Robin,
Thank you for contributions that consistently are useful and so well
expressed.   My appreciation comes from recognizing what experience and
practice has proven these many years.   Lucille Cuttler
  -----Original Message-----
  From: learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of
robinschwarz1 at aol.com
  Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 9:37 AM
  To: learningdisabilities at nifl.gov
  Subject: [LearningDisabilities 1965] Phonics and ESOL


  Hi all-- first, thanks to Will for reminding us that talking uniquely
about phonics and this or that approach to that method of teaching reading
is indeed going backwards.   I have to add a 'Hear, hear!" to the comment
about using many different approaches, --especially WHATEVER WORKS for a
particular learner.

  On top of that, I would like to caution all that phonics programs for ESOL
learners (or EAL, as they are known in Britain), is a very =little explored
topic.  First, phonics programs that are designed for native English
speakers do not approach the language in a linguistically-designed way. They
approach the language in a systematic way that depends on a strong
vocabulary base, as Tom Woods points out.  With that vocabulary base, the
rule or sound pattern being taught can be demonstrated in a variety of
words. Language learners need to approach the language from a different
perspective----from a language acquisition progression--simple grammar and
basic words gradually moving to more complex features.  Language learners
generally do not have the depth of vocabulary that typical phonics programs
employ.

  Second, how ESOL learners are "taught" reading depends enormously on how
educated they are.  Those who are fully literate in another language using
the Roman alphabet need only minimal instruction in phonics, and a lot of
guidance about how to deal with the irregularities of English (e.g. that the
letter a has many sounds in English and only a few are predictable),  as
well as with obvious differences between the phonics system of their
language vs. the English system (e.g how i is  pronounced in English vs in
Spanish).  Those who are literate in another alphabet or in a system that is
not phonemic have conceptual challenges in learning how the English sound
system works, and in my experience, phonics does not address those
challenges adequately because it is such a bottom-up approach, whereas these
learners often need a far more top-down or global approach to figuring out
how the English writing system works.

  Those who are NOT literate will definitely profit from a careful,
systematic approach to the language, but again, remember that phonics
programs designed for English speakers do not satisfy the requirement of
controlled vocabulary and linguistically logical presentation of the sound
system of English for language learners.

  Third, this discussion is teetering back and forth around the assumption
that persons who do not read English are somehow learning disabled.  It
should not ever be forgotten that Orton-Gillingham and its derivative, i.e.
The Wilson System, were designed for English speaking adults who have
struggled with learning how to read.  Until you have evidence to the
contrary, no ESOL learner should ever be approached as if she or he
struggled in learning how to read.   Even those who are illiterate in any
language more often had no opportunity to learn to read than had trouble
learning to read, which is the opposite of the situation in ABE or literacy
settings where English speaking adults who don't read are in that fix
because they struggled in learning in some way.  Thus ESOL learners should
be treated as any foreign language learners and be helped to learn the new
system quickly, not laboriously, so they can get on with reading.

  Personally, as a tutor of reading disabled persons (English-speaking) of
MANY years' experience as well as a person whose work has focused for over
20 years on why adult ESOL learners struggle to learn in their educational
settings in this country,  I am very concerned about this discussion.  My
work in ESOL has made it clear that often adult ESOL learners struggle
because the method being used to teach them is not suited to language
learners, or that they drop out because the methods used to teach them are
too elementary, not suited to literate language learners and generally hold
them back.

  I am DEEPLY in Will's camp of using what works with individual learners
and that includes looking at the realities of each learner's situation-- is
the learner already literate in another language?  What exactly is the
reading issue we are looking at?  Is it merely that the person needs to know
how to learn the sound-symbol system of English??  A normally learning adult
can learn that VERY quickly, just as any foreign language learner can learn
the Greek or Thai, or Japanese writing systems quickly-- not over years and
years of struggling one rule at a time through a phonics system designed for
young native speakers of a language.

  One other thought that that last paragraph brings up--it is really
important in adult ESOL in this country that teachers get over the belief
that all the learning needs to happen through direct instruction.   In a
normal foreign language learning situation, adults have a lot of
responsibility for going home and learning the writing system of the
language they are learning and for learning lots of other things, too.  The
learner-driven approach of learning centers or other independent learning
also allow learners to learn what they NEED and not what a single-approach
class or a book prescribes.   I so often see adult ESOL learners in this
country being taken through phonics and reading instruction at a virtual
snail's pace because the teacher has a deep-seated, maybe unrecognized,
assumption that since the learner does not know how to read English it is
the teacher's responsibility to teach the system one sound at a time, and
perhaps the assumption that lea rners who do not read English don't know how
to learn ( do not sneer, I do my work from observation, and this has been
frequently observed.....).

  Also, one other danger of the phonics-only approach is the temptation to
beat things to death and over-use the rule-based approach.  I will never
forget watching an adult ESOL class laboring through the Wilson system. The
teacher was presenting the silent-e rule as if the learners had never
encountered it ( which of course, being adult learners they had often
encountered--everytime they saw the words home or write, or ride, or late,
etc. ),  She gave them cards with 7--count them-- SEVEN rules-- that had to
be addressed before the decision could be made whether the e was indeed
silent or not.  NO one can read that way, and making the reaction automatic,
which is what Sally Shaywitz and everyone else who researches reading has
been telling us for a LONG time MUST happen, will never, or rarely happen
with this type of approach!  For ESOL learners, I find the first step is
simply SEEING the e on the end of words--then sorting out the ones that are
exception- ( live, give, some, etc. ) and then read the words. Rhyming works
wonderfully for this pattern!-- the silent e part of it really only comes
into play when spelling is concerned, and that is a different set of rules!!

  Finally, a lot of research on adult reading is indicating that adults do
not learn to read--nor need to learn to read--in the order that phonics
instruction implies.  Adults need-and can deal with-- a lot of sight reading
from words they see and need on a regular basis.  Phonics --or more
accurately a systematic approach to new words-- is one of several skills an
adult learner needs, and again, I see a terribly narrow focus on phonics
instruction and not enough on sight words, environmental words, analogy
reading ( rhyming) etc--all excellent ways of speeding up the process of
access to the code of English.

  I am SURE that those of you who have written about your success with such
and so phonics approach or book with ESOL learners will dismiss much of this
as ranting, but I would propose that your success has much to do a) with
your quality as a teacher and b) the particular needs of a student.   Of
course, as with any system some will profit from it if it is taught
well--what I am saying is that a linguistically-logical, more streamlined
and also mixed approach to reading would probably work much, much
better--faster and more logically for a language learner  who has no
learning challenges.

  Robin Lovrien Schwarz, Consultant in Adult ESOL/Learning Difficulties.




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