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

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 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 English Immersion in Xian –Also Beijing, Lanzhou, Guangzhou, Shanghai North Vancouver Canada – ESL teaching Hong Kong EMB Project

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

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

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 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 1.It is important to first develop oral language skills. 2.Phonological awareness skills should be taught orally without print. 3.Phonological awareness training helps children learn vocabulary and reading skills.

Danger of teaching writing early 1.They will learn English like they learn to write Chinese – as a series of keystrokes. This limits the size of the vocabulary. 2.They can never develop fluent and accurate reading. 3.They will have trouble with talking to people and writing good English.

North 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 Screening at age 5 when children enter school Tested every year on reading, spelling, arithmetic, language and memory skills Results at grade 6 – age 12

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

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

KINDERGARTEN GRADE 5 L1 EnglishESL Kindergarten

KINDERGARTEN GRADE 5 Dyslexic Normal Dyslexic Normal Grade 6 L1 EnglishESL

KINDERGARTEN SCREENING LETTER IDENTIFICATION MEMORY PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING SYNTAX SPELLING

Letter Identification c r m k bwo s y t a ud q x l g e zn j p h v i f

Phonological Processing

the and sit when book

anacampersote mithridatism qualtagh ucalegon groak

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

Syllable Identification

Rhyme Identification

Phoneme Identification

Working Memory

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.

Oral Cloze

child’s name mom dad cat I no SIMPLE SPELLING

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

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

Grade 6 MEASURES OF READING

Grade 6 READING COMPREHENSION

Grade 6 SPELLING

Grade 5 Phoneme Deletion

SES & Reading

SES & Spelling

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 Primary 1

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

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

Literacy Activities Oral vocabulary Listen to stories Draw pictures Act out stories Sing songs

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

WORD READING

PSEUDOWORD READING

PICTURE NAMING

Oral Cloze Tony _______ a happy boy. I eat oranges _____bananas. There are some books_____the bag. I have two_____.

ORAL CLOZE

First Steps in English Dr. Alice Lai Prof. Linda Siegel Dr. Ian Smythe Project funded by the QEF

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

Grade 5 Spelling A

Kindergarten SYNTACTIC AWARENESS

Grade 5 SYNTACTIC AWARENESS

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