It is at this grade that pre-adolescent peer groups are also first fully formed. These groups align themselves for or against the goals of the adult community and the school system. For children to become successful readers of English, Labov noted that they should be taught both phonics and whole language approaches. The National Research Council report on reading, of which Labov was a committee member, declared that these two approaches must be combined for a successful approach to teaching reading. John Baugh, Professor of Education and Linguistics at Stanford University, served as the closing speaker.
Linguistic abilities have direct economic consequences.
This, he said, is particularly important with the advent of the global economy. In this global environment, people with diverse linguistic abilities have a resource and are greatly advantaged by their language abilities. Baugh called this a mistake and stressed that linguistic diversity needs to be accepted. A transcript of the briefing will be available in four to six weeks.