Language at the Speed of Sight
I’ve heard it said that the trouble with this book is getting people to read it because it is so dense. To which I say — Dense like a chocolate torte!!! Delicious and worth savoring. Good for the soul!!! My notes don’t quite do it justice, but help me return to key parts.
Chapter 1: The Problem and the Paradox
In chapter 1, Seidenberg lays out rationale for this book. Ending with an argument that because reading is unique, important, and a tool for understanding human cognition, it is an interesting and enduring element in education. He asserts that the only way to remove low literacy is to successfully teach children to read in the first place. He claims that “there is a profound disconnection between the science of reading and educational practice” p. 9.
Favorite quotes from this chapter:
“Being an expert reader doesn’t make you and expert about reading” p. 4
“…there is remarkable consensus about the basic theory of how reading works and the causes of reading successes and failures” p. 5
“Ansiety about reading achievement underlies endless debates about how reading should be taught” p. 7
A look at the basic science “requires changing the culture of education from one based on beliefs to one based on facts” p. 9
“The lack of scientific literacy, combined with deep faith in the validity of personal observation, creates vulnerability to claims that are intuitively appealing but unproved or untrue” p. 11
“Reading is among the highest expressions of human intelligence” p. 12
“Human culture has evolved to the point where this skill is critical to our ability to thrive” p. 12
Chapter 2: Visible Language
Interesting links come in this chapter between speaking and reading. A surface logic says that if you can hear it, you can say it. And, if you can say it, you can read it. I appreciate this idea from a neurological perspective, but it informs a closer look at phonology. What is the visual representation of sound - and where does it feature?
I wonder… is the inclusion of ASL in the dyslexia conversation an offshoot of the visual system’s dominance? As in - my auditory & visual systems aren’t pairing, so I’m cutting all auditory processing out of reading? But how does ASL help make meaning of text? I’m confused about this and would like to know more.
Favorite quotes from this chapter:
“Children’s progress in learning to read is greatly affected by their experience with spoken language” p. 16
“People’s reading and spoken language skills tend t obe very closely matched” p. 17
“Because of the ways they are perceived and produced, spoken and written language are not simple variants of each other” p. 19
“The ability to use what we know to go beyond the information given is a fundamental property of human perception and cognition” p. 22
Reading and speech are “closely bound and mutually dependent, each one changed by knowledge of the other, from behavior to brain” p. 29
Chapter 3: Writing: It’s all Mesopotamian Cuneiform to Me
Chapter 3 is very technical and about the development of writing to represent the speech of various cultures. Most applicable to the work of readin gteaching is the connection of sound representations to symbols and the subsequent invention of phonology. And then how phonology relates to morphology. In this chapter, Seidenberg references Gough & Tunmer’s language of reading being an “unnatural act” and relates that to the “supremely unnatural” events that were crucial to writing & development.
Favorite quotes from this chapter:
“The first thing that happened to reading is writing” p. 31
“Writing systems are the product of cultural evolution, which is loosely related to the biological kind” p. 33
“…every successful writin gsystem employs, is using combinations of symbols that represent clues about sound and meaning” p. 38
“Writing systems are fundamentally similar because they are all solutions to the problem of representing sound and meaning in visuographic form” p. 46
“Writing systems represent sound (phonology) and meaning (semantics)” p. 46
“Reading is not just about spelling; it is inherently also about phonology and semantics because that is what writing systems represent” p. 55
Chapter 4: The Eyes Have It
My favorite part of chapter 4 is about the impossibility of speed reading. Seidenberg discusses that to bring meaning to the written word, subvocalization - or using phonological information - is used by everyone. This makes me feel less weird about trying to make everything I read into an audiobook performance, and it reinforces my thinking that learning music is extremely beneficial to learning to read.
All of these are true, and supported by several decades of research:
using phonological information makes it easier to read
skilled readers rely more on phonological information
the inability to use phonological information efficiently is one of the main characteristics of reading impairments
skilled readers cannot prevent themselves from activating phonological information because it is so deeply integrated with spelling and meaning in writing systems and in the neural circuits that support reading
Favorite quotes from this chapter:
“We can comprehend speech at faster rates than we can fluently produce it” p. 59
Regarding fixating or not on particular words visually: “it is what happens when the perceptual span collides with the properties of words in English” p. 69
“The serious way to improve reading - how well we comprehend a text and, yes, speed and efficiency is: Read. As much as possible. Mostly new stuff.” p. 82
“Reading skill depends on knowledge acquired from reading…Every time we read we update our knowledge of language” p. 82
“Knowledge of language expands through exposure to structures we do not know” p. 83
Chapter 5: F u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n rdng rsch
Wow. This chapter may not gain a ton of traction because of how high-level and abstract it is - but it is amazing! Seidenberg talks about the brain as a statistical machine - using common focus and common ideas to compute probabilities in words and meanings. When we talk about approximation in reading - that getting close helps get all the way there - we’re really nodding to the statistical work the brain is doing. I see this when kids are reading along and get a word wrong, but immediately fix it.
Favorite quotes from this chapter:
“Learning to read is the process of acquiring the several types of statistical knowledge that support rapid and efficient comprehension starting with phonological structure, orthographic structure, the mappings between orthography and phonology, vocabulary, and grammar” p. 88
“The 150 most common words in the language account for about half of the words we read. The top 2,000 words account for about 90%. Word frequencies have a ‘long tail’ distribution: a small number are used with very high frequency, with many others employed much less often” p. 89
“We don’t study orthographic patterns in order to be able to read; we gain orthographic expertise by reading. In the couse of gathering all that spelling data, a person can also enjoy some books” p. 92
Chapter 6: Becoming a Reader
So so much. This might be my favorite of all the chapters I’ve read in all the books on reading…
Opening with a definition of the reading wars… beliefs vs. conclusions about learning to read derived from basic research. Seidenberg calls the disagreements exhausting, but not trivial. Moving from sounds to letters and then vocab, he lays out important structures culminating in a logic model where semantics (meaning) and phonology (sound) have a back and forth relationship. As phonology refers to both hearing and speaking sounds, this makes sense because pre-readers can comprehend and produce speech. Another key relationship is the one between orthography (print) and semantics (meaning, again). Seeing sounds in writing - print - is a really important way to think about reading. When we see speech and make meaning of it, when we use what we know about spoken language - that process is recruited to make meaning.
I’ve got a lot of quotes below - and each time I visit them, I’m reminded that many things are happening simultaneously for readers. We have to have knowledge to build knowledge. We have to have vocabulary to experience vocabulary to build vocabulary. If children see and hear language simultaneously, they build the mapping system needed to grow as readers. The complexities of learning to read are immense, and we can untangle them to focus on discrete skills, but is a lot to say about using one skill to develop another. Explicit instruction of isolated skills has a place, but when instruction is layered, it is a very powerful way to learn.
Favorite quotes from this chapter:
“Learning to read is a complex problem because multiple over-lapping sub-skills develop at the same time” p. 104-105
“The origins of reading are in the acquisition of spoken language, well before a child has seen a single letter” p. 106
“Becoming literate is the scenario by which reading catches up to speech and then surpasses it” p. 106
“Phonological development is not the only factor involved in learning to read, but it is always an important part” p. 110
“A word is a hub linking many types of information: its sound, pronunciation, and spelling; its multiple senses…the entities to which it refers…as well as the sensory and perceptual properties of those entities, their functions, and how to use them” p. 110
“Reading to children is important but not sufficient. Children benefit from it, some quite a lot, but it neither obviates the role of instruction nor vaccinates against dyslexia” p. 114
“Reading to children with a focus on print is tantamount to a large amount of one-on-one instruction” p. 115
“Reading to children is also a form of speaking to them that promotes linguistic development in special ways” p. 115
“Beginning readers can already comprehend spoken language. They will be able to read if they can just gain access to language from print” p. 118
Chapter 7: Reading: The Eternal Triangle
The premise that English isn’t rule-governed but is statistical enabled the creation of a machine to test linguistic & reading theories on. They created a simulated neural network to prove ideas of repetition.learning. Essentially, they discovered that the pathways between the hubs in the triangle (Ch. 6) flowed predictably - and that as it learned - computed statistically reliable patterning - the division of labor between the pathways changed over time. By doing this, they discovered the developmental progression matched up with the neuroimaging studies showing that the division of labor changes within development of reading skill - determined in part by amount of reading experience.
orthography to phonology develops more rapidly in children
orthography to semantics develops with additional experience or KNOWLEDGE
Favorite quotes from this chapter:
“Among younger readers, good readers are better able to use phonology than poor readers” p. 125
“Use of the phonological pathway is an essential component of skilled reading” p. 126
“The writing system preserves information about morphological relations between words at the price of maintaining the alphabetic principle” p. 132
“Words are represented by orthographic, phonological, and semantic codes. Each code is itself learned from perception and action, constrained by human biology” p. 139
Chapter 8: Dyslexia and it Discontents
Seidenberg discusses the neurobiological disconnect between phonological and orthographical connections required to rapidly turn print to language. There is also discussion about generalization and patternin gas a hindrance in the brain. I was really interested in the ways he talked about the parents & political landscape - ways in which equity disparities grow but it is so complex because there can be a problem, it must be addressed. So many layers and I love how he exposes this. I wish it could be a more upfront & everyone conversation.
Favorite quotes from this chapter:
“Debates about whether reading is visual or phonological might have been avoided had we known tha torthography and phonology become deeply intertwined at the neural level” p. 153
“Dyslexia focuses on reading impairments that are neurobiological and genetic in origin rather than wholly environmental and on capacities close to reading. The term ‘dyslexia’ is being reserved for children whose difficulties center on acquiring basic skills - the print part that is specific to reading” p. 154
“Two crucial issues then are identifying young children for whom early intervention is essential despite these ambiguities and intervening effectively” p. 161
“The need for parents to seek quality intervention outside school contributes to disparities in educational opportunity, favoring those who can afford it” p. 163
