Phonological Awarenessand Teaching English as a Second Language: Phonological Awareness and Teaching English as a Second Language Linda Siegel University of British Columbia Vancouver, CANADA


Special Thanks to:: Special Thanks to: Suk Han Lee and colleagues at the EMB EMB Mei Lan Au Alice Lai Nonie Lesaux, Orly Lipka, Rose Vukovic Chinese Rhenish Church Hong Kong Synod Hong Kong Institute of Education Ian Smythe


Aims of this presentation: Aims of this presentation To understand the role of phonological awareness in the development of English speaking, reading and writing To understand the English language learning of ESL speakers To understand how to develop English language skills in ESL speakers


Inspiration for the ideas: Inspiration for the ideas English Immersion in Xian Also Beijing, Lanzhou, Guangzhou, Shanghai North Vancouver Canada – ESL teaching Hong Kong EMB Project Chinese Renish Church


How Is Language Learned?: How Is Language Learned? A child’s first language is learned by listening and speaking. Reading and writing comes much later after there is a good oral language foundation. Children speak first in single words and then in short sentences. Children learn nouns, adjectives, and verbs first. Grammar comes later.


Good Language Education: Good Language Education Listening and speaking are stressed to help develop comprehension and reading skills. Conversation and oral language skills, not dictation, are important.


Principles: Principles Listening skills are about the ability to extract meaning from a string of words. Reading is about extracting meaning from a series of written words.


Principles: Principles You cannot extract meaning from spoken language unless you understand the meaning of words. Understanding of sounds precedes understanding of the written word.


Terminology: Terminology Phonological Awareness – the ability to break down speech into smaller segments Phoneme – the smallest unit of sound Phonics – a method of teaching reading that emphasizes the association of sounds with letters


Terminology: Terminology Phonological awareness training – teaching the sound structure of words Auditory training Phonics training – teaching the connection between sounds and letters Training with print


Teaching English: Teaching English It is important to first develop oral language skills. Phonological awareness skills should be taught orally without print. Phonological awareness training helps children learn vocabulary and reading skills.


Danger of teaching writing early: Danger of teaching writing early They will learn English like they learn to write Chinese – as a series of keystrokes. This limits the size of the vocabulary. They can never develop fluent and accurate reading. They will have trouble with talking to people and writing good English.


North Vancouver Study: North Vancouver Study


Aims of the Vancouver Study: Aims of the Vancouver Study Identify children at risk for literacy difficulties Provide an appropriate intervention Assess the effectiveness of the intervention


Longitudinal Study: Longitudinal Study Screening at age 5 when children enter school Tested every year on reading, spelling, arithmetic, language and memory skills Results at grade 5 – age 11


Longitudinal Sample: Longitudinal Sample All the children in the North Vancouver School District 30 schools Varying SES levels 20% English as a Second Language (ESL)


Slide17: Arabic Armenian Bulgarian Cantonese Croatian Czech Dutch Farsi Japanese Korean Kurdish Mandarin Norwegian Polish Punjabi Romanian LANGUAGES IN THE STUDY Finnish French German Greek Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Italian Russian Serbian Slovak Spanish Swedish Tagalog Tamil Turkish


Slide18: KINDERGARTEN GRADE 5 L1 Speakers - Kindergarten ESL Speakers - Kindergarten


Slide19: KINDERGARTEN GRADE 5 L1 Speakers – Grade 5 ESL Speakers – Grade 5 L1 Speakers - Kindergarten ESL Speakers - Kindergarten Dyslexic Dyslexic


KINDERGARTEN SCREENING: KINDERGARTEN SCREENING LETTER IDENTIFICATION MEMORY PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING SYNTAX SPELLING


Letter Identification: Letter Identification c r m k b w o s y t a u d q x l g e z n j p h v i f


Phonological Processing: Phonological Processing


Slide23: the and sit when book


Slide24: anacampersote mithridatism qualtagh ucalegon groak


Phonological Awareness: Phonological Awareness Ability to break speech down into smaller units  words  syllables  phonemes


Slide26: SYLLABLE IDENTIFICATION


Slide27: RHYME IDENTIFICATION


Slide28: PHONEME IDENTIFICATION


Working Memory: Working Memory


Sentence Repetition: Sentence Repetition Sentences are spoken orally to the child and the child is required to repeat them exactly. Examples. Drink milk. I like ice cream. The boy and girl are walking to school. The girl who is very tall is playing basketball.


Slide31: ORAL CLOZE


Slide32: child’s name mom dad cat I no SIMPLE SPELLING


LAUNCH INTO READING SUCCESS: LAUNCH INTO READING SUCCESS RHYME DETECTION INITIAL SOUNDS SEGMENTATION BLENDING SOUND DISCRIMINATION


Other Important Abilities: Other Important Abilities Vocabulary – understanding and producing the meanings of words Syntax – understanding the basic grammar of the language Differences between Chinese and English Verb tenses Plurals Articles


LITERACY ACTIVITIES: LITERACY ACTIVITIES LISTENING TO STORIES ACTING OUT STORIES SINGING SONGS LETTER OF THE WEEK LETTER COOKIES


Slide41: Grade 5 MEASURES OF READING


Slide42: Grade 5 READING COMPREHENSION


Slide43: Grade 5 SPELLING


Slide44: Grade 5 PHONEME DELETION


SES & Reading: SES & Reading


SES & Spelling: SES & Spelling


Conclusions: Conclusions It is possible to identify children at risk for reading disabilities in kindergarten. It is possible to provide a classroom based intervention to bring these children to at least average levels of reading. Children learning English as a second language can perform at native speaker levels and bilingualism may be an advantage.


Hong Kong EMB Project: Hong Kong EMB Project Primary 1


AIMS OF THE PROJECT: AIMS OF THE PROJECT Improve English oral language skills of P1 children in Hong Kong Vocabulary and Grammar Train phonological awareness skills Improve reading skills


Hong Kong Study: Hong Kong Study Experimental group received phonological awareness training Control group - same SES All government schools – mostly low SES


Study Design: Study Design Experimental and Control Schools Pretest Fall 2002 Intervention for Experimental Schools 2002-2003 Post-test Summer 2003


Literacy Activities: Literacy Activities Oral vocabulary Listen to stories draw pictures act out stories Sing songs


Components: Components • Only English is used in the classroom Build up vocabulary & ability to follow English instructions Use of games, story-telling, etc.to provide rich English language environment


INITIAL PHONEME DELETION: INITIAL PHONEME DELETION


WORD READING: WORD READING


PSEUDOWORD READING: PSEUDOWORD READING


PICTURE NAMING: PICTURE NAMING


ORAL CLOZE: ORAL CLOZE


Conclusions: Conclusions Phonological awareness training improves reading, vocabulary, and syntactic skills Phonological awareness training can be implemented in the classroom ESL students benefit from PA training


Rhenish Church Study Hong Kong : Rhenish Church Study Hong Kong Experimental Preschools and Kindergartens Control Preschools and Kindergartens


Word Reading: Word Reading


Rhyme: Rhyme


Phoneme Identification: Phoneme Identification


Picture Naming: Picture Naming