Reading 101 for English Language

Learners
By

Kristina Robertson

In this article, Kirstina Robertson highlights ELL instructional strategies

based on the five components of reading as outlined in Teaching Children to
Read by the National Reading Panel (2000), phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and
comprehension.

Teaching reading IS rocket science.

~Louisa Moats On this page
Learning to read is a little bit like learning to ride a bike
while you are balancing a person on the handle-bars, Phonemic Awareness and English Language
holding a pole, spinning plates, and focusing on the Learners
destination at the same time! Phonics and English Language Learners
Vocabulary and English Language Learners
Reading is a complicated process, which is why so many Fluency and English Language Learners
children struggle to become strong readers. The process of Comprehension
learning to read can be particularly challenging for Videos: ELL Reading Instruction
English language learners (ELLs), especially if they have Hot links
little or no formal schooling and they have not learned to
read in their native language.

In this article, I will highlight ELL instructional strategies based on the five components of reading as
outlined in Teaching Children to Read by the National Reading Panel (2000). This report is a study of
research-based best practices in reading instruction and it focuses on the following five instructional
areas: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, Comprehension.

Each of these topics is explored below, and each section includes:

a definition
an explanation of why the component is important when learning to read
challenges that ELLs may face
strategies for ELL instruction
You will find references to more in-depth information about ELLs and effective reading instruction
from our Literacy Instruction section and Reading Rockets throughout the article, as well as in the
Hotlinks below.
Phonemic Awareness and English Language Learners
Phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors of how well children will learn to read during the first
two years of school instruction. Sometimes it is nearly impossible, however, for speakers of a second
language to "hear" and say sounds in the language they are learning.

Perhaps you have had a student who simply could not master a particular sound in English. Chances are
good that that sound was not a part of the student's native language, and so the student didn't have the
ability to produce that sound.

I experienced this when learning Sinhala in the Peace Corps. There was a "th" sound that seemed to be
a combination "d" and "th," and no matter how hard I tried, I could not hear or produce the sound
correctly. I knew which words it belonged in, but I couldn't say it. The native Sinhala speakers
struggled to make sense of my pronunciation. ELLs may have similar difficulties with sounds that are
not a part of their native language.

Phonemic Awareness: Challenges and Strategies

Why it matters: Phonemic awareness is the foundation for spelling and
What: The ability to hear
word recognition skills.
and manipulate the different
sounds in our language.

Challenges for ELLs

Students may not be able to "hear" or produce a new sound in a second

language.
Sound recognition and
production Students who cannot hear and work with the phonemes of spoken words
will have a difficult time learning how to relate these phonemes to letters
when they see them in written words.

Strategies for ELLs

Model production of the Spend a few minutes at the beginning of class or in small groups
sound demonstrating and reinforcing the correct production of the sound.
Have students practice identifying the sounds in the beginning, middle,
and end of these words. You may wish to use words that begin with a
consonant, have a short vowel, and end in a consonant (CVC words)
Help beginning readers such as mat, top, and bus.
learn to identify sounds in
short words One very effective method is having students match pictures of words
that have the same beginning, middle, or ending sound.

Be careful to use only words that students know in English!

Phonics and English Language Learners
Phonics instruction aims to help new readers understand that there are systematic and predictable
relationships between written letters and spoken sounds.

Students will benefit from learning and practicing sounds and symbols, including blended
combinations. This is fairly common in the primary grades and ELLs may pick up the code very
quickly and appear to be fairly proficient readers. However, it's important to remember that knowledge
of phonics and decoding does not ensure good comprehension.

Phonics: Challenges and Strategies

What: The relationship between Why it matters: Reading development is dependent on the
a sound and its corresponding understanding that letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of
written letter. spoken language.

Challenges for ELLs

Many educators believe that students only need to learn to read

once. Once the concept of matching a symbol with a sound has been
learned, it can be applied to new languages.

Students who have learned to read in their native language have a

Limited literacy skills in native
distinct advantage because they were able to learn this concept with
language
familiar sounds and words.

Students who have not learned to read in their native language,

however, may struggle to put together the sound/symbol
correspondence concept, new words, and new sounds all at once.
It is difficult for students to distinguish phonetic components in new
vocabulary words.
Unfamiliar vocabulary words
Preteaching vocabulary is an important part of good phonics
instruction with ELLs so that students aren't trying to figure out new
vocabulary items out of context.

Strategies for ELLs

Teach phonics in context Using literature and content material, you can introduce and
reinforce:
letter recognition
beginning and ending sounds
blends
rhyming words
silent letters
 homonyms
Use hands-on activities to help This can include using manipulatives such as counters, sound boxes,
teach letter-sound relationships and magnetic letters.
Say a short sentence that includes one or more words that include
the target phonics feature(s). Ask students to listen carefully and
then write what they heard.
Have students write for sound
This activity trains students to listen for the individual sounds in
words and represent them phonetically in their writing.
For students with strong native language literacy skills, help them
understand that the process of sounding out words is the same
Help students make a across languages.
connection between their first
language and English Explain some letters may make the same or similar sounds in both
languages. Knowing this can help Spanish-dominant students, for
example, as they learn to decode words in English.

Vocabulary and English Language Learners

Vocabulary plays an important part in learning to read, as well as in understanding what is read.

As students learn to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new words that are not
part of their oral vocabulary. For ELLs, vocabulary development is especially important as students'
develop academic language.

Vocabulary: Challenges and Strategies

What: Recognizing and
Why: Understanding vocabulary words is a key step in reading
understanding words in
comprehension. The more words a child knows, the better he or she will
relation to the context of the
understand the text.
reading passage.

Challenges for ELLs

Beginning readers must use the words they hear orally to make sense of
the words they sound out. If those words aren't a part of a student's
vocabulary, however, it will make it much harder to understand the text.

Consider, for example, what happens when a beginning reader comes to

Limited comprehension the word dig in a book. As she begins to figure out the sounds
represented by the letters d-i-g, the reader recognizes that the sounds
make up a very familiar word that she has heard and said many times.

As a result, it is harder for ELLs figure out words that are not already
part of their speaking (oral) vocabulary.
Limited vocabulary The average native English speaker enters kindergarten knowing at least
foundation 5,000 words. The average ELL may know 5,000 words in his or her
 native language, but very few words in English.

While native speakers are continuously learning new words, ELLs are
still catching up on their basic vocabulary foundation.
A student's maximum level of reading comprehension is determined by
his or her knowledge of words. This word knowledge allows students to
Limited academic comprehend text, including the text found in content-area textbooks, on
vocabulary assessments, and in printed material such as newspapers and magazines.
Without a strong foundation of academic vocabulary, ELLs won't be
able to access the material they are expected to master.

Strategies

It is important to give students as much exposure and experience with

new vocabulary words as possible before asking students to use them in
a lesson or activity. Remember that vocabulary lists in textbooks are
often created with English speakers in mind.

Select words that will support the reader's understanding of the story or
text, as well as for other phrases and connectors that affect
comprehension (even though, except, etc.). You can pre-teach
vocabulary by using English as a second language (ESL) methods such
as:
Role playing or pantomiming
Pre-teach vocabulary
Using gestures
Showing real objects
Pointing to pictures
Doing quick drawings on the board
Using the Spanish equivalent and then asking students to say the word
in English
Providing a student-friendly definition
Using graphic organizers
Cognates are words in different languages that are derived from the
same original word or root. Cognates are related words like family
and familia, and conversation and conversacin. False cognates do
exist (embarazada in Spanish means pregnant, not embarrassed), but
they are the exception to the rule.
Focus on cognates
About 40% of all English words have cognates in Spanish! This is an
obvious bridge to the English language for Spanish speakers if the
student is made aware of how to use this resource. Encourage Spanish
speakers to connect words in the two languages and try to decipher text
based on this existing knowledge.
Give students an As the teacher, you can explicitly teach word meanings to improve

opportunity to practice
using new words
comprehension. However, to know a word means knowing it in all of
the following dimensions:
The ability to define a word
The ability to recognize when to use that word
Knowledge of its multiple meanings
The ability to decode and spell that word
The ability to use different definitions word accurately in different
contexts
The only way to make sure students understand a new word is to have
them produce it themselves either orally or in writing.

I taught a summer school unit on habitats and healthy environments, and

every student had to learn the phrase, "Reduce, reuse, recycle." Over the
course of four weeks I gave students many opportunities to use those
words to describe what we were doing: "We are reusing the grocery
bag," or "We reused the scratch paper."

Fluency and English Language Learners

Fluency is a tricky area when it comes to ELL reading instruction. For native English speakers, fluency
and reading comprehension often share a strong correlation because fluent readers recognize words and
comprehend at the same time.

This is not always the case for ELLs, however. Many ELLs can be deceptively fast and accurate in their
reading because they are good readers in their primary language and have strong decoding skills. Yet
they may demonstrate little understanding of the text, and hearing the text out loud may not necessarily
provide a step towards comprehension as it is likely to do for native speakers.

Fluency: Challenges and Strategies

What: The ability to read a Why it matters: Fluency is important because it provides a bridge
text accurately and quickly. between word recognition and comprehension.

Challenges for ELLs

Inaccurate indicator of It is not unusual for an ELL student to read a passage beautifully and
ELLs' comprehension then not be able answer more than a couple of comprehension questions
correctly. Decoding skills (sounding out words) and comprehending the
text are two different skills.
Limited benefit from Native speakers who are not strong decoders can often comprehend text
hearing texts read aloud that is read to them better than text that they read themselves. That's
because when someone else is doing the reading, they can focus on
meaning without having to struggle to get the words off the page.
 With ELLs, however, comprehension problems tend to be associated
with limited vocabulary and limited background knowledge. Thus,
listening to text read by someone else won't enhance comprehension.

Strategies for ELLs

For ELLs, try not to provide instruction in fluency that focuses primarily
on developing students' reading rates at the expense of reading with
expression, meaning, and comprehension.
Balance fluency
and comprehension
Students may read fast, but with insufficient comprehension. Fluency
without comprehension will require instructional intervention in
vocabulary and comprehension skills.
In order to improve fluency in English, provide independent level texts
that students can practice again and again, or read a short passage and
Give students a chance to then have the student immediately read it back to you.
practice reading out loud
Have the student practice reading a passage with a certain emotion or to
emphasize expression, intonation, and inflection based on punctuation.
Allow students to practice
This is an excellent way for them to learn appropriate pronunciation and
reading along with taped
phrasing.
text

Comprehension
Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read. To be able to
accurately understand written material, children need to be able to 1) decode what they
read; 2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and 3)
think deeply about what they have read.

Comprehension can be the most difficult skill to master, however. ELLs at all levels of English
proficiency, and literacy development, will benefit from explicit instruction in comprehension
skills along with other skills because improved comprehension will not only help them in
language arts and ESL classes it will help them in content-area classes and in daily
activities. It will also improve the chances of their interest in reading for pleasure.

Learn more from the following articles:

Comprehension Skills for Content Learning
Finding the Main Idea
Reading Comprehension Strategies for English Language Learners

Comprehension: Challenges and Strategies

Why it matters: Comprehension is the reason for reading. Readers who
What: Understanding the
have strong comprehension are able to draw conclusions about what they
meaning of the text.
read.
Challenges for ELLs

ELLs who struggle with comprehension may read more slowly, have a hard
time following a text or story, have a hard time picking out important
Limited ability to read events, and feel frustrated. They may also have problems mastering new
for meaning concepts in their content-area classes or completing assignments and
assessments because they cannot comprehend the texts and tests for these
subjects.

Strategies for ELLs

One way to build background knowledge is through a book, unit or chapter

"walk-through." ELLs can preview the information in the text and begin
to make connections with the knowledge they have.

If the text is about a fair, the student may note that the pictures are similar to
Build background
fairs they have attended in the past and they can think of the kinds of
knowledge
experiences a person has in that environment.

If it is a science textbook the student may see visuals of animals or

processes that remind them of concepts they may have learned or are
somewhat familiar with.
As students read, ask them open-ended questions about what they are
reading, and informally test students' ability to sequence material from
Check comprehension
sentences or a story by printing sentences from a section of the story on
frequently
paper strips, mixing the strips or word order, and having students put them
in order.
After the ELLs and/or whole class have completed the reading, you can test
their comprehension with carefully crafted questions, taking care to use
simple sentences and key vocabulary from the text they just read.

Use questions after These questions can be at the:

reading Literal level (Why do the leaves turn red and yellow in the fall?)
Interpretive level (Why do you think it needs water?)
Applied level (How much water are you going to give it? Why?)
These strategies for ELLs just scratch the surface. If you'd like to learn more about the five
components, be sure to take a look at the resources in the Hotlinks below. Remember: little
things can go a long in way in providing effective literacy instruction for ELLs!

English Language Learners and the Five Essential Components of Reading Instruction
By: Beth Antunez

Find out how teachers can play to the strengths and shore up
the weaknesses of English Language Learners in each of the
Reading First content areas.
RELATED

The Development of Phonological Skills

Blending and Segmenting Games
Sounds & Symbols
This article provides recommendations and considerations for instruction of ELLs within each of the
Reading First components. It should be kept in mind, however, that the Reading First components did
not originate from studies including ELLs, and that despite research indicating a need for native
language instruction, any discussion within the context of Reading First is about teaching ELLs to read in
English.
1. Phonemic awareness

Phonemes are the smallest units making up spoken language. English consists of about 41 phonemes.
Phonemes combine to form syllables and words. For example, the word stop has four phonemes (s-t-o-
p), while shop has three phonemes (sh-o-p). Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to identify and
manipulate these phonemes in spoken words. It is also the understanding that the sounds of spoken
language work together to make words.
The following two songs, the first in English, and the second in Spanish, represent poems that, because
of their easy rhyme and repetition, can be used to teach phonemic awareness.
Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack,
All dressed in black, black, black,
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons,
All down her back, back, back
She asked her mother, mother, mother,
For fifty cents, cents, cents,
To see the elephant, elephant, elephant,
Jump over the fence, fence, fence.
He jumped so high, high, high,
He reached the sky, sky, sky,
And he never came back, back, back,
'Till the fourth of July, 'ly, 'ly.
Bate, bate, chocolate,
tu nariz de cacahuate.
Uno, dos, tres, CHO!
Uno, dos, tres, CO!
Uno, dos, tres, LA!
Uno, dos, tres, TE!
Chocolate, chocolate!
Bate, bate, chocolate!
Bate, bate, bate, bate,
Bate, bate, CHOCOLATE!
Considerations when instructing ELLs in phonemic awareness

Some phonemes may not be present in ELLs' native language and, therefore, may be difficult for a
student to pronounce and distinguish auditorily, as well as to place into a meaningful context. For ELLs,
as with all students, it is important that instruction have meaning, so that the words and sounds
students are manipulating are familiar. It is therefore necessary for ELLs to have knowledge of the
English vocabulary words within which they are to understand phonemes. Teachers can teach phonemic
awareness while also explicitly teaching vocabulary words, their meaning, and their pronunciation to
ELLs.
Children's minds are trained to categorize phonemes in their first language, which may conflict with
English phonemes. For example, Spanish-speaking children may speak, read, and
write ch when sh should be used because in Spanish, these two combinations produce the same
phoneme (International Reading Association, 2001). Teachers can enable phonemic awareness in
English for ELLs by understanding the linguistic characteristics of students' native language, including
the phonemes that exist and do not exist in the native language.
 Scientifically-based research suggests that ELLs respond well to meaningful activities such as language
games and word walls, especially when the activities are consistent and focus on particular sounds and
letters. Songs and poems, with their rhythm and repetition, are easily memorized and can be used to
teach phonemic awareness and print concepts to ELLs (Hiebert, et al., 1998). These rhymes exist in
every language and teachers can ask students or their parents to share these culturally relevant and
teachable rhymes with the class, and build phonemic awareness activities around them.
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2. Phonics
Phonics is the understanding that there is a predictable relationship between phonemes (the sounds of
spoken language) and graphemes (the letters and spellings that represent those sounds in written
language). Readers use these relationships to recognize familiar words and to decode unfamiliar ones.
Phonics instruction is a way of teaching reading that stresses learning how letters correspond to sounds
and how to use this knowledge in reading and spelling. The goal is to help children understand that
there is a systematic and predictable relationship between written letters and spoken sounds (CIERA,
2001).
Considerations when instructing ELLs in phonics

Students who are not literate in their own language or whose language does not have a written form
may not understand some concepts and need to be taught about the functions of print (Peregoy &
Boyle, 2000).
Students may have learned to read and write in a native language in which the letters correspond to
different sounds than they do in English, or they may have learned to read and write in a language with
characters that correspond to words or portions of words. For example, "alphabetic writing systems such
as the three different ones used for English, Greek, and Russian represent speech sounds or phonemes
with letters or letter sequences. In contrast, in logographic writing systems, such as Chinese, each
written character represents a meaning unit or morpheme; while in syllabic writing systems, such as
kana in Japanese and Sequoyah's Cherokee syllabify, each written symbol represents a syllable (Peregoy
& Boyle, 2000, p. 241)."
In Spanish (the native language of 77 percent of ELLs in U.S. schools, [NCBE, 2002]), the
letters b, c, d, f, l, m, n, p, q, s, and t represent sounds that are similar enough to English that they
may transfer readily to English reading for many students. Consequently, many students need minimal
phonics instruction for these consonants. In contrast, vowel letters look the same in Spanish and English
but are named differently and represent very different sounds. Therefore, English vowel sounds and
their numerous spellings present a challenge to Spanish literate students learning to read English
because the one-to-one correspondence between vowel letters and vowel sounds in Spanish does not
hold true in English (Peregoy & Boyle, 2000).
These examples represent not simply the challenges in teaching ELLs to read in English, but also
illustrate that teachers can effectively teach phonics and all of the Reading First components if they are
armed with knowledge about their students and their native language.
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3. Vocabulary development
Vocabulary development refers to the knowledge of stored information about the meanings and
pronunciations of words necessary for communication. Vocabulary development is important for
beginning reading in that when a student comes to a word and sounds it out, he or she is also
determining if the word makes sense based on his or her understanding of the word. If a student does
not know the meaning of the word, there is no way to check if the word fits, or to make meaning from
the sentence. Vocabulary development is also a primary determinant of reading comprehension.
Readers cannot understand the content of what they are reading unless they understand the meaning of
the majority of words in the text.
A second grade class of ELLs is about to engage in a lesson in which they
sequence events in a story. The teacher chooses to use the book, The Tortilla
Factory by Gary Paulsen, which recounts the steps in making tortillas.
To begin the lesson, the teacher shows students a bag of tortillas and asks
students to show by thumbs up: Who has eaten tortillas? Helped make
tortillas? Knows what ingredients go into making tortillas? Can show motions
 for types of ways to manipulate the dough? Teacher prompts students to name
key vocabulary as she writes these words on index cards placed into a pocket
chart: dough, corn, plants, kernels, round, grind, bake, factory. Either the
teacher or a student then explains each word.
Before reading The Tortilla Factory aloud, the teacher distributes these words
on index cards to pairs of students. While the teacher is reading aloud, pairs
hold up their words and/or model the motions that go with the vocabulary for
each part of the tortilla making process that is detailed in the book.
Considerations when instructing ELLs in vocabulary

Vocabulary development is one of the greatest challenges to reading instruction for ELLs, because in
order to read fluently and comprehend what is written, students need to use not just phonics, but
context. It is possible for students to read completely phonetically and not comprehend what they have
read because they do not have the vocabulary. Therefore, vocabulary needs to be taught explicitly and
be a part of the daily curriculum in addition to learning to read. This can be done through class time
devoted strictly to English as a Second Language (ESL) or English Language Development (ELD).
Scientific research on vocabulary development demonstrates that children learn the majority of their
vocabulary indirectly in the following three ways:
Through conversations, mostly with adults;
Listening to adults read to them; and
Reading extensively on their own (CIERA, 2001).
This finding has serious consequences for ELLs, whose parents and other adults in their lives are often
not fluent in English. It is therefore extremely important for educators of ELLs to know and incorporate
the ways that students learn vocabulary directly, including: explicitly teaching vocabulary words before
students read a text, how to use dictionaries, how to use prefixes and suffixes to decipher word
meanings, and how to use context clues (CIERA, 2001).
In the discussion of literacy development for ELLs, it is useful to consider a theory that distinguishes the
language proficiency needed for everyday, face-to-face communication (BICS, for Basic Interpersonal
Communicative Skills) from the proficiency needed to comprehend and manipulate language in the
decontextualized educational setting (CALP, for Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) (Cummins,
1992). The BICS/CALP distinction highlights the fact that some aspects of language proficiency are
considerably more relevant for students' cognitive and academic progress than are the surface
manifestations commonly focused on by educators. Additionally, in terms of vocabulary development, it
highlights the fact that an ELL student may have the vocabulary to hold a conversation about weekend
activities, but might not have the vocabulary to comprehend a science or social studies text.
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4. Reading fluency, including oral reading skills
Fluency is the ability to read words accurately and quickly. Fluent readers recognize words and
comprehend them simultaneously. Reading fluency is a critical factor necessary for reading
comprehension. If children read out loud with speed, accuracy, and proper expression, they are more
likely to comprehend and remember the material than if they read with difficulty and in an inefficient
way.
Two instructional approaches have typically been used to teach reading fluency. One, guided repeated
oral reading, encourages students to read passages out loud with systematic and explicit guidance and
feedback from their teacher. The other, independent silent reading, encourages students to read silently
on their own, inside and outside the classroom, with little guidance or feedback from their teachers.
Considerations when instructing ELLs in fluency

The Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA) states that ELLs should learn to
read initially in their first language. If this is not possible, students need to see and hear literally
hundreds of books over a school year in order for fluency to be modeled to them. CIERA recommends
that ELLs participate in read-alouds of big books, read along with proficient readers, and listen
repeatedly to books read aloud in order to gain fluency in English (Hiebert et al., 1998).
 The NRC complements CIERA's recommendations about initial literacy in the native language. The NRC
asserts that learning to speak English first contributes to children's eventual fluency in English reading,
as oral proficiency provides a foundation to support subsequent learning about the alphabetic principle
through an understanding of the structure of spoken English words and of the language and content of
the material they are reading (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). This reinforces the recommendation for
vocabulary development in ELLs: that in addition to reading instruction, ESL or ELD instruction must be
an integral part of curriculum for ELLs.
Fluency should not be confused with accent. Many ELLs will read and speak English with an accent as
they are beginning to learn English, and others will have one throughout their lives. Students can read
fluently in English with a native language accent.
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5. Reading comprehension strategies
Reading comprehension is the culmination of all of the reading skills and the ultimate goal of learning to
read. The purpose of mastery of each of the four previous skills is to enable comprehension. Likewise,
reading comprehension facilitates mastery of the other four skills. For example, the NRP found that
reading comprehension is clearly related to vocabulary knowledge and development. The NRP also found
that comprehension is an active process that requires an intentional and thoughtful interaction between
the reader and the text that can be explicitly taught through text comprehension instruction.
Considerations when instructing ELLs in comprehension

The NRC, in discussing reading for meaning, or comprehension, explains that the four other Reading
First skills are interrelated with the skill of comprehension and also makes the case for native language
literacy instruction: "The abilities to hear and reflect on the structure of spoken English words, as
required for learning how the alphabetic principle works, depend on oral familiarity with the words being
read. Similarly, learning to read for meaning depends on understanding the language and referents of
the text to be read. To the extent possible, ELLs should have opportunities to develop literacy skills in
their home language as well as in English (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998, p. 324)."
As ELLs may be working diligently to translate concepts literally, figurative language such as "crocodile
tears" or "sweet tooth" can be perplexing. Hiebert et al. (1998) recommend scanning students' text
beforehand to anticipate these difficulties and engaging students in a discussion about literal and
figurative meanings of these expressions.
Frequently, when students are behind their peers in learning to read, as is often the case for ELLs, their
remedial programs consist of phonemic awareness, phonics activities or vocabulary development in
isolation. They are not exposed to authentic texts or challenged to think critically or inferentially about
stories. Teachers of ELLs must expose their students to quality literature and higher order thinking skills.
This can be done through the use of graphic organizers, modeling "thinking aloud," and stopping often
in the text to question and summarize.