Welcome to Episode 4 of Learn English with Amy, the podcast that helps you listen and learn more.⁣⁣

This episode is ideal for *advanced* English learners, especially those of you who are preparing for postgraduate studies. And those of you with school-aged children.⁣

*Also available on YouTube with subtitles (first 10 min only)*:  https://youtu.be/XgxYoPi1nvI

*For the full transcript, visit Otter* : https://otter.ai/s/VivxsuvKTzC5Z2ZdvnckCA

The theme of this episode is “cracking the code”, an idiom meaning: ‘To figure out how to do something – often something very difficult. To solve a difficult problem or mystery.’ The formal term for “cracking the code” is: decoding. Decoding is also a term used by reading specialists, like my guest, Lynn Carpenter. ⁣ 

Lynn is head of instructional support at The Churchill School & Center, a school in New York City for children with language-based learning disabilities, and director of the school’s Center for Professional Development and Parent Engagement. ⁣

I provide background on the something called the ‘Science of Reading’. The main components of which phonics and decoding. Phonics is the ability to identify that there is a relationship between the individual sounds (phonemes) of the spoken language and the letters (graphemes) of the written language. Decoding is being able to use visual, syntactic, or semantic cues to make meaning from words and sentences. This information is informed by the excellent work of the journalist Emily Hanford, of APM Reports. See below for links to the three reports I reference.

How are phonics and decoding taught? How should they be taught? And also: How is it that even privately-educated kids can get all the way to university and still not be proficient readers? Why haven’t they been able to crack the code of reading?⁣ Lynn addresses all these points in our conversation.⁣

Be sure to subscribe to this podcast you can listen to the next episode as soon as it's released!⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣And for *almost*-daily English tips, follow me (@englishwithamy_) and #englishwithamy on Instagram.

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VOCABULARY⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

phonics⁣

decoding⁣

dyslexia⁣

tutoring⁣

word attack⁣

professional development⁣

certification⁣

body of knowledge⁣

⁣debunk ⁣

The Matthew Effect ⁣

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⁣ADDITIONAL READING & SOURCE OF BACKGROUND INFORMATION IN THIS EPISODE

All works by EMILY HANFORD:

Hard Words: Why aren't kids being taught to read? (2018)⁣ https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read⁣

⁣At a Loss for Words: How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers (2019)⁣ https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2019/08/22/whats-wrong-how-schools-teach-reading ⁣

⁣What the Words Say: Many kids struggle with reading – and children of color are far less likely to get the help they need (2020)⁣ https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2020/08/06/what-the-words-say