When you register for this event you will be added to the Think Forward Educators email list.

Reading comprehension has been described by Nancy Hennessey* as being like a factory assembly line, taking in a variety of linguistic processes ranging from word decoding through to inferencing and drawing on background knowledge. For this reason, it is essential that teachers understand the language foundations of reading.

In this webinar, Hennessey’s metaphor will be used to consider word identification, vocabulary knowledge (including morphology), syntax, figurative/idiomatic language, text-level comprehension, and background knowledge.

Prof Tanya Serry

Works in the School of Education at La Trobe University. She has a background in Speech Pathology and Linguistics. Her research and teaching is focused on language and literacy and learning difficulties among students from the early years through to tertiary students as well as students experiencing social disadvantage.

She is particularly interested in systemic change that allows for greater collaboration between educators, parents, speech pathologists and psychologists. Together with Professor Pamela Snow, she co-founded the Science of Language and Reading (SOLAR) Lab. This a platform for their research, teaching, advocacy and community engagement.

At present, Tanya is leading large scale funded research projects exploring the impact of in-school coaching for early years teachers and the processes that lead to successful embedding of structured literacy instruction in schools.

Prof Pamela Snow

Distinguished Professor Pamela Snow is a Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Co-Director of the Science of language and Reading (SOLAR) Lab in the School of Education at La Trobe University. She is both a speech-language pathologist and registered psychologist and has conducted extensive research on the language and literacy skills of young people in child protection, youth justice and flexible education settings. Her current research focus is high-impact language and literacy instruction across the school years.