AKSES to Reading:
Children fail to read, not because of how they are taught, but
because of the nature of what they must learn in order to read and write...
...transparent writing systems make reading and writing as easy for
children as speaking and understanding spoken English.
AKSES is an easily learned transparent writing system that
children and adults master intuitively. It offers universal literacy to
all Americans.
Writing System:
AKSES incorporates a selected set of characters representing
American English words in a phonemic orthography (
Description:
AKSES is not Reformed Spelling. It is devoid of
spelling. Words are "spoken" on paper by assembling sequences of
phonemic characters, the same way they are formed orally by assembling
sequences of phonemic sounds.
A child who recognizes phonemic characters by name can master reading
simply by learning to blend them into words. The process is a finite task that
is within the intellectual capability of most preschool children.
PO is not phonetic. It does not
reproduce the idiomatic components of dialects or individual speech habits.
Effective listeners filter out that "noise" by recognizing only
intelligible (phonemic) components of speech sounds. In a similar manner,
Character Set:
Phonemes are language units postulated to mediate conversion of
thought-words into spoken words and of spoken words back into thought-words.
Their nature and location in the brain are unknown, but they link natural
English (defined as the oral tradition based upon phonemes) to natural
written English (a writing system based upon the same phonemes).
Background:
The inescapable conclusion is that a written word is no more nor less
than a visible incarnation of a word spoken, either aloud or in a writer's
mind. It is a useful copy only if recorded with accepted
orthography.
Young children learn quickly if
the same phonemic symbol always represents a given phoneme. As long as they are
easily distinguished one from another, which symbol is actually used for each
phoneme is inconsequential.
Professional educators have taken little notice of the fact that the
first i.t.a. goal - teaching all children to read and write phonemic text
early in first grade - was a spectacular success...The programs eventually
proved unsuccessful only when children were switched from phonemic orthography
back to traditional spelling.
Dictionaries are sensitive to changes in
the English language and provide pronunciation guidance that can be converted
to a phonemic listing for an AKSES lexicon.
How and Why AKSES Works:
[AKSES] displaces the authoritarian spelling system by reintroducing
the original basis for English orthography. As one dictionary editor put it,
"American spelling is phonetic. That is to say, the letters of our alphabet
stand for certain sounds...."
Even as the random nature of the [spelling] "system"
limits access to it, the characteristics that make it inaccessible are touted
as literary virtue, not as a roadblock to literacy.
...The problem is treated as a trivial
matter, "just a continual nuisance," a "minor affliction"
for literate Americans. Its role as a roadblock to reading and
writing for a majority of children and as a major contributor to limiting the
success of the American educational system is not discussed in polite
intellectual or academic circles.
"Even among those of our children
and adults who do not become non-readers, the traumas of an irrational alphabet
often continue as hidden or unconscious antipathies for, or roadblocks to,
effective reading habits, and even more effective roadblocks to writing. Nonreaders
not only feel déclassé, but also too frequently become victims of frustrations
leading to delinquency, crime, and the self-destructive violence associated
with political infantilism and susceptibility to demagoguery."
Suggestions that these problems will fade away with adoption of a phonemic
orthography are greeted with disbelief, indifference, derision, or outright
hostility. Only a few recognized reading experts accept even the possibility
that a viable alternative to authoritarian orthography exists.
Phonemes are an integral
part of a child's oral language facility. When information is transmitted,
phonemes influence the speech organs to convert thought/words into sound/words.
When information is received, the sounds heard are converted into word/thoughts
by means of their phonemic content. These processes are so easily learned
during a child's early development that they seem instinctive rather than
volitional to some.
A child who recognizes the 44 phonemics
of AKSES and responds orally with their names is ready to start reading.
Reading and writing phonemic text is as "natural" as engaging
in spoken conversation.
Reading proceeds naturally and with
little effort in the process of recognizing (oralizing) the phonemic content of
written words.
Training students to read and write
Implimenting AKSES:
Only now do we open our eyes to its [spelling's] role in denying millions
of Americans of the educational and economic benefits of reading and writing
their native language.
Spelling, a complex special code, attempts to display a history of
words and, for a few grammatical forms, to suggest their usage by the way they
are written. Spelling performs neither of these functions effectively.
Everyone must understand that the
proposed change is the only way Americans can achieve universal
literacy. Equally important they have to be convinced that the proposed
system can produce the desired result.
History is filled with examples of
successful reforms in writing systems of major nations for the purpose of
encouraging education and reducing illiteracy....Compared with these sweeping
foreign writing system changes, the proposed reform of American orthography has
minor consequences for the reading public. However, it will have a dramatic
effect on reducing illiteracy and making our universal schooling more effective.
From the Author:
One day as we drove home from school
when I was about 9 years old, I asked my Mother why so many words are spelled
so strangely. Her answer, "that's just the way it is," was
unsatisfactory.... As a 9-year-old child, I recognized that
English spelling is deliberately inconsistent for no good reason.
Traditional written English is quasi-phonemic;
it is only superficially a simple phonemic system. Americans have a clear
choice: 1) Keep the spelling paradigm, thereby abandoning a substantial
group from every future generation to substandard literacy, or 2) give all
future children the gift of truely phonemic written English.
"Why do we continue to teach our children the separate language of spelling
instead of permitting them to read and write standard English in a phonemic
form?" The answer must be that most people do not understand the
consequences of our present writing system. Unfortunately, those who do
understand are unwilling to do anything about it.
(First published 4/19/00, J.H.Kanzelmeyer.)