SKrashen:
Invest in libraries, not intensive phonics.
Sent to the Australian, July 3, 2014Those supporting a "direct instruction" heavy phonics-based approach to teaching reading ("Pyne eyes national Direct Instruction rollout," July 2), might be interested in what the research says about this method: Direct instruction children do very well on tests of "decoding" (pronouncing words presented to them in a list) but do no
JUL 01
A bad way to evaluate teachers
Sent to the Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2014Contrary to Eric Hanushek's statement ("How Teachers Unions Use 'Common Core' to Undermine Reform," June 30), there is no movement by anybody to "eliminate school accountability and teacher evaluations." There is a movement to eliminate the use of standardized test score gains to evaluate teachers, and there is good reason to do so.
JUN 29
How is language aquired?
Sent to The Japan News, June 29, 2014I appreciate Helene Uchida's mentioning my work ("Teaching 'kid-friendly' grammar", June 29) but her description is not quite accurate: Language acquisition, we have concluded, does not require "meaningful interaction." It requires comprehension of messages, called "comprehensible input." This means that we acquire languages when
JUN 28
Missing from the debate: Pleasure reading in English
Sent to the South Chine Morning Post, June 28, 2014.I have participated in the Great Native Speaker Teacher debate in the South China Morning Post (letters by Vaughen Rapatahana, June 11, Michael Shaw, June 17, my letter, June 23, Regina Ip, June 27). Missing from all of these letters, including mine, is any mention of the biggest factor in helping students develop to high levels of English profic