Phonological Awarenessand Teaching English as a

Second Language

Linda SiegelUniversity of British Columbia

Vancouver, CANADA

Special Thanks to:• 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,

ShanghaiNorth Vancouver Canada – ESL

teachingHong 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 English1. 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)

• Arabic• Armenian• Bulgarian• Cantonese• Croatian• Czech• Dutch• Farsi

• Japanese• Korean• Kurdish• Mandarin• Norwegian• Polish• Punjabi• Romanian

Languages In The Study

FinnishFrenchGermanGreekHindiHungarianIndonesianItalian

RussianSerbianSlovakSpanishSwedishTagalogTamilTurkish

norma les

L1 English ESL

Kindergarten

Dyslexic

Normal

Dyslexic

Normal

Grade 6L1 English ESL

KINDERGARTEN SCREENING

•LETTER IDENTIFICATION

•MEMORY

•PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING

•SYNTAX

•SPELLING

Letter Identification

c r m k b w os y t a u d qx l g e z n jp h v i f

Phonological Processing

theandsit

whenbook

anacampersotemithridatism

qualtaghucalegon

groak

Phonological Awareness• Ability to break speech down

into smaller units words syllables phonemes

Syllable Identification

Rhyme Identification

Phoneme Identification

Working Memory

Sentence RepetitionSentences 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

• child’s name• mom• dad• cat• I • no

SIMPLE SPELLING

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 ACTIVITIESLISTENING TO STORIES

ACTING OUT STORIES

SINGING SONGS

LETTER OF THE WEEK

LETTER COOKIES

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WR

AT

read

ing

WJ

wor

did

entif

icat

ion

WJ

wor

dat

tack

Mea

n pe

rcen

tile

English normalreader

ESL normalreader

English RD

ESL RD

Grade 6

MEASURES OF READING

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Stanford reading comprehension

Mea

n pe

rcen

tile

English normalreader

ESL normalreader

English RD

ESL RD

Grade 6

READING COMPREHENSION

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WRAT3 Spelling

Mea

n Pe

rcen

tile

Englishnormal reader

ESL normalreader

English RD

ESL RD

Grade 6

SPELLING

Englishnormal reader

ESL normalreader

English RD

ESL RD

Grade 5

Phoneme Deletion

SES & Reading

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

K-97 K-98 Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3

SES & Spelling

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

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

Pre-test Post-test

ExperimentalControl

WORD READING

Post - test

ExperimentalControl

PSEUDOWORD READING

POST-TEST

expcontrol

PICTURE NAMING

POST-TEST

expcontrol

Oral Cloze

• Tony _______ a happy boy.

• I eat oranges _____bananas.

• There are some books_____the bag.

• I have two_____.

ORAL CLOZE

Pre-test Post-test

ExperimentalControl

First Steps in EnglishDr. Alice Lai

Prof. Linda SiegelDr. 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

Grade 5 Spelling

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Perc

entil

e

A

KindergartenSYNTACTIC AWARENESS

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Ora

l Clz

e m

ean

scor

e

Grade 5SYNTACTIC AWARENESS

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Phonological Awarenessand Teaching English as a

Second Language

Linda SiegelUniversity of British Columbia

Vancouver, CANADA