Let's Read, a Linguistic Approach [Paperback]

Leonard Bloomfield (Author), Clarence L. Barnhart (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 468 pages
• Publisher: Wayne State University Press (December 1961)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814311156
• ISBN-13: 978-0814311158
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #975,720 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An astounding find, February 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Let's Read, a Linguistic Approach (Paperback)

I have joyous memories of learning to read from Lets Read when I was three, and my mother, who taught one of my brothers and me, still speaks of it fondly. So when I went on line, without much hope, to try to find a copy for my small niece, I was thrilled to see that it was still in print.

What a shock, however, to discover that it was written by the linguist Leonard Bloomfield! It appears that he devised the method and materials for his young son, who wanted to learn to read.

Looking at it now, as an adult (and, coincidentally, a one-time linguist), I find the book's approach fascinating. It is based, seemingly, on a simple assumption: that if you give children carefully controlled examples that demonstrate specific rules of written English, they will extrapolate and internalize those rules on their own without too much conscious effort. Bloomfield went systematically through the English language, figured out the rules of representation of sound in our occasionally bizarre writing system, and grouped words together in ways that demonstrate the rules automatically to an absorbent young mind.

There is no commentary for the child, no lesson as such, merely words combined to make them easy to master as one acquires a broader and broader knowledge base. The heavy use of rhyme adds to the pleasure, for the child, and is part of the system at first. The text advances from two, three or four word sentences at the beginning ("Nan can fan Dan. Can Dan fan Nan?") to a complex "big kid" story at the very end. It is a relaxed and enjoyable program and very accessible to a child who wants to learn to read but is still too young to go to school. It assumes an eager child and a mild schedule of perhaps 15 minutes per day for several months. A patient and willing teacher (I was extremely fortunate in mine) is also a necessary part of the deal.

Bloomfield's introduction remarks: "Purely formal exercises that would be irksome to an adult are not irksome to a child, provided he sees himself gaining in power." The phrase reflects precisely the sense of empowerment that I as student and my mother as teacher vividly remember coming with each successive chapter.

Of course, it is more than 50 years now since Bloomfield and his colleague Clarence Barnhart (who learned of the materials when he mentioned to Bloomfield that he was looking around for a text to teach his own child) first began to look for a publisher. The reading samples in the Let's Read text, once you move beyond the "Dan Nan fan" stage, are unmistakably dated. It's startling to remember that in 1949 textbook mothers ironed and cooked while fathers took trains to work. The Nans and Dans would probably divide up their activities differently now, but I did not see anything in a quick glance-through that made me terribly worried of fostering an anti-feminist brainwashing of the next generation. If one is bothered by the stereotypes in the old texts, however, one can easily take the words from each chapter - a useful index is included -- and use them to write little stories of one's own.

I am not a teacher and know nothing of the other systems of teaching reading, but I suspect that Bloomfield's approach may be a good one. It may lead to practices of analyzing language that go beyond simply learning to read English text. At any event, it should certainly do the latter. And it was wonderful for us.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is the best tool to learn to read that I know of., March 13, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Let's Read, a Linguistic Approach (Paperback)

I am the proud parent of five children that could all read BEFORE they were in the first grade! This book is amazing. It is logical and it is proven to teach the concept of reading. All the talk about education is just that- talk. This book is the best tool that I have ever seen for teaching reading, it should be manditory in every school system in the United States and I can't for the life of me figure out why it isn't. Get a copy, look at it and try it- I am sure you will agree with me

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is great!, July 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Let's Read, a Linguistic Approach (Paperback)

Everything Bloomfield guessed about teaching reading has been confirmed by modern neuroscience. This is the best approach to teaching reading because it works with how the human brain processes language. It is even better than phonics. Children who learn to read with this system will be able to read nearly everything by the time they are in junior high.