Teaching Phonics to Adult English Learners

Hello colleagues, The issue of teaching phonics to adult English learners was recently mentioned in a thread in the Disabilities and Equitable Outcomes Community.  Glenda Rose issued a relevant word of caution regarding making assumptions about teaching adult language learners based on research with native-speaking children. Thanks for your post, Glenda!

Since this is an important topic for those of us who teach adult English learners, I said I would start a discussion here in the ELA Community.

While for many years we had virtually no research on addressing the needs of adult language learners with no or limited formal schooling (aka emergent readers), researchers who are part of LESLLA (the acronym now refers to Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults) have been conducting research and holding annual meetings for many years, so our understanding of how to address the needs of this unique population is increasing. The link I've included above takes you to the teacher resource page on the LESLLA website.

Members, your contributions to this discussion are welcome!

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

Comments

Hi Susan,

Based on a cognitive approach to reading, I believe phonemic awareness is critical to the development of reading and listening skills(for ESL students). But teaching phonetics should not be the main/only teaching strategy in a classroom.

I also think students learn to read by reading. For example, I agree with Daniel Wilingham when he claims: "Long practice sessions studying letter‐sound relationships may help improve decoding, but it may also prompt a decline in reading motivation."

That said, I’d encourage the use of a combination of strategies (example: teaching of phonetics and whole language method).

I am curious to know what the LINCS community thinks about this issue.

Teddy

Teddy, thanks for contributing to this discussion. You are so right, in my opinion and that of researchers on this issue, that phonics instruction should never provide "the main/only teaching strategy in a classroom." Phonics represents an artificial/imposed aspect of language. As such, it quickly becomes boring to students whom we want to engage rather than distance from our instruction. I believe all current research strongly supports instruction that balances phonics and sight reading in its activities, and I would add, as long as neither takes up much time! As you noted, as with any skill, we learn by doing it repeatedly. We learn to read by reading meanigfully more than anything else, not by analyzing every aspect of text!  Leecy

Susan, thanks for bringing up this issue. I have worked extensively with adults who have low or no literacy skills, both native speakers and second-language learners, especially Spanish speakers wanting to function along the Juarez/El Paso border. Among students whose native languages have a phonetic foundation, phonics provides the foundation for reading. Of course, learners who are literate in their native languages certainly do not need to be taught phonics! However, if they do not read in their native languages, they will need to develop decoding skills.   Now, here is what I always found not only interesting but frustrating as a literacy tutor/instructor. Adult who speak phonics-based languages, such as Spanish, especially Spanish, learn to read far more readily in their native languages than they do in English. Spanish letter sounds, with very few exceptions, are extremely predictable, unlike those in English! However, invariably, my students really resisted learning to read in Spanish. They wanted to learn English! Some simply refused to "go back to" their native languages because they felt they were delaying their English instruction, no matter how much I tried to convince them otherwise. So, added to the oral instruction in English, I also usually ended up teaching phonics in English as well.    The LESLLA website  that you listed has good resources on its Curriculum and Materials page. The following texts, among others, include phonics instruction geared to ESL students:
  • At the River and Other Stories for Adult Emergent Readers by Shelley Hale Lee. From the site: At the River and Other Stories gives students the opportunity to acquire basic  literacy skills in English. Phonics exercises provide direct instruction in letter sounds, letter formation and blending. 
  • What's Next? by Lia Conklin, New Readers Press. A unique multilevel phonics approach for ESL Students.
  • Talk of the Block by Ann Haffner, New Readers Press. Provides low-level ABE and ESL learners with phonetic instruction, reading practice, and activities.
Adding a bit more grist for this mill, Leecy    

Hello Susan,

In my experience working with ESL instructors and tutors deploying blended learning using the Learning Upgrade Smartphone App (one of the five Adult Literacy XPRIZE finalist apps), learners have benefited from a sequence of interactive lessons that include the alphabet, phonics, phonemic awareness, decoding, along with reading passages, writing, grammar, etc.  

I have often heard from both instructors and learners that it can be difficult, embarrassing, awkward, etc. to teach phonics in a class or tutor setting to adults.  When adults are working on their own at home or anywhere using their own smartphone, the privacy and personal nature of the app format as well as the immediate benefit of actively reading words to answer questions makes this a different experience.

Within our sequence of 300 CCRS-aligned lessons, focused in the first 120 lessons we have included foundation lessons including phonics.

This has proven effective with Spanish-speaking students at Sweetwater Adult Education in California, where instructors on-board learners into the Learning Upgrade smartphone app for use at home while using a traditional curriculum in the classroom.  Over 500 learners are using the app within their adult ESL classes.  Instructors recorded significant CASAS reading growth within 3 months with the initial blended class during the pilot.  Here is a video of this class:

Sweetwater ESL Smartphone Class Video

Also, at UMI Learning Center which serves north African refugees in San Diego, the staff has been enrolling adults who are non-literate, don't read in any language, into the Learning Upgrade smartphone app with good results.  The alphabet and phonics lessons within the sequence have helped the learners who are starting from scratch with reading. Also, the use of songs, video, games, and rewards had led to an enjoyable experience with typical learners spending over 25 hours per month using the smartphone app.

UMI Learning Center Refugee Smartphone Video

From these experiences, I believe that teaching phonics within a smartphone-based balanced lesson sequence that instructors can blend with traditional instruction can help adult ESL learners to become proficient.

-- Vinod

Vinod Lobo, Learning Upgrade