Literacy Instruction in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms

“Language is a complex system for creating meaning through socially shared conventions.” Halliday The phonological or sound system of language The syntactic or structural system of language The semantic or meaning system of language The pragmatic or social and cultural use system of language

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE Mastery of the formal system of language Sociolinguistic competence--the use of language to get things done (Shuy) The social use of language to get things done is the driving force of language acquisition. (Gipe)

Sociolinguistic competence phonology morphology syntax vocabulary

Teachers’ attitudes toward language varieties can either facilitate or hinder minority students’ growth in literacy. (Goodman and Buck) Teachers are expected to know linguistic facts about the language variations learners bring to school.

Learners often use the rules from their native language schema in reading English as a second language. Teachers should become familiar with all the language varieties found in the communities in which they teach.

(contrastive analysis) Consonant contrasts not made in Spanish: ch/sh watch/wash s/zsip/zip n/ngsin/sing b/vbat/vat t/thtin/thin s/thsin/thin d/thden/then Vowel contrasts not made in Spanish: bet/bat cut/cot cheap/chip pool/pull coat/caught

Consonant pairs not contrasted by Vietnamese speakers: z/sflees/fleece ch/shmuch/mush f/plaugh/lap p/bpin/bin k/gback/bag th/tether/eater th/dweather/wetter i/epit/Pete e/abet/bat Vietnamese phonology does not allow consonant clusters at the end of words: cold/col called/call

SYNTACTIC SYSTEMS of native languages influence performance in English: Spanish: deletion of subject pronouns negative morpheme before verbs adjectives after nouns deletion of /s/ inflection present instead of progressive have for be Vietnamese: Vietnamese does not use suffixes to convey meanings: plurality and tense are marked by separate words rather than suffixes

Teach minimal pairs in meaningful contexts first Use strategies such as sentence expansion choral reading Language Experience Approach (LEA) creative writing children’s literature

AESTHETIC VS. EFFERENT READING Reading for enjoyment vs. reading to carry away information

Stages of the reading process 1. Preparing 2. Reading 3. Responding 4. Exploring 5. Extending Stages of the writing process 1. Prewriting 2. Drafting 3. Revising 4. Editing 5. Publishing

Phonemic awareness is children’s basic understanding that speech is composed of a series of individual sounds. Children develop phonemic awareness in two ways: 1. They learn through a language-rich environment as they sing songs, play with words, chant rhymes, and listen to adults read wordplay books to them. 2. Through phonemic awareness activities: matching words by sounds isolate a sound in a word substitute sounds in a word segment a word into its constituents

Phonics is the set of relationships between phonology (the sounds in speech) and ortography (the spelling patterns of written language). Teachers teach sound-symbol correspondences how to blend sounds together phonics generalizations or “rules”

VOCABULARY--the best predictor of success in reading comprehension. (Laufer) Students’ vocabularies grow: 3,000 words a year new words a day 40,000 words by the time students finish high school (Nagy and Herman) Vocabulary instruction is done in literature focus units and theme cycles.

Twelve principles for supporting literacy development: sharing literacy engaging prior knowledge and language choice and independence reading and writing are reciprocal processes “Read it again” using predictable literature approximating, risk taking, and collaboration teaching from whole to parts to whole assessment for supporting learning involving parents and community resources a curriculum rich in culturally relevant content a program that values multilinguistic and multicultural traditions inclusion of students with literacy learning difficulties

Transitional practices Bridging the gap Balanced literacy programs Source: Reutzel and Cooter