AP: Spelling Bee protesters

[RonButters]

Wrong! He doesn't "attribute the cause to the difficulty in learning spelling systems"! Rather, he attributes the difficulties that dislexics have in processing the written words to differences in the spelling systems. This tells us nothing about learning to read. Moreover, his conclusions about the influence of spelling are not necessarily correct, since he ignores the possible influence of the languages themselves, the possible influence of dialect, and even the educational differences between Italy, France, and England.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
Date:         Sat, 5 Jun 2010 01:09:42
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] AP: Spelling Bee protesters

Paulesu et al found that there were twice as many dyslexics for French and English as Italian.  He attriibuted the cause to the difficulty in learning spelling systems.



Also this  http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/291/5511/2165

The recognition of dyslexia as a neurodevelopmental disorder has been hampered by the belief that it is not a specific diagnostic entity because it has variable and culture-specific manifestations. In line with this belief, we found that Italian dyslexics, using a shallow orthography which facilitates reading, performed better on reading tasks than did English and French dyslexics. However, all dyslexics were equally impaired relative to their controls on reading and phonological tasks. Positron emission tomography scans during explicit and implicit reading showed the same reduced activity in a region of the left hemisphere in dyslexics from all three countries, with the maximum peak in the middle temporal gyrus and additional peaks in the inferior and superior temporal gyri and middle occipital gyrus. We conclude that there is a universal neurocognitive basis for dyslexia and that differences in reading performance among dyslexics of different countries are due to different!
  orthographies.



The more phonetically consistent the writing system, the better.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
see truespel.com phonetic spelling










> Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2010 11:15:09 -0400
> From: rickbarremail at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Re: AP: Spelling Bee protesters
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Rick Barr <rickbarremail at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: AP: Spelling Bee protesters
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> There was a piece about English spelling in The Economist a few years ago.
> It may be this one, but its content is blocked so I couldn't double-check:
> http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=922074&story_id=E1_TTJNDRNJ
>
> It did say something relevant to this discussion, and it is that English
> takes longer to read than other European languages, precisely because of its
> hectic spelling. Of course, it is unthinkable to carry through an overhaul
> of English spelling. But the price paid in readability is something to take
> into account.
>
> -- Rick
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 10:23 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject: Re: AP: Spelling Bee protesters
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 6/4/2010 04:47 AM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
> > >In Finland there are no spelling bees. Finnish spelling is simple,
> > >phonetic. Simpler is better.
> >
> > But think of the fun they're all missing.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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