Tom,

You wrote:

"Listening has been identified as a critical work-related skill but it has
been almost totally ignored in national assessments of adult literacy. 2008
is the 100th anniversary of E. B. Huey's 1908 classic book, "The Psychology
and Pedagogy of Reading" in which he stated that, "The child comes to his
first reader with his habits of spoken language fairly well formed, and
these habits grow more deeply set with every year. His meanings inhere in
this spoken language and belong but secondarily to the printed symbols...."

It seems incredible that such an obvious truth, and one that was described
100 years ago, has been neglected in the fight to improve literacy. The less
well I read a language, the more I vocalize when reading. Listening, or
hearing, or auding as you put it, is the foundation for learning to read,
whether for our first language, or for subsequent languages. The power of
the MP3 player makes auding easier to do than ever.

Here in Canada there is much public posturing about fighting literacy. There
are spelling bees, and  book reading promotions. Much money is raised by
well intentioned people. The results are disappointing.

I believe that far more could be achieved if there were one website with a
vast collection of sound files and transcripts, of all kinds. These should
consists of ordinary conversations between people of different ages and
interests,radio programs, songs, articles on different subjects, including
civics, and even university courses. The download of the sound files and
text files should be free and their distribution unrestricted. The site
should be the subject of a massive promotion campaign. Friendships and
mentoring relationships could be built up via such a site.

I often hear that the adult ESL learner or person with low literacy cannot
afford a computer or MP3 player. I do not believe this is a real obstacle.
There are libraries, schools, and other places to access computers. An MP3
player is not expensive. It is simply a matter of getting people to realize
that they need to listen in order to read, and after listening they need to
read.

If you have a seminar near Vancouver BC please let me know. I would love to
attend.

Steve



-- 
Steve Kaufmann
www.lingq.com
1-604-922-8514
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