Language Patterns
Language Patterns is a structured literacy program. It is systematic, sequential, synthetic phonics. Teaching is direct and explicit. It is entirely consistent with the recommendations of the Ontario Human Rights Commission report, "Right to Read" (OHRC, 2022) and the Ontario Language Curriculum (2023). It is based on scientific research into how children actually learn to read.
The OHRC "Right to Read" report recommends (recommendation 27) that the Ministry of Education:
Require mandatory explicit, systematic and direct instruction in foundational reading skills, including phonemic awareness, phonics and decoding, and word reading proficiency.
Structured Literacy programs arrange their content into a coherent progression. The simplest, most generalizable skills are taught first, and more specific skills are taught next. Every lesson builds upon the previous lessons, and the whole is carefully scaffolded for the students. In a structured Literacy program, we begin at the beginning and proceed to the end. This makes the process simple and straightforward for students and teachers.
Direct and Explicit teaching simply means that knowledge and skills are taught intentionally. Students are not expected to infer or deduce or discover what they need to know. A "print-rich" environment is a good thing, but it is neither sufficient nor necessary to teach a child to read. Words are not taught before letters and sounds. Language Patterns does not use cuing systems, or whole language. It is not "balanced literacy."
Systematic means that the letters and sounds to be studied are presented within a system, working from letter-sound combinations which are useful in many words, to combinations that are more word-specific. The order of presentation has been carefully considered and tested to give an efficient and enjoyable learning and teaching experience.
Sequential means that the system builds carefully, with new letter-sound combinations added one after the other, building upon what has gone before. Each combination is practiced, by itself and then in words (blended), and then in connected text. Letters are almost always presented in combination with their associated sound, so that written text is understood as the representation of speech.
Synthetic means that every letter-sound combination is taught first by itself, and then used as part of a construction set to build words and sentences. Spoken words are synthesized from sounds, and written words are synthesized from letters that represent sounds.
Phonics means that written language is taught as being representative of spoken language. In languages that use an alphabet, written language encodes the sounds of speech (not only, but primarily). We initially understand written language by decoding it into spoken language - we read aloud. As we practice we internalize our spoken language - we read silently. Eventually, as we become proficient readers, we may access the meaning of a written word simultaneously with decoding it. At its most proficient and practiced stage, reading becomes automatic and even involuntary, we cannot see a written word without reading it.
About Language Patterns
Grace Linn
Dr. John R. Linn
Language Patterns was developed in the late 1960's by Grace and John Linn, with the assistance of several working classroom teachers (Mabel Bruce, Dorothoy Donaldson, Jean Ellis, Anne Saunders, and Janet Trischuk). It was introduced and tested in classrooms in the Ottawa Public School Board.
Grace Linn was a well-known teacher of remedial reading in Ottawa and area. She saw the need for a practical and effective method of teaching reading when she had her first class as a teacher (45 grade one students!)
Dr. John Linn was a principal, superintendent and psychologist in the Ottawa Public School Board. In all of his positions he saw the devastation caused by the failure to learn to read, and backed by Grace, he did something about it.
Language Patterns was taken on by Holt, Rhinehart Publishing of Canada, after the president of the company saw how effective it was (he had a dyslexic son.) It became the best-selling reading program in Canada during the 70's. However, the move to "whole language" eventually drove it out of classrooms, and eventually out of print.
But we were determined to make it available again, and here it is!
Taddy Stringer
Andrew Stringer
Dr. Brenda Linn
Dr. Ron Stringer
About us:
We are the Linn-Stringer family.
Brenda Linn, Ph.D.
(brendalinn@languagepatterns.ca) is an experienced teacher, with a doctorate in the psychology and pedagogy of reading. Brenda was a graduate student of Keith Stanovich and is a member in good standing of the Ontario College of Teachers. She has worked extensively in Inuit and Cree communities in the North, and also with Inuit students who live in urban settings. She is one of the original authors of Language Patterns, a structured literacy programme which she has been constantly updating and revising, and has implemented in a number of settings. She has used the program as the basis of graduate courses and professional development courses, as the basis of a kindergarten program for community centres in Toronto and Montreal, and also as a Tier 2 program for older elementary students. In addition to writing and designing educational resources, Brenda has written many of the poems that appear in Language Patterns, and her adult poetry has appeared in several literary publications.
Ron Stringer, Ph.D.
(ron@languagepatterns.ca) is a recently retired professor from the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at McGill University. He is a specialist in reading and reading disability, and a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario. He spent his childhood on Manitoulin Island, where he learned about his Métis roots in practical hands-on ways. Ron studied and worked with Keith Stanovich, whose seminal reading research is frequently cited in the recent Ontario Human Rights Commission report. Ron has done psycho-educational assessments for the East James Bay Cree School Board, as well as teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses on reading and reading disability at McGill.
Stephanie Stringer, MA
(stephanie@languagepatterns.ca) is a doctoral candidate at Concordia University and a sessional lecturer at McGill. Stephanie is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario, and has worked with Indigenous organisations including the Cree Health Board, and the Cree and Kativik school boards. For over ten years, she taught early readers and dyslexic readers in both English and French at the Learning Associates of Montreal, and at Dorval Elementary School, where she worked with first-language Inuktitut students. Between 2010 and 2015, she also conducted educational assessments in Cree and Inuit communities. Stephanie is well positioned to lead and advise on the linguistic aspects of this project, having an extensive background in languages and linguistics from the University of Toronto, the University of Oxford, and the Université de Montréal, as well as having completed introductory level courses in Inuktitut and Cree. She is also acutely aware of the cultural and justice issues that underlie a project such as this, having been an active volunteer for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, and having been involved with several Indigenous rights initiatives. Stephanie is also a novelist. Her first novel, Under Dark Boughs, is available on Kindle, and her work has appeared in the Métis Voyageur.
Andrew Stringer, BFA
(andrew@languagepatterns.ca) has a university background in both English Literature and Fine Arts. He is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario. Andrew has exhibited at art shows in Montreal and in New York State. He has also taught beginning reading to students in Canada, China, and Costa Rica, using the Language Patterns program, to which he has also contributed recent illustrations. During his extensive travels, Andrew was invited to create wall murals in Cambodia, Thailand, and Costa Rica. In addition to teaching and painting, Andrew worked for several years as a wilderness camp counsellor and wilderness guide. He was part of one of the last expeditions to canoe the 496 kilometre course of the Romaine River, before the hydroelectric generating station made the river impassable. More recently, Andrew has spent his summers as a tree planter in Ontario, Alberta, and Northern British Columbia. As well as having planted well over a million trees, Andrew has considerable experience in management, having overseen reforestation and rewilding projects throughout Ontario since 2012.
