Reading is Hard just because Listening is Easy

In their work on reading and the difficulties that attend it. investigators have commonly omitted to ask the questions that are. in my view, prior to all others: why is it easier to perceive speech than to read, and why is it easier to speak a word than to spell it? My aim is to repair these omissions. To that end, I divide my talk into two parts. First, I say why we should consider that the greater ease of perceiving and producing speech is paradoxical, by which I mean to suggest that the reasons are not to be found among surface appearances. Then I propose how, by going beneath the surface, we can find the reasons, and so resolve the paradox. THE PARADOX Before developing the paradox. I should first remind you that perceiving and produCing speech are easier than reading or writing. for thiS is the point from which I depart and to which I will. at the end. return. The relevant facts include the following. (1) All communities of human beings have a fully developed spoken language; in contrast. only a minority of these languages has a written form. and not all of these are in common use. (2) Speech is first in the history of the race, as it is in the child; readin

Awareness of phonological segments and reading ability in Italian children

APPLIED PSYCHOLINGUISTIC