David Crystal has posted a couple of noteworthy pieces on his blog just lately. One is ‘On linguistic apps’, in which he points readers in the direction of a grammar app from the Survey of English Usage at University College London. According to David, ‘it’s called iGE, the interactive Grammar of English, and it’s available… Continue reading Crystal clear
I have to admit that it’s a bit nerdy of me to return from holiday – not really! I was doing an intensive course in Spanish – and direct readers to Diacritics, a blog I discovered through Mr Verb. The latest posting by John Stokes asks the question: ‘Why are humans smart? Language and LEGOs’.… Continue reading Language and LEGO? Where’s the connection?
Time for some R&R
I would like to apologise to Dianne Murphy in jumping the gun by suggesting that her approach to the teaching of reading was Whole Language. Dianne has written a comment on the tail of the posting to say that the approach is “definitely not ‘Whole Language’ and nor is it ‘drill and practise’ in the… Continue reading Murphy’s law corrected
There’s been a lot of adverse criticism recently of the Oxford Reading Tree series, featuring Biff, Chip et al, and teachers often ask me on Sounds-Write courses if they shouldn’t just throw them all out because they do not conform to what most people recognise as decodable readers. The answer, of course, is absolutely not!… Continue reading Biff and Chips to go? Oh no!
What was Christopher Middleton at the Telegraph thinking when he called what Dianne Murphy is doing a ‘literacy revolution’? He evidently has never read Marx’s 18th Brumaire of Louise Napoleon, which, prompted Marx to remark famously that history repeats itself, ‘first as tragedy, then as farce’. Far from being a revolution, this kind of methodology… Continue reading Murphy’s law re-stated
In my last posting, I wrote that Rod Liddle’s invocation of ‘ghoti’ as a way of spelling ‘fish’ – ostensibly to demonstrate how ‘unphonetic’ (ridiculous term!) English is – was nonsensical. I also wrote that the notion had been entirely discredited. Well, apparently not! Some of my readers have informed me that they are confronted… Continue reading Why ‘ghoti’ is a red herring
I quite like Rod Liddle’s column every week in the Spectator. He usually makes me laugh. Sometimes out loud! This week began as no exception. In ‘My daughter’s end-of-term report confirms that she is being taught by alien reptiles‘, he got the ball rolling by deprecating the ‘vacuous propaganda’ emitted by teacher training institutions before… Continue reading A Liddle knowledge is a dangerous thing!
Sounds-Write Course in Alicante: 20th – 26th August 2011 For details of this innovative course, which allows you to combine a full training course with a wonderful holiday in one of Spain’s loveliest regions, download the brochure. Learn to Teach Reading and Spelling – and have a holiday! Take the opportunity this summer to combine… Continue reading Sounds-Write training course
I noticed that npr (National Public Radio in the USA) devoted half an hour’s air time yesterday to the subject of the summer ‘recess’. Although they have a longer summer break than we have here, research in the USA indicates that ‘all kids, regardless of the income level of their family, experience over two months… Continue reading When school’s out for summer