Transcript Slide 1

Get Ready to Huddle!
Reading Horizons (4th-12th Grade & SPED) Huddle
2nd Tuesday of each month at 2 pm MT
Please Call 1-888-848-0190 Passcode 8768292#
Presented by: Shantell Berrett
What About ESOL Students?
Even though we are
all unique, having a
different genetic
make-up and coming
from different
backgrounds and
cultures, we do have
similarities as a
human race.
What is ESOL and ELL?
• “ESL” (English as a Second Language) is learning
English in a country where English is dominantly spoken,
or where English is the official language.
• “EFL” (English as a Foreign Language), then, is learning
English in a non-English-speaking country.
• “ESOL” (English Speakers of Other Languages), then, is
when someone is learning English and it is their 3rd or 4th
language. This is a more generic term and can be
applied to EFL and ESL.
• “ELL” (English Language Learners), deals mostly with
those learning English in a K-12 environment.
What Approach is Best?
• The strategies that can be applied to effectively
work with language are termed Top-down and
Bottom-up.
• Research has shown that English Language
Learners (ELLs) greatly benefit from using both
a top-down approach and a bottom-up approach
when dealing with language.
• All readers approaching language have been
shown to benefit from having both types of
strategies to work with text.
Why Phonics for
ESOL Students?
•
“The best readers in any language are
those who use interactive reading, which
integrates elements of both bottom-up and
top-down reading. In the development of
a reading syllabus, it is important to
consider the balance that you will give to
these processes.”
Anderson, N. J. (2008). Practical English language teaching: Reading (p. 28). New York: McGrawHill.
Reading Strategies
Bottom-up Strategies
Top-down Strategies
Examples:
Examples:
• decoding
• encoding
• using capitalization to
infer proper nouns
• using background
knowledge
• previewing and predicting
• pattern recognition
• guessing the meaning of
unknown words from
context
• graded reader approach
• skimming/scanning
How Much?
• “A guideline that you could follow in preparing a
syllabus for beginning level readers is allocating
50 percent of your syllabus to teaching bottomup skills, 30 percent to top-down skills, and 20
percent to interactive skills. With a strong
foundation in bottom-up skills, beginning level
readers will become more proficient readers
more quickly.”
--Anderson, N. J. (2008). Practical English language teaching: Reading. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Why Decoding Strategies?
•
“…The lack of attention to decoding
problems has, I think, produced a
somewhat distorted picture of the true
range of problems second language
readers face” (95).
Eskey, D. (1993). Holding in the bottom: An interactive approach to the language problems of second language
readers. In P. Carrell, J. Devine, & D. Eskey (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language reading (pp.
93-100). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Why Decoding Strategies?
•
“In practical terms, my concern is thus to keep
the language in the teaching of second language
reading. That may not sound very controversial,
but I think that in promoting higher-level strategies-like predicting from context or the use of schemata
and other kinds of background knowledge--some
researchers have been sending a message to
teachers that the teaching of reading to second
language readers is mostly just a matter of
providing them with the right background
knowledge for any texts they must read, and
encouraging them to make full use of that
knowledge in decoding those texts…
Why Decoding Strategies?
• (continued)
•
“Though
that is certainly important, it is also,
I think, potentially misleading as a total
approach…We must not, I believe, lose sight of
the fact that language is a major problem in
second language reading, and that even
educated guessing at meaning is not a
substitute for accurate decoding” (97).
Eskey, D. (1993). Holding in the bottom: An interactive approach to the language problems of second
language readers. In P. Carrell, J. Devine, & D. Eskey (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language
reading (pp. 93-100). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Stumbling Blocks
There are a few reasons as to why decoding
and phonics instruction may be being
neglected:
• Poor phonics instruction in the past.
• Misunderstanding the structure of the
English language.
• Belief that phonics is boring.
• Unsure of the benefits.
What Are the Benefits?
• There is overwhelming
evidence from research
that native English
speakers with language
difficulties must have
systematic, explicit
phonics instruction.
• “ELLs with word reading
difficulties have the same
profile as English L1
students with difficulties—
poor phonological
awareness, letter-sound
knowledge, vocabulary,
etc.”
Granite High School
Salt Lake City, Utah
Charlene Koplin
Reading:
A Complex Process
Processing Strategies
Cognitive Processing Strategies
Making Inferences
Predicting
Problem Solving
Constructing Meaning
Language Processing Strategies
Chunking into phrases
Accessing word meaning
Word Identification
Letter Recognition
Knowledge Base
World Knowledge
People
Places
Events
Activities
Language Knowledge
Sentences
Phrases
Words
Letters
Sounds
Benefits
• #1 When ESL students learn the meaning
of the word along with the sound of the
word simultaneously, it “sticks”
better. Students are able to remember the
word more effectively when they associate
the meaning and the sound with the
written word.
Benefits cont.
• #2 How many times do our ESL students
ask, “Teacher, how do you say this
word?” We tell our students how to say the
word, but we don’t often know why we say
it that way. We need to help our students
develop autonomy by teaching them
strategies to learn how to pronounce
words on their own. This approach better
prepares them for “real-world”
experiences.
Benefits cont.
• #3 An extra bonus of incorporating phonics
instruction in ESL students' classrooms is
that their pronunciation improves. I
incorporate phonics training in both my
ESL reading classes and my ESL
speaking classes since phonics
incorporates both skills. In addition, since
phonics helps with spelling, phonics
instruction has a place in an ESL writing
class as well.
Final Benefit
• #4 ESL students’ confidence increases
when they are empowered with skills that
help them successfully read and
pronounce and spell English
independently.
Get Ready for the next Reading
Horizons Huddle!
“Tracking Problems for Struggling Readers”
Tuesday, May 12th at 2:00pm MT