“MAESTRA! THE LETTERS SPEAK.” ADULT
Patsy
Vinogradov
ABSTRACT
Young
adult and adult students with little or no literacy in their first languages
are tackling a double challenge: acquiring English while learning to read for
the first time later in life. There is a
considerable lack of research in this area of
INTRODUCTION
What
happens when a child learns how to read?
Librarians and teachers assert that reading opens up the world to a
child, and middle-class parents in literate cultures surround their children
with books and print. Children in
modern, literate cultures generally learn to read as young children. In fact, we say that kids spend their first
years in school learning to read, and then all their school years thereafter
are spent reading to learn. Throughout
our adult lives, we rely on print for learning new things: textbooks,
pamphlets, instructions, manuals, references books, dictionaries, websites,
etc. When we learn, as products of a
literate culture, we are naturally drawn to print for information and
memory. We write notes in margins, make
lists to remember, and use highlighters to focus our attention. We tend to be visually oriented, and we are
generally confident in our abilities to learn new things (Brod, 1999).
Childhood
literacy has a tremendous impact developmentally and socially on an
individual. This first language (L1)
literacy has “transformative power” (Bigelow & Tarone, 2004, p.692), as L1
literacy transforms how one thinks and processes language (Olson, 2002; Ong, 1988,
cited in Bigelow & Tarone, 2004).
But what if a person doesn’t learn to read in his first language, before
he begins learning a second language?
Many of our
Students
with low L1 literacy (or “literacy level students”) often have proficient oral
skills and high communicative competence.
There may be a strong ‘mismatch’ between students’ speaking and
listening abilities and their written language proficiency. As
Reading
is a skill that you learn to do only once, regardless of what language you
learn to do it in (Genesee, 2008). Our
older (post critical-period) students in high schools and adult education
programs are learning to read for the first time in a new language. Given the lack of definitive research in this
area of SLA, what do we know for sure?
What research and professional wisdom is out there to inform our practices? This article attempts to fill in the blanks
by outlining five guiding principles that should be part of any literacy-level
instruction. These five principles
overlap a great deal with what we know about good teaching, with added emphasis
on how to serve older emergent readers.
They include using contextualized lessons, combining top-down and
bottom-up reading instruction, catering to a variety of learning preferences,
drawing on learners’ strengths, and boosting their confidence as learners.
1. Keep it in Context
The message is a simple one: that
people learn best when learning starts with what they already know, builds on
their strengths, engages them in the learning process, and enables them to
accomplish something they want to accomplish (Auerbach, 1997).
Learning
rarely occurs in a vacuum, and
Building
reading in emergent readers does NOT begin with the alphabet. It begins with a conversation, serious
questions that stretch students’ thinking, and with a genuine interest in
learners’ responses. Once we have
established strong rapport, students have shared with us what they think and
know about a topic and what they would like to find out, then we are ready to
go to print. We are ready to begin
reading and writing tasks based on real-life applications.
Wrigley
(1993) writes, “To help contextualize ideas, initial print is supported by
pictures from magazines, family photographs, and pictures drawn by
learners. By starting with the images,
concepts, words, and expressions that are familiar to the learners, rather than
with the alphabet, innovative programs provide opportunities for “meaning
making” from the first day of literacy education” (p.1). Perhaps nothing is less engaging and less
memorable to an older student than bland alphabet work that is not connected to
meaningful content. Start with a topic,
generate interest and enthusiasm, and then begin to pull out key vocabulary
words, look for patterns, and together, discover the rules beneath the language
you are using.
David and
Yvonne Freeman (2006) advocate using theme-based, meaningful curricula in their
book, Closing the Achievement Gap. They write, “What [students] need are
activities that will stretch them.
Effective teachers organize their curriculum around themes based on big
questions designed to push students’ thinking.
Without a challenging curriculum, older English learners will not
develop the academic English they need to close the achievement gap” (p.16). Keep in mind that older students come to
2. Go Up and Down the Ladder
Years
ago, when teachers and researchers discussed how best to teach reading, the
debate between whole language versus phonics received a great deal of
attention. Today, most reading and
Top down
instruction begins with meaning, and gradually moves to print knowledge. It traditionally means that students actively
construct meaning by discussing their own previous experiences related to the
text, that teachers value activating background knowledge, and also that
comprehension is facilitated by using realia, pictures, and hands-on projects related
to a reading text (Fish, Knell, & Buchanan, 2007). Bottom-up instruction, on the other hand,
begins with the text and builds its way to meaning. It is more focused on the text itself,
building decoding (sounding-out) skills, learning patterns of sounds,
syllables, and word families in order to eventually construct meaning from
texts.
Building
reading in emergent readers requires instruction that is both top-down and
bottom-up. We cannot expect pre-literate
students to learn to read within the vacuum of a de-contextualized lesson, nor
can we expect these students to acquire alphabetic knowledge by osmosis,
without deliberate attention paid to symbols and sounds. Our reading instruction must be both
meaning-based and explicit. Effective instruction for emergent readers
requires first finding a meaningful topic, engaging the learner, and then
looking for ways to pause, focus on
individual words, sounds, and patterns, and then go right back to the topic to
continue to talk about it, read, problem-solve, do projects, etc. This kind of reading instruction is called
Whole-Part-Whole, and refers also to an innovative way to incorporate phonics
instruction into a meaningful, theme-based lesson.
As
Trupke-Bastidas and Poulos (2007) describe it, the Whole-Part-Whole method
includes teaching whole words in context, then examining particular words to
present and practice a phonics or phonemic awareness skill, and then returning
these words to the larger context to continue practice. As Brod (1999) further explains, “Thus
sound/symbol correspondence is introduced after they have acquired a bank of
familiar words, giving them a chance to discover for themselves how letters and
sounds are related” (p.16).
Figure 1: Whole-Part-Whole (Trupke-Bastidas, 2007)
For
example, perhaps you are studying family and family members in your class. You have shown your family’s photo, and
students have brought in photos of their families as well. They are comfortable with this vocabulary and
are interested in saying and hearing more about this topic. Now, you pause to focus on the sounds /m/,
/s/, /f/, and /b/ and their corresponding letters.
Teacher:
What family words begin with the
sound /s/?
(sister, son)
What about /b/? (brother, boy, baby)
Now let’s make four columns on the
board, one with each of these letters.
Come up and write one of the family words we’ve used in the right
column.
What do you notice about these
words: mother, brother, father? What do
they have in common? (-ther)
Students
could continue working with these four sounds and the –ther word family in a variety of ways. After 20 minutes or so, the teacher again
brings the class together and asks students about their own brothers and
sisters and where they live. Then
students continue with a mingle and chart activity that has them ask several
classmates about their siblings, their names, and where they live, and make
notes on a simple chart.
In the
Whole-Part-Whole method, going back and forth between top-down and bottom-up
activities is critical. As Croydan
(2007, personal interaction) puts it, every day with literacy level students,
we must go up and down the ladder, all class long. Emergent readers need the constant engagement
and high interest of top-down learning, as well as the systematic and
building-block approach of bottom-up learning.
We have
to keep going up and down the ladder.
3. Provide a Buffet of Learning
Opportunities
Much has
been written in recent years about learning styles, learning preferences, and
multiple intelligences. It is now commonly accepted that learners learn
differently, and that teachers should provide learners with a variety of ways
of processing information and demonstrating what they have learned. Instructional approaches such as project-based
learning, language experience approach, competency-based education, and the
participatory approach, to name a few, aim to serve students innovatively. Drawing on multiple approaches when teaching
Pre-literate
learners often hail from oral traditions, where learning typically takes place
in informal settings. This learning is
done largely through observation in a cooperative, relevant manner, where
learners are performing a task that is necessary and works towards the family’s
or community’s well-being (Adler, 2000).
This is in sharp contrast to the traditional Western classroom, where
learning is largely done through print (textbooks, workbooks, chalk boards,
overhead projectors, written tasks).
Western learning is generally based on independent initiative, and is
done with teachers students don’t know well.
This model is quite abstract, while learning in an oral tradition is
much more concrete (Adler, 2000).
As
There are
plenty of activities in the classroom that engage students in a concrete way
with reading. The first step, as
described in principle #1 above, is to seek out relevant themes and to create
an engaging learning environment. Then
we need to move from more concrete tasks to more abstract ones. Reading is an extremely abstract task, so we
need to start by activating schema about the topic and tap into learners’ prior
knowledge (Parrish, 2004; Vinogradov, 2001).
Bringing in real objects to spark discussion can be a formidable tool
with new readers. For example, at the
beginning of a unit on travel, a teacher could bring in a suitcase and ask
students to talk about what goes inside, why, where you have taken a suitcase
recently, and where you might like to visit someday. When students can immediately relate to the
topic of discussion, they will be more likely to contribute. By the time they begin to read a text about
travel or write a story about a place they heve visited (perhaps
Besides
bringing in real objects to the classroom, using pictures, flashcards, story
strips, picture stories, hands-on projects, field trips, guest speakers, songs
and chants, internet websites, etc. can reach students who may otherwise
struggle to connect with the lesson. By mixing up instruction to include whole
class work, group work, pair work, and individual work, teachers can cater to a
variety of preferences. When we provide
a wide array of learning opportunities, we create many, many ways for our
students to succeed.
4. Tap into Strengths
There is
a tendency for teachers and researchers to define emergent readers in terms of
what they lack: formal schooling, L1 literacy, print awareness, etc. This is a very ‘deficit’ way of approaching
instruction. While these learners may
not have the same approach to learning as those socialized in modern, literate
societies, they are of course no less capable or intelligent, and in fact, they
may have many skills that literate students do not. For example, as Bigelow and Tarone (2004)
point out, members of oral cultures have a great number of well-developed
strategies for remembering content without notes, and their lack of literacy
may actually guide them toward a less analytical way of learning the L2, one
that lends itself to acquisition versus learning (Krashen, 1981, in Bigelow
& Tarone, 2004). In addition, many
emergent readers have L2 oral skills that are quite proficient, so much so that
oral intake assessments can often misplace students into high levels of
The fact
that emergent readers often have more developed listening and speaking skills
is a tremendous resource for literacy teachers.
One very promising practice that capitalizes on students’ oral ability
is Language Experience Approach (LEA).
In LEA, students first share a common experience, whether it’s a field
trip or an experience like making a salad in the classroom. Then, the teacher guides them to re-tell the
experience aloud. Students recall what
happened, and the teacher or another scribe writes down their words. Later, these words are printed and used as
students’ reading texts. From here, a
number of bottom-up focused techniques can be used to focus on particular
sounds and structures. Later, students
revisit the entire text they have created, and perhaps add to it. LEA taps into students strengths by
connecting what they are able to communicate orally to what they are learning
to do in writing. It is a very efficient
technique in working with emergent readers (Crandall & Peyton, 1993).
The
Language Experience Approach is one way to create student-generated texts. Whether done formally starting with a shared
experience like a field trip or an in-class project, or much less formally by
simply looking at a photograph together or providing engaging prompts, when
students are writing, they are creating reading texts as well. ESL teachers often have students journal or
free-write during class time, and these student-generated texts can create
abundant opportunities for looking at bottom-up strategies, too. The advantage of using student-generated
texts is that the text is already comprehensible, meaningful, and interesting
to the learner. Since the learner
created it, he/she has ownership over those words and that story. By using these texts within the Whole-Part-Whole
method, we can focus on particular sounds, word families, or other reading
skills within content that the student created him/herself. This creates an engaging and memorable lesson
for learners.
Tapping
into oral skills is but one way to capitalize on students’ strengths. But students come to us with a wide array of
talents and interests that can also serve as “jumping off points” for literacy
lessons. At one adult education site in
St. Paul, we learned that a number of our students were gifted
seamstresses. We created a sewing class,
purchased sewing machines, and worked on literacy within this meaningful,
interesting context. We researched
fabric stores, examined patterns, measured and cut fabric, considered various
options for our sewing projects, and eventually created a large quilt
together. Throughout the process,
teachers were drawing on students’ background knowledge and talents to create
literacy tasks as we talked, read, and wrote about the experience along the
way.
Whether
it is music, gardening, cooking, automotive repair, child rearing, soccer, or
something else entirely, effective literacy-focused lessons can be created
within any context. The key is to keep
listening to your students and to find the themes and strengths that they bring
with them to class (Weinstein, 1999).
5. Nurture Learners’ Confidence
Older, struggling English learners
often lack confidence. They may not see
themselves as capable. They may not
understand how schools work, or they may have concluded that schooling does not
offer them any benefits. Effective
teachers help all their students value school and value themselves as learners (Freeman & Freeman, 2002,
p.17).
For many
of our emergent readers, school is a fairly new experience. As mentioned above, the bulk of some
students’ learning experiences may have been in informal settings. Or, on the contrary, they may have had a
great deal of school experiences either in the U.S. or at home, but without a
great deal of success. Older learners,
in particular, often lack confidence in their ability to learn English and
acquire literacy (Brod, 1999). One of
the main goals teachers need to have for emergent readers is to nurture their
confidence as learners.
One
promising practice in working with emergent readers works toward both boosting
reading skills and building confidence at the same time. While used a great deal with higher levels
and in college programs, extensive reading has not received the attention it
deserves with lower levels and emergent readers. Extensive reading, or reading for pleasure,
involves providing a wide variety of readings texts to students and giving them
time to choose something that looks interesting and read on their own. The texts students choose should be easy for
them, things they can read without the use of a dictionary. While usually we are trying to challenge
students, using Krashen’s I + 1 theory (Krashen, 1985), in extensive reading we
should provide reading texts that are “I – 1”.
We want students to work on reading fluency, to gain confidence in their
ability to read, and to find pleasure in reading. In establishing a “reading lab” or “free
reading time,” as it’s sometimes called, a large selection of interesting,
level appropriate reading materials is key.
While there is not a great deal available yet from publishers that is as
low-level and high interest as required, there is some. Ask your publishers’ representatives about
reading texts for low-literacy, older learners.
Many publishers have begun producing short, interesting books for adults
that have only one or a handful of words on each page. Even if your newest readers are only focusing
on the pictures, they are involved in the act of literacy, and they are becoming
more confident readers and learners through this practice.
Emergent
readers need time and practice to work on their new skills. Often, ESL textbooks don’t provide nearly
enough practice for our lowest-level students.
They might cover an important skill or text in just one or two pages, when
our students could benefit from several lessons. One thing teachers of emergent readers notice
time and time again is that repetition
is key. Students need to spend a great
deal of each class time reviewing previously covered materials, texts, and tasks. In fact, consider dividing your class time
daily with one-half or even two-thirds of the day devoted to re-activating
schema, review, and re-visiting material, and only one-half to one-third
devoted to new material. This doesn’t
mean doing the same tasks over and over. With minor adjustments, the task can
become new while the content is not. For
example, in the family example discussed above, students were working on the
sounds /m/, /s/, /f/, and /b/. They
listed family words on the board that begin with these sounds. Several other options can give students this
same practice, but in a slightly new way.
For example, students can be handed slips of paper with the family words
on them, and then asked to sort them onto the /b/ table, the /m/ table, etc. Or students can divide their own papers into
four blocks, and with a partner, write the words in the appropriate
blocks. Then they could use letter tiles
to spell out the words that the teacher or another student calls out. Then they could search these same words for
those sounds in final-syllable or middle-syllable position. All of these tasks are working on the same
set of words, and the same set of four sounds.
We are providing a great deal of repetition without necessarily doing
the same task again and again. This kind
of sequence sets students up for success and creates confidence in their
ability to learn.
As ESL
teachers and literacy coaches, we can work to create successful, confident
learners. Some of the “school skills”
that students may have missed can be taught explicitly to encourage
success. Teachers can establish
routines, post agenda and objectives, teach organization skills and strategies
that will serve learners in and beyond school.
A sense of predictability goes a long way when nurturing learners’
confidence. By creating simple classroom
routines, whether it’s to begin the day with calendar work and a journaling
prompt, or having a consistent time for reading lab, or maybe to have a specific
part of the day devoted to open questions and conversation, we can help boost
learners’ confidence by taking some of the ‘mystery’ out of the school
experience. As Cummins (1989, cited in
Ortiz 2001) points out, “Preventing school failure begins with the creation of
school climates that foster academic success and empower students.”
CONCLUSION
There is
no simple answer to how to best serve our emergent readers. A lack of research in this area of ESL makes
our work more difficult, but the available research and professional wisdom can
go a long way to guiding our practice.
Five general principles can help us create vibrant, successful
classrooms for our low-literacy students: keep lessons contextualized, combine
bottom-up and top-down approaches, cater to a variety of learning preferences,
tap into students’ strengths, and nurture their confidence.
The
process of learning to read for the first time later in life is a slow and
difficult undertaking. But there arrives
a moment when it all comes together for a learner, when the strange lines and
curves on the page begin to make sense, and literacy emerges. As one learner said at this very moment,
“Maestra! The letters speak.” Exactly. No scholar could say it better than
that.
AUTHOR
Patsy
Vinogradov began teaching in Russia in 1994, and later worked extensively with
adult immigrants and refugees in the U.S. She completed a B.A. in Russian
Language from the University of Nebraska, and an M.A. in ESL from the
University of Minnesota. She has taught English to adults at the University of
Minnesota, Lao Family English School, and Metro North ABE. Currently, Patsy is an adjunct faculty member
at Hamline University, where she works with graduate students in the TEFL
Certificate and Adult Certificate programs. Her research interests include
literacy development for adult students, especially those with limited
first-language literacy. She is the Executive Assistant for MinneTESOL, the
state professional organization for teachers of English to speakers of other
languages.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special
thanks to Katharine Malaga and her eloquent student for providing the title for
this article. Thank you to Astrid Liden and Andrea Poulos for their excellent
feedback on this article, and for being such amazing colleagues. I am so grateful to you both.
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