio State University John C. Maxwell, Upper Midwest Regional Educational Laboratory Henry W. Sams, Pennsylvania State University Mildred E. Webster, St. Joseph (Michigan) High School CONSULTANT READERS Arthur Applebee, Harvard University Jane Arnold, Clearwater (Florida) Public Schools Leroy Curtis, Wayne State University Verna. L. Newsome, formerly University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee James Wilsford, BostonNorthampton Language Program, Peninsula, Ohio EDITORIAL SERVICES Cynthia H. Smith, NOTE Headquarters BOOK DESIGN Norma Phillips, NCTE Headquarters Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 76.78447 SBN Number: 8141-26974 NCTE Stock Number: 26974 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPY RIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED FITN..ational Council of Teachers of English TO ERIC ANO ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE US OFFICE OF EDUCATION FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM REQUIRES PER MISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER Copyright 1969 National Council of Teachers of English 508 South Sixth Street, Champaign, Illinois 61820 Printed in the United States of America EONTENTS Peg. FOREWORD vii ORAL LANGUAGE AND READING: AN INTRODUCTORY COMMENT,Walter J. Moore is PSYCHOLINGUISTICS AND THE ELEMENTARY LANGUAGE ARTS.John B. Carroll I LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD Jean Berko Gleason 15 LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND READING,Wick R. Miller 31 SOME CONTRIBUTIONS OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCETO THE TEACHING OF READING,Henry J. Sustakoski 49 LINGUISTICS AND READING, ONCE MORE,David W. Reed 75 LOCATING THE SWITCHING DEVICES OF ORALLANGUAGE Roger W. Shuy 89 ORAL LANGUAGE AND LEARNING,Walter Loban 101 FBREWEIRD A growing interest in oral languageand the everpresPnt preoccupation with reading prompted theplanners of the 1967 Spring Institutes of the National Councilof Teachers of English to bring together distinguished scholarsto discuss problems and trends in each area. General consultantsand local chairmen were selected to help participan's translate theideas into plans of action. The director and staff coordinator wishto recognize the con- tributions marla by the consultants andlocal chairmen. Their names follow: Detroit Institute. General Consultant: Muriel Crosby, Wil- mington Public Schools, Wilmington,Delaware; Local Chair- man: Harry T. Hahn, Professor of Education, OaklandUniver- sity, Rochester, Michigan. Charleston Institute. General Consultant:Virginia Reid, Oakland Public Schools, Oakland, California; Local Chairman : Lorena Anderson, State Department ofEducation, Charleston, West Virginia. Sacramento Institute. General Consultant:Margaret Early, Professor of Education. Syracuse University;Local Chairman : Helen Strickland, Curriculum Coordinator,Placer County Schools, Auburn, California. I wish to express my thanks to these staffmembers for their valuable assista;:ce in arranging for andconducting the insti- tutes. Thanks go also to James It Squire,at that time NCTE Executive Secretary, to Robert P. Hogan,present Executive Secretary, and to Eldonna L. Evertts, staffcoordinator for the Spring Institutes, who all servedas members of the planning committee. James Walden Indiana University vii OR% b4INGIIIIGE 41NEIREMING: 41N INTRBEMETBRYEEIMMENT Courses offered in teacher preparationinstitutions today do not presume to equip teachers for all the tasksin the teaching of reading. Writers in the professionhave emphasized that suc- cessful teachers must become familiarwith individual difrerences, formulate specific objectives, drawup plans for observation, acquire knowledge of available books,pay attention to vocabulary growth, and gain insight into oral reading.Whatever the list of tasks confronting them, and it is usuallylong, teachers must recognize the immensity of the job if theyare to develop an effective and efficient program. That teachers donot always master these techniques, thereby making readingseem even more complex to the child than it needs to be, isavowed by some writers who go so far as tosay that many children fail to learn because the methods used by the schools actuallyprevent them f! om learning. Writing over a decade ago in thepages of Elementary English, Stahl observed : ... not only must the teacher have thoroughly mastered and understood the reading process, but lie must beprepared to in- terpret this process to each and every pupil, attemptingto adapt the process to each individual's own capabilities andachievements. [italics supplied] I Hence, it is necessary to consider on-the-jobor in(:::-. ice activities for teachers which will further develop techniquesand methods which have been introduced in preservice, training.Inservice education should emphasize recommended practices. OralLan- guage and Reading can help to provide sucha direct emphasis. But, prior to a consideration of Oral Languageand Reading, inservice programs must adopta definite point of view, must 1 Stanley Stahl, Jr., "An InService Approach to theImprovement of Developmental Reading Instruction," Elementary English, 34(May 1957), 313. ix x. Oral Language and Reading define the role of the teacher of reading. From this viewpoint, this description, a conception of what is involved may emerge. But views are many and varied. The story is a long one, and its telling is not yet completed. The National Committee on Reading in its 1937 report di- vided the responsibility for reading instruction among teachers of reading, teachers of content, and librarians. In attempting to distribute responsibility among all staff members of a school, this committee adopted the slogan "Every teacher a teacher of reading" and described the responsibilities that teachers of content subjects should assume toward reading instruction? In the interval that has elapsed since the 1937 report appeared, this slogan has been emphasized repeatedly. Would that one could say that the slogan has made teachers of subjects aware of reading problems and of their own roles in providing reading guidance ! One reason why teachers have failed to embrace the notion that all teachers are teachers of reading is that they have not been clear as to why they should ue. They have not seen reading related to the basic purposes of the content fields in such a way as to make clear the significance of reading problems, nor what they, as content teachers, may do to assist in solving such prob- lems. To convince a content area teacher of his responsibility to provide guidance in reading in the area of his concern has been a task that increasingly large numbers of reading experts have had to shoulder. But the question arises: Have they succeeded? The answer has to be "no!" Does the same fate lie ahead for those who would convince teachers that they have responsibilities with re- spect to linguistics? It need not be! A good deal depends on what is meant by the term "reading." To the linguist,