Language Arts: Developmental Literacy and English Language Learning

Literacy
Literacy is commonly understood to refer to the ability to read and write. UNESCO has further defined literacy as the 'ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute, and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts.' Under the UNESCO definition, understanding cultural, political, and historical contexts of communities falls under the definition of literacy. While reading literacy may be gauged simply by the ability to read a newspaper, writing literacy includes spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. To be literate in a foreign language, one would also need to be able to understand a language by listening and be able to speak the language. Some argue that visual representation and numeracy should be included in the requirements one must meet to be considered literate. Computer literacy refers to one's ability to utilize the basic functions of computers and other technologies. Subsets of reading literacy include phonological awareness, decoding, comprehension, and vocabulary.

Phonological Awareness
A subskill of literacy, phonological awareness is the ability to perceive sound structures in a spoken word, such as syllables and the individual phonemes within syllables. Phonemes are the sounds represented by the letters in the alphabet. The ability to separate, blend, and manipulate sounds is critical to developing reading and spelling skills. Phonological awareness is concerned with not only syllables, but also onset sounds
(the sounds at the beginning of words) and rime (the same thing as rhyme, but spelled differently to distinguish syllable rime from poetic rhyme).
Phonological awareness is an auditory skill that does not necessarily involve print. It should be developed before the student has learned letter to sound correspondences.
A student's phonological awareness is an indicator of future reading success.

Activities That Teach Phonological Awareness
Classroom activities that teach phonological awareness include language play and exposure to a variety of sounds and contexts of sounds. Activities that teach phonological awareness include:

1. Clapping to the sounds of individual words, names, or all words in a sentence
2. Practicing saying blended phonemes
3. Singing songs that involve phoneme replacement (e.g., The Name Game)
4. Reading poems, songs, and nursery rhymes out loud
5. Reading patterned and predictable texts out loud
6. Listening to environmental sounds or following verbal directions
7. Playing games with rhyming chants or fingerplays
8. Reading alliterative texts out loud
9. Grouping objects by beginning sounds
10. Reordering words in a well-known sentence or making silly phrases by deleting words from a well-known sentence (perhaps from a favorite storybook)

Alphabetic Principle and Alphabet Writing Systems
The alphabetic principle refers to the use of letters and combinations of letters to represent speech sounds. The way letters are combined and pronounced is guided by a system of rules that establishes relationships between written and spoken words and their letter symbols.
Alphabet writing systems are common around the world. Some are phonological in that each letter stands for an individual sound and words are spelled just as they sound. However, there are other writing systems as well, such as the Chinese logographic system and the Japanese syllabic system.

Development of Language Skills
Children learn language through interacting with others, by experiencing language in daily and relevant context, and through understanding that speaking and listening are necessary for effective communication. Teachers can promote language development by intensifying the opportunities a child has to experience and understand language.
Teachers can assist language development by:

1. Modeling enriched vocabulary and teaching new words
2. Using questions and examples to extend a child's descriptive language skills
3. Providing ample response time to encourage children to practice speech
4. Asking for clarification to provide students with the opportunity to develop communication skills
5. Promoting conversations among children
6. Providing feedback to let children know they have been heard and understood, and providing further explanation when needed

Relationship Between Oral and Written Language Development
Oral and written language develops simultaneously. The acquisition of skills in one area supports the acquisition of skills in the other. However, oral language is not a prerequisite to written language. An immature form of oral language development is babbling, and an immature form of written language development is scribbling. Oral language development does not occur naturally, but does occur in a social context. This means it is best to include children in conversations rather than simply talk at them. Written language development can occur without direct instruction. In fact, reading and writing do not necessarily need to be taught through formal lessons if the child is exposed to a print-rich environment. A teacher can assist a child's language development by building on what the child already knows, discussing relevant and meaningful events and experiences, teaching vocabulary and literacy skills, and providing opportunities to acquire more complex language.

Print-Rich Environment
A teacher can provide a print-rich environment in the classroom in a number of ways. These include:
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Displaying the following in the classroom:
- Children's names in print or cursive
- Children's written work
- Newspapers and magazines
- Instructional charts
- Written schedules
- Signs and labels
- Printed songs, poems, and rhymes
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Using graphic organizers such as KWL charts or story road maps to:
- Remind students about what was read and discussed
- Expand on the lesson topic or theme
- Show the relationships among books, ideas, and words

Using big books to:
- Point out features of print, such as specific letters and punctuation
-- Track print from right to left
-- Emphasize the concept of words and the fact that they are used to communicate

Benefits of Print and Book Awareness
Print and book awareness helps a child understand:
That there is a connection between print and messages contained on signs, labels, and other print forms in the child's environment
That reading and writing are ways to obtain information and communicate ideas
That print runs from left to right and from top to bottom
That a book has parts, such as a title, a cover, a title page, and a table of contents
That a book has an author and contains a story
That illustrations can carry meaning
That letters and words are different
That words and sentences are separated by spaces and punctuation
That different text forms are used for different functions
That print represents spoken language
How to hold a book.

Facts Children Should Know About Letters
To be appropriately prepared to learn to read and write, a child should learn:
That each letter is distinct in appearance
What direction and shape must be used to make each letter
That each letter has a name, which can be associated with the shape of a letter
That there are 26 letters in the English alphabet, and letters are grouped in a certain order
That letters represent sounds of speech
That words are composed of letters and have meaning
That one must be able to correspond letters and sounds to read

Decoding
Decoding is the method or strategy used to make sense of printed words and figure out how to correctly pronounce them. In order to decode, a student needs to know the relationships between letters and sounds, including letter patterns; that words are constructed from phonemes and phoneme blends; and that a printed word represents a word that can be spoken. This knowledge will help the student recognize familiar words and make informed guesses about the pronunciation of unfamiliar words. Decoding is not the same as comprehension. It does not require an understanding of the meaning of a word, only a knowledge of how to recognize and pronounce it. Decoding can also refer to the skills a student uses to determine the meaning of a sentence.
These skills include applying knowledge of vocabulary, sentence structure, and context.

Teaching of Reading Through Phonics
Phonics is the process of learning to read by learning how spoken language is represented by letters. Students learn to read phonetically by sounding out the phonemes in words and then blending them together to produce the correct sounds in words. In other words, the student connects speech sounds with letters or groups of letters and blends the sounds together to determine the pronunciation of an unknown word. Phonics is a commonly used method to teach decoding and reading, but it has been challenged by other methods, such as the whole language approach. Despite the complexity of pronunciation and combined sounds in the English language, research shows that phonics is a highly effective way to teach reading. Being able to read or pronounce a word does not mean the student comprehends the meaning of the word, but context aids comprehension. When phonics is used as a foundation for decoding, children eventually learn to recognize words automatically and advance to decoding multisyllable words with practice.

Role of Fluency in Literacy Development
Fluency is the goal of literacy development. It is the ability to read accurately and quickly. Evidence of fluency includes the ability to recognize words automatically and group words for comprehension. At this point, the student no longer needs to decode words except for complex, unfamiliar ones. He or she is able to move to the next level and understand the meaning of a text. The student should be able to self-check for comprehension and should feel comfortable expressing ideas in writing. Teachers can help students build fluency by continuing to provide: reading experiences and discussions about text, gradually increasing the level of difficulty; reading practice, both silently and out loud; word analysis practice; instruction on reading comprehension strategies; and opportunities to express responses to readings through writing.

Role of Vocabulary in Literacy Development
When students do not know the meaning of words in a text, their comprehension is limited. As a result, the text becomes boring or confusing.
The larger a student's vocabulary is, the better their reading comprehension will be. A larger vocabulary is also associated with an enhanced ability to communicate in speech and writing. It is the teacher's role to help students develop a good working vocabulary. Students learn most of the words they use and understand from listening to the world around them (adults, other students, media, etc.) They also learn from their reading experiences, which include being read to and reading independently. Carefully designed activities can also stimulate vocabulary growth, and should emphasize useful words that students see frequently, important words necessary for understanding text, and difficult words such as idioms or words with more than one meaning.

Teaching Techniques Promoting Vocabulary Development

1. A student's vocabulary can be developed by:
2. Calling upon a student's prior knowledge and making comparisons to that knowledge
3. Defining a word and providing multiple examples of the use of the word in context
4. Showing a student how to use context clues to discover the meaning of a word
5. Providing instruction on prefixes, roots, and suffixes to help students break a word into its parts and decipher its meaning
6. Showing students how to use a dictionary and a thesaurus
7. Asking students to practice new vocabulary by using the words in their own writing
8. Providing a print-rich environment with a word wall
9. Studying a group of words related to a single subject, such as farm words, transportation words, etc. so that concept development is enhanced.

Affixes, Prefixes, and Root Words
Affixes are syllables attached to the beginning or end of a word to make a derivative or inflectional form of a word. Both prefixes and suffixes are affixes. A prefix is a syllable that appears at the beginning of a word that, in combination with the root or base word, creates a specific meaning. For example, the prefix 'mis' means 'wrong.' When combined with the root word 'spelling,' the word 'misspelling' is created, which means the 'wrong spelling.' A root word is the base of a word to which affixes can be added. For example, the prefix 'in' or 'pre' can be added to the root word 'vent' to create 'invent' or 'prevent,' respectively.
The suffix 'er' can be added to the root word 'work' to create 'worker,' which means 'one who works.' The suffix 'able,' meaning 'capable of,' can be added to 'work' to create 'workable,' which means 'capable of working.'

Suffixes
A suffix is a syllable that appears at the end of a word that, in combination with the root or base word, creates a specific meaning. There are three types of suffixes:
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Noun suffixes – Noun suffixes can change a verb or adjective to a noun. They can denote the act of, state of, or quality of something. For example, '-ment' added to 'argue' becomes 'argument,' which is defined as 'the act of arguing.' Noun suffixes can also denote the doer, or one who acts. For example, '-eer' added to 'auction' becomes 'auctioneer,' meaning 'one who auctions.' Other examples include '-hood,' '-ness,' '-tion,' '-ship,' and '-ism.'
Verb suffixes – These change other words to verbs and denote
'to make' or 'to perform the act of.' For example, '-en' added to 'soft' makes 'soften,' which means 'to make soft.' Other verb suffixes are '-ate' (perpetuate), '-fy'
(dignify), and '-ize' (sterilize).
Adjectival suffixes – These suffixes change other words to adjectives and include suffixes such as '-ful,' which means 'full of.' When added to 'care,' the word 'careful' is formed, which means 'full of care.'
Other examples are '-ish,' '-less,' and '-able.'

Strategies to Improve Reading Comprehension
Teachers can model in a read-aloud the strategies students can use on their own to better comprehend a text. First, the teacher should do a walk-through of the story illustrations and ask, 'What's happening here?' Based on what they have seen, the teacher should then ask students to predict what the story will be about. As the book is read, the teacher should ask open-ended questions such as, 'Why do you think the character did this?' and 'How do you think the character feels?' The teacher should also ask students if they can relate to the story or have background knowledge of something similar. After the reading, the teacher should ask the students to retell the story in their own words to check for comprehension. This retelling can take the form of a puppet show or summarizing the story to a partner.

Role of Prior Knowledge in Determining Appropriate Literacy Education
Even preschool children have some literacy skills, and the extent and type of these skills have implications for instructional approaches.
Comprehension results from relating two or more pieces of information. One piece comes from the text, and another piece might come from prior knowledge (something from a student's long-term memory). For a child, that prior knowledge comes from being read to at home; taking part in other literacy experiences, such as playing computer or word games; being exposed to a print-rich environment at home; and observing examples of parents' reading habits. Children who have had extensive literacy experience are better prepared to further develop their literacy skills in school than children who have not been read to, have few books or magazines in their homes, are seldom exposed to high-level oral or written language activities, and seldom witness adults engaged in reading and writing. Children with a scant literacy background are at a disadvantage. The teacher must not make any assumptions about their prior knowledge, and should use intense, targeted instruction. Otherwise, reading comprehension will be limited.

Using Puppetry in the Classroom
Using puppets in the classroom puts students at ease and allows them to enjoy a learning experience as if it were play. The purpose of using puppetry is to generate ideas, encourage imagination, and foster language development. Using a puppet helps a child 'become' the character and therefore experience a different outlook. Language development is enhanced through the student interpreting a story that has been read in class and practicing new words from that story in the puppet show. Children will also have the opportunity to practice using descriptive adjectives for the characters and the scene, which will help them learn the function of adjectives.  Descriptive adjectives and verbs can also be learned by practicing facial expressions and movements with puppets. The teacher can model happy, sad, eating, sleeping, and similar words with a puppet, and then ask students to do the same with their puppets. This is an especially effective vocabulary activity for ESL children.

Using Drama or Story Theater in the Classroom
Drama activities are fun learning experiences that capture a child's attention, engage the imagination, and motivate vocabulary expansion. For example, after reading a story, the teacher could ask children to act it out as the teacher repeats the story. This activity, which works best with very young learners, will help children work on listening skills and their ability to pretend. The best stories to use for this passive improvisation are ones that have lots of simple actions that children will be able to understand and perform easily. Older children can create their own improvisational skits and possibly write scripts. Visualization also calls upon the imagination and encourages concentration and bodily awareness. Children can be given a prompt for the visualization and then asked to draw what they see in their mind's eye. Charades is another way to act out words and improve vocabulary skills. This activity can be especially helpful to encourage ESL students to express thoughts and ideas in English. These students should be given easier words to act out to promote confidence.

Classroom Practices Benefiting Second Language Acquisition
Since some students may have limited understanding of English, a teacher should employ the following practices to promote second language acquisition:
Make all instruction as understandable as possible and use simple and repeated terms.
Relate instruction to the cultures of ESL children.
Increase interactive activities and use gestures or non-verbal actions when modeling.
Provide language and literacy development instruction in all curriculum areas.
Establish consistent routines that help children connect words and events.
Use a schedule so children know what will happen next and will not feel lost.
Integrate ESL children into group activities with non-ESL
Appoint bilingual students to act as student translators.
Explain actions as activities happen so that a word to action relationship is established.
Initiate opportunities for ESL children to experiment with and practice new language.
Employ multisensory learning.

Theories of Language Development
Four theories of language development are:
Learning approach – This theory assumes that language is first learned by imitating the speech of adults. It is then solidified in school through drills about the rules of language structures.
Linguistic approach – Championed by Noam Chomsky in the 1950s, this theory proposes that the ability to use a language is innate. This is a biological approach rather than one based on cognition or social patterning.
Cognitive approach – Developed in the 1970s and based on the work of Piaget, this theory states that children must develop appropriate cognitive skills before they can acquire language.
Sociocognitive approach – In the 1970s, some researchers proposed that language development is a complex interaction of linguistic, social, and cognitive influences. This theory best explains the lack of language skills among children who are neglected, have uneducated parents, or live in poverty.

Teaching Strategies to Promote Listening Skills of ESL Students
Listening is a critical skill when learning a new language. Students spend a great deal more time listening than they do speaking, and far less time reading and writing than speaking. Two ways to encourage ESL students to listen are to:
Talk about topics that are of interest to the ESL learner.
Otherwise, students may tune out the speaker because they don't want to put in that much effort to learn about a topic they find boring.
Talk about content or give examples that are easy to understand or are related to a topic that is familiar to ESL students.
Culturally relevant materials will be more interesting to ESL students, will make them feel more comfortable, and will contain vocabulary that they may already be familiar with.

Considerations Relevant to ESL Students Related to Learning by Listening Listening is not a passive skill, but an active one. Therefore, a teacher needs to make the listening experience as rewarding as possible and provide as many auditory and visual clues as possible. Three ways that the teacher can make the listening experience rewarding for ESL students are:
Avoid colloquialisms and abbreviated or slang terms that may be confusing to the ESL listener, unless there is enough time to define them and explain their use.
Make the spoken English understandable by stopping to clarify points, repeating new or difficult words, and defining words that may not be known.
Support the spoken word with as many visuals as possible.
Pictures, diagrams, gestures, facial expressions, and body language can help the ESL learner correctly interpret the spoken language more easily and also leaves an image impression that helps them remember the words.

Top-Down and Bottom-Up Processing
ESL students need to be given opportunities to practice both top-down and bottom-up processing. If they are old enough to understand these concepts, they should be made aware that these are two processes that affect their listening comprehension. In top-down processing, the listener refers to background and global knowledge to figure out the meaning of a message. For example, when asking an ESL student to perform a task, the steps of the task should be explained and accompanied by a review of the vocabulary terms the student already understands so that the student feels comfortable tackling new steps and new words. The teacher should also allow students to ask questions to verify comprehension. In bottom-up processing, the listener figures out the meaning of a message by using 'data' obtained from what is said. This data includes sounds (stress, rhythm, and intonation), words, and grammatical relationships. All data can be used to make conclusions or interpretations. For example, the listener can develop bottom-up skills by learning how to detect differences in intonation between statements and questions.

Listening Lessons
All students, but especially ESL students, can be taught listening through specific training. During listening lessons, the teacher should guide students through three steps:
Pre-listening activity – This establishes the purpose of the lesson and engages students' background knowledge. This activity should ask students to think about and discuss something they already know about the topic. Alternatively, the teacher can provide background information.
The listening activity – This requires the listener to obtain information and then immediately do something with that information. For example, the teacher can review the schedule for the day or the week. The students are being given information about a routine they already know, but need to be able to identify names, tasks, and times.
Post-listening activity – This is an evaluation process that allows students to judge how well they did with the listening task. Other language skills can be included in the activity. For example, this activity could involve asking questions about who will do what according to the classroom schedule (Who is the lunch monitor today?) and could also involve asking students to produce whole sentence replies.

Helping ESL Students Understand Subject Matter

Speaking
To help ESL students better understand subject matter, the following teaching strategies using spoken English can be used:
Read aloud from a textbook, and then ask ESL students to verbally summarize what was read. The teacher should assist by providing new words as needed to give students the opportunity to practice vocabulary and speaking skills. The teacher should then read the passage again to students to verify accuracy and details.
The teacher could ask ESL students to explain why the subject matter is important to them and where they see it fitting into their lives.
This verbalization gives them speaking practice and helps them relate to the subject.
Whenever small group activities are being conducted, ESL students can be placed with English-speaking students. It is best to keep the groups to two or three students so that the ESL student will be motivated by the need to be involved. English-speaking students should be encouraged to include ESL students in the group work.

Reading
There are supplemental printed materials that can be used to help ESL students understand subject matter. The following strategies can be used to help ESL students develop English reading skills.
Make sure all ESL students have a bilingual dictionary to use. A thesaurus would also be helpful.
Try to keep content area books written in the ESL students' native languages in the classroom. Students can use them side-by-side with English texts. Textbooks in other languages can be ordered from the school library or obtained from the classroom textbook publisher.
If a student lacks confidence in his/her ability to read the textbook, the teacher can read a passage to the student and have him or her verbally summarize the passage. The teacher should take notes on what the student says and then read them back. These notes can be a substitute, short-form, in-their-own-words textbook that the student can understand.

General Teaching Strategies to Help ESL Students

• Some strategies can help students develop more than one important skill. They may involve a combination of speaking, listening, and/or viewing. Others are mainly classroom management aids. General teaching strategies for ESL students include:
• Partner English-speaking students with ESL students as study buddies and ask the English-speaking students to share notes.
• Encourage ESL students to ask questions whenever they don't understand something. They should be aware that they don't have to be able to interpret every word of text to understand the concept.
• Dictate key sentences related to the content area being taught and ask ESL students to write them down. This gives them practice in listening and writing, and also helps them identify what is important.
• Alternate difficult and easy tasks so that ESL students can experience academic success.
• Ask ESL students to label objects associated with content areas, such as maps, diagrams, parts of a leaf, or parts of a sentence. This gives students writing and reading experience and helps them remember key vocabulary.