This is The Reading Instruction Show. I'm your
host, as always, Dr. Andy Johnson. Topic of today's
podcast is academic buzzwords, weasel words,
propagating lexiconic leucusion, Claude Goldenberg,
and the International Dyslexia Association. And
this is an excerpt from my book coming out sometime
in 2027 called, Making Sense of the Science of
Reading, Teachers Matter. published by Guilford
Publishing. Now initially this chapter or podcast
was going to be about how bad research is conveniently
misinterpreted within the science of reading
community in order to make the case that early
reading instruction should be skills -based instead
of meaning -based. And I began by this chapter
by writing the sentence, words are important,
on top of the page. Then I realized that this
sentence didn't convey any useful information.
And it served no real purpose. The words were
useless. It was this realization. that led to
the first part of this chapter which looks at
the words used to convey propositions within
the science of reading community. So let's look
at types of words and we begin by defining our
terms. A word is a grouping of sounds put together.
These sound groupings are an abstract representation
of things out in the world. Now these sound groupings
can help you to think about things and enable
your thoughts to be transmitted to other heads.
By making certain sounds, the thoughts in your
head float out into space and are picked up by
other heads. It's magic! But wait, there's more!
Symbols are used to represent sounds. When put
together in certain ways, sound symbols enable
the thoughts in your head to travel across time
and space. And whoever encounters your sound
symbol groupings, now or in the future, in a
box with a fox, has your thoughts in their head.
And that's what a word is. Now, within the science
of reading community, sounding out words is thought
to be reading. The theory is that when students
see these groups of sound symbols on the page,
all the sounds slide together and the correct
word pops into their head. The desire to end
here is for the thoughts created in children's
heads by all the sound symbols on the page to
match the thoughts in the head of the person
who sent them. This will enable children to understand
the author's point of view, to refer to the structural
elements of a poem, to draw correct inferences,
to accurately describe characters and events
in stories, and to determine the theme of stories.
And this, by the way, are all skills, these things
I just said. All skills included in the Common
Core State Standards and used in part to define
and quantify students' level of literacy. But
ask yourself, how often are these skills used
by people in the real world? I digress. Words.
Academic buzzwords. A buzzword is a special kind
of sound grouping. While most sound groupings
are used to transmit ideas or information, these
sound groupings are used to elicit an emotional
response. In academia, academic buzzwords are
commonly used. The overuse of academic buzzwords
is called propagating lexiconic lucidity. Locution.
Locution, sorry. Academic buzzwords create the
illusion of something important. However, the
information transmitted with these can be inaccurate
or incomplete. Take, for example, these lists
of words, and I'll say just a few. Structured,
evidence -based, systematic, prescriptive, direct
instruction, explicit, extensive, sequential,
cumulative, multi -sensory, logical, order, phonological,
awareness, grasp. All right, these words sound
important. And everybody is in favor of these
words. But nobody wants to admit that they don't
know exactly what all these words mean. If you
want to have some fun, go to a science of reading
convention. Find a room full of people and ask
them to write out the definitions of these common
academic buzzwords. Of course, this is after
they have sounded them out. Then compare the
lists and what fun you will have. Weasel words
and cartoons. There's another kind of word used
in academia called a weasel word. These kinds
of words are used to give the impression of something
without really saying something. Weasel words
come in handy in academic writing as they absolve
the writer from responsibility for the propositions
put forth on the page. For example, in 2020,
Claude Goldenberg tells us that, quote, and evaluations
of instructional programs and interventions have
suggested that learning to read in a language
such as English with an alphabetic orthography,
i .e. writing system, requires learning the alphabetic
principles. The idea that letters or groups of
letters, graphemes, represent the speech sounds,
phonemes, in words, unquote. Now, according to
Claude, this is only a suggestion. They suggest
these things. And we can suggest a lot of things
without being held to account. For example, I
could suggest that Claude purposefully uses overly
long sentences and propagating lexiconic locution.
And he also tends to conveniently over -interpret
bad research. This is done to create the illusion
that its propositions have a strong basis in
research. But that's only a suggestion. I can't
be held to account for a suggestion. Now words
by themselves are not weasel -y. Their weasel
-ness is dependent on the context in which they're
found. Suggested, in Claude's sentence, is a
weasel word when used in this context. Claude's
not saying there's a causal relationship here.
He's not saying that there's research evidence
to support the idea that learning the alphabetic
principle is a required prerequisite of learning
to read. He's merely making a suggestion. But
the bigger question is, why is he suggesting
such a thing in the first place? By using propagating
lexiconic locution to suggest such a thing, Claude
gives the impression that some place in the world
there are people who disagree with his proposition.
However, I would suggest that most people already
agree with his suggestion. Learning that letters
stands for certain sounds is an important part
of beginning reading instruction. Everyone agrees
with this. So why did Claude use 51 words and
a suggestion to make a proposition that most
people already know and agree with? Now one cannot
infer intent. One cannot legitimately suggest
intent. What one can do, however, is describe
why some people might do this. And by using the
words describe some people and might, there's
a strong possibility that you might infer that
this was Claude's intent. But I'm not saying
this. I'm not describing this. I'm not suggesting
this. And I'm not even inferring this. Inferences
that are made are on you. Now, Wisa words aren't
always easy to detect. But when you first start
looking, you have to read carefully to see them.
But once you start looking, you'll find weasel
words popping out of the page of academic articles
like whack -a -mole. So let's look at strawman
arguments. Weasel words and propagating lexiconic
locution are sometimes used to create a strawman
argument. This is where one creates an inaccurate
or cartoonish portrayal of something and then
makes an argument against the cartoon. This is
done to give the impression that the product,
service, or idea that one is trying to sell is
better than something else. By saying that something
is, has, or does something, you're inferring
that something else doesn't. For example, to
make the case that structured literacy is better
than balanced literacy. In 2019, the International
Dyslexia Association used this description, quote,
structured literacy is characterized by the provision
of systematic explicit instruction that integrates
listening, speaking, reading and writing and
emphasizes the structure of language across the
speech sound system, phonology, the writing system,
orthography, the structure of sentences, syntax,
the meaningful part of work, words, morphology,
the relationship among words, semantics, and
the organization of spoken and written discourse."
Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, words buzzing
around like swarms of bees around a hive. Now
I would ask you, to go to that same science of
reading convention that you went to and find
the same room full of people. Ask them now to
write a description of each of these elements,
what they look like in practice, the elements
described by the International Dyslexia Association.
What does it look like? What are they actually
doing? What behaviors do I see? What type of
pedagogical strategies or practices would I see?
And if the people in the room are able to do
this correctly, you'll find that most, if not
all, of the elements they list are also included
in balanced approaches to reading instruction
and interventions. When comparing structured
literacy to a balanced approach, It's not a matter
of what, it's a matter of how and how much these
elements are used. But by creating a list of
buzzwords instead of a description, the International
Dyslexia Association is strongly suggesting that
these are unique to the domain of structured
literacy and their Orton -Gillingham products
and services. But this is conveniently inaccurate,
and this perhaps was the purpose. This has been
The Reading Instruction Show. I am your host,
Dr. Andy Johnson.