Research on Literacy in the USA and Europe found on the educational cyberplayground
MUSIC IS LANGUAGE
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What do Administrators, Teachers, and the Public need to know?
8/14/13 Reading skill linked to differences in brain structure The scans revealed separate parts of the brain were likely to be involved in different aspects of reading, such as being able to sound words out loud. The work, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, could lead to new ways to help those with reading difficulties. Differences in how well participants connected a new word with a sound were found to be related to structural differences in brain areas called the hippocampus and cerebellum. The hippocampus in particular has been shown many times to be related to memory. Interestingly, this study shows a relatively low association between remembering items and hippocampus grey matter volume. This, the researchers say in their paper, suggests the area is particularly important for remembering connections between things (as in between a word and a sound), rather than simply remembering items. The final aspect of reading identified, the ability to read out loud at speed, was found to be less localised, with a network of areas across the brain showing different grey matter volume. They also found this ability to be the only one of the three that was also related to general intelligence.
Persons saying this cannot be done
should not interfere with persons doing it.
~ Proverb
42 million adults in the US are "
functionally literate
,"
meaning that they can't read the front page of the newspaper. Many are
not able to speak, read, and write English. Will these folks vote?
- Shocking truth about the Literacy Levels of American Adults .
- America's Most Literate Cities
- National Assessment of Adult Literacy ( NAAL ) 2002 will assess the current status of the English-language literacy skills of adults in the United States, as well as indicate how literacy proficiencies have changed over time. Reports, sources and information available.
- LITERACY | U.S. GOVERNMENT RESEARCH
35 percent of American children start school without the language skills necessary to learn to read. [ source ]
The big picture is transdisciplinarity . It includes understanding that teaching kids to read depends on what the teacher knows about Linguistics, Music, Gestures, Rhythm, Pitch, and the evolution of brain development.
How do babies begin to acquire language?
Where do words come from?
The origin or words: Rhythmic patterns underlie the human language.
How children learn the meanings of words. Grammer is hard wired.
Letters are shaped that way for a reason. Rhythm and pitch give the
meaning.
Key findings:
- U.S. fourth-graders out perform their counterparts in 23 of the 34 other countries participating in PIRLS, but they score lower than students in Sweden, the Netherlands and England.
- Fourth-grade girls outperform boys in reading literacy in every participating country, including the United States.
- Fourth-graders in U.S. public schools with the highest poverty levels score lower on reading literacy compared to their counterparts in schools with lower poverty levels.
- Almost all (95 percent) of U.S. fourth-graders attend schools with a curricular emphasis on reading. This is greater than the international average of 78 percent.
- Sixty-five percent of U.S. fourth-graders receive more than six hours of reading instruction per week, a higher percentage than the international average of 28 percent.
Music is communication, Music is language
Evolutionary Science
:
We hear and process all language as sound first
and
THEN we process the sound as as meaning
something which we call a language. Remember we are animal and we will
respond to a growl - hearing it as something dangerous - and that has
meaning which will let us survive.
As language develops some cultures pay attention to the pitch of the
word and the rhythm of the word. In all cultures, If it doesn't have
the
right rhythm
nobody will understand.
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EVOLUTION: ANIMALS HAVE LANGUAGE
Language is present in non human animals. Research the language of birds, bees, whales, dolphins, gorilla's, Bonobo's, gestures and syntax. -
EVOLUTION: ROOTS OF OUR VOICE
Language Evolution - Musical roots may lie in human voice. How do babies begin to acquire language? Tonal Language and Perfect Pitch
Learn how to successfully bridge from the Dialect Speakers' home language to the Standard Language.
- Why should links exist between music and language?
- About the Digital Divide and Digital Equity
- Intelligence Controversy
- Reading Excellence Act Grant Descriptions
-
U.S. Dept of Education
- Research and Statistics
1-800-USA-Learn They do not have information about Dialect Speakers because there are no federal funds. Funds are only for ESL~EFL~TSOL etc.
-
Urban Minorities Reading Project
Download the RX Program Linguistics Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania
William Labov, Director
Bettina Baker, Project Manager
LITERACY AND GOVERNMENT
LITERACY IN EUROPE
WHAT'S GOING ON IN EUROPEWhat's going on in Jamaica?
International and National Government support for less-prevalent languages
Listed below are several initiatives that clearly move in the direction of support for less-prevalent languages, cultures and regions from multiple perspectives (i.e., linguistic, economic, education / literacy, etc). These are specific examples of past, present and upcoming funding and investments into projects.
European Commission and European Union initiatives
Over the years, the European Parliament has adopted a number of
resolutions defending the idea of a European Union which respects its
linguistic and cultural diversity. To this end, the European
Commission has been instructed to implement actions in favor of
regional or minority languages and cultures and for less-developed
regions.
Minority Language funding
The European Commission is now examining the feasibility of proposing
a multi-annual action program in the area of regional and / or
minority languages.
The objective of the action is to reinforce the European dimension of
activities for promoting and safeguarding regional and minority
languages and cultures.
In various parts of the Member States of the European Union there are indigenous groups which speak a language different to that of the majority of the national population. More than 30% of all London schoolchildren speak a language other than English at home.
"The languages of London's schoolchildren" in Multilingual Capital: The languages of London's schoolchildren and their relevance to economic, social and educational policies
It is estimated that almost 40 million citizens of the Union
routinely speak not only the official language of their country but
also a regional or minority language that has been passed on from
generation to generation.
The Final report to the European Commission on the implementation of the European Commission / Council of Europe Joint Programme on "National Minorities in Europe" Strasbourg, June 2000 is available at:
LITERACY | TONGUES
SELLING IN TONGUES
Translation services are booming because global customers want to buy
in their native language
[... Some of the largest companies in the field--Bowne Global
Solutions, Lionbridge Technologies and Berlitz GlobalNET (a sister
company of the language school)--say they expect a surge in U.S.
government contracts involving Arabic, Dari, Pashtu, Uzbek and other
languages useful in the war against terrorism. But that's a small part
of the business. More broadly, the industry is thriving because
American companies are learning--after years of denial--that to profit
in the global economy, it's critical to speak the customer's native
tongue. "An American company expanding abroad is competing with
merchants who speak the local language," says Donald Plumley, chief
marketing officer of Bowne Global Solutions, based in Parsippany, N.J.
"You may have a better product, but if your customers don't understand
your product, you lose. You have to speak their language."
Native English speakers are, in fact, fast becoming a minority in the
marketplace. In the U.S. alone, 18% of the population speaks a
language other than English at home, according to the 2000 Census. In
California, the world's sixth largest economy, the figure is nearly
40%. And on the Internet, it's a Tower of Babel. Only 48% of the
world's Web users are native English speakers, down from 77% in 1997.
By the end of 2003, the figure will drop to 32%, according to the
Aberdeen Group, a tech-research company in Boston.
Consumers are four times as likely to buy a product online if the
website is in their preferred language, according to IDC, a research
firm in Framingham, Mass. Some of the big dotcoms--Amazon, eBay and
Yahoo--figured out this trend earlier than most, and report
fast-growing revenues from overseas divisions, which generate
indigenous content. But most U.S. firms have not yet done a great job
of marketing to non-English speakers online. Last year just 37 of the
large companies in the FORTUNE 100 operated non-English sites,
according to Forrester Research, based in Cambridge, Mass..]
<snip>
Related links - supplemental curricular conceptual groupINGSHow to Cite Source
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What Teachers Can Contribute to the Research
I have worked with the relationship between music and reading for a long time. We have very little hard data, but lots of anecdotal evidence ranging from higher mastery test scores to higher attendance and self esteem. Here is a brief perspective which has worked for me, along with some recommendations for research topics you might want to explore. It is intended just as a start-
The more teacher-as- researcher projects we can document, the stronger our collective evidence will be. I would be happy to dialogue with any interested teacher/researcher in an effort to put you in touch with each other! If we could establish a consortium of projects working toward this common goal, it would benefit all teachers.
- First of all, music and words are two different languages. Often word language is embedded in music language (words in songs, speech pieces and rhymes, etc.). However, each language can and often does stand alone regardless of the common interpretive elements. If this is true, then there can be literacy in each language.
- Literacy, according to language arts curricula, consists of the ability to speak, listen, read, write, and think in a language.
- Some of the acquisition processes relating to word language probably apply to music language, and visa versa. However, music language is not usually reinforced as much as word language as it emerges in the young child. Written music language is sometimes not addressed at all. (But then, there are not written forms of over 2/3 of the world's word and music languages!)
- If the acquisition processes are similar, it is a good hypothesis (hunch) that learning to read music would transfer to learning to read words.
- Through brain mapping, we know that when words are read the language center of the brain "lights up." When music is read, "the brain lights up like a Christmas tree." (Frank Wilson).
- When learners are having difficulty with reading words, it would seem sensible to try to find different routes to understanding through neurological pathways that involve as many areas of the brain as possible, and especially ones where the acquisition processes may be related.
- Other possible routes to explore which relate music with literacy, or might become side issues in a study, include:
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Characteristics of children's songs which are the same as characteristics of texts recommended for emergent readers,
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The effect of music on motivation in young readers,
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The common elements of the process from pictorial representation to traditional "notation" in words and music,
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The effect of exploring elements of musical interpretation on the ability to encode word language text,
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The musical elements in each language that are culture bound.
Review Educational Software for Children
For More Information Consumer groups, public agencies and other organizations regularly review educational software for children, which is available at locations ranging from malls to the Internet. The evaluators examine a variety of features, including content, design and price. Here are three resources offering free information on thousands of software programs:
The California Instructional Technology Clearinghouse
Modesto, CA
(209) 525-4979