Professor William Labov, University of Pennsylvania

Title:  READING: THE IMPERATIVE CHALLENGE TO APPLIED LINGUISTICS

Abstract: Among the social problems that affect the life chances of Americans, none is more serious than the failure of children to acquire literacy in the early grades. Though linguists have not made major contributions to reading research in recent years, both need and opportunity are now greater than ever. This report will deal with three implications of recent research that combines linguistic analysis with active intervention in low-income schools. (1) Resistant problems in decoding raise challenges for phonological theory; a clearer definition of the elsewhere condition is called for, along with a general theory of exceptions to phonological rules. (2) Attempts to explain the correlation of nonstandard dialects with low reading still require a better understanding of how differences from standard English interfere with reading. (3) Efforts to reverse the alienation of children from the reading process must construct texts that engage the interests, emotions and concerns of struggling readers. Principles drawn from the study of narratives of personal experience may be applied to this end.

  
Bio-statement:  William Labov, Professor of Linguistics, Director of the Linguistics Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania.  His major work is the study of linguistic change and variation, and he has just published the Atlas of North American English, with co-authors S. Ash and C. Boberg). A second edition of his 1966 study of The Social Stratification of English in New York City is about to appear. Other books include Sociolinguistic Patterns  (1972), Language in the Inner City  (1972), Principles of Linguistic Change (1994, 2000),. He is the director of the Urban Minorities Reading Project and co-author of the Individualized Reading Manual, designed to raise reading levels in low-income schools. He is co-editor of Language Variation and Change, served as president of the Linguistic Society of America (1979), and is a member the National Academy of Sciences.

Please direct questions to aaal2007@indiana.edu  *  Costa Mesa, California  *  April 21-24, 2007