IMPROVING LEARNING IN ESOL: improving low level literacy learning
As part of our Equality and Diversity Innovation Fund project we realised low levels of literacy were prevalent across pre-entry level classes for
sure but also at other levels. Our colleague, Ian Nicholls, helped us to develop this toolkit.
Main challenges when working with learners with low levels of literacy
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Learners may have not completed education in country of origin or may not have had the
opportunity to go to school at all.
Learners may not be literate in their own language.
They are learning to read and write for the first time in a second language.
Learners may have developed stronger speaking and listening strategies in English, building on
fluency in a number of other languages, so teachers / professionals may assume their reading /
writing skills are equivalently well developed.
Key indicators
Learners may
• hold worksheets upside down
• not be able to relate to pictures
• have poor handwriting or write very slowly
• not be able to write on the line
• struggle to remember the alphabet
• have difficulty learning to read
• have limited visual literacy and be unable to relate a clip art of an apple, for example, to the real
thing
Limited phonological awareness
Learners may struggle to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words.
Limited memory and recall
There is a lot to remember when you learn a word and learners in this situation struggle with recall of:
Meaning
Sounds
Pronunciation
Spelling
Mind the Gaps: narrowing attainment gaps in ESOL
IMPROVING LEARNING IN ESOL: improving low level literacy learning
Letters
Grammar
Task Analysis of a matching activity
1. Orient the paper so words are right side up.
2. Identify each picture:
a. Possess visual literacy skills to recognize clip art and identify the
item represented.
b. Form a mental model. Is it a familiar concept?
3. Remember the English name for the picture.
4. Correctly read the four words on the right.
5. Understand that the words and pictures are in different orders.
6. Understand the goal is to connect the picture and word.
7. Associate the picture with the correct word.
8. Use a pen or pencil to draw a line.
9. Draw a line connecting the picture with the correct word.
10. Understand that crossing lines are acceptable.
11. Recognize the one-to-one correspondence of the words to pictures.
12. Work through the task until all words and pictures are matched
This is slightly adapted from the work of Jean Marrapodi and her 2013 paper What Doesn’t Work for the
Lowest Level Literacy Learners and Why?.
Mind the Gaps: narrowing attainment gaps in ESOL
IMPROVING LEARNING IN ESOL: improving low level literacy learning
Best advice
Include both communicative and literacy goals in targets on learning plans.
Alphabetic Anchors: an alphabet based on a low level ESOL lexicon to aid memorising initial phonemes.
What easy-to-remember people or places could be used for each letter of the alphabet?
S Salford
M Manchester
P Post office
J Job (centre?)
H house, hospital
L–
London
T Television
FFamily
Word Wheels
Include word families and rhyming to help learners with phonemic awareness
Include high frequency words which are useful when beginning to learn
Use British English and use familiar UK pictures (houses, food etc.) Use colour photographs whenever
possible
Use a language experience approach
Work with learners to create a text, for example the following text and then work through the different
stages:
We have a walk near college. We see many things. Many cars, bus. We see Tesco, big shop. Across the
street, there is a big car park. Very big. We see Post Office. On other side there is school. We walk back
to college.
Mind the Gaps: narrowing attainment gaps in ESOL
IMPROVING LEARNING IN ESOL: improving low level literacy learning
STEP 1: Noticing
1. Circle “we”. How many times do you see “we”?
2. Underline all the words that begin with “s.”
3. Circle There is and There are.
4. Look at shop, street, school. How are these words the same? How are they different?
STEP 2: Create a gap fill
STEP 3: Yes / No questions (eg Near my college, there is a park.
STEP 4: Letter sort
S
C
see, street, shop
college
A
H
across, are
house, have
STEP 5: Progressive reading
1. Teacher reads aloud as learners listen and follow along
2. Learners read silently
3. Choral reading
4. Paired reading
5. Individual silent reading
STEP 6: First letter/sounds
CHS
__ollege
__ave
__ouse
__chool
__ee
__treet
STEP 7: Word Family
Shop
Shoe
Shampoo
She
Shell
Mind the Gaps: narrowing attainment gaps in ESOL
YES NO)
IMPROVING LEARNING IN ESOL: improving low level literacy learning
Shave
Shirt
STEP 8: Same or different
house
house
see
street
walk
talk
back
bank
college
college
shop
school
STEP 9: Personalise
Step 10: Grammar
Mind the Gaps: narrowing attainment gaps in ESOL