Linguistic Knowledge for Teachers:Supporting Multilingual Learners in the Science of Reading Era
The Science of Reading (SOR) is intended to benefit all children as they develop foundational skills in reading. For students who bring proficiencies in languages and dialects other than Standard English, their experience of SOR instruction often differs. These learners draw upon diverse linguistic repertoires, ranging from varied sound systems to complex morphological and syntactic structures, that shape how they engage with classroom activities such as phonics, decoding, and comprehension. This research brief highlights the importance of teachers’ linguistic knowledge in ensuring that SOR-aligned instruction distinctly and equitably serve multilingual learners. The brief provides an overview of six areas of linguistics (Figure 1: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, and dialect awareness) that are directly connected to reading instruction. Each section reviews why these areas matter for literacy development and offer practical implications for classroom practice.
Purdue’s Ackerman Center to host Sept. 17 Constitution Day
The tradition continues! Purdue University will officially celebrate Constitution Day on Sept. 17 in the Purdue Memorial Union to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787.
Scherer’s Cultivating Care book published
Stephanie Scherer’s new book, Cultivating Care: Lessons from a Rural Kindergarten Classroom, focuses on how one rural kindergarten teacher experiences and embodies care in her classroom.
Neurodiversity in Action Understanding the brain basis of dyslexia
Dyslexia, a specific learning disability (SLD) characterized by word reading impairment, is commonly misunderstood as a disorder in which learners simply reverse their letters, like b and d. Research in cognitive neuroscience tells a different story, and can help us to target our instruction to better serve struggling readers.
The ABCs of Learning the ABCs
A fundamental aspect of learning to read is mastering the ABCs. This includes recognizing the letter names and their corresponding sounds. In some classrooms, the focus is on memorizing each letter name and sound, with equal attention to each letter. Researchers have demonstrated that children’s letter learning is influenced by many factors. Some of these may be obvious, but others are less so. Understanding how letter learning takes place is practically useful as parents and teachers impart this critical skill to their children (McBride, in press).
The New York Times quotes Bill Watson about AI use
“We need to understand what sort of guardrails we need put in place, both in terms of ethics of the algorithms and in terms of displacement of people’s jobs and careers,” said Bill Watson in The New York TImes about AI.
