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LINGUISTIC INSIGHTS INTO THE READING PROCESS
Author(s) -
Wardhaugh Ronald
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1968.tb00210.x
Subject(s) - reading (process) , linguistics , orthography , process (computing) , psychology , bridge (graph theory) , theoretical linguistics , symbol (formal) , computer science , medicine , philosophy , operating system
Various linguists have put forward proposals for studying the reading process and for teaching reading. Bloomfield and Fries tried to use linguistic knowledge to devise a method of teaching reading based on a belief that children had to learn sound‐symbol relationships in order to read. Venezky has proposed a model of the reading process which is something of a bridge between their work and that of Chomsky and Halle. The latter have proposed that present English orthography is an optimal system for the language and that the phonemes of so much interest to Bloomfield and Fries are no more than methodological artifacts. However, they acknowledge that their phonological model might not be an appropriate one for children. If this is the case, then certain insights from Bloomfield and Fries may still be relevant. The possible applications of linguistics to reading are still uncertain in the absence of empirical evidence to support any of the present hypotheses.