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Language at the Speed of Sight Paperback – March 6, 2018

by Mark Seidenberg (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 521 ratings
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In this "important and alarming" (New York Times) book, see why so many American students are falling behind in their reading skills while others around the world excel.

The way we teach reading is not working, and it cannot continue. We have largely abandoned phones-based reading instruction, despite research that supports its importance for word recognition. Rather than treating Black English as a valid dialect and recognizing that speaking one dialect can impact the ability to learn to read in another, teachers simply dismiss it as "incorrect English." And while we press children to develop large vocabularies because we think being a good reader means knowing more words, studies have found that a large vocabulary is only an indication of better pattern recognition. Understanding the science of reading is more important than ever--for us, and for our children. Seidenberg helps us do so by drawing on cutting-edge research in machine learning, linguistics, and early childhood development. Language at the Speed of Sight offers an erudite and scathing examination of this most human of activities, and concrete proposals for how our society can produce better readers.
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  1. Print length
    384 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    March 6, 2018
  4. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.96 x 8.25 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1541617150
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1541617155
  7. See all details
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From the Publisher

Language at the Speed of Sight

Language at the Speed of Sight

Language at the Speed of Sight

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In Language at the Speed of Sight, [Seidenberg] develops a careful argument, backed by decades of research, to show that the only responsible way to teach children to read well is to build up their abilities to connect reading with speech and then to amplify these connections through practice, developing skillful behavioral patterns hand in hand with the neurological networks that undergird them...Every teacher of young children as well as those who train them should read this book."―Wall Street Journal

"Seidenberg...unravels the science of reading with great flair. He is the ideal guide - and it turns out that we need a guide to reading, even though we've been doing it most of our lives."―Washington Post

"Seidenberg reviews the latest science on reading and makes an impassioned plea for putting this knowledge to use."―Scientific American

"Cognitive neuroscientist Seidenberg digs deep into the science of reading to reveal the ways human beings learn how to read and process language.... Seidenberg's analysis is backed up by numerous studies and table of data. His approach is pragmatic, myth-destroying and rooted in science--and his writing makes for powerful reading."―Publishers Weekly

"The neuroscience underlying [Seidenberg's] findings is complex, of course, but [he] does not often fall into thickets of technicality...his discussions are clear and accessible.... A worthy primer on the science of comprehending language."―Kirkus

"No technologically advanced society exists without reading. This is the remarkable story of why and how it all works. From David Letterman's irony to posited Sumerian patent trolls, the writing is lively, informative, and supremely entertaining."―Daniel J. Levitin, best-selling author of This Is Your Brain on Music and The Organized Mind

"Have you picked up the idea that reading is something that kids 'just pick up' and shouldn't be rushed into it, or that learning to read is something different from mastering something separate called 'comprehension,' or that a whole book about reading would be dull? Language at the Speed of Sight will disabuse you of all three notions and more-pick it up and marvel at how hard it will be to put it down."―John McWhorter, New York Times best-selling author of Nine Nasty Words, Word on the Move, and Talking Back, Talking Black

"Few works of science ever achieve Italo Calvino's six qualities of our best writing: Lightness, exactitude, visibility, quickness, multiplicity, and consistency. Mark Seidenberg's new book achieves just that. If every educator, parent, and policy maker would read and heed the content of this book, the rates of functional illiteracy, with all their destructive sequelae, would be significantly reduced."―Maryanne Wolf, author of Proust and the Squid

"A world-renowned expert explains the science of reading with clarity and wit--anyone who loves to read will be fascinated, and teachers will absolutely devour this book."―Daniel Willingham, best-selling author of Why Don't Students Like School?

"Language at the Speed of Sight is an incisive tour through the fascinating science of reading. From cuneiform to dyslexia to the future of literacy, Seidenberg is a master guide who--lucky for us--is as gifted a writer as he is a scientist."―Benjamin Bergen, author of What the F

About the Author

Mark Seidenberg is the Vilas Research Professor and Donald O. Hebb Professor in the department of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a cognitive neuroscientist who has studied language, reading, and dyslexia for over three decades. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; Reprint edition (March 6, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1541617150
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1541617155
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.96 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 521 ratings

About the author

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Mark Seidenberg

Mark Seidenberg

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I'm Mark Seidenberg, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I was originally a psycholinguist but you could call me a cognitive scientist or cognitive neuroscientist and I’d be good with it.

I grew up in Chicago, and went to a few colleges but only Columbia gave me any degrees, including a Ph.D. I was a professor at McGill University and then at the University of Southern California before returning to the Midwest in 2001. I’ve conducted a lot of research on language and reading. Our lab website is http://lcnl.wisc.edu.

My reading research addresses the nature of skilled reading, how children learn to read,  and the brain bases of reading and dyslexia, using the tools of modern cognitive neuroscience: behavioral experiments, computational models, and neuroimaging.  Recently I've been investigating the causes of chronically low reading among lower income and minority children—so-called “achievement gaps.”

My language research focuses on determining what we know when we know a language, how we acquire this knowledge, and how it’s used in comprehending language. Also how language compares to other human capacities, and to the communicative systems of other species

Language at the Speed of Sight (Basic Books, 2017) is a general audience book about the science of reading and its relevance to reading education.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
521 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kyla Turley
5.0 out of 5 stars This book is an excellent resource
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2024
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I used it for an online Professional Development book study!
One person found this helpful
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Nancy Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars Why do struggling readers need to read every day?
Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2018
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This information is rich and deep. I am taking my time reading so I can absorb the ideas in it. I've already used some of the background knowledge for the students I tutor in reading and phonics. Way too often the kids who need to read the most don't like reading. I realized after reading Language at the Speed of Sight why kids have to read every day. Text leaves out a lot of information about sound, such as pitch, timing, and loudness. We can figure out the meaning of what we read because we can fill in the missing information most of the time without it being part of the written system. The information is predictable from other things we know about the topic, context, and spoken language. If all of this information is included in the text, it would slow down our reading. We understand what makes a written language efficient. We don’t need all of the information included in the writing. Our experience tells us what is likely to be correct. Therefore, experience with reading is what helps students read accurately and fluently with comprehension.
7 people found this helpful
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Scott Banks
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating account of reading, laughable flub on teachers
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2017
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Seidenberg writes an engaging account of reading from the crossroads of cognitive science and linguistics—heady stuff he explains easily for a lay reader. He examines surprising and plausible guesses about how the ancients invented writing, which is harder to do than we think, and makes a convincing case that reading differs from oral expression because reading does not come naturally to us. This ultimately brings him to launch an entertaining attack on schools of education, coupled with an extremely dated attack on "whole language," which he thinks stalks the country today under the guise of "the balanced approach" to reading. His problem here is that while he accuses the balanced approach of being so vague as to allow renegade whole languageers to continue their misguided practice, his own insights into reading instruction would themselves be completely familiar and accepted by any teacher in the last twenty years: explicitly teach students to decode print to sounds by grade 3, while reading aloud to them and giving them plenty of experience with sound, rhyme, and meaning, intervene early with struggling readers and monitor the effect of the intervention, and encourage readers to read a lot of books. Classroom teachers who read this book will be annoyed to be told we aren't doing this, and more annoyed to hear that test scores would improve "if" we were. They will laugh at the source of his mistake, though: He apparently has been trying to talk to education faculty at the colleges for thirty years now, and been ignored by them, and assumes that teachers have taken every goofy pet thought those professors ever had to heart, instead of learning ourselves what works and what doesn't. Still, his account of the cognitive and linguistic history and practice of reading should interest any classroom teacher, there is likely no better guide to it than this book, and it is a fascinating story.
45 people found this helpful
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Dr. B
5.0 out of 5 stars He has done an excellent job translating his scientific work for parents and teachers
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2017
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Seidenberg is well known in the worlds of neuropsychology and special education. He has done an excellent job translating his scientific work for parents and teachers. This is not an easy read however. Parents who are just starting out (or who have reading issues themselves) may find it too technical in the middle chapters when he starts integrating the research findings. As a psychologist who diagnoses dyslexia on a regular basis, I generally suggest Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz when parents first get the diagnosis. But while this one is somewhat more technical, the science is fresher, and Seidenberg does a better job integrating multiple areas of research on the neuroscience of dyslexia. A very enjoyable read!
16 people found this helpful
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kimby
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and thought-provoking.
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2018
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If you have any interest in language, in how the brain works, or in why we have separate schools of education, you will probably find this book fascinating - and if you also are interested in how people learn to read, so much the better. For people concerned about the achievement gap or who have young children or are dealing with dyslexia- I would call this required reading.

Don't be put off by complicated discussions of brain anatomy or by the description of computer simulations in the first part of the book. I waded through these but I think the reader could skim those sections without missing too much. Dr. Seidenberg unequivocally supports phonics over whole language as the best way to teach children to read and the first part of the book presents the science underlying his position. Keep going and read the rest of the book. I will definitely be rereading it.
14 people found this helpful
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Judith Levine
5.0 out of 5 stars the book itself is a kind of love letter to reading
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2017
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This book is a page-turner! Seidenberg explains the science in accessible, lucid, lively language. He is witty & friendly. His point about how reading should be taught is informed & passionate and the opposite of dogmatic. In fact, the book itself is a kind of love letter to reading: a personal world-expander, a great pleasure, a magnificent human invention--and, it turns out, a cognitive miracle to boot. Why wouldn't we do the best we can to ensure that every kid can not only read well but also relish reading? How? A first step would be to take Mark Seidenberg's advice.
And mine: Every educator, psychologist, parent, scientist--and reader!--should read Language at the Speed of Sight.
46 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Lynn H.
5.0 out of 5 stars A well written book based on scientific evidence - excellent
Reviewed in Canada on April 23, 2019
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I am a special education teacher working with students who have difficulty learning to read. This book was filled with scientific evidence and with well thought out arguments to challenge the way reading is being taught. It challenges university teacher programs to do better and it is very insightful in presenting information regarding reading disabilities. A must for any teacher of reading. Excellent book.
One person found this helpful
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J W.
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good on the developmental psychology of reading.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 10, 2020
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Good on statistical learning.. Many conclusion referencing American educational system. Some of this applicable to UK.
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Diane
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!
Reviewed in Canada on December 8, 2019
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Loving this book! With a background in language and teaching early learners, I feel this book shines light on the science of reading and has answered many of my questions on the neuroscience of reading and language acquisition. Brilliant!
One person found this helpful
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peterbbb
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 5, 2017
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Great. I don't normally write reviews for books but this is a super well evidenced book.
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Kimberley Handley
4.0 out of 5 stars Hard to read but worth it
Reviewed in Canada on July 15, 2019
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A must read for any Dyslexic family. I’ve read a lot of books on reading and none compare to this one. Very science based so it’s a harder book to read. I would have given it 5 stars but the print is very small and faint.
One person found this helpful
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