As I noted a few weeks ago, I will be looking at factors that influence literacy development in ELL students. This week I read a journal article looking at the relationship between oral language proficiency and literacy. There is a definite link between oral English language proficiency and English language literacy. Despite this fact, there are differences in the skills that each requires; oral language involves vocabulary, syntax, phonology, and morphology. Reading centers are decoding and comprehension. Altogether, though, listening, speaking, reading, and writing share many of the same features of acquiring English. A study of ELL students who spoke either Spanish only or English and Spanish at home showed that the students who spoke both languages in their homes did better on literacy tests.
Raising literacy levels for ELL students is difficult for many reasons. First, the student is working in their second (or sometimes third or fourth) language. They already have cultural and syntactical knowledge of their own language, as well as vocabulary. Although they may have never had direct instruction about their native language, they instinctively understand the rules. English has many of its own anachronisms and language structures. Students have to learn new sounds and phonemes in English. For example, many languages do not include the /th/ sound, and ELL students will often mispronounce it as a /f/ sound or /s/ sound. As English speakers, we do not realize how much we rely on context clues to help us comprehend a reading. An ELL student has little to no background to help him or her decode in this way. Additionally, once the amount of unknown vocabulary words rises too high, comprehension is upset.
Source:
August, D. (2003). Supporting the development of english literacy in english language learners: key issues and promising practices . Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk, 61, 1-57.
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