A revolutionary book on elements of the English language has been published in Lichfield by Dr Neville Brown, a leading expert on dyslexia and his son Dr Daryl Brown, head teacher of Maple Hayes Dyslexia School which specialises in teaching children with literacy problems.

Lichfield is famous for its links to books on the English language and this new publication, entitled ‘Meaning, Morphemes and Language’ comes in the year that the world celebrates 300 years since the publication of Dr Johnson’s dictionary.

To mark the publication, the Dr’s Brown presented an engraved copy of their book to the Dr Johnson Birthplace Museum. The book was accepted on behalf of the museum by the Mayor of the City of Lichfield, Councillor Terry Thomas.

The book is an academic work, aimed at language and education professionals. It looks at the structure of words, sentences and language. It also offers an insight into how the teaching of literacy can be improved.

More than 30 years ago Dr Neville Brown created a revolutionary ‘icon’ method as a mechanism to help children with dyslexia to read and write. This method is still being successfully used at Maple Hayes Dyslexia School which he established in the 1980s. Maple Hayes pupils achieve levels of literacy and academic success that had previously eluded them as a result of other teaching methods.

Dr Neville Brown is a prominent figure in the life of Staffordshire and was himself Mayor of Lichfield City, when it received its Charter in 1980. He explained to the current Mayor how his book explains some of the evolution of language, the assembly of words and the frame work for making new words.

Councillor Thomas said; “It’s astonishing that Lichfield is still contributing to the English language and it’s fascinating to hear about the work that both Dr Brown and his son have done over the years. I’m delighted to receive the book on behalf of the Dr Johnson Birthplace Museum. I’m sure this is one of the most important books to come out of the city in many years.”

Dr Daryl Brown said; “This book is just a start on the subject. My father has been working on this for almost thirty years, and I joined him in his research probably 15 years ago, around the time of my Oxford D.Phil We’re both delighted to have published this.”

ENDS
 

About the book
Meaning, Morphemes and Literacy takes a retrospective look at the research that led to the establishment and continued success of the Maple Hayes Dyslexia School and Research Centre in Staffordshire, England. Even today, Maple Hayes is the only school in the world that takes an integrated morphological approach to literacy acquisition.

The book details the theoretical underpinning of the morphological school of thought, along with its application in a range of learning environments, developing the system beyond mere morphology and into an overall theory of language in terms of semantic primes.

In this Darwin tricentenary year, Neville Brown also presents his intriguing, original thoughts on the evolution of language.

A challenging and intriguing discourse, the book represents an invaluable addition to the library of anyone interested in the vitally important topic of literacy, and will appeal in particular to educationalists in the fields of linguistics, psychology, psycholinguistics, dyslexia and neuropsychology.

About the Author
Dr E Neville Brown was educated at the University of Keele before entering the teaching profession. He has written and presented numerous papers on the topic of literacy (including seminal work in psycholinguistics at University of Aston, Birmingham). His keen interest in this area led to his founding the Maple Hayes Dyslexia School and Research Centre at Lichfield, Staffordshire, in 1982. He remains the principal of that institution.

Dr Daryl Brown was educated at the University of Oxford and has engaged in extensive research into approaches to children's literacy, in particular the focus on the debate between the rote-phonic and morphological schools of thought. He is currently headteacher at Maple Hayes.

Caption; Dr Brown’s new book takes its place on the shelves of the Dr Johnson Birthplace Museum.