Customer Reviews

Essential Linguistics: What You Need to Know to Teach Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics, and Grammar

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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Freeman & Freeman have hit a great niche with their book. I don't want or need, a complex linguistics book in the style of Chomsky. Freeman & Freeman take language research and package the relevant "real-world" findings so they will be of use for teachers. Although my interest is for English as a Second (ESL) teachers, I believe every teacher is concerned with literacy, and Freeman & Freeman's book covers what teachers need to know concerning phonics v. whole word instruction, spelling, and grammar. Freeman & Freeman seem to belong to the Stephen Krashen school of language and reading. This is a plus for me, but for Krashen-haters, it probably wouldn't be, and they should look elsewhere. This is "baby" linguistics book--you won't get a section on Chomsky's generative grammar here. I think it would be a good companion volume along with VanPatten's "From Input to Output"--which is a slim volume solely concerned with second language acquisition and has the same conversational tone--and--this is important--their teaching advice and philosophy meshes.

I picked up this book from a university bookstore because I was interested in background knowledge in linguistics to help guide reading instruction. This book is a typical "we are right (whole language) and you are wrong (phonics)" debate. The authors refer to themselves as "sociopsycholinguists" which I took to be the new term for whole language teachers. I don't want to waste my time reading about the whole language vs. phonics debate anymore, I just wanted the research and background provided by linguistic study. This book just seemed to be a rehashing of whole language theories; and why they are correct and the phonics approach is wrong with little classroom strategies (which is what I wanted from the book). I wanted different ways I could use to help struggling readers no matter what the theory, I don't feel this was a good book for that.

Not really impressed with this book. It was a required text and I've been disappointed in it's content. When discussing the why we use sound to communicate, the best the authors could come up with is "..to talk in the dark and to talk in the dark." The authors present stronger material in working with ELL students but weak on linguistics. As a textbook, this a bad choice as a teaching source. The up & coming ELL teachers should look for other material.

Although it purports to take a balanced view of the field, Essential Linguistics is breathtakingly biased and out of date. The authors are rabid whole language propagandists who repeatedly champion thoroughly discredited Krashen [...] theories to argue against mountains of evidence supported by the NCTE that learners need 20 minutes of daily phonemic awareness activities to learn decoding skills and benefit from formal grammar instruction. Disingenuously, the Freemans quote a 1963!report by the NCTE that there is "widespread agreement that the teaching of formal grammar... has a negligible....or even harnmful effect on the improvement of writing," while neglecting to mention that the most recent 2001 report is anathema to their central arguments. The rest of the book is equally misleading. Universal grammar is not a consensus view, but "has been for some time, a completely empty concept" [...] Common sense and any ESL teacher will tell you that students who are learning English as a second language actually do need to practice speaking and writing it to learn how to gain proficiency (see Swain-Comprehensible Output)and there is no one in the entire world who still takes the "word recognition" strawman view of reading that the authors spend most of the text railing against. Last in vogue just after WWII, it is not, contrary to the Freemans, one of todays "two current views of reading."
Shame on the Freemans for completely misrepresenting the field!I feel sorry for the English lanaguage learners who have teachers who buy into their counterproductive practices.

I found this book very useful. Well put together and the questions/assignments at the end are also appreciated. Extremely valuable as a coursebook or for self-study. No fluff.

This is a helpful text that investigates the development and use of the English language by young and new learners.

I book very interesting and useful. It could help teacher to understand process related with learning and develop of language.
It's reading is easy.

The book was the one I wanted. It arrived the day it was scheduled. Very good conditions. Thank you very much! :D

Thank you so much for fast service and a product that was exactly as described!

The seller gave excellent service and communicated with me quickly. Book as described. Would definately work with again.