True education begins with habitual reading early in life.

 

The following are extracts from an article I read this morning and my comments.

The article, written by Joe Fernandez is well-written and well-researched. Unfortunately, what is written is based on ‘research’ that researchers copy from one another. My work is based on talking to experts on reading – my students who could not read when they came to me for one-on-one tuition.

Here are extracts and my comments:

Author:

If many people remain cursed by broken English, it’s because they are bogged down and/or plagued by the sounds of the English.

My comment:

I have read many articles by the author and he writes excellent English. The question we need to ask is, why he and many like him are not plagued by the sounds of the English.

Author:

English, which has no form of writing, has 42 sounds but makes do with the 26 letters in the Roman letters.

Many students in Malaysia can’t read. They have difficulties in putting together letters for forming sounds.

My comment:

Why do Malaysian students have difficulty putting together letters for forming sounds in English but not in putting together letters for forming sounds in Malay and Hanyu Pinyin. I have explained this in my book ‘Shut Down Kids’. I would be happy to share this information with the author over a cuppa. 

Author:

Work on training the ears on listening skills.

We had formula during the British days.

Catch the news on the radio (no TV) for ten minutes daily. Make it a lifelong habit.

My comment:

True. But this is not going to help kids to learn to read. Yes, they would speak better but how does it help one to read? This is a question I have asked many ‘educators’ on LinkedIn and Twitter and have not received a response. 

Author:

There can be reforms i.e. doing away with memorisation and rote learning, among others, for proof of true education.

My comment:

Rote memorisation has its place in learning to read. Westerners have influenced the world into believing rote memorisation is ‘evil’. Most educators don’t have any idea what rote memorisation is and how important it is in learning to read. This is one of the reasons why many intelligent kids cannot read in English. 

Kids don’t need to rote memorise anything in Malay or Hanyu Pinyin except for the names of the letters. 

Author:

The government, before looking at public examinations, should focus on the reality that many students in Malaysia can’t read, write, or count.

Teaching reading remains the hardest thing in the world.

My comment:

The author has strayed into an area that he is not familiar with. He has just ‘copy-pasted’ what the Western world has been propagating for decades.

Why is reading the hardest thing in the world?

Get me a child who knows his alphabet and I will get him to read in Malay and Pinyin within a month of an hour reading day.

I teach kids to read in English within 4 months of 2 hours per week. Parents in many parts of the world use my book 'Teach Your Child to Read' to get their children to read with 4 months. Get a copy from me at only RM30 including postage.

 

Even dyslexia and autism children can be taught reading within a reasonable duration.

My comment:

I know zilch about autism but what the author has written about dyslexia is what he has been misinformed/disinformed.