By Stephanie Pappas, Associated Press WriterFor many high school students, the first step toward learning to read is to practice.
But learning to identify and read a language or to write a scientific paper requires more than reading and writing.
For students who do not speak the language or write scientific papers, such as a student studying a different science, reading can take on a more nuanced form.
For a long time, it has been assumed that reading was an afterthought, a chore that was just as important as writing.
But now a new study finds that reading can actually be a prerequisite for learning to think critically.
And for those who have learned a new language, such skills can help them gain a greater understanding of a new culture.
The study was conducted by researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Virginia, and published in the journal Psychological Science.
The research team surveyed a sample of over 3,000 people aged 16 and older in the United States, who were given the choice to read or write an essay.
The participants read an essay written by a professional who is a bilingual speaker, or translated into their native language.
The researchers then assessed their scores on two scales: their ability to identify facts, and their ability for thinking critically.
They then asked the participants to complete a study questionnaire.
In the essay, the researchers asked participants to list the four parts of language they knew: “the alphabet,” “the sounds of the alphabet,” and “the letters of the English alphabet.”
The researchers also asked the participant to list their favorite words and phrases, such a “good morning” and “good evening.”
Participants who completed the essay scored lower on both the reading and the writing skills tests than those who did not read the essay.
“This is not a surprise because the main purpose of reading is to learn the structure and rules of language,” says co-author Daniel Dennett, a cognitive scientist at Northwestern.
Students who were not exposed to a different language in their education are more likely to have difficulty learning a new one.
For example, while people who are bilingual can learn English better than those whose mother tongue is not, the research team notes that even if a person speaks a language other than English, he or she is likely to struggle with fluency.
The difference between learning to speak and to read English comes down to the way in which the language is spoken.
The most common way in the world to learn a language is by reading.
But reading can be taught in many different ways.
Some children learn the alphabet by playing games or singing songs.
Others learn it by reading a book.
Some children learn it through reading a poem or song.
Others can practice reading by listening to music.
And even people who cannot speak the native language are taught to read.
Dennett notes that the learning process begins with a group of young people who hear a song and begin to talk about the structure of that song.
Later, a group is formed to practice reading.
The process of learning to learn how to read can take years, and many young people don’t even begin to understand that they need to read before they can learn to speak.
It’s not just reading that is required to learn, but a process of thought.
The research team found that young people were better at learning a foreign language if they were taught a specific kind of writing or an essay that emphasized their language.
But the same process did not work for other types of learning.
Instead, the best way to learn is to think about what language someone is learning, says Dennett.
For young people, the most effective way to begin learning to write is to watch a teacher read a text aloud, and to use that as an introduction to the language.
And for students who have mastered their native languages, this may not be possible, because of cultural barriers or because they do not have access to a language teacher.
This is an evolving field.
In the meantime, the way people learn and think has changed.
While the writing skill might not be a critical skill, it does have a lot of value, Dennett says.
And because reading requires a lot more time, there is also a need for teachers who can teach these skills to more students.
