Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can’t, and What Can Be Done About It

425 Pages·2018·3.73 MB·English

by  Mark Seidenberg

Copyright © 2017 by Mark Seidenberg Published in the United States by Basic Books, an imprint of
Perseus Books, a division of PBG Publishing, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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Text design by Jeff Williams
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Seidenberg, Mark S., author.
Title: Language at the speed of sight: how we read, why so many can't, and what can be done
about it / Mark Seidenberg.
Description: New York: Basic Books, an imprint of Perseus Books, a division of PBG Publishing,
LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc., [2017]
| Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016046731 | ISBN 9780465080656 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Reading
(Higher education) | Language experience approach in education. | Cognition disorders. |
Psycholinguistics.
Classification: LCC LB2395.3 .S44 2016 | DDC 428.4071/1—dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2016046731
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Maryellen
With deepest [love, admiration, and gratitude].
For Claudia and Ethan
Fun. Food. Family.
And for showing me what I didn’t know about
reading, and the rest.
Look closely at the letters. Can you see, entering
(stage right), then floating full, then heading off—
so soon— how like a little kohl-rimmed moon o
plots her course from b to d —as y, unanswered,
knocks at the stage door?
Looked at too long, words fail,
phase out. Ask, now that body shines no longer, by
what light you learn these lines and what the b
and d stood for.
b o d y
—JAMES MERRILL
CONTENTS
Reading, Writing, and Speech
The Problem and the Paradox
CHAPTER 1:
Visible Language
CHAPTER 2:
Writing: It’s All Mesopotamian Cuneiform to
CHAPTER 3:
Me
How We Read
The Eyes Have It
CHAPTER 4:
F u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n rdng rsch
CHAPTER 5:
Becoming a Reader
CHAPTER 6:
Reading: The Eternal Triangle
CHAPTER 7:
Dyslexia and Its Discontents
CHAPTER 8:
Brain Bases of Reading
CHAPTER 9:
The Educational Challenges
How Well Does America Read?
CHAPTER 10:
The Two Cultures of Science and Education
CHAPTER 11:
Reading the Future
CHAPTER 12:
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
READING, WRITING, AND SPEECH