Effective Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners

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2. Literacy Instruction:Techniques on How to Teach a Beginner Jackie Foster Shari Vass Jolene Helgason November 24th, 2008 EDPY 413 University of Alberta

3. Literacy Instruction • Key Points About ELLs • Phonics and Phonetics • Vocabulary Building • Comprehension/Assessment • Reflection

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5. Key Points to Remember about English Language Learners

6. Key Points to Remember about English Language Learners • Differences between immigrants and refugees. • ELLs need a supportive learning community. • ELLs’ ability to decode does not equal ability to understand (vocabulary & context). • ELLs may lack knowledge of grammatical structure. • Ex. When I went to the park, I …

7. Key Points to Remember about English Language Learners • Some ELLs need to learn an entirely new orthography and phonology (writing and sound systems). • Some ELLs may never have had formal schooling in their L1 and as such, they need to learn to read, in addition to learning to read in English.

8. Key Points to Remember about English Language Learners • Teaching styles vary widely from country to country. • E.g. making inferences from texts may be a completely new concept. • Some ELLs who have formally studied English in their home country, may have a preference for reading and writing or speaking and listening, depending on how they were taught.

9. Key Points to Remember about English Language Learners • Some ELLs may experience difficulty hearing certain sounds. • E.g. Distinguishing between two sounds. • Some may have a high level of BICS but a low level of CALP. • ELLs competent in reading in their L1, can use some of the same strategies to read in English.

11. Phonology & Phonetics What is it? Why is it important to ELLs? How do you teach it?

12. What is it?(Congdon, 1974, pp. 1-2) • Phonetics: The science of sounds. • Phoneme: Spoken sound. The smallest unit of sound in a word. • E.g. BATH has three (3) phonemes: /b/ /a/ /th/. • Phonics: The visual representation of speech sounds found in the various letters or clusters of letters in written words. • Grapheme: The written visual representations. • E.g. the letters of the alphabet (the ‘b’ ‘a’ ‘t’ ‘h’).

13. What Does it Meanto Teach Phonics? Phonics instruction examines the relationships between the letters of written language (graphemes) and the individual sounds of spoken language (phonemes) and how these relationships are used to read and write words (Carnine et al, 2006 p. 55).

14. Phonemic Awareness(Carnine et al, 2006, p. 35) • Refers to the awareness of phonemes (the smallest units of sound in spoken language). • Focus is on identifying and manipulating individual sounds within words.

15. The Reading Teachers Book of Lists, Fifth Edition, 2006, by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

16. Phonemic Awareness (cont’d) • Carnine et al (2006) identified PhonemicBlending and Phonemic Segmentation as the two most crucial components. • This is because they are directly related to sounding-out words.

17. Why is having Phonemic Awareness Important? More specifically, why is it important for English Language Learners?

18. Phonetics & Pronunciation • Amy Gregory (2003) taught two applied linguistics courses in Spanish. • She was not happy with the pre-service teachers’ level of knowledge in Phonetics and Phonology. • The teachers did not see the relevance of it to their future teaching careers.

19. Phonetics & Pronunciation(Cont’d) • Gregory (2003) notes that “the knowledge of phonetics and phonology can be vital in the acquisition of target [language] pronunciation” (p. 203). • She states that teaching the learner how the sounds of the L2 are different from the L1 is a useful method to help the learner perceive the L2 phonemes.

20. Phonetics & Pronunciation(Cont’d) • Instructors are likely to be more concerned that their students are communicating meaning rather than proper pronunciation (Gregory, 2003). • On that note, she quoted one of her students saying that: …the professors and peers stop correcting us after they think that we know sufficient enough Spanish to get by. So then you have students who aren’t afraid to speak it in front of a big group and sometimes we really can’t understand them because they are speaking very fast and unclear (p. 203).

21. How is Proper Pronunciation Relevant to Reading? • Roberts (2005) conducted a study and reported that “quality of English articulation was found to have a robust influence on children’s phonemic awareness and beginning word reading” (p. 610). • Furthermore, she found that English oral proficiency (having basic communicative competence) was not significantly related to phonemic awareness or word reading.

22. Roberts (2005) (cont’d) • Articulation and vocabulary were found to be highly correlated and both were associated with higher levels of phonemic awareness. • However, articulation had a much stronger effect. • In fact, vocabulary only had an effect through articulation. • Having a larger vocabulary results in better articulation. Better articulation has a strong effect on phonemic awareness.

23. So what? • We have seen how having better articulation and pronunciation helps ELLs improve their phonemic awareness. • Does this help them read better?

24. The Development of Reading in Children Who Speak English as a Second Language (Lesaux & Siegel, 2003). • This study examined students’ reading levels in Kindergarten and classified the students as being L1 or ESL. • From there, they divided each group into “at-risk” for reading failure and “not-at-risk”.

25. The Development of Reading in Children Who Speak English as a Second Language (Lesaux & Siegel, 2003) Cont’d • All Kindergarten children were then given phonological awareness training in the form of classroom-based small group learning. • Some carried on into Grade 1. • Students were then re-assessed in Grade 2

26. The Development of Reading in Children Who Speak English as a Second Language (Lesaux & Siegel, 2003) Cont’d • Findings: • “It is clear that Kindergarten phonological awareness instruction in the context of a balanced early literacy program is as effective for ESL speakers as it is for L1 speakers in the early grades of school” (p. 1016). • By Grade 2, ESL children were reading at the same level or higher than the L1 children. • “Phonological processing was the single best predictor of Grade 2 word reading ability” (p. 1017).

27. The Development of Reading in Children Who Speak English as a Second Language (Lesaux & Siegel, 2003, p. 1016)

28. The Development of Reading in Children Who Speak English as a Second Language (Lesaux & Siegel, 2003) Cont’d • As with Roberts (2005), this study also found that fluency and proficiency in English were less important in determining reading level than successfully acquiring the sound-symbol relationship of the language. • Phonological Awareness ability (or lack thereof) has been linked to difficulties with early reading acquisition in both L1 and ESL children.

29. Phonology in Second Language Reading: Not an Optional Extra (Walter, 2008) • Walter’s study compared two ESL groups to an L1 English group. • The two ESL groups were divided by their L2 reading comprehension ability into either the “Good C” group, or the “Poor C” group.

30. Phonology in Second Language Reading: Not an Optional Extra(Walter, 2008) Cont’d • Phonological Similarity Effect: • “Good C” L2 group performed just as well as the L1 group. • The “Poor C” L2 group, performed significantly worse than both groups. • A follow-up study confirmed that the poorer performance by the “Poor C” group was not due to insufficient grapheme correspondences.

31. How To Teach Phonetics to ESL Students • Walters (2008) concluded that to improve L2 reading comprehension, it may be necessary to spend time explicitly teaching ELLs to recognize L2 phonemes. • She recommends games that differentiate minimal pairs.

32. How To Teach Phonetics to ESL Students Cont’d • Minimal Pairs are sets of words that are exactly the same except for one phoneme. • E.g. “cat” and “sat”. Only the /c/ and /s/ differ. • BINGO!

33. www.eslhq.com

34. Elkonin Boxeswww.bogglesworldesl.com Each pair has one sound in common. Students listen for the common sound. Then mark it on the Elkonin box. As an optional exercise students can stretch out the words and fill in the boxes with the corresponding graphemes for each phoneme.

35. Elkonin Boxeswww.bogglesworldesl.com

36. Elkonin Boxeswww.bogglesworldesl.com

37. Teaching Phonemic Awareness • The National Reading Panel identified Rhyming as a phonological awareness skill (as cited in Carnine et al, 2006). • It focuses students on the parts of words that are bigger than phonemes, but smaller than syllables. • Teaching rhyming prepares students to put word parts together.

38. The Reading Teachers Book of Lists, Fifth Edition, 2006, by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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40. Vocabulary Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge; the knowledge of a word not only implies a definition, but also implies how that word fits into the world. (Stahl, 2005)

41. Vocabulary Development • Words are grouped into 3 tiers by Beck and colleagues so that a systematic method of selecting vocabulary to teach to students is possible(Calderon, 2007, pp. 30 – 33) • 1) Tier 1 • Words that English-speaking students already know • 2) Tier 2 • Words that have importance and utility • Words that have instructional potential • Words for which students already have a conceptual understanding • 3) Tier 3 • Words that students are unlikely to know and are not frequently used

42. Tier 1(Calderon, 2007, p. 30) • These are words that ELLs need for everyday speech, for academic conversations and for explanations. • Examples: Connectors: so, if, then, and, the • ELLs typically know the concept in their primary language but not the label in English. • Examples: Basic words: find, answer, tooth • Example: A tier 1 word may be “butterfly”; it may be a word that is unfamiliar but can be easily taught in a lesson just by showing a picture.

43. Tier 2(Calderon, 2007, p. 32) • These are words that have importance and utility because they are in grade-level texts. • These words are targeted for instruction • Some research shows that tier 2 words get missed by ESL teachers as they typically teach tier 1 words and mainstream teachers generally teach tier 3 words (content words). • These are words in which the students may understand the general concept but would need assistance in describing it.

44. Tier 2 Word List consult context contrast contribute convert create criterion crucial data define Definite demonstrate denote derive design devise devote dimension distinct distort element emphasize empirical ensure entity environment equate equivalent establish evaluate evident expand expose external feasible fluctuate focus formulate function generate guarantee hypothesis identify ignore illustrate impact implicit imply indicate individual Inhibit initial innovation intense interpret intuitive involve accelerate achieve adjacent alternative analyze approach approximate arbitrary assert assess assign assume authorize automatic chapter compensate complex complicate comply component comprehend conceive concentrate concept conclude consequent consist constant construct isolate Magnetic magnitude major manipulate mathematics method minimum modify negative notion obtain obvious occur passive period perspective pertinent phase phenomena portion portion potential precede precise presume prime principle proceed publish pursue random range react region require respective restrict reverse role section segment select sequence series shift signify similar simultaneous sophisticated species specify stable statistic status structure subsequent suffice sum summary technique technology tense theory trace tradition transmit ultimate undergo usage valid vary verbal verify vertical http://mercury.educ.kent.edu/database/eureka/documents/introducingnewvocabteacherresourcechart_handout.doc

45. Tier 3(Calderon, 2007, p. 33) • These words are specific to certain content areas, thus they are low-frequency words in English. • Students will likely learn these words as they learn a new concept. • An example of a tier 3 word, would be photosynthesis.

46. Teaching Vocabulary New vocabulary needs to be explicitly taught to get the English language learner caught up to grade level.

47. Teaching Vocabulary http://mercury.educ.kent.edu/database/eureka/documents/introducingnewvocabteacherresourcechart_handout.doc

48. Teaching Vocabulary • Teaching new vocabulary before introducing it in a new unit is critical for comprehension! • It is vital to the student that the teacher pre-teach the words that will be in the material. The ELL student may not know any English words in that subject area.

49. 7 Steps To Pre-Teaching Vocabulary(Caleron, 2007, p.34) • Say the new word in English • State the word in context from the text • Provide a definition • Provide an example that clarifies the word’s meaning (use student-friendly language) Have the students repeat the word 3 times • Get the students engaged with the word • Have the students say the word again (either alone or in the original sentence).

50. Teaching Vocabulary • Use visuals when introducing new vocabulary • Create a word wall in the classroom • Put labels around the classroom so that students can make connections between oral and written English. • Use real objects to encourage students to use all of their senses to learn • Use graphic organizers so that students are able to see the relationship between new and existing concepts. • Venn diagrams are used to compare and contrast words across subjects, which helps them remember that the new word may have multiple meanings. • Flow charts and mind maps are also useful.