I wouldn’t understand "Trouble learning to speak " to be referring to a speech impediment . I’m not sure it always refers to severe brain damage either - I would certainly say a child who doesn’t say their first word until 2 years old had trouble learning to speak, but I’m not so sure that’s always a sign of severe brain damage.
I was expected to read aloud some in grade school although not as often as 5 times a week. I could never understand the point of it for a couple of reasons. First, why were we reading aloud from whatever textbook in class ? If we were just going to read from the textbook, what was the point of attending class? Second, I could never figure out what, if anything, reading aloud was supposed to tell the teacher - I was always a very good reader, a few grades above grade level. I was also a very fast reader - which was a large part of the reason I (still) can’t read aloud well. I’m supposed to be reading the first line aloud and a word from the second or third line gets mixed in because my eyes are reading faster than my mouth can speak.
I was too. I was always in the “high” reading group, except for a week in an early grade, when I returned from being out for a long time after having strep. I had to attend my regular group, and the next group down for a week, because I was so far behind in the reader and the workbook.
The differences were surprising. It wasn’t that the other group was just a little slower at reading long words. They would read each line of text separately, instead of reading sentences-- the teacher constantly reminded them to read to punctuation, and to try to take breaths at the commas and periods.
The kids in my original group didn’t have to be told those things-- we just did them. We also had a better feel for which words to emphasize, and would use a question intonation when a sentence began with a wh-word-- another thing we were never told to do.
I don’t think we were brighter-- I suspect we just had parents who read to us a lot.
But reading aloud lets a teacher know who isn’t grasping things that contribute to making that inner voice that probably makes reading more enjoyable.
It was pretty obvious that the kids in the “high” group were the ones always checking books out from the library after school, and reading during free time.
I was a precocious reader. I read before I knew what it was.
Nobody knew but me. My Daddy figured it out by watching me. Provided materials for me to read.
I sat on his lap and watched him fill out crossword puzzles. He didn’t necessarily read to us. But he told stories. Often gleaned from books he knew. Gave me curiosity.
A lot of things contributed, including a burning desire-- once when I was three, I took a book off my parents’ shelf, opened it to a random page, and started sobbing uncontrollably, because I couldn’t read it.
Memorizing the picture books read to me, and studying them helped me to learn, but a huge boost was, and I am really not kidding, The Electric Company.
I was watching TEC one day, and one of the skits gave me the sudden insight that each letter had its own sound-- when people talked about “sounding out” a word, they meant saying each letter’s sound in sequence. All I needed to do was figure out each letter’s sound, and I could read ANYTHING!
Second insight, a few minutes later was what all those “A for Apple; B for Ball; C for Cat” books and posters were talking about. I was about four when this happened.
Kudos to anyone who has the patience to listen to someone struggling to read a sentence aloud, let alone a paragraph.
I tutored adult “first-time readers”, some of whom had cognitive challenges. The saddest thing I’ve ever heard is when the head tutor said
These students will never lose themselves in a book.
I can’t fathom the prospect of never leaving this world, even if its just to spend a couple of chapters in The Hundred Acre Woods or on the high seas or in Narnia.
Yes, you can’t assume native speakers are taught much, because there’s so much they aren’t taught , that they just pick up by speaking and hearing others speak. Was anybody taught the adjective order rule (and it’s exceptions) ? * I know there were many things I didn’t learn until I started to study a foreign language in high school. And I’m 99% sure that the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs was one of them . Why would I need to learn the difference in my native language (other than to pass a test) - even a child learning to speak doesn’t mistakenly add a direct object to an intransitive verb. I did need to know the difference in Italian because the phrase often translated as “I like” (which requires a direct object in English) is better translated as " is pleasing to me" which requires an indirect object.
* 1. Quantity or number
2. Quality or opinion
3. Size
4. Age
5. Shape
6. Color
7. Proper adjective (often nationality, other place of origin, or material)
8. Purpose or qualifier
When two adjectives from the same group are used, a comma or and goes between them ( the red and green sweater , the smart , creative child)
But we say " Big bad wolf " because of something to do with the vowels, i comes before a just like in chit chat,
I mean, there are other ways of getting lost in a fictional world other than reading. I’m an English lit major, and there’s been years of my life I haven’t picked up a fiction book, but found myself immersed in cinema, theatre, music, etc. During those reading-less times, I didn’t feel like I was missing anything.
Thank you so much! I’ve always felt sorry for that group of “guys” (all men in their 50s and 60s), but you’re right.
I don’t know why I wouldn’t assume that they probably had a rich interior life and could get lost in a good movie/TV series (I guess because I’m an idiot). Seriously, that’s a weight off!
Most of my deeper knowledge of English grammar comes from having to look up why we say things in a particular way in order to explain that to my students.
I wasn’t aware that we had an order for adjectives until I saw a chart on a classroom wall.
I’ve done language exchanges before with Japanese people and they have the same problem. They speak perfect Japanese but can’t explain the whys.
My sisters taught me to read when I was three. Or so I’ve been told – my earliest memories are from when I was four, so as far as I’m concerned I’ve always known how. When I was in first or second grade – I can never remember which – I broke both wrists. The girl who was told to help me with writing was very puzzled that my workbook was already filled in and asked how I could do that with both arms in casts – I’d almost completed it in the first few weeks of school. One drawback to this is that I only remember ever having had one book read to me (He Went with Marco Polo, by Louise Andrews Kent, which my fifth-grade teacher read to us in class), so I have about a twenty-second attention span when being read to now.
I was in my sixties before I ever heard of it. Probably here on the Dope. One thing I didn’t learn in grade school was the subjunctive – I first heard of that when the teacher explained it in my second-year German class. (Going from their reactions, none of the other kids knew about it either.) And when she was in junior high school my daughter asked me to get her some books on grammar, as she wasn’t being taught it in class.
