Phonological Awareness
and Teaching English as
a Second Language
Linda Siegel
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, CANADA
Special Thanks to:
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•
•
•
•
•
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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)
Languages In The Study
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Finnish
•
Arabic
•
Armenian French
•
Bulgarian German
•
Cantonese Greek
•
Croatian Hindi
Czech
Hungarian •
•
Dutch
Indonesian
•
Farsi
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Kurdish
Mandarin
Norwegian
Polish
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Slovak
Spanish
Swedish
Tagalog
Tamil
Turkish
18.79%
L1 English
Kindergarten
18.79%
ESL
30.45%
30.45%
normales
At-risk
Not at-risk
50.76%
At-risk
Not at-risk
50.76%
At-risk
Not at-risk
A
N
Grade 6
L1 English
ESL
Dyslexic
Dyslexic
Normal
Normal
KINDERGARTEN
SCREENING
•LETTER IDENTIFICATION
•MEMORY
•PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING
•SYNTAX
•SPELLING
Letter Identification
c
s
x
p
r
y
l
h
m
t
g
v
k
a
e
i
b w o
u d q
z n j
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
SIMPLE SPELLING
•
•
•
•
•
•
child’s name
mom
dad
cat
I
no
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
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
English normal
reader
ESL normal
reader
English RD
WJ word
attack
WJ word
identification
ESL RD
WRAT
reading
Mean percentile
MEASURES OF READING
Grade 6
READING COMPREHENSION
Mean percentile
60
50
English normal
reader
40
ESL normal
reader
30
English RD
20
ESL RD
10
0
Stanford reading com prehension
Grade 6
SPELLING
Mean Percentile
90
80
70
English
normal reader
ESL normal
reader
60
50
40
30
English RD
ESL RD
20
10
0
WRAT3 Spelling
Grade 5
Phoneme Deletion
English
normal reader
ESL normal
reader
English RD
ESL RD
SES & Reading
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
K-97
K-98
Grade 1
Grade 2
Grade 3
SES & Spelling
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
K-97
K-98
Grade 1
Grade 2
Grade 3
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
2002-2003
• Post-test Summer 2003
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
Experimental
Control
Pre-test
Post-test
WORD READING
Experimental
Control
Post - test
PSEUDOWORD READING
exp
control
POST-TEST
PICTURE NAMING
exp
control
POST-TEST
Oral Cloze
• Tony _______ a happy boy.
• I eat oranges _____bananas.
• There are some books_____the bag.
• I have two_____.
ORAL CLOZE
Experimental
Control
Pre-test
Post-test
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
70
A
60
50
40
Percentile
Grade 5 Spelling
90
80
30
20
10
0
ic
av
Sl
se
ne
hi
C
g
lo
ga
Ta
i
rs
Fa
h
lis
ng
E
L1
h
is
an
Sp
ce
an
om
R
se
ne
pa
Ja
2
1.5
1
Oral Clze mean score
Kindergarten
SYNTACTIC AWARENESS
2.5
0.5
0
g
e
es
ic
av
h
is
gl
En
L1
h
is
an
Sp
ce
an
om
R
Sl
n
pa
Ja
se
ne
lo
ga
Ta
hi
C
i
rs
Fa
7
6
5
4
3
Oral Cloze (11)
Grade 5
SYNTACTIC AWARENESS
10
9
8
2
1
0
c
vi
is
gl
En
a
Sl
L1
e
h
i
rs
Fa
g
lo
ga
Ta
ce
an
om
R
h
is
an
Sp
se
ne
pa
s
ne
hi
Ja
C
Phonological Awareness
and Teaching English as
a Second Language
Linda Siegel
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, CANADA