BILITERACY
Instructional Equity
Parallels in English
and Spanish Reading
www.elenaizquierdo.com
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO
Teaching for
Transfer
Integrity
Accuracy
Impartiality
Equity
Fairness
Justice
Accelerating Reading Acquisition
ESSENTIAL SKILLS
Essential Reading
Elements

Specificity
Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension
Intensity
Progress Monitoring
Equity
Teaching for
Transfer
Parallels in English and
Spanish Reading
Bilingual and ELL Learners
Regardless of Model
Teaching for Transfer
The "transfer" of knowledge and skills from one
language to another refers to the
metalinguistic and metacognitive
processes and awareness that students gain in
developing literacy in two languages.
What is transfer?
Working within two language
systems (Biliteracy), students'
metalinguistic and
metacognitive skills are
enhanced when they learn
about the similarities and
differences between languages.
Bilingual/ELL Model
Teaching for Transfer
This is Reliant on the type
of bilingual program model
being used.
L1 and L2 Co-exist
Concept of transfer necessitates the
use of some of both languages in
which both co-exist with flexibility
In other words, for transfer to
occur, comprehension of the
"rules" and the realization of their
applicability to the new language
specific tasks are necessary.
Teaching for Transfer
Reading Instruction
Simultaneous
Teaching for Transfer
L2
L1
Successive
Biliteracy
... Describes children’s literacy competencies in
the two languages … to whatever degree …
Key Findings
Teaching for
Transfer
Targeted
Focused
Systematic
Instructional
Equity
Equity
Conventions of each language
presuppose the reading process
in that language.
Consequently, systematic
instruction in the
appropriate sequence of
skills is critical.
Standards must be
authentic to the
Spanish language and not mere translations
from English.
ELAR and SLAR
Equity
English and Spanish
look very similar on
the surface
Similar Alphabets
Letter/Sounds
Directionality
Cognates
However, the conventions of each
language presuppose the reading
process in that language.
Equity
Spanish, as opposed
to English, has a
closer letter-sound
relationship and
clearly defined
syllable boundaries.
Syllable

The syllable in Spanish is a more critical unit of
phonological awareness because of the consistent
phoneme-grapheme correspondence.

Syllables are important units for Spanish because
of their strong effect in visual word
recognition and their major role in predicting
Spanish reading success.
Equity
Transparency

Spanish presents a high level of orthographic transparency - no sight words - for
decoding.

Orthographic transparency accelerates the decoding process, and the focus needs to
quickly move to fluency and comprehension.

Spanish uses frequency words that are identified by the rate of occurrence in grade
appropriate text and used to build on fluency and comprehension. No sight words.
Reading Methodology and Development
 “Sight"
words are defined as words that are
not sounded out (not decodable) such as
"are" or "one."
 Spanish decoding issues are not as prevalent
as issues of comprehension.
 These specific features of the Spanish
language influence reading methodology
and development.
 Spanish instruction maximizes access to
English content.
Strong literacy skills in Spanish phonemic
awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and
reading comprehension transfer those
skills to English
Extent of transfer determined by the
strength of development in L1
Equity



Transfer matters occur
within specific fundamentals of
Language
Common to Spanish and English;
Within fundamentals that are similar, but
not exact in both languages; and
In fundamentals specific to each language
and not applicable to the other language.
Extent of transfer determined by the
strength of development in L1
Transfer matters occur
within specific
fundamentals of
Language
 Cognates
 SOUNDS
 LETTERS
1. Common to
Spanish and English
My favorito animal
/m/ /l/ /n/
aeiou
Key Findings
Equity
Teaching for
Transfer
Targeted
Systematic
Focused
L1 or L2
Instructional
Equity
An Acceleration Plan
PRIORITIZES SKILLS
PEARSON EQUITY

Emphasis on Oral language


Provides an abundance of
student reading material


Contextualized Vocabulary
Development

Focus on Concept
Development



Focus on word-reading
strategies




Architectural Design
Aligns Language Arts
Reading TEKS to Calle de
Lectura/Reading Street
Side by Side
Authentic to L1/L2 - SLAR
Variety of literature
Developed from beginning
K/1st Readiness Text
Upcoming Prek Program
Intermediate and
Newcomers
 An
Instruction delivered with an
Acceleration Plan that
prioritizes skills
abundance of high
interest, high motivation
student reading material;
 A focus on early reading skills
in Spanish;
 Critical fluency; and
 A bridge for teachers to
connect transferable skills
between Spanish and English.
Targeted
Systematic
Focused
L1 or L2
Instructional
Equity
 Authentic
Pearson
Instructional Equity
to the TEKS
 Authentic to the specific L1 and L2
 Priority Areas
 Critical Fluency
 High Motivation & Interest Level Reading in
L1 and L2
 Literature & Content
 ELL Handbook
 Transfer Skills
Instructional Equity
The Path to Literacy Success
Parallels in English and Spanish Reading
Dr. Elena Izquierdo
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO
www.elenaizquierdo.com
What do we need to know?
Conventions of English
VOWELS IN ENGLISH
5 written vowels … AND ?
How many vowel sounds?
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English Vowels
aeiou…
/i/ meat
/I/ mitt
/eI / mate
/ε/ met
/æ/ mat
/u/ pool
/U/ pull
/Λ/
/ Ə/
/a/ pot
/ou/ oat
/ɔ /caught
Izquierdo, 2001
New sounds …to a e i o u …
/i/ meat
/I/ mitt
/u/ pool
/U/ pull
/eI / mate
/ε/ met
/ Ə/ mutt
/æ/ mat
/a/ pot
/ou/ oat
/ɔ /caught
Izquierdo, 2001
Two Phonological Systems;
Two Grammar Systems; and Two Semantic Systems
Syntactic
L1 & L2
Semantic
L1 & L2
Graphophonics
L1 & L2
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What do we need to know?
Spanish
 The natural process utilizes the syllable
as the pivotal point of departure for
literacy development.
 “Spanish is a syllabic language” … that
is how initial reading has been
developed and taught.
Oral language
ma me mi mo mu
Mi mamá me mima.
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What do we need to know?
Spanish
The syllable is the nucleus for defining how
to read words, how to spell words, where to
divide words, where to accentuate a word,
and how to make simple sentences.
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What do we need to know?
“Sounding Out”
English
In English, “sounding
out” is done by
separating individual
sounds.
ca t  /k/ /æ/ /t/
Spanish
When “sounding out”
in Spanish it is done
through syllables:
Mamá  ma - má
manzana  man - za -na
sol  sol
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