Language Learning Has Many Misconceptions

The benefits English language learners (ELLs) receive from Guided Reading are the same as all other students. However, when a modified approach is used ELLs benefit the most. Language learning opportunities gained by ELLs are those that native speakers acquire implicitly. Language and literacy learning opportunities including detailed vocabulary instruction, variables concerning second language (L2) text structure, such as semantics, syntax, and morphology are enhanced and enriched by modification. Some researchers have determined that ELLs are not generally ready for English reading instruction until they are intermediate stage of English language acquisition, while others advocate that reading and a second language are best acquired simultaneously (Avalos, Plasencia, Chavez, & Rascon, 2007, 319). In working with ELLs at

How does an English Language Learner learn and what are some ways that we, as teachers, can better help them with their learning? Prior studies into literacy skills of ELL students have identified the different ways ELL students learn compared to students that are only monolingual. Both monolingual English speakers and English Language Learners are more likely to be at equal levels when it comes to decoding and spelling words (August, Shanahan, & Escamilla, 2009). Reading, comprehension, and writing skills of bilingual speakers rarely reach equal levels to those that are monolingual speakers.

Learning provision for literacy development is important for pupils for several reasons. When pupils are developing their language skills they are learning to communicate with others in a variety of ways through speaking reading and writing. The three areas of language interact with each other to promote the child’s self expression and imagination. Children need to be given opportunity’s to use and extend their language in all subject areas so they can develop higher level thinking. [ Louise burnham, Brenda Baker,2010,pg206]

DfEE (1999, p4) defined phonics as; phonics consists of the skills of segmentation and blending, knowledge of the alphabetic code and an understanding of the principles which underpin how the code is used in reading and

Lee & Schaller’s (1997) quantitative study examined the relationships between ELL students who demonstrated a level of proficiency compared to ELL students’ basic reading skills. The study (1997) tested two hypotheses to check reliability and validity; the hypotheses were examined from the following: (1) a foundation of language proficiency showed learners with below average levels in L2 proficiency showed little relationship between their L1 and L2 reading ability whereas learners with above average in L2 proficiency demonstrated a positive relationship between their L1 and L2 reading abilities.(b) The benefit of L2 proficiency was higher than the benefit of L1 reading ability in predicting L2 reading ability. In addition, Schaller & Lee’s (1997) study showed a correlation between the two hypotheses. For example, when L2 learners obtain previous knowledge from L1 experiences, their reading skills can potentially improve as information is

Phonics is a teaching method that relates phonemes to graphemes and readers use that information to decode words. The student identifies the sounds that letters make and then blend the phonemes into a word. As students learn the sounds of the approximately forty-four phonemes they are able to use additional rules of syllabication to learn longer and more complex words.

Phonics is defined as the process where children are able to hear a sound, and be able to connect the sounds of letters in the alphabet. Phonics does not only consist of being able to read and pronounce every letter of the alphabet. It also helps guide children on how to be fluent readers and writers, keeping in mind that not everyone one learns at the same pace. Fluent readers and writers have an automatic knowledge of what they are seeing and the ability to create words and sentences in order to be able to get to provide the message that they are trying to get across. While emergent readers see the print as something different from what they normally understand. This can make it difficult for emergent readers to be able to grasp the knowledge

Phonics is described as “understanding letter-sound relationships, as well as larger letter pattern/sound pattern relationships” (Ruddell, 2009). Though in my opinion there is a lot more to phonics than this. There are several aspects to phonics, different types of phonics, negatives to the idea, and several ways to teach it. In this paper I will address all of these based on research I found, the discussion I had with my peers, and my own opinion.

38). When administrators and coaches observe in classrooms, they will see teachers using content area word walls, vocabulary graphic organizers. Many ELL students begin kindergarten without any pre-school experience and exposure to the English language. Boeck (2002) explains “that many minority and disadvantaged students enter kindergarten developmentally behind their peers and that gaps in achievement grow as they continue in school” (p. 36). Although students do not begin standardized testing until third grade, is it vital to build oral language skills and vocabulary as early as possible. Calderón, Slavin, and Sánchez (2011) express that “vocabulary instruction contributes to overall effective instruction by developing students’ phonological awareness and reading com¬prehension” (p. 110) In addition, they claim that a “key indicator of verbal ability (which has long been the basis of grade-level tests, col¬lege entrance exams, and selection tests for graduate school) is vocabulary knowledge” (p. 110). Babayigit (2015) notes, given “the high stability in reading comprehension development over time and the central role of oral language processing skills not only in reading comprehension but also across the curriculum,” it is vital to “support the oral language development of children.” This will “help to bridge the developmental gaps associated with minority language background” (p. 541). Consequently, literacy

What is Phonics? Phonics is the teaching of the association of sounds with letter identification. With that, there is an extreme amount of emphasis on word decoding skills to help a student sound out unfamiliar words. Phonics is actually a word-recognition strategy that becomes a teaching method only through heavy emphasis. Using phonetic principles, youngsters learn to associate the correct sound with each part of a word and to recognize and pronounce words. (Farr 2004) Phonics systematically teaches a child to break the code of written language. (Ghate 2003) Children are taught to identify letter-sound correspondence with phonics, which helps them put together a word by using sounds.

Phonemic awareness is not phonics. Phonemic awareness is an understanding about spoken language. Children who are phonemically aware can tell the teacher that bat is the word the teacher is representing by saying the three separate sounds in the word. They can tell you all the sounds in the spoken word dog. They can tell you that, if you take the last sound off cart you would have car. Phonics on the other hand, is knowing the relation between specific, printed letters (including combinations of letters) and specific, spoken sounds. You are asking children to show their phonics knowledge when you ask them which letter make the first sound in bat or dog or the last sound in car or cart. The phonemic awareness tasks that have predicted

The third and fifth questions were based on teaching discrete English language skills explicitly and in a particular order. Studies found that instruction of discrete skills, to include comprehension, grammatical conventions and sentence structures, resulted in higher scores and instruction order is important. Interestingly, one study “found that the grammatical learning orders for Spanish and non-Spanish speakers were correlated” (AZ English Language Task Force, 2007, pg#). The sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth questions were based on explicit teaching in phonology, oral language skills, verb tenses, syntax, and vocabulary. Studies on phonology instruction found students who had phonological awareness in their native language were able to transfer those skills to learning to read in English. Studies in oral language skills found there was a slight correlation between oral language skills and academic achievement. Studies in verb tenses found ELL students struggle with morphology but there was no other information provided. Studies in syntax found syntax is related to reading fluency and comprehension. Earlier studies report ELL students may struggle with syntax due to the lexical and syntactic processes not transferring to a second language. Studies in vocabulary found vocabulary knowledge is associated to comprehension. The last question was based on class size. Studies had

The ability to pronounce and understand words and phrases is foundational for all classroom subjects, from math to social studies. If a student is unable to read at his or her age level, the student will inevitably struggle to comprehend all areas of study. For teachers, assessing and improving students’ reading abilities is crucial to success in school and in life after graduation. Rather than forcing students to fit into a mold of what they should be able to do, it would be prudent for teachers to test each linguistic skill of students who struggle. Once the area of need has been established, teachers can intervene to aid students in improving multilinguistics. This article pinpoints the areas required for literacy and makes it easy to break down what students should be able to

Many people are confused by the term phonics, because the term can literally have two meanings. As Miriam Balmuth explains, “in the historically earlier sense, the phonics of written language are the letters and spelling patterns of that language’s alphabet and the speech sounds they represent—put

* In the educational field, the teaching learning cycle is a model used in contemporary teaching in both school and adult educational settings. Rothery (1996 in Derewianka & Jones 2012, pg 43) who originally developed the model used this to aim at disadvantaged children for teaching literacy and writing in the KLA (Key learning areas) who were from socially disadvantaged areas. Over time the model has been phased across other areas of the English language such as listening, speaking, reading as well as writing. The key involvement of the teacher also known as ‘expert other’ in the teaching learning cycle is guiding the learner to understand key concepts in academic literacy through use of scaffolding strategies to transform students