Table 1: McRel Framework for Early Literacy Standards (L1 English), with Possible Adaptations for L1 Arabic: Research Questions
Ser McRel
English L1
No
1
1.1
Knows that a sentence is a unit of meaning that
represents a complete thought.
2
1.2
Uses background knowledge to assist comprehension
but does not use it to replace information in the text.
3
1.2
Uses strategies to monitor comprehension during oral
interactions.
4
1.2,
Knows that books, shopping lists, signs, menus, and
2.1
other environmental text contain stories, reminders,
directions, choices, and other information and are
accessed through reading and created through writing.
5
1.2,
Understands that the same print always carries the
2.1
same message.
Question related to Arabic L1
What is the quality and function of a sentence in written Arabic?
How do NS of Arabic use background knowledge to assist
comprehension? Do they use it to replace information in a text?
What strategies do NS of Arabic use to monitor comprehension
during oral interactions?
What is the nature of environmental literacy in Egypt?
What is the relationship between print and the message it carries
in Arabic?
6
1.2,
2.1
Uses strategies to monitor comprehension while
engaged in oral exchanges about written material.
What strategies do NS of Arabic use to monitor comprehension
while engaged in oral exchanges about written material?
7
1.4
How do NS of Arabic manipulate speech sounds?
8
1.4,
2.1
Manipulates speech sounds presented separately or in
the context of a word (e.g. separates sounds, blends
sounds).
Focuses on the form of language delivery and develops
metalinguistic control including phonological
awareness [PA] (e.g. notices that "bat" and "cat" rhyme
and the "bat" and "tab" have the same elements in
reverse order).
What are the forms of delivery for spoken and written Arabic?
How is metalinguistic control expressed in Arabic? What is the
nature of PA in Arabic?
1
9
11
1.4,
2.2
1.4,
2.2
1.5
12
13
1.5
1.5
14
1.5
15
1.5
Develops literacy-specific syntactic, semantic, and
pragmatic knowledge.
On what bases do NS of Arabic discriminate among letter
symbols?
What is the Arabic consonant and vowel inventory for Egyptian
children?
Can all spoken words in Arabic be written? Can all written
words be spoken?
Do NS of Arabic use surrounding letters for letter recognition?
How do NS of Arabic use PA to develop the alphabetic
principle?
How do NS of Arabic use visual features for instant recognition
of words? How does the presence of homographs influence this
process?
What is the essential syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic
knowledge specific to literacy in Arabic?
16
1.5
Applies the alphabetic principle to decode or recognize
unknown words.
What is the nature of the alphabetic principle in Arabic? How do
L1 NS decode? How do they recognize unknown words?
17
1.5
Uses strategies to identify or clarify unknown words
(e.g., context clues, picture clues).
18
1.5
Applies syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic knowledge
from oral language experiences to reading and writing.
19
2.1
Controls syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of
language
What strategies do NS of Arabic use to identify or clarify
unknown words? How does the presence of homographs in
unvowelled Arabic text influence these strategies?
What syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic knowledge based on
oral language experience is applied to reading and writing
Arabic by L1 NS?
What are the main syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of
spoken and written Arabic?
10
Discriminates among letter symbols.
Discriminates among speech sounds.
Understands that the written word can be spoken and
the spoken word can be written.
Uses surrounding letters for letter recognition.
Uses phonological awareness to develop the alphabetic
principle.
Uses visual features for instant recognition of words.
2
20
2.1
Uses strategies to monitor comprehension while
listening.
What strategies do NS of Arabic use to monitor
comprehension while listening?
21
1.2,
2.1
Understands that the same print always carries the
same message.
What is the relationship between print and the message it
carries in Arabic?
22
1.2,
2.1
Uses strategies to monitor comprehension while
engaged in oral exchanges about written material.
23
2.2
Knows letter-to-sound correspondences.
What strategies do NS of Arabic use to monitor
comprehension which engaged in oral exchanges about
written material?
What are letter-to-sound correspondences in Arabic?
24
1.4,
2.2
Discriminates among letter symbols.
On what bases do NS of Arabic discriminate among letter
symbols?
25
2.3
Uses spaces to separate words while writing.
26
2.3
Forms each of the letters in the alphabet in upper and
lowercase.
What functions do spaces serve in Arabic orthography (e.g.
between words and between non-ligatured letters)?
What are the characteristics of letter formation in written
Arabic?
27
2.3
Knows the shapes of all letters of the alphabet in
upper- and lowercase.
What knowledge does [has] a first grader acquire[d] about
the shape of Arabic letters?
28
2.3
Knows that a sentence should end with a punctuation
mark.
What are the common sentence level forms of punctuation
in written Arabic?
3