Extract from Margaret Donaldson, Childrens Minds (London, Fontana, 1978),

pp. 8695.

As literate adults, we have become so accustomed to the written word that we

seldom stop to think how dramatically it differs from the spoken one. The spoken word
(unless it is recorded) exists for a brief moment as one element in a tangle of shifting
events, [] and then it fades. The written word endures. It is there on the page,
distinct, lasting. We may return to it tomorrow. [] We can pick it up and slip it into a
pocket or briefcase. Once a child has begun to learn to read, he can bring his book
home from school and read to his mother the same words which he read to his
teacher in the classroom earlier in the day.
So a childs first encounter with books provides him with much more favourable
opportunities for becoming aware of language in its own right than his earlier
encounters with the spoken word are likely to have done. Of course in some homes
awareness of the spoken word is greatly encouraged. Some parents talk about words
to their children, play word games with them and so on. But most talk only with
words. []
For many children the earliest encounter with the written word is indirect,
arising in the situation where a story is read aloud by an adult. This is already in a
sense language freed from context; but the experience of hearing a story is not so
likely to enhance awareness [of language] as the direct grappling with words on a
page is. []
It turns out that those very features of the written word which encourage
awareness of language may also encourage awareness of ones own thinking and thus
be relevant to the development of intellectual self-control. This has important
consequences for the development of the kinds of thinking which are characteristic of
logic, mathematics, and the sciences.

Discussion:
a What, according to Donaldson, is the most important difference between spoken
and written language?
b What do you think it means to become aware of language in its own right?
c What is the significance of the distinction between spoken and written language for
learning?