Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program
Third Edition
|
Why does a teacher, tutor or parent-as-teacher have to actively teach the Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program?
Simply because the long term objectives listed above can never be achieved through a computer interface, a silent classroom, or a self-study program.
Language is communication and communication is conversational interaction between two or more people. This is a fact and there is no way around it when intelligent, rich conversational interaction between people is our eventual goal. This intelligent, conversational interaction should even spill over into our fluent reading of books, magazines and newspapers because we will then read critically, by having an interactive inner conversation with the authors, rather than the passive acceptance of what self-appointed authorities write.
Thus, in the Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program the teacher or parent is in frequent intelligent conversational interaction with the student or students.
There are also other reasons why a live teacher or parent is necessary to the acquisition of superior language skills. English is a phonetic language and it is primarily auditory-vocal--which means it is based on spoken and heard sounds called phonemes. Now all the complexity of sound (phoneme) to symbol (grapheme) pronunciations, orthography, identification, sequencing, discrimination, and auditory closure skills cannot yet be handled even by our largest computers or our very best computerized speech-dictation programs. No computers yet have sufficient artificial intelligence and interactive spoken conversational language, and such rich conversational computer interfaces are probably decades away. In fact, even the simple dictation feedback programs that already exist (with only 97% accuracy) do not even begin to match the extreme richness of the live human voice or ear. Therefore there is no substitute for the conversational and instructional auditory-vocal input of a real live teacher, tutor or parent.
Yet another reason for a live person as a teacher is motivation. Motivation has been shown by research to be responsible for up to 80% of anyone's success story, and successful students are highly motivated by warm, kind, positive, reinforcing teachers and parents. Computers cannot emotionally interact with students, and students cannot interact emotionally with computers. Robin William's Millennium Man has not been invented yet and is nowhere in sight. The Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program uses many ways of motivating students, but the key role of a warm, live, interactive teacher or parent is pivotal.
This means that the component Workbooks and Teacher Guides have to be printed out from the CD-ROM--printed out, that is, as they are needed for the teaching/learning process. Of course, the permanent Teacher Guides need only be printed once (they can also be viewed on-screen), while each student will need a hard copy of the appropriate Workbook he or she is currently working on. See: MAIN COMPONENTS -- DETAILS for the list of Workbooks and some of their components.
What would you say is the most important characteristic of the Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program?
Apart from powerful motivation, the most important characteristic of the Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program is the fact that no basic element (or "bit") of the English language is used by students until it has been thoroughly taught by the teacher or parent using the Bannatyne Program. This means that a student is never exposed to any single part of English (such as in a Story or Game) until that part has already been taught and learned. No other program that teaches reading, or spelling, or writing, or language known to the author has this complete control over the introduction and usage of every bit, every part, every aspect of the English language. This policy of complete "linguistic-bit" control enables students to be continuously successful at every single step and stage of the Bannatyne Program.
Before the Bannatyne Program was created these tens of thousands of sequential bits or elements of the English language were organized by me into a no-fail sequential learning ladder into which other dynamic learning aids, devices, motivators and techniques could be seamlessly interlaced.
The Bannatyne Reading Program is a comprehensive, integrated reading program, writing program, spelling program, language program, and comprehension training program. The Bannatyne Reading Program is unlike any other reading programs currently available. This means you will find many features which are only in the Bannatyne Reading Program. In some Commonwealth countries the program may be referred to as: Bannatyne Programme, or Bannatyne Reading Programme.
Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program -- Copyright © 2003-2008 Alexander Bannatyne, PhD
|