I haven't read all the posts on the topic of reading aloud in ESOL classes, so I apologize if what I'm about to say has been covered.  Second caveat, this report is second-hand, from teachers I respect who have tried it in their classrooms, but I have not tried these activities myself.
 
That said, some teachers are trying CLOZE reading aloud as a vehicle to improve fluency.  The way it works is that everyone has a written copy of the text and the teacher reads aloud but STOPS and goes silent when s/he reaches a certain word, at which point, the students speak up and all read the missing word aloud.  The teacher then continues and the process gets repeated many time to the end of the text.  What is being supported here is fluent SILENT reading, but since that is so hard to measure, the spoken CLOZE becomes a proxy.  An alternative aimed more at spoken fluency is for students to read in pairs from the same text, from which words the teacher has deemed difficult have been blacked out.  By removing the hard words, but keeping the basic integrity of a whole text, students should be able to practice reading more fluently than the difficulty of the original text may have made possible.  Fluency is one of the 4 components of reading addressed in the ARCS study, and can be difficult to work with.  Fluency can include phrasing, tonality, emphasis, a lot of factors that make comprehension and communication possible beyond single word or letter combination pronunciation.  These activities seem to support those parts of fluency.  I was excited to hear these ideas.  For those of you who have tried this, if I've gotten anything wrong in my description, please correct me.
 
- Shash
 
Shash Woods Professional Development Coordinator NW Region ABE/SBCTC (206) 276-3745 swoods at sbctc.edu 

________________________________

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Stofer, Annette
Sent: Thu 12/13/2007 2:13 PM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2002] Re: Students as Sources;Vocabulary Development in ESL


Interesting discussion on the pro's and con's of reading aloud.  I agree with the ideas that there are some instances where it's helpful.  With beginning readers, it can help to find out if they are really reading the written words, or instead depending on their memory or pictures to say what they think the words are.  But I do that check when small groups are working.  Only volunteers read aloud to the whole class, and it's usually just a sentence or two.
 
In a completely different context, and as a very individual activity, I sometimes suggest to higher level students that they read their own writing aloud to catch what is not working well.  I run into people who speak pretty well, but in writing, they revert to translating from their first language into English, and when they do that, they ignore everything they know.  Sometimes if they "listen" to it, they catch things that they weren't noticing before.  I wouldn't do this in class where they are exposing their mistakes to the whole class.  It's more a strategy they can use independently.  
Annette Stofer
ESL Instructor
South Seattle Community College

	-----Original Message-----
	From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of MaryAnn Florez
	Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 1:01 PM
	To: 'The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List'
	Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2001] Re: Students as Sources;Vocabulary Development in ESL
	
	

	Hi, All:

	 

	Reading aloud.  Oh, what a blast from the past.  But as several of you have pointed out, a not so distant past.  

	 

	It's true that the process of reading aloud isn't an end in itself in terms of supporting reading development.  As Jane pointed out--with some great quotes from a very useful publication from CAELA--it has limited value.  Doing it well doesn't necessarily tell you a lot about the reader's ability to read (a process that includes comprehension as well as sounding out words) and it can be impacted by interference from other factors and skills proficiencies.  Individual reading aloud can also do the very thing that we don't want to do with literacy level learners: put them in a situation where they fear taking a risk or making a mistake, because everyone is listening.  It is just the kind of klieg-light activity that can raise that affective filter so high that the student has no hope of getting any use out of the activity and may even begin to dread reading at all. 

	 

	That said, I can't throw the baby out with the bath water.  I've used choral reading aloud, as suggested in the CAELA article, to give students a chance to get the rhythms of words and sentences, the phrasing and flow, and to engage them in something that points them toward the fluency of the good reader.  Some will argue that is purely pronunciation, but it is also reading.  Ted talks about the reading that goes on in the heads of proficient readers.  Some of these readers might even say that when they are reading a test, they actually "hear" a voice reading the words.  Choral reading aloud gives them a model, and one in which they are relatively safe, of what that the "reading in their heads" should sound like.  I've also found reading aloud to students to be useful.  In doing it, I can provide models of fluency, but at other times, I can also embed "think alouds" in it, demonstrating to students how I sound out words that are new or unfamiliar, providing a model of how a reader works with a text.

	 

	Finally, I wanted to mention that Ted's comments reminded me of a really important point-teachers need to always keep in mind why we are doing what we are doing.  Doing reading aloud is not bad itself.  Doing it for the wrong reasons is a waste of time and energy, and we all (students and teachers) have precious little of both.  Teachers need to always be mindful and clear-with themselves and with students-as to the purposes of any activity or task.  Be sure that what you are doing or asking students to do really does meet the objective that you have in mind.  If it does, and if you can clearly communicate that to yourself and your students, it's never a waste of time and effort.

	 

	MaryAnn

	 

	 

	MaryAnn Florez

	Project Director

	Adult Education Professional Development Center

	D.C. LEARNs

	1612 K Street, N.W. Suite 300

	Washington, DC 20006

	202/331-0141, x25 (tel)

	202/331-0143 (fax)

	www.dclearns.org/aepdc 

	mflorez at dclearns.org  

	 

	 

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	From: Ted Klein [mailto:taklein at austin.rr.com] 
	Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 12:19 PM
	To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
	Subject: [EnglishLanguage 1991] Re: Students as Sources;Vocabulary Development in ESL

	 

	Mikal,

	 

	Thank you for the good words. I want to mention something else, that may stir some people up! It has been years since I had my ESL students read out loud. Many teachers do this on a daily basis. Here is my logic. Probably the only students who need to read out loud are those who are going to be radio announcers or preachers! I always look at function first. I've been making bets for years with other ESL teachers that they can't give me a GOOD reason to have their students read out loud. So far nobody has collected. To me, reading, unlike ballroom dancing or wrestling, is done alone. The goal is to absorb information, be entertained or be enlightened. Sometimes it appears that teachers are having their students read out loud to cut down on their own active time. Some have said, "I do it to check their pronunciation." I have two good ways to do the same, more effectively: 1. Listen to them carefully in conversation.  2. Give them a short repeat/imitate test that contains all of the English sounds at the beginning, middle and the end of words. Score and annotate specific problems.

	 

	My students read to themselves and answer written questions about the contents. They gradually read better.

	 

	Let me give you a little experiment that can be repeated over and over to prove my point. Make a couple of flashcards and put the Spanish words:   UN VASO and DEDO on them. Because of certain phonological "rules" in Spanish, what you see is not what you get. Just remember than for the most part, Spanish is much closer phonologically to its written language than is English.   Walk up to ten U.S. Americans who don't know any Spanish, SHOW THEM THE CARD and say [umbaso] which is exactly how it is pronounced in Spanish, due to assimilation. Eight out of the ten will stare at the words and say "UN+VASO" with the labiodental English "V," which doesn't exist in Spanish.  Walk up to ten other Americans and ask them to repeat "umbaso" with no visual reference. Most will have no difficulty repeating that. Next, do the same thing with the "DEDO" card and say "day though," (with shorter syllables), which is how it is pronounced in Spanish, due to the fact that /b/ /d/ and /g/ change to the closest fricative consonants between vowel sounds. Again there will be a problem while they are looking at the word and the majority will say "day+dough." Without the cards, they will not have a problem saying it correctly. 

	 

	The point is that adults depend way too much on their eyes, to the detriment of their ears. Reading and pronunciation should remain separate activities. The closest written language that I know about, that is more phonetic than most, is Turkish. I can read Turkish rather well out loud and have no vague idea what I'm saying. Reading out loud and comprehension are separate skills. 

	 

	 

	T as in listen.

	E as in hope.

	D as in switched.

	 

	K as in knock.

	L as in talk.

	E as in snake.

	I as in eye.

	N as in gnu.

	 

	You may call me Ø

	 

	www.tedklein-ESL.com <http://www.tedklein-esl.com/>   

	 

	 

	 

		----- Original Message ----- 

		From: Steinbacher, Mikal <mailto:msteinbacher at cascadia.edu>  

		To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List <mailto:englishlanguage at nifl.gov>  

		Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 9:55 AM

		Subject: [EnglishLanguage 1989] Re: Students as Sources; Vocabulary Development in ESL

		 

		What a great idea!  I have students read aloud to practice pronunciation and to get a group identification of new words, but this is certainly a less "threatening" way of doing it.  

		 

		I have found that many students "know" a word when they hear it spoken, but don't reconginize it in writing.  I have developed a "How Do I Spell It?" handout from several pronunciation keys as a tool for using the dictionary and sounding words out.  It is a great "ah ha" for both ESL and native English speakers becasuse it clearly shows the at least one of the reasons English is such a confusing language to learn!  The number of ways "ai" "ea" and "ou" are pronounced is enough to give one a headache, let alone the number of ways the /sh/ sound is spelled!  

		 

		Thanks for your idea!

		 

		Mikal Steinbacher

		Associate Faculty ESL

		Cascadia Community College

		
________________________________


		From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov [englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Ted Klein [taklein at austin.rr.com]
		Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 7:20 AM
		To: Adult English Language Learners List
		Subject: [EnglishLanguage 1988] Students as Sources; Vocabulary Development in ESL

		I keep hearing mention of "student-centered teaching activities" as well as various sources of vocabulary development. Several years ago I made what should have been an obvious discovery. The students themselves are the very best source of the vocabulary that they need. I observed several classes in which I felt that ESL teachers were truly inflicting too many of their own interests in vocabulary presentations. One instructor was an audio buff. He spent an hour teaching audio equipment/high fidelity terminology to students, who I felt were not getting the message because of their comprehension levels and also disinterest. Their needs were quite basic. They wanted to communicate in the real world in which they were coping with a new language, a new culture and lots of surprises. What I do once a week with my adult immigrant students is have vocabulary day. The good news is that the students provide the vocabulary and I do my best to fill the gaps that they have discovered. The bad news is possible instructor embarrassment at some of the words that the students have encountered! It's good that we're all adults.  Here is the form that we use, as well as the procedures:

		                                          

		 

		 

		                                    NEW VOCABULARY WORDS

		 

		 

		Name____________________________           Date_________________

		 

		 

		Make a list of five new vocabulary words that you have heard or seen this week. If you know a word and don't know how to use it, put it on your list.  Make a note on where you found this word and what sentence it was in.

		 

		                                                                                                            NOTES:

		1.­­­­­­­­­­­­­­____________________________________      

		 

		 

		2.____________________________________

		 

		 

		3.____________________________________

		 

		 

		4.____________________________________

		 

		 

		5.____________________________________

		 

		 

		Put the above words in a sentence after your instructor has explained them.

		 

		 

		1.___________________________________________________________

		 

		 

		2.___________________________________________________________

		 

		 

		3.___________________________________________________________

		 

		 

		4.___________________________________________________________

		 

		 

		5.___________________________________________________________

		 

		 

		PROCEDURES:

		 

		1. The students turn in the above form with their new words. 

		 

		2. The instructor puts all of the words received on the marker board, each with primary stress marked above written vowels and digraphs; e.g.  "phótograph, photógrapher, photográphic photógraphy."   Familiarity with primary stress is a critical feature if students are to be understood in the real world.

		 

		3. After all of the words are up, each word is explained is simple written English, "acted out" or illustrated with a sketch. Many nouns can be drawn and most verbs can be acted out. Use of L2/L1 dictionaries is discouraged. Functional words such as "only" are put in parentheses for special treatment and explanation after the basic list is covered. Meanings are discussed in simple English, even though I'm functional in some other languages. Short simple sentences are made with the words.

		 

		4. Next is repetition time. Each word is repeated at least twice by class members. At this time students are asked to identify vowel sounds numerically, as I talked about in a previous letter; heed 1,  hid  2, hayed 3, head 4,  had 5,  hod 6,  hawed 7,  hoed 8,  hood  9,  who'd  10,  Hud  11,   hide  6+2,  howl  6+9,  boil   7+2. 

		 

		 

		ADVANTAGES

		 

		1. Students come in with words that they have heard at work, from friends and have read on signs, in newspapers and books. These are the words that they want to know and that they need. Most enjoy the process.

		 

		2. All of the class members get to share in new words that their classmates have picked up.

		 

		3. Sounds are identified and reinforced, including suprasegmental primary stress.

		 

		4. Reading skills are enhanced by recognition.

		 

		5. Discussions of meanings among students and with the instructor are high value catalysts for communication.

		 

		 

		      Theodore A. (Ted) Klein, Jr.
		  Independent Consultant in Language
		         and Intercultural Training
		              Austin, Texas 
		       taklein at austin.rr.com
		      www.tedklein-ESL.com <http://www.tedklein-esl.com/>      
		             

		 

		
		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		 

		
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