Kucer, Chapter 11 - Constructing the Written Language System

Summary of Chapter

Written language consists of rule-governed systems that build on and extend oral language. The building of meaning is a selective and constructive process that involves the use of numerous mental strategies and processes. Figure 1.1 on page 286 shows a spiral of liveracy development, where children learn little bits about literacy at young ages, and add to this understanding as they age. In fact, this process continues throughout our lives.

We learn language not consciously or formally (although it can be taught and learned formally), but we learn language as a way to connect to others around us, to be social, and to understand our world. Language learning is thought to be constructivist in nature. That is, children bring certain experiences with them while learning language and build upon those experiences.

There are three dimensions of language: linguistic, cognitive, and sociocultural. Children are involved in all three dimensions as they are learning a language. Language development is an inductive process and is learned tacitly, indirectly. Understanding written language can vary greatly from child to child, from culture to culture. Also, when it appears children are backsliding in their language development, for instance they may say fish correctly then fishes incorrectly, they are actually stretching the boundaries of what they have learned about linguistic patterns. Children remix and recontextualize, transport and transform, material encountered in previous settings to new situations routinely (p. 297). This is evidence of how they are constructing linguistic knowledge for themselves.

Further, the nature of written language development changes constantly, even as we age and even as we become more educated. "Regardless of any student's general writing ability, control of coherence within one writing activity was not predictive of control within another" (p. 302). There are different kinds of writing and proficiency in one type does not confer proficiency in another type necessarily.

Children use a variety of cues in order to make meaning of written and oral language. Children use body language, like smiling for example, to determine what the oral message is, and pictures to determine what the written message is. Table 11.2 identifies five oral language and five written language cues children (people) use to communicate. These cues are labelled the same for both types of communication:  linguistic, paralinguistic, intent, extralinguistic, and background knowledge.

Reading and writing are intertwined. Reading contributes to the use of text structures when writing (p. 308). Children learn written language conventions by reading, not just by formal, direct instruction. Further, experience and text were fused together. In addition, reading comprehension is directly, positively affected by writing development. Table 11.3 on page 311 outlines the connection of intertextual relationships between the reading and writing processses.

A section of the chapter was devoted to phonics. The author stated there are a variety of issues that must be taken into account when considering phonics. Written language is not speech written down, so therefore there is only a loose relationship between phonics and the written word. Cognitively and socioculturally phonics may vary as well, which is not necessarily reflected in written work.

My Comments

There were a couple of places in the chapter where I made notes. One was on page 286, where there was a figure of the spiral to show the difficulty of literacy. I immediately made a connection to it because I used "spiraling" in my teaching. That is, I teach a little bit of a concept to my students who have special needs, then I return to that little concept at the next lesson and add to it. Each time I teach, I use this model of instruction. This is one way to ensure understanding and to build background knowledge with my students (if they lack it). So this visual of the way literacy is learned made sense to me.

On page 287, it struck me that there is no one fully articulated theory of literacy learning that can account for all three dimensions of literacy (linguistic, cognitive, and sociocultural). I'm surprised by that. Is that because literacy research is fairly new? Or because no one has looked at literacy from that perspective?

I liked the three written examples the author used on pages 291 and 292 to show that different children's sociocultural backgrounds and exposure make a huge difference in how and what children write. This underscored the truth that literacy learning begins in a constructivist way.

Because I'm a special educator, I was particularly interested in the section titled "Resistant, Oppositional Learners or Fearful, Unskilled Learners?" I felt that section of the chapter was a little underdeveloped from the standpoint that many students throughout the United States who receive inadeqaute educations, especially in reading and writing, are frustrated. They need a different teaching approach in order to reach them. I was surprised the author spoke mostly to African American students when there are so many other groups who could have been mentioned. I have worked in urban, impoverished, inner-city schools and have seen firsthand how public school curriculua can turn off so many children because they can't relate to it, and because they lack the foundational skills to follow along. In my experience, misbehavior seldom has to do with bad actors and has much more to do with irrelevant and boring teaching, teaching materials, and reading materials.

Finally, I did not understand the paragraph on page 313 where the author wrote, "Socioculturally, different communities or social groups emphasize the use of letter-sound relationships and "close" readings to various degrees. Certain religious communities, for example, see the use of phonics and the exact rendering of particular texts to be vitally linked to their salvation." What is he talking about? I don't understand.

Questions about the Reading

1.  Can children learn to read and write adequately, or well even, without direct instruction? How much teaching do children need in order to develop literacy skills? Are classroom teachers the only ones who can amply provide instruction? If not, who are others in a child's life who are appropriate teachers of literacy?

2.  How do the examples of literacy development that parents provide, like their own reading habits, relate to literacy development? I am questioning the relationship between home and school, and how does a teacher overcome poor examples or lack of support at home? Can a child learn to read and write well if his/her parent is illiterate?

3.  How do the "new literacies" tie into this chapter on constructing written language? For instance, computer/iPad/iPhone language is quite different from conventional, standard English. Is this newly created language, or literacy, undermining, supporting, or bypassing current literacy in America? How do the new literacies fit in to our conventional literacies?