Basic literacy in any language is supported by phonological skills: 
phonological awareness, underlying literacy skills, and phonological 
memory, underlying aural/oral skills ( listening and speaking).   Thus 
those skills must be verified to be strong in an adult that is becoming 
literate.   These are pre-literacy skills--not directly related to 
text--the kind of skills nursery rhymes were intended to support in 
English.  It a sense of the sound chunks of a given language ( i.e. 
words, syllables--and sometimes discrete phonemes, though actual 
phoneme awareness in an alphabetic language takes exposure to print.)  
and how these chunks can be manipulated.  In English, phonological 
awareness includes an awareness of rhyme.  It also includes awareness 
of tone and pitch and other non-language sounds ( suprasegmentals).   
These are the skills the huge majority of children come to school with, 
or had well-developed before they were exposed to print concepts.  In 
the researchi on reading difficulties ( dyslexia ) phonological 
awareness, has been found to be the basic skill needed for 
literacy--which is why it is so difficult for dyslexics to master 
reading--they are known to have difficulties with phonological 
awareness.  Therefore, if it is not well developed, a learner will have 
enormous difficulty in becoming literate.   As mentioned in an earlier 
response to Jay,  literacy skills--and pre-literacy skills should and 
do transfer quite readily unless there is some reason they do not.

Since understanding and mastering grammar is dependent on good 
phonological skills (remember the manipulating of chunks part-- moving 
or adding words, syllables or sounds to new meanings is what we 
describe as grammar-) then it is a universal skill and not a 
language-specific one.  The field of second language acquisition does 
not consider that interference of one's first language with the new 
language is anything other than a normal language learning stage.   If 
having fractured grammar in one language would lead to the same thing 
in the new language, then the opposite could also be presumed to be 
true.  But having perfect grammar in one language does not guarantee 
having perfect grammar in the new language--if phonological awareness 
is fundamentally weak but that weakness was overcome through repetition 
and practice in one language, it will raise its ugly head when a new 
language is encountered.  Think how many high school and college 
students who fail miserably at learning a foreign language even though 
they are highly literate in their first language.  I know I have at 
least one person like that in every audience I address, large or small. 
   In fact, it was that very phenomenon--very bright college students 
unable to learn foreign languages--which launched research into how 
dylexia impacts foreign language learning.

As for learners not wanting to become literate in their first language, 
it is their choice, not ours. But as always, we want it to be an 
informed choice.  They should be helped to truly understand that it is 
probably actually a shorter route to English literacy to start with 
first language literacy.   And becoming literate in their language 
doesn't have to mean they are barred from English classes--where a lot 
of other kinds of literacy-- signage, labels on groceries,  directions 
on commeon objects--can take place.   And of course, their becoming 
literate in their first language means being taught literacy by someone 
literate in it....which could be a challenge for many languages.

Robin Schwarz

-----Original Message-----
From: Luri Owen <lowen at adult-learning-inc.com>
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List 
<englishlanguage at nifl.gov>
Sent: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 14:47:58 -0700
Subject: Re: [EnglishLanguage] FROM  JAY CASTANO AT ROSARIO CENTER, IN 
WASHINGTON, DC

I can understand why students who are living in the US feel that they 
don't
have time to become literate in their own languages before tackling 
English.
Off the top of my head, I'd say that literacy in English could perhaps
tranfer to literacy in their own languages depending, of course, on 
what
alphabet their language uses--we know that literacy in L1 makes 
learning L2
easier, so I would think that writing and reading in L2 could perhaps 
make
writing in L1 a little easier.  But what I wonder is whether students 
will
value L1 literacy at that point, not because it isn't important, but
because, if their lives and families are immersed in an 
English-speaking
world, will they feel that it's "progress" to loop back and learn as an
adult in L1.  And, of course, English syntax and grammar don't follow 
the
same rules as syntax and grammar in other languages, which could lead 
to a
student writing "fractured" L1 AND "fractured" English!  I suppose a 
help
for that would be to try to get them reading in L1.

Luri Owen
Bayfield/ESL Coordinator
The Adult Learning Center, Inc.
Phone 970-884-7765


----- Original Message -----
From: "A Tom" <abtom at mindspring.com>
To: "The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List"
<englishlanguage at nifl.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 1:36 PM
Subject: Re: [EnglishLanguage] FROM JAY CASTANO AT ROSARIO CENTER,IN
WASHINGTON, DC


I don't know about research but my adult students don't feel that they
have the time to do this.  What I'm curious about is whether becoming
literate in english then carries over to the student's first language.
Abbie Tom
On Monday, February 6, 2006, at 06:55  PM, JMCAST1031 at aol.com wrote:
abtom at mindspring.com
Abbie Tom
Durham Technical Community College
Durham, NC US


> Hi, everyone...... a "quick and dirty" question. Is there any

> research on teaching

> Adult LD or illiterate students in their own language for a

> semester or 100 hours, before

> immersion into English???? Basically, if the student learns how to

> read and write and/or

> decode in their language, is that a benefit to them in their process

> of learning English???

>

> Thanks, Jay


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