Abstract

CONCEICAO, Djenane Brasil da; PASSOS, Maria de Lourdes R. F.  and  ROSE, Júlio César C. de. Reading Instruction in Bloomfield and Behavior Analysis. Perspectivas [online]. 2015, vol.6, n.1, pp. 02-23. ISSN 2177-3548.

Leonard Bloomfield was one of the most important linguists of the twentieth century. He was a behaviorist, and influenced many aspects of B. F. Skinner's work. In the 1930s, Bloomfield developed a method for teaching reading, which culminated in the publication of "Let's Read" in 1961. His basic teaching procedure is to present pairs of words that contrast in just one or a few letters and to present regular, semi-regular and irregular grapheme-phoneme relations in those words. Bloomfield's and Skinner's concepts about reading are very similar and Bloomfield's method for teaching reading is also compatible with the teaching procedures used in behavior analysis. Both approaches consider that a basic repertoire of reading, the emission of vocal verbal responses corresponding to the printed text, called textual behavior by Skinner, is a prerequisite for reading with understanding. They advocate the development of teaching methods that promote errorless learning. This paper constitutes an analysis of Bloomfield's method for teaching reading in the light of behavior analysis, and a comparison of these perspectives. The adaptation of Bloomfield's method to the Portuguese language and its combination with principles and procedures of programmed instruction have great potential toward solving the problem of high rates of illiteracy in Brazil.

Keywords : teaching reading; textual behavior; errorless learning; Bloomfield; Skinner.

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