The Meaning of Headlines: 'alphabet soup'

The Meaning of Headlines: 'alphabet soup' - education

The Globe and Mail published an article on October 23, 2015, with the headline ‘Dyslexia: An alphabet soup of remedies.’ What does ‘alphabet soup’ mean?

Oxford Dictionaries defines ‘alphabet soup’ as ‘a confusing or confused mixture of things.’ The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as ‘a hodgpodge, especially of initials’ or a ‘bowl of alphabet soup.’ A bowl of alphabet soup was a soup with pasta noodles in the shape of alphabet letters – like chicken noodle soup, but with small letters floating in it.

The article describes dyslexia as a ‘learning difficulty’ that affects 20% of school-aged children in which ‘they will struggle to recognize the alphabet, write their names, pronounce words, or learn rhymes.’ Typical readers average tens of thousands of words that they know by sight, but people with dyslexia have about 300 known words. The article adds that dyslexia and learning difficulties don’t need to be lifelong if children are identified early and given interventions to address their learning needs.

Many intervention programs have been in schools for years, but there is little scientific evidence of their effectiveness. The article explains some recent studies and the range of ‘learning remedies’ – and adds that some don’t address the root cause. The article mentions the theories why dyslexia occurs, such as lack of word recognition, hand-eye disconnect, phonological deficit, limited strategies to ‘decode’ words, low literacy levels, and changed brain functioning. The article adds that remedial intervention strategies are left to individual schools to choose which methods to adopt. Professor Hale of the Centre for Brain Literacy at the University of Calgary in Canada said few schools were evaluating children early enough – they were evaluating children in the third, fourth, or fifth grade, because they were waiting to see if children with learning issues would eventually ‘catch up’ to the rest of the class.

Scorecard for The Globe and Mail headline is 100%. The article presents a confusing or confused range of reasons and causes for dyslexia, and a confusing range of interventions to address it – a veritable alphabet soup of ways to read the alphabet.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/dyslexia/article26962379/

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog