- •Importance of teaching reading and different essential reading strategies
- •Phonemic Awareness and English Language Learners
- •Phonics and English Language Learners
- •Vocabulary and English Language Learners
- •Fluency and English Language Learners
- •Comprehension
- •Conclusion
- •1. ©2003, 2004 The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, dc
- •2. Teaching Children to Read by the National Reading Panel (2000)
Phonics and English Language Learners
Phonics instruction aims to help new readers understand that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds.
Students will benefit from learning and practicing sounds and symbols, including blended combinations. This is fairly common in the primary grades and ELLs may pick up the code very quickly and appear to be fairly proficient readers. However, it's important to remember that knowledge of phonics and decoding does not ensure good comprehension.
Phonics: Challenges and Strategies |
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What: The relationship between a sound and its corresponding written letter. |
Why it matters: Reading development is dependent on the understanding that letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken language. |
Challenges for ELLs |
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Limited literacy skills in native language |
Many educators believe that students only need to learn to read once. Once the concept of matching a symbol with a sound has been learned, it can be applied to new languages. Students who have learned to read in their native language have a distinct advantage because they were able to learn this concept with familiar sounds and words. Students who have not learned to read in their native language, however, may struggle to put together the sound/symbol correspondence concept, new words, and new sounds all at once. |
Unfamiliar vocabulary words |
It is difficult for students to distinguish phonetic components in new vocabulary words. Preteaching vocabulary is an important part of good phonics instruction with ELLs so that students aren't trying to figure out new vocabulary items out of context. |
Strategies for ELLs |
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Teach phonics in context |
Using literature and content material, you can introduce and reinforce:
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Use hands-on activities to help teach letter-sound relationships |
This can include using manipulatives such as counters, sound boxes, and magnetic letters. |
Have students write for sound |
Say a short sentence that includes one or more words that include the target phonics feature(s). Ask students to listen carefully and then write what they heard. This activity trains students to listen for the individual sounds in words and represent them phonetically in their writing. |
Help students make a connection between their first language and English |
For students with strong native language literacy skills, help them understand that the process of sounding out words is the same across languages. Explain some letters may make the same or similar sounds in both languages. Knowing this can help Spanish-dominant students, for example, as they learn to decode words in English. |