Date/Time
Thursday 23 February 2023
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Categories Talk
Book here now: £10 full price • £8 or £5 if you prefer – please pay what you can*
Ashburton resident, Rob Eastment is due to make his first ever talk at an academic conference in April at the World Literacy Summit in Oxford (1pm on 2 April 2023). We thought he should have a chance to have a dry run in front of a friendly audience, and he has a fascinating proposition. Rob has invented a new phonetic alphabet for English, which could make learning to read much easier for all, and at the same time provide an option for people with dyslexia which makes reading easier.
Rob’s Sequoyah script is, he says, “a new way to become functionally literate in the English language. The script has a unique letter to represent all of the 45 English phonemes, with each character having a consistent sound. Now there is a way, to read English in a day!”
Here’s some of Ashburton’s Wikipedia entry rendered in Rob’s new alphabet:
In 1822 a Cherokee man named Sequoyah introduced his people to an invention, a syllabary for their language to give them, for the first time, a written means of expression. This gave the Cherokee a method in which to record their laws, history and customs and laid the foundations for 200 years of literacy. Whilst the Cherokee had no formal education system, the writing system was so easy to learn, it quickly spread amongst the population. It was a society changing innovation. In 2022, it is still the case that Cherokee speaking children can achieve the same standard of literacy in 3 months, that it takes 3 years for English speaking children to attain. In a world where English is the international language of business, science and international relations, access to its written form should surely be a human right. Why can’t there be a simpler way to learn to read, write and type such an important language that requires less teaching resources? Sequoyah Script aims to achieve this, with an adaptation of the Cherokee Syllabary for the English language.
* See Access, Tickets & Finding Us for more about why there are three ticket prices, plus other useful info about coming to events at Ashburton Arts Centre.