The Foundation of Literacy: The Child's Acquisition of the Alphabetic Principle

by Byrne,Brian

• ISBN13: 9780863778186
• ISBN10: 0863778186
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-03-01
• Publisher: Psychology Pres

Summary

This monograph brings together important research that the author and his colleagues at the University of New England have been conducting into the early stages of reading development, and makes a valuable contribution to the debate about literacy education. It should appeal to a broad audience since it is written in an entertaining and accessible style, with chapter summaries, and where appropriate short tutorials in relevant topics, in particular "Learnability Theory" (Chapter 1), "Levels of "Language Structure" (Chapter 2) and "Writing Systems" (Chapter 3).

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
1. Definitions, phenomena, questions, and frameworks	1	(22)
Defining the alphabetic principle	1	(1)
Detecting the alphabetic principle	2	(1)
Why study the acquisition of the alphabetic principle?	3	(1)
An exercise	4	(6)
The exercise revisited: Experimental data	10	(6)
Learnability Theory	16	(3)
Learnability Theory and educational research	19	(1)
Chapter summary	20	(3)
2. Children's initial hypotheses about alphabetic script	23	(26)
Levels of spoken language: A brief tutorial	25	(2)
Writing systems: A brief tutorial	27	(8)
The hypothesis selection procedure: A "rational" possibility and empirical evidence	35	(9)
Other uses for Learnability Theory	44	(1)
Chapter summary	45	(4)
3. Induction of the alphabetic principle?	49	(26)
Expectations about induction	50	(3)
Induction of the alphabetic principle: Experimental data	53	(12)
Why do phonemic units present problems for the inductive process?	65	(8)
Chapter summary	73	(2)
4. Instruction in the alphabetic principle	75	(34)
Analysing successful decoding	76	(1)
Data I: Small-scale experiments	77	(7)
Data II: Classroom research	84	(18)
Other relevant intervention research	102	(2)
Classroom teaching practices	104	(1)
Remediation of established reading difficulties	104	(1)
Learnability Theory	105	(1)
Chapter summary	106	(3)
5. Individual differences	109	(30)
A framework for studying individual differences	110	(1)
Our data bases for studying individual differences	111	(4)
Individual differences in acquiring the alphabetic principle	115	(17)
Effects of early variation in mastery of the alphabetic principle on later reading development	132	(5)
Chapter summary	137	(2)
6. Conclusions and implications	139	(6)
Summary of major findings and conclusions	139	(3)
Educational implications	142	(1)
Beyond the alphabetic principle	143	(2)
References	145	(10)
Author index	155	(4)
Subject index	159