Levin and Williams 1970

Levin, Harry, and Joanna P. Williams (editors). 1970.Basic studies on reading. New York: Basic Books. 283 pages. (Review by Gordon 1973.) Location: Dallas SIL Library 372.4 B311b. Interest level: academic.

Has significant insights (N. Chomsky, page 3). Dominant factor in successful teaching is teacher's skill to nourish, to arouse a child's curiosity and interest, and to provide a challenging intellectual environment. This enables children to find their unique way toward understanding, knowledge, and skill (Kolers, page 117).

Is probably wrong that written language has been derived from and is a representation of spoken language. "Logic requires that we regard both as abstract structures, two different means in the skilled practitioner for representing relations between objects and between concepts, which may have more or less similarity in their arrangements." Of special interest are the following chapters:

• Chapter 8 (Grammatical structure and reading by Levin and Kaplan)
• Chapter 11 (Psychology and reading: Commentary on Chapters 5--10 by Roger Brown)
• Chapter 15 (From basic research on reading to educational practice by Joanna P. Williams).

Highly recommend this book to anyone with a serious interest in theoretical developments related to literacy.

• Bibliography module: Levin and Williams 1970
• In overview module: Bibliography (Literacy): L
• In modular book: Bibliography (Literacy), by Doris Gallemore, Trudi C. Hunt, Jeanne Swanson, and Stephen L. Walter
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This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

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