Wisconsin Technical College System
November 2024
Strategies for Teaching
Low-Beginning English Learners
FYI, this presentation is being recorded.
Jennifer Christenson
Strategies for Teaching Low-Beginning English Learners
Past Talks on this Topic:
See the abc English blog at: abceng.org/blog
Articles and Presentations
(Slides & Video) More Strategies for Teaching Low-Beginning English Learners I created this presentation for the Florida Literacy Coalition in June 2024. I share five answers to the question "How can teachers and programs serve all types of beginning ELL students, (including emergent readers)?" 1. Assess Literacy, 2. Grouping, 3. Lesson Planning, 4. Teacher Training in Literacy, 5. Invest in Curriculum. The presentation includes several video demonstrations of teacher/student interactions while teaching Foundational Literacy Skills. You can see the slides here.
(Slides & Video) Strategies for Teaching Low Beginning English Learners I created this presentation for Wisconsin Literacy's 2024 Winter Virtual Conference. Key points include identifying Different Types of Beginners, considering both the Language and Literacy needs of students, and the importance of Teaching with Routines. You can see the slides here.
Strategies for Teaching
Foundational Literacy Skills
Foundational Literacy Skills
Foundational Literacy Skills
Phonological Awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Foundational Literacy Skills
Phonological Awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Foundational Literacy Skills
Phonological Awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Foundational Literacy Skills
Phonological Awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Help students understand the sounds and spelling patterns of English, so they can read accurately and at a natural pace, so they can understand written English and communicate in written English.
Sounds and Spelling Patterns
Word Meanings (understand spoken English)
Fluency
Understand written English and communicate in written English.
Amina
Somalia
What is your name?
Where are you from?
… ? …
no English
How long have you lived here?
Did you go to school in
(Somalia)?
no school
My name Maria.
My from is Mexico.
What is your name?
Where are you from?
3 years ago I come here
How long have you lived here?
Did you go to school in
(Mexico)?
primaria,
secondaria
(9 years)
date
time
soap
way
Resource: Fast Track Phonics
"The importance of writing for locking sound-symbol correspondences into memory has been investigated by Hulme and his colleagues. They concluded that motor activity promotes memory, and this assists [students] in learning to read. Copying letters forces you to look carefully and… makes it clear how letters differ."
Dr. Diane McGuinness
Early Reading Instruction: What Science Tells Us about How to Teach Reading
page 114
(Hulme 1981; Hulme and Bradley 1984; Mulme, Monk, and Ives 1987)
Student Feedback - 1 min.
"That's what I was looking for, long time,
but I never get someone who can help me like that."
Short Vowels - stop at 8:40 - skip to 13:40 - stop at 17:20 - skip to 30:17
Summary of Techniques
Long Vowels - stop at 7:50 - skip to 12:00
Summary of Techniques
30 Basic Vowel Patterns
chart available at:
Compound Words - Mark and Cut (1.5x)
30 Basic Vowel Patterns
chart available at:
ait peepel lev en mi haus
eight people live in my house
ait peepel lev en mi haus
eight people live in my house
ait peepel lev en mi haus
"Teacher, why?"
"Teacher, why?"
"English is crazy…"
eight people live in my house
ait peepel lev en mi haus
English is not crazy, but it does have a
deep orthography
English is not crazy, but it does have a
deep orthography
deep orthography
correct
deep orthography
writing
deep orthography
deep orthography
deep orthography
deep orthography
English
Danish
Swedish
French
Tibetan
Thai
shallow orthography
deep orthography
English
Danish
Swedish
French
Tibetan
Thai
shallow orthography
deep orthography
English
Danish
Swedish
French
Tibetan
Thai
Spanish
Swahili
Ukrainian
Turkish
Italian
Finnish
shallow orthography
deep orthography
In languages with a shallow orthography,
there is a one-to-one relationship between letters and sounds,
and the spelling is very consistent.
shallow orthography
deep orthography
English
Danish
Swedish
French
Tibetan
Thai
Spanish
Swahili
Ukrainian
Turkish
Italian
Finnish
Seymour, P. H., Aro, M., Erskine, J. M., & Collaboration with COST Action A8 Network. (2003). Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of psychology, 94(2), 143-174. DOI: 10.1348/000712603321661859
"The rate of [foundational literacy skills] development in English is more than twice as slow as in the shallow orthographies."
efficient
effective
efficient
effective
explicit, systematic phonics
instruction
"There is wide agreement among researchers that explicit, systematic, synthetic, code-based instruction works best."
efficient
effective
"Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is more effective than non-systematic or no phonics instruction."
efficient
effective
"The evidence for the effectiveness of phonics instruction is extensive and has been surveyed comprehensively…"
efficient
effective
Explicit and Systematic Phonics Instruction
teach students
sounds and patterns
simply and clearly
Explicit and Systematic Phonics Instruction
start simple,
move to complex
Explicit and Systematic Phonics Instruction
1. Basic Code →
2. Syllables →
3. Advanced Code →
4. Morphology
Syllables, Part 1 - Mark and Cut (1.5x speed - play all)
Note: In the video on the previous page, I am teaching only with a document camera and a list of words.
This was before I had created slideshows for the syllable lessons. You can now find slideshow lessons for syllables at abceng.org/esp.
Syllables, Part 1 - student feedback (3 min.), 1x speed, play all
"By the way, I just have to say honestly, I'm already seeing the different with your things.
Cause yesterday I like had to write essay for class and honestly like sounding the words out did help a lot with the like trying to spell the words better.
So thank you.
It really help cause a lot of my words yesterday I had to like sound them out before like I could write them… cause at first [in the past] I used to trying to like go into Google trying to find like similar words, but sounding it out was a lot better."
Truth about Reading - 47:10 to 50:35
Students need to be taught that there is a
connection between sounds and letters.
(They may not already know this.)
Reading and spelling is not about memorization.
"Human memory for abstract symbols overloads at about 2,000 symbols, and even achieving this takes many years. A reading method either totally or partially based on whole-word memorization of sight words will cause the majority of [students] to fail."
Dr. Diane McGuinness
Early Reading Instruction: What Science Tells Us about How to Teach Reading
page 34
"Teaching whole words by sight promotes a faulty decoding strategy…. Memorizing whole words seems logical and is relatively easy initially, leading to a false sense of security. But a whole-word strategy will inevitably collapse."
Dr. Diane McGuinness
Early Reading Instruction: What Science Tells Us about How to Teach Reading
page 57
"Whole-word methods are highly misleading. A whole-word (sight-word) reading method is very appealing to [students], especially because memorizing letter sequences and "word shapes" is quite easy early on. This gives [students] the false impressions that they are learning to read. But it is just a matter of time before this strategy begins to implode."
Dr. Diane McGuinness
Early Reading Instruction: What Science Tells Us about How to Teach Reading
page 74
"[For children,]... Whole-word memorization starts to fail toward the end of first or second grade, depending on the children's vocabulary and visual-memory skills, and unless they figure out a better strategy, their reading will not improve."
Dr. Diane McGuinness
Early Reading Instruction: What Science Tells Us about How to Teach Reading
page 74
Personal Example
Personal Example
Personal Example
Personal Example
See also:
See also:
Adult Literacy Rates in the United States
The American Psychological Association reports that in the United States:
https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/research/literacy-statistics
It's important for all adult education teachers
to understand how to teach
Foundational Literacy Skills
so you can help address issues when you see them.
A student's level of spoken English does
not correlate with their ability to
handle written English.
For adult English learners
who struggle with written English
if you start teaching with
explicit, systematic phonics instruction
(instead of memorization)
it will save a lot of time in the end!
Q & A
If Foundational Literacy Skills are so important,
should I spend the full 2 hours of class focusing on them
until students are proficient?
Q & A
No!
If Foundational Literacy Skills are so important,
should I spend the full 2 hours of class focusing on them
until students are proficient?
Notice:
Foundational Literacy Skills are being presented systematically,
and the words are de-contextualized.
Notice:
The words have been chosen to best meet the instructional goal: understand a new letter/sound pattern.
De-contextualized word lists are the best way to systematically introduce phonics patterns, but are not the best way to learn vocabulary and language.
The best way to learn vocabulary and language is within
relevant, authentic contexts.
Personal Info
Family
Food
Health
Housing
Community
Transportation
Clothing/Shopping
School
Employment
Topic of the Week; Task-Based Instruction
A set of topic-based words is not the best way to teach Phonics because it would be non-systematic.
mother / father
baby
son / daughter
brother / sister
uncle / aunt
cousin
how old?
how many?
age
birthdate
married / single
where does __ live?
Family
So, teach Phonics and
Language-Building separately, with separate resources.
20 minutes: skill drills (dribbling, passing, shooting)
40 minutes: practice game
Think about:
10 minutes: skill drills (scales, chords, rhythm)
20 minutes: playing pieces
Think about:
30 minutes: F.L.S. practice (PA/phonics, Fluency)
90 minutes: Language-Building (relevant, authentic topics)
Basic Lesson Formula:
30 minutes: Fast Track Phonics lesson
90 minutes: Core Language-Building Curriculum
Basic Lesson Formula:
It is less effective to teach Foundational Literacy Skills
as mini-lessons pulled from an authentic text.
It is more effective to teach F.L.S.
separately and systematically.
In other words:
30 minutes: Fast Track Phonics lesson
90 minutes: Core Language-Building Curriculum
Teach F.L.S. Separately and Systematically:
point out connections
30 minutes: F.L.S. practice (PA/phonics, Fluency)
90 minutes: Language-Building (relevant, authentic topics)
Basic Lesson Formula:
Summary of Techniques
Summary of Techniques
Summary of Techniques
Summary of Techniques
Resources
Thank You Teachers
Better Student Outcomes
Teachers are superheroes!
Q & A
LITERACY
& JUSTICE
FOR ALL
Link to presentation: