Tag: reading

Influential teachers in reading and writing – who inspired you?

Daren MansfieldLeave a comment

In a conversation with an esteemed colleague, we started discussing influential teachers at school. We may forget the names of many people in our lifetime, but influential teachers hold enduring resonance.

My inspiration, the one who really got me into reading and writing, was Mr. Edwards, a Welsh teacher in a primary school based in Runcorn, Cheshire. It was a difficult time. I had missed out on significant amounts of schooling owing to moving house and emigration. I struggled to read and had, at times, received reading interventionist strategies and a potential screening for learning differences. There was nothing conclusive, but in all honesty my reading ability took years to catch up. Three eureka moments spring to mind when I think of Mr. Edward’s influence.

  • Creative writing. Mr. Edwards particular stroke of genius was to write a sentence on the blackboard during lunchtime which was the first line of a creative writing essay. My friends and I were so enthralled by this thread that we peered into the portacabin’s window and tried to read what he had written. We discussed the endless possibilities in continuing the story. It was an immediate trigger for our imagination to be let loose. That class got me into writing.
  • Silver Sword: Furthermore, Mr. Edwards read Silver Sword by Ian Serralier. It was an absolutely gripping tale. I was there, living the experience with them as refugees on the run trying desperately to find their parents; the fabled Nostos theme originating from the Odyssey. I now recognise the serendipity of that moment. At the age of eight or nine, this escape story held me on the edge of my chair for weeks. I longed for more books. As a family we had moved from place to place, country to country, house to house. Serralier’s more exciting story was set in wartime, escaping Poland’s apocalypse to the safe neutrality of Switzerland, perilously on the run from Nazis like hunted animals. Uprooted, they longed for safer borders free from terror and anxiety. To a child’s unfettered imagination, it was magical. At that age, there is a transitional period between magic and the beckoning dawn of reality, so brilliantly captured by Halldór Laxness in Independent People; that becoming self-aware from the innocent shelter of early childhood, you start growing up. That book got me into reading.
  • Book clubs: A monthly book club also came to Mr. Edward’s class. As his dedicated pupils, we eagerly sifted through a catalogue of book covers that electrified our imaginations. The book club got me into reading escape stories and adventure books as I continually rekindled that sense of uprootedness and Nostos within me. Even though I work in a Library and books are easily borrowed at no cost, I have always enjoyed buying and owning a book. Possessing a book always seem to be satisfying, like anchors reassuringly holding everything together, as we drift through life trying to find meaning and seize something more tangible.

Mr. Edwards had a significant impact on me. English was my strongest subject at school. Now, in Writing Development, I can help others like Mr. Edwards helped me. Who inspired you at school to read and write?

Inviting a welcome friend: using text-to-speech software to read assignments

Daren MansfieldLeave a comment

AI is everywhere now. Some hail the positives, while others concede the negatives of job losses and increased automation of the workforce, seemingly unstoppable since the Industrial Revolution. Personally, I’d rather go to a till staffed by a friendly employee than use a self-checkout machine in a supermarket. Society needs human contact, which is essential for our emotional wellbeing, mental health, and a sense of belonging. One of the positives to come out of AI is undoubtedly text-to-speech software which converts text into spoken words, effectively reading it for you. As our awareness of neurodiversity grows, so too our knowledge and appreciation of assistive technologies. Text-to-speech has come a long way since it was first developed in the 1930s.

Development of text-to-speech software

Text-to-speech has surprisingly long origins. The first computer-based speech-synthesis systems emerged in the 1950s, yet the earliest known text-to-speech programme was VODER , developed by Bell Laboratories in 1939 and was demonstrated at New York’s prestigious World’s Fair. In a fascinating blog post Grundhauser (2017) described that this first attempt at replicating the human voice apparently spoke ‘like a robot demon’ and ‘could create 20 or so different electric buzzes and chirps, which the operator would manipulate using 10 keys, a wrist plate, and a pedal’. It is even credited with inspiring Numbers by Kraftwerk that transformed musical genres as diverse as techno, hip-hop, new wave, and early rap (Sanusi, 2023). A general English text-to-speech system was developed by Noriko Umeda in 1968 at the Electrotechnical Laboratory in Japan.

Sounds like a real human

In recent years text-to-speech has drastically improved since the mechanical narration it used to render. There are some exceptions to this innovation like eBook text-to-speech, for instance, which need some development. We have named some of the pros and cons in our Library Wellbeing guide. The deliciously-named IceCreamApps site provides a list of eight recommended eBook screen readers, if you are interested. The fundamental issue is that there is no universal screen reader that works for everything online. That aside, the revelation is Microsoft’s Speak text-to-speech feature. It reads like a dream. Or rather, like a human voice. The ’voice’ is female, well-spoken, annunciating to give emphasis, giving pauses where needed and is easy on the ear.  If you are not happy with the ‘voice’ then you can go to Microsoft’s Speech Platform enabling you to choose a different voice package. It’s a bit like choosing your speech choice on a SATNAV when you drive a car. Text-to-speech software has been humanised, the ultimate acclaim of any person-centred AI technology.

Drawbacks are minimal. Homonyms are occasionally an issue like the word ‘reading’ (e.g. reading text) pronounced as ‘Reading’ (the Berkshire town located west of London).  I have also caught myself anthropomorphising the ‘voice’ as a person (‘her’). There are many benefits to using text-to-speech.

Benefits on literacy

Although few studies indicate whether text-to-speech increases literacy, rates of listening comprehension was found in a study by Brunow & Cullen (2021) to be beneficial, although it is not comparable to the interventionist support of a human teacher. Research conducted by Svensson et al. (2019) have found that reading ability, motivation, and performance increases with the use of text-to-speech. These suggest that text-to-speech is supplementary, rather than comprehensive, and does not substitute human involvement in the educational process (Wood et al., 2018).

Visual stress

One of the benefits of using text-to-speech is to alleviate visual stress, reducing eye strain. This function is necessary when someone has a neurodiverse condition like dyslexia or ADHD. Text-to-speech relies upon auditory skills rather than the complexity of visually reading a page. This is a revolutionary step for dyslexic students struggling to read text on the screen.

Editing and proofreading

For the purposes of editing and proofreading the immediate benefits of text-to-speech are huge and impactful, allowing for error detection, spelling and grammatical mistakes, awkward sentence structures and consistency and coherence.  I have found it particularly useful in identifying word misplacement.

Writing style analysis

Even though I am not dyslexic I use MS Speak. I used it repeatedly for this blog post, both in Word and in WordPress. What does my writing sound like? Are there any errors, misplaced words, gaps, too many words..? How does it flow? What is the personality of my writing voice? These are simple questions and text-to-speech, I feel, has the ready answers. Such writing style analysis identifies your writing voice using natural language processing (NLP) tools, analysing writing patterns, sentence structures and other linguistic features.

The allyship of text-to-speech software

Text-to-speech software has become an indispensable ally in writing. Will you invite this accessible technology into your assignments and check your writing? Nowadays I would not write a longer piece of writing without it. Text-to-speech is a welcome friend in that regard.

References

Brunow, D.A. & Cullen, T.A. (2021). Effect of Text-to-Speech and Human Reader on Listening Comprehension for Students with Learning Disabilities. Computers in the schools: Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, and Applied Research, 38 (3), 214-231.

Grundhauser, E. (2017). The Voder, the first machine to create human speech. Available from: The Voder, the First Machine to Create Human Speech – Atlas Obscura [Accessed 15th May 2024].

Icecreamapps.com. (2024). Best Text To Speech Book Readers 2024: Top 8 – Icecream Apps. Available from: Best Text To Speech Book Readers 2024: Top 8 – Icecream Apps [Accessed 21st May 2024].

Sanusi, T. (2023). From Hawking to Siri: The evolution of speech synthesis. Available from: From Hawking to Siri: The Evolution of Speech Synthesis | Deepgram [Accessed 15th May 2024].

Svensson, I., Nordström, T., Lindeblad, E., Gustafson, S., Björn, M., Sand, C., … Nilsson, S. (2021). Effects of assistive technology for students with reading and writing disabilities. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, 16 (2), 196–208.

University of Lincoln. (2024). Screen Readers – Screen Readers and Accessibility – Guides at University of Lincoln. Available from: Screen Readers – Screen Readers and Accessibility – Guides at University of Lincoln [Accessed 21st May 2024].

Wood, S.G. et al. (2018) ‘Does Use of Text-to-Speech and Related Read-Aloud Tools Improve Reading Comprehension for Students with Reading Disabilities? A Meta-Analysis’, Journal of Learning Disabilities, 51(1), 73–84.

Looking beyond the cover: Becoming what you read

Daren MansfieldLeave a comment

Being free, unshackled from the rigours of expectation, is important when you want to develop your writing voice and express things in your own way. When I was an undergraduate at Essex, a lecturer said to me that I had some good ideas and nice turns of phrases now and then, but my writing style was sometimes wooden. Ouch. It was a low blow, and I have never forgotten that remark. How would I improve and write in a way that was less awkward?

Reading is essential in unlocking that stuck gear. Hitherto, it’s important to enjoy what you read rather than viewing reading as a purely educational task; in the past I fell into the self-identity trap that I wanted people to think I was clever by the books I read. After I graduated and got a job in a London FE college I used to egotistically show off what I was reading to fellow commuters like the Thought Police were going to raid the Tube at any moment and check whether the cover was commendable enough to evade arrest. Certain authors spring to mind warranting immediate arrest.  An Orwellian or Kafkaesque dystopian society which nobody wants to live in. It was largely a false projection; an image of self that personified vanity but did little in the way of reading for pleasure. Yet anyone recall that beautifully dreamy scene in Raging Bull by the swimming pool when Jake LaMotta first meets his wife? Perhaps I had that in mind. Showing off book covers is hardly a sensible endeavour, yet as a mature student at that time I was making up for lost time and had to prove myself.

Choosing what you read is key to influencing your style of writing. What writing do I now enjoy? It can be much dependent on my frame of mind, but when arriving at a sweet spot I want to indulge as much as I can. Over the pandemic I devoured the works of Thomas Hardy. Gorgeous stuff. Nowadays it might be travel or sports writing, autobiographies or social history. Whatever it is, it must be suitable for a long train commute and the reading mood has to feel right – like wearing appropriate clothing for the weather.

What writer would I like to emulate nowadays? I’ve always had a soft spot for travel writing. As a child I moved around a lot, different towns, counties, even countries; travel was the shifting sands of my childhood. Perhaps that’s why I like travel writing, and a particular sort mixed with cultural history, intelligent humour, keen social observation and a side order of insightful reflection. I especially like reading about societies. What is it like to be there? Standing in a strange town square people watching, taking it all in as a casual observer yet Día morphically embedded in that society. A book can take you there. Learning about Le Flanuer in my undergraduate days has inspired many book purchases and many a read.

I recently read The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman: a bone-shaking tour through cycling’s Flemish heartlands, which I adored. It had all the right components. I sat enthralled on the train journey home anxious that I was not going to miss my stop – easily done when glued to a book, absorbed in its world; a kind of joyous escapism in 300 pages. Offbeat and humorous, intelligence bordering on the academic, it showed me the way I wanted to go as a writer, and reading for pleasure showed me the way. It seemed like the perfect idea to go down the road I wanted to, and not to meet the opinions of others.

Perhaps we are what we read? Rather, it is discovering ourselves in the process that matters, not the vaunted benediction of others; an internal study – not a social mirror. Yet it is a two-sided activity. Consider what Alexei Sayle (2010, 26) observed about his father’s varied book collection:

‘…the hundred or so volumes housed in two wooden bookcases in the front room all dated from before the war and provided a vivid picture of the life of a working-class radical in the 1930s. Though Joe never got to speak much about what he felt even in the brief silences when Molly wasn’t shouting at the neighbours, these books were like geological rock strata that revealed the evolutionary layers of his personality’.

References

Sayle, A. (2010). Stalin ate my homework. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Digging for words: Alex Quigley’s ‘Closing the Vocabulary Gap’

Daren MansfieldLeave a comment

The first chapter of Alex Quigley’s Closing the Vocabulary Gap reads like a resounding call to arms. A restricted vocabulary hinders a child’s academic progress, which impairs their mental health and future employment prospects as an adult. To succeed academically, developing word consciousness is fundamental. By way of a benchmark, readers of Closing the Vocabulary Gap typically know between 50 and 60 thousand words: in other words, a competent reader.

Knowing vocabulary is transformative: there is over a million words in the English language. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet there are 30,557 words alone. Students need to equip themselves with at least 50,000 words to thrive, otherwise their lack of ‘vocabulary knowledge deficit can prove an insurmountable hurdle’ (Quigley, 2018, 3). Vocabulary gaps start at an early age. Studies reveal that children with poorer vocabulary at aged five experience higher rates of unemployment along with poorer mental health problems (Nagy, 1987, 7). Although it is not a ‘bullet-proof solution’ (Quigley, 2018, 3) it is argued that academic achievement rests on broad vocabulary development:

Vocabulary size is a convenient proxy for a whole range of educational attainments and abilities – not just skill in reading, writing, listening and speaking, but also general knowledge of science, history and the arts’ (Hirsch, 2013).

Many children are in tears sitting their SATS reading examination in primary school – in one Key Stage 2 SATS reading examination the words ‘unearthed’, ‘drought’, ‘freshwater oasis’, ‘parched’, ‘receding’, ‘suffocation’ were contained in a single paragraph.  To meaningfully comprehend a text, you would need at least 95% reading comprehension. However, imagine reading a 300-word passage and not understanding 15 words then multiplying that for an 85,000-word textbook as a graphic illustration of the challenge ahead. Pupils struggle with harder GCSEs as A-Level concepts are absorbed into the curriculum. It is perhaps no surprise that socio-economic status lies at the heart of academic achievement, compounding the problem:

‘From birth to 48 months, parents in professional families spoke 32 million more words to their children than parents in welfare families, and this talk gap between the ages of 0 and 3 year – not parent education, socio-economic status, or race – explains the vocabulary and language gap at age 3 and the reading and math achievement gap aged 10’ (Horowitz and Samuels, 2017 ,151).

Someone (indubitably a male) educated at Eton College will have access to the best education available. Compare that with an under-privileged inner-city school and a chasm – not a gap – appears. Vocabulary can be simply outlined as the difference between rich and poor. Yet simply having access to a dictionary can make a big difference, and we have a great opportunity in the here and now, regardless of our social status:

‘by closing the vocabulary gaps for children in our classrooms with their peers, we can offer them the vital academic tools for school success, alongside the capability to communicate with confidence in the world beyond the school gates’ (Quigley, 2018, 2).

All very simple in theory. But where is the hook? How do we get children to read in the first place? By what means do we spark interest and inspire children to pick up a book and read on their own? A good 10-year-old reader encounters a million words in a year. Using public libraries are free. They are warm, inviting places. Having access to thousands of books on a wide variety of subjects opens the mind and gives the reader plenty of opportunity to expand their vocabulary. This is one solution.

Children need to be exposed to more complex reading earlier on. Reading lots of books for pleasure is key to expanding vocabulary but such practice does not hold all the answers. Word learning is necessary to crack the academic code; developing word consciousness where the child is curious about a meaning of a word is essential in digging deeper – to its etymology. Digging down to its roots and unearthing word parts – known as morphology exposes meaning. Take circle for instance. The roots of circle are ‘cycl’. This word part has many functions: ‘recycle’, ‘bicycle’, ‘cyclone’, ‘encyclopaedia’, ‘tricycle’, and ‘motorcycle’., thus creating word families. Deconstructing the core purpose of a word gives it traction, motivating the reader to learn more. Get digging, uncover the roots of words, break down each word and know its design. Only then we will be able to traverse the socio-economic chasm and fulfil our true student potential in our vocabulary journey.

References

Carpenter, K. (2020). Education, Education, Education: 500 years of Learning at Eton College. Available from: Education, Education, Education: 500 Years of Learning at Eton College – History of Education Society [Accessed 22nd February 2024].

Hirsch Jr, E.D. (2013). A wealth of words. The key to increasing upward mobility is expanding vocabulary. City Journal, 23 (1). Available from: A Wealth of Words | Education Analysis | Expanding Vocabulary (city-journal.org) [Accessed 21st February 2024].

Horowitz, R., & Samuels, S. J. (2017). The achievement gap in reading: Complex causes, persistent issues, possible solutions. New York: Routledge.

Nagy, W.E. & Herman, P.A. (1987). Breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge: Implications for acquisition and instruction (in) McKeown, M. & Curtis, M. (eds.) The nature of vocabulary acquisition, 19-35. Hillside, NJ: Lawrence Eelbaum Associates.

Quigley, A. (2018). Closing the vocabulary gap. London: Routledge.