Does Reading to Ell Students Help Them Learn to Read

Guest Post by Dr. Eugenia Krimmel

As is made clear when working with a struggling reader or English language Language Learner—reading is a circuitous language skill. Each attribute of reading has its skillset, and just when all of these skill sets are linked together are students able to reach the ultimate goal of reading: to read to learn. But too often, i of these essential skill sets goes missing from reading instruction.

Frequently educators teach reading strategies  to English Language Learners (ELLs)  in a process parallel to the method used for native English speakers (Robertson, 2009). The basis for this parallel is simple: ELLs and native English-speaking children can larn from the aforementioned approach because they are all learning to read English language for the get-go fourth dimension. However, ELLs' literacy assessments across the country evidence that as a group, they are lagging behind their native English-speaking peers despite being taught with the same approach (U.South. Department of Education, 2011).

In social club to know how to decrease the disparity between ELLs' and native speakers' literacy skills, it is important to understand what effective reading instruction includes. In 1997, Congress funded the National Reading Console (NRP) to identify the elements of successful simple reading programs . As a outcome, reading specialists and educators akin take become familiar with the elements which formed the basis of the Reading Commencement Program under No Child Left Behind of 2001. These five elements are:

1. Phonemic sensation
2. Phonics
3. Fluency
4. Vocabulary
5. Comprehension

Despite this research, I have discovered the post-obit trends through my teaching experience over the years: ESL teachers have a cursory understanding and even less training of teaching reading  as a skill on whatever grade or age level. Elementary teachers are more equipped to teach reading, with reading instruction part of their undergraduate curriculum. Secondary teachers are less probable to take such literacy training, but the ESL certifications and endorsements throughout the country serve kindergarten through grade 12 students and adults.

Due to this training gap, ESL teachers rely on reading specialists to fill in what they do not know or do non know well. Reading specialists come from the perspective of instruction children whose native linguistic communication is English. ESL teachers and then develop programs, instructional goals, and materials based on the native English speaker models.

I propose we approach ESL reading instruction from the springboard of the NRP's elements, but add together the necessary aspects our English language Linguistic communication Learners crave to exist successful readers and learners.

Effective ESL Reading Instruction

I recently met with Reading Horizons at the TESOL conference in Philadelphia. I was fatigued to their presentation because it included the aspect I believe is most lacking from ESL reading didactics: phonological sensation, including give-and-take segmentation. Breaking words into syllables and then that an ELL can decode unfamiliar words has been routinely lacking in the many ESL programs I have worked with every bit an ESL teacher of 23 years and as an ESL consultant in K-12 schools the past eight years.

Foundational Reading Skills	Meaningful Reading Skills
1. Phonemic Awareness	ane. Vocabulary & Mental Imagery
2. Phonological Awareness (including give-and-take partition)	ii. Comprehension
3. Phonics & Spelling
iv. Decoding Fluency (not simply speed of reading, but proper word stress & intonation)

Information technology is through the mastery of these skill sets that successful reading happens. I will non expand on each aspect, but allow me to focus on the aspect I just pointed out as what I believe to exist virtually lacking from ESL reading instruction: phonological and phonemic awareness. The distinction between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness remains undefined for many ESL teachers. A huge reason why the distinction is not articulate to many teachers is that one is a role of the other. Phonemic awareness is part of phonological sensation.

So, what is phonemic awareness exactly? Researchers have defined it every bit:

• The function of phonological awareness addressing only the power to recognize individual sounds in a word. (Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, 2003)
• The awareness of the sound system of a language in general. (Yopp and Yopp, 2009)
• Phonemic sensation involves segmenting words into phoneme or individual sounds, not units or sounds. (Walsh 2009)

When I teach secondary or adult ELLs, students who accept non learned the syllable rules  (the phonological aspect of reading) truly struggle. Without an agreement of syllable rules, students must resort to memorizing words which, in turn, slows them downwards. Reading becomes deadening and they close down. For many years I did not know how to teach reading properly. Non fifty-fifty in my TESOL primary'southward courses were we taught how to teach reading, which was completed in 2001.

I was excited to discover the Reading Horizons phonics program  because I believe it tin assist fill in this gap that I take seen for years—teachers not understanding how to teach reading to ELLs. Past following the program, teachers become better reading teachers as their ELLs get better readers. With phonological awareness linked to all the other essential reading skills, ELLs tin can larn to master reading.

Here is an example of this concept from my experiences equally a instructor:

While teaching 9th grade ESL reading instruction, one of my students read aloud from our text about Lewis and Clark. He came across the word "beaver" and pronounced it "b-brusk e, v-r," non "bEE-vr." Not one other student giggled at his mistake every bit they normally would when they heard something wrong. When I asked him to repeat the discussion, he connected to use the short "due east" sound. Again, no teasing from the others. And then, I told him the correct pronunciation, and he said, "At present, how would I know that?" What a powerful statement! A native-speaking kid would know that "b-short east, v-r" was not correct by the knowledge of English already in their head. But at that place was a classroom full of 9th grade ELLs who had been in the state for at to the lowest degree four years, and not one knew how to pronounce an unfamiliar word. They knew what a beaver was when I said the discussion—and so comprehension wasn't the issue. How many other words exercise they skip over when reading? ESL reading instruction is similar but not parallel to regular education reading educational activity.

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Dr. Krimmel has taught ESL for over 23 years and has worked as a Thou-12 ESL consultant for the by 8 years.

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References

August, D., & Shanahan, T. (2006). Developing literacy in 2nd language learners: Report of the national literacy panel on language-minority children and youth. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Assembly.

No Child Left Backside (NCLB) Act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107-110, § 115.

Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, "Reading First". (2003). Retrieved from http://readingfirst.virginia.edu/pdfs/Phon_Spel_Handout.pdf

Robertson, Chiliad. (2009). Reading 101 for English Language Learners. Retrieved from  http://world wide web.colorincolorado.org/article/33830/

U.Due south. Department of Instruction, (2011). FY 2010 annual performance written report. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/most/reports/annual/2010report/apr.html

Walsh, R. (2009). Word games: The importance of defining phonemic awareness for professional person discourse. Australian Journal of Language & Literacy, 32(2), 211-225.

Yopp, H. K., & Yopp, R. H. (2009). Phonological awareness is child'due south play. Young Children, 64(one), 12-18, 21.

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Source: https://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/effective-esl-reading-instruction/

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