1. Why ESL Phonological Teaching Improves ELLs’ Literacy Skills
Presented by Dr. Eugenia Krimmel

2. Today we will discuss…
The differences between teaching ELLs to read as opposed to teaching native English speakers
The levels involved in learning both the bottom-up and top-down aspects of language
Connect oral language skills to print
Phonemic awareness linked to decoding and encoding (spelling)
Teaching and practicing syllable rules, spelling patterns, and mental imagery for good ELL readers
The sequence of teaching bottom-up towards top-down strategies within our daily or weekly lessons.

3. Why is teaching an English Language Learner (ELL) different in some respects to how we teach native English speakers? What needs do the ELLs have?

4. Different Sounds System
/th/ does not exist in most languages
ELL substitute /th/ with /d/, /t/, /z/
/b/ and /v/ are not distinguished in Spanish
No vowel teams in other languages
Many languages have only a vowel-consonant-vowel pattern: no digraphs or clusters

5. Different Written Systems
Beautiful : Roman script
Arabic script: جميل
Chinese: 完美的
Hiragani Japanese:
Tamil:

6. Different Word Patterns
Plural –s suffix does not exist in many Asian languages
Two dollars = two dollar (the 2 indicates plural) in Chinese
Pronouns are added to words not standalone words
I go = gidiyorum (indicates “I”) in Turkish
Monosyllabic languages (Chinese, Hawaiian, South Eastern languages)
Multisyllabic languages (German, English, Spanish, Turkish)

7. Different Sentence Structures
Sentence Order: Subject-Verb-Object (English)
Object –Verb+Subject (Turkish)
Subject + Object + Verb (Hindi)
 Many languages do not have verb “to be” (Turkish, Arabic, Tagalog…)
I am a teacher = Ben bir öğretmenim (Turkish – “ I one teacher/1st person indicator”
Preposition attached to the noun vs. preposition a separate word before the object.

8. Different Discourse Patterns
English/German
linear: beginning, middle, end
Semitic languages (Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew):
Redundant, parallelism, repetition of thoughts with new words
Slavic languages (Russian, Czech, Polish):
Zigzag pattern with added facts (related to historical facts)
Romance languages (Spanish, French, Romanian):
Zigzag pattern with added tangents or side stories
Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog):
Indirect, and recursive

9. Between 37-41 depending on the dialect of English
Do you know?
How many phonemes we have in English?
Between depending on the dialect of English
Dr. Bruce Hayes, Dept. of Linguistics, UCLA
How many syllable types there are in English?
6 types
- Louis Moats and Carol Tolman, Reading Rockets: Six Syllable Types

10. How many ways we spell long /a/ sound?
Do you know?
How many ways we spell long /a/ sound?
8 !
- a – Consonant –e
-ay
-ai
-ei (vein)
-eigh (weight)
-ea (break, steak, great)
a- as an open syllable (apricot)
-ey (they, hey)

11. Why are ELLs confused?
Sounds do NOT match the graphemes or symbols 1 –to- 1
English is a low correspondence language!
Recognizing phonemes in words and sentences is a struggle if certain phonemes are totally unfamiliar
Word construction and sentence construction patterns are unfamiliar
English has many exceptions
(“red words”)

12. Connecting oral language with literacy skill development:
What should we teach? :
Phoneme awareness and discrimination
Sound to letter correspondence
Word formation patterns
Syllable patterns and divisions
Spelling system rules (encoding)
Short phrase decoding
When foundation is formed, fluency and comprehension can begin.

13. Phoneme awareness and discrimination
“The ability to perceive individual speech sounds in spoken words is crucial for students who are learning to read. If teachers do not possess this knowledge, how can they recognize and treat students whose basic difficulty in learning to read is the inability to perceive speech sounds in spoken words?”
- Suzanne Carreker, Vice President of Research and Program Development at Neuhaus Education center, Houston, Texas.

14. Know your phonemes.
A teacher can stat by reviewing lists of phonemes like:
Or try an interactive website using the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) for English
Now that you know what all those pesky phonemes are, let’s look at ways to teach ELLs those sounds…

15. ESL Strategies for teaching listening phonemic awareness
Minimal pairs activity: 2 words with one phoneme difference.
Identify the same sound in words (bit, bat, ball)
Odd sound out – (bit, bat, cat)

16. More ESL phonemic awareness strategies:
Combo Phones – give separate phonemes and have students put them together (c-a-t)
Tap out sounds – students tap one finger per sound as they hear the word (b-a-ck= 3 taps)
Add or Subtract Sounds – can ELLs recognize what word is made by adding or subtracting a sound = (“thin” plus /k/ =“ think”; “black” minus /l/ = “back”)

17. More phonemic awareness for ELLs
Position of the phoneme within a word can also cause difficulties for ELLs when discriminating sounds or while pronouncing words.
Strategy: Teach students :
Initial Middle Final
Tell them to listen for the /th/ sound in bath.
Final sound
Listen for /th/ in birthday. – Middle sound

18. Why are these strategies important for ELLs?
Native English speakers have these sound referents in their heads already
ELLs need to build a phonemic inventory
ELLs do NOT have all these sounds and combinations in their head

19. With these sounds going into their heads, their phonemic inventory, ELLs can now develop oral to written correspondence.

20. Sound to letter teaching
Encoding is for spelling. Decoding is for reading.

21. In order to become good decoders and spellers (encoders), learners need to first develop fundamental understandings about writing and how it relates to spoken English. -Anna Gillingham , The Gillingham Manual

22. Spelling or encoding is the system of rules governing how spoken words are represented in writing (in graphemes). These rules the basis of the alphabetic principle of a given language

23. All readers and writers of a language must know the common alphabetic principle.
Try this: Copy this word on a piece of paper.
 جميلة

24. Did you write it left to right or right to left?
Which letters are consonants?
Which are vowels? Are there vowels?
Do you recognize the root of this word?
Which sounds are represented in this word?

25. Knowing the alphabetic principle of a written language is essential to the higher skills of reading and writing. Without this in English, ELLs struggle. Not all ELLs use the Roman alphabet, so sound to letter teaching is essential!

26. The major flaw of reading programs is the teaching of letter-to-sound rather than sound-to- letter, hence the alphabetic principle is not well learned by the [ELL] reader Marcia K. Henry, Unlocking Literacy: Effective Decoding and Spelling Instruction.

27. Decoding and Encoding together
Connect sound to letter for both decoding and encoding skill development.
If a phoneme has more than 1 spelling, focus on one spelling pattern at a time.
Sequencing that order is best, but not always possible:
ELLs may need to learn /ā/ is spelled “ei” before learning “ay” because in math or science they are learning Weights and Measures.

28. Strategies linking oral sounds to spelling:
Either by order of frequency (found in Orton-Gillingham materials) OR by necessity in the text, teach 2-3 phonemes in isolation orally, through phonemic awareness activities
THEN
Put those sounds into writing!
Example:
The sound/ŭ/is in these words :
“umbrella, bug and cut”
on the board while underlining the /u/. Connect the sound to the symbol.

29. Total Physical Response (TPR) type activities:
More Strategies…
Total Physical Response (TPR) type activities:
Point to pictures of words with a specific sound i.e. - ice, pig, egg (point to which word/picture do you hear /ī/ in?)
Sort picture cards or word cards by sound categories
Match oral sound to letter, letter combination or word containing that sound
Write the letter(s) for the sound you hear
List all the words beginning with the sound …

30. Word level teaching for decoding and encoding
Spelling patterns
Syllable rules
Stress patterns

31. Spelling patterns
There are numerous spelling patterns in English. Teachers can present 1 or 2 patterns per week such as:
The “FLOSS” pattern: words of 1 syllable ending in f, l, or s after 1 vowel usually end in ff, ll, or ss.
Final /k/ sound is spelled –k after a long vowel or vowel team (take, week, book) OR after a consonant (milk, talk, think)
/k/ is spelled –ck at the end of a short vowel syllable (duck, clock or jacket, tickle)
/s/ can be spelled with soft “c” + e or I
(cent, city)

32. Syllable Patterns
Closed syllables – has 1 short vowel (at, bin, ad-, egg, speck, scratch…)
Open syllables - has 1 long vowel (me, hi, co-, tri-, pre-, de-, no…)
Vowel team or combination - 2 vowels together make 1 vowel sound
(ee, ea, oi, ou, au, aw, ow, etc.)
(bee, ouch, now, boy, soil, saw…)

33. Syllable patterns con’t
Vowel-consonant-e – 1st vowel has the long sound, “e” is silent (-ate, -ene, -ine, -oke, ute) (late, scene, nine, poke, cute)
Consonant –le: syllables ending in –ble, -cle, dle, ckle, fle, gle, ple, tle) (able, uncle, puddle, rifle, giggle)
3. -r controlled: vowels + r in syllable
(third, cart, purse, doctor, her, solar)

34. Syllable division or word patterns
C-V-C (consonant-vowel-consonant) (c-a-t, p-e-n)
V-C-C-V (rab-bit, but-ton, mer-chant, com- pare)
V-C-V (pi-lot, mu-sic, po-lite OR cab-in, lev-el)
V-C-CC-V (mon-ster, pil-grim)
V-CC-C-V (pump-kin, dish-rag, a-part-ment)
Prefix + root word + suffix
mis-spell-ing, en-rich-ment
Schwa syllable is sometimes added to this list – in polysyllabic words, the soft /ŭ/ sound of the unstressed syllable = schwa (a,e,i,o, or u)

35. Self-Reflection: Planning
What daily lesson sequence do you have for teaching the bottom-up skills through to the top-down comprehension skills?
Do you teach that range of reading/writing skills on a weekly basis rather than a daily one? Why?
When planning the scope and sequence of your reading skills lessons, what do you use to guide your thought process? Student assessment, book materials, scripted program?

36. How do I teach my ELLs all these?
Systematically
Daily
Sequentially
Smaller to larger chunks
Single to combinations
and
WITH MULTISENSORY STRATEGIES

37. Start with Sounds and letters
Flash cards with letters and letter combinations – show to students, they tell you the sound those letter(s) make!
Blending Drill (yes I said DRILL! We want automaticity at this stage for fluency and better comprehension)
Put phoneme flash cards in 3 piles by Initial-Middle-Final positions possible in English.
Initial Middle Final
b,ch, p, y, j, sl a,i,o, oi, ou, u, oo s, p, -ch, -ng
Possible combinations: boop, choich, slous….
*note this syllable game is practice decoding only

38. Teach ELLs how to mark the words by syllable and vowel type

39. Reading Horizons example*
1. met X
The letters that come right after the first vowel in the word will indicate what the vowel will sound like. A new term is given to consonants as we look at phonetic skills #1 and #2. These letters are called consonant/guardians. The 1st phonetic skill is: “The vowel is short because it has a guardian (or consonant) after it.”
Press space bar three times until all the marks are put on the word

40. Reading Horizons example*
1. met
2. jump
3. me
4. smile
5. boat

41. Reading Horizons example #1
How do you decode this word?
wabe

42. Reading Horizons example #1
How do you decode this word?
wabe X X
Let’s go back to the Jabberwocky” poem. How do you decode this word using one of the 5 phonetic skils?
Now to decode the next word, we need to look at the 2 decoding skills…

43. Example #2
How do you decode this word?
brillig

44. example #2
How do you decode this word?
brillig X X

45. How do you read or decode these nonsense words?
Reading Horizons v5
How do you read or decode these nonsense words?
wabe
brillig

46. Suggested Lesson Routine
25 mins
Total time of routine
2 mins.
Listening phonemic awareness activity
5 mins.
Blending drill with flash cards in 3 piles (add silent e as 4th pile) individual or small group
Present spelling or syllable pattern- teach markings
Sound-to-letter activity – tapping or blending
Student air-write or write on board spelling words
Choral read list of focused words, red words
Word dictation – review, new, and red words 10-12
Practice activities of phonemes, spellings, syllables
Move to vocabulary, fluency and comprehension strategies

47. Isn’t that a long time?
In that 25 minutes you have taught essential skills necessary for ELLs to move forward in language proficiency
The bottom-up strategies are the foundations to vocabulary and larger text reading.
The total time – 25 minutes- will lessen as skills are mastered.

48. A word about nonsense words for ELLs
Always indicate they are NONSENSE words
Should never appear on tests (other than testing decoding skills)
Practice blending and reading nonsense words is important for future unfamiliar word decoding

49. Quick review
Teaching ELLs to read and spell in English requires purposeful, effective strategies that may not be necessary or practical for native English speakers
Planning a routine of sequential daily strategies to teach the phonemic awareness skills will improve their literacy skills at all levels
Knowing, as teachers, the nature of English phonemes, rules of syllables and segmentation, and spelling patterns is key to effectively teaching ELLs to read and write.
A program like Reading Horizons can help you plan, deliver, and assess focused skill development for ELLs at all levels and ages.

50. Self-Reflection: Strategies
What strategies/activities do you use to teach oral introduction and/or discrimination of sounds?
What strategies do you use to teach vowel teams, clusters, diagraphs, and diphthongs?
What activities do you find best for teaching the types of syllables?
What activities do you find effective for teaching spelling patterns?

51. Sharing Ideas
Please share a brief list and short description of strategies you have found to be effective in the aspects of teaching reading to ELLs mentioned above.
What resources do you use to make these activities a reality in your class to save you as a teacher time and/or money?

52. Questions and Answers
Do you have any questions regarding the oral to written teaching sequence or strategies geared towards ELLs’ skill development?
Do you have any questions regarding the timing or sequencing of strategies?
Do you have any questions about the information presented to today?

53. References
Birch, B. M, (2002). English L2 Reading: Getting to the Bottom. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Carreker, S. (2010). Professional Development presentation. Retrieved from:
English phonemes, spellings, example words, and meaningful names . (n.d.). Retrieved from
Heidi Hyte, (2006). An Interactive Approach to Teaching L2 Reading: From the Bottom-Up Webinar. Reading Horizons.com.
Henry, M. (2010). Unlocking literacy: Effective decoding and spelling instruction. Paul H Brookes Pub Co; 2 edition.
Moats, L. & Tolman, C. (2008). Six syllable types. Reading Rockets, Retrieved from: .

54. References
Reading Horizons, (2007). Scientifically Based Research Underpinning the Rationales of the Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself Reading System. Retrieved from:
Sholes, D. (2011). Activities for teaching phonemes: Lesson plan for teaching sounds. Retrieved from
Te Arapiki Ako. (n.d.). Decoding for reading; spelling (encoding) for writing. Retrieved from

55. References
UsingEnglish.com (2006). Here are the ipa (international phonetic alphabet) symbols for the common sounds of english. Retrieved from