Hello,
 
I am posting the following message on behalf of Lynda Terrill,  moderator for 
the Adult English Language Learners Discussion List.
 
Rochelle
 
 
Rochelle Kenyon
Moderator, NIFL/LINCS Learning Disabilities  Discussion List
Center for Literacy Studies at the University of  Tennessee
_RKenyon721 at aol.com_ (mailto:RKenyon721 at aol.com)  

Assisting adult English language learners (or second language learners in  
general) to increase their reading proficiency is one of the perennial issues on 
 this list and others.  We will be focusing on this topic specifically from  
May 12-16, 2008 when Heide Wrigley and a cadre of Texas practitioners will  
share information, challenges, and outcomes of a professional development and  
classroom project they have been working on during the last year. See the 
bottom  of this announcement for bios of Heide and the teacher working  group. 
To subscribe to the Adult  English Language Learners discussion list, please 
go to _http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/Englishlanguage_ 
(http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/Englishlanguage)  
Focus of Discussion 
The last few years has seen a resurgence of interest in reading, not only  at 
the primary level, but also at the secondary level and to a lesser degree in  
adult education. We’ve heard about the components of reading with an emphasis 
on  phonemic awareness and decoding and about the importance of fostering 
reading  comprehension. Yet, we don’t know a great deal about what works in 
second  language reading, particularly for adults. Exciting work is being done in 
the  use of comprehension strategies and in vocabulary studies, yet not much of 
that  information has made it into the ESL classroom. or in instruction for 
adult  English language learners in ABE, GED, ASE, and community college  
classrooms.  
This  discussion seeks to close the gap. Our hope is to help teachers make 
the  connection between what recent research tells us about reading in general 
and  second language reading in particular and what works for teachers and 
learners  in the classroom.  
Reflective Questions 
These questions will help frame the discussion, but can also help to  direct 
background reading before the discussion:  
    *   Is teaching  reading for native speakers similar to teaching reading 
to English language  learners?  If not, what is the difference?   
    *   If English  language learners have some literacy in the native 
language, do we still need  to focus on decoding and building phonemic awareness?  
Why or why  not?   
    *   If our  students seem to read just fine in terms of decoding and 
reading aloud, why do  they often still have trouble understanding what they read? 
  
    *   What about  the role of background knowledge and vocabulary – how do 
we build these skills  so that reading comprehension is facilitated?  
    *   Some  teachers wonder about the role of “reading strategies” in  
adult ESL.  Many have found that “predicting meaning from context”  doesn’t 
always work for beginning level readers. Are there other strategies  that can be 
adapted for English language learners that show greater promise in  facilita
ting comprehension? 

Background Reading 

There is a wealth of materials now available about teaching reading to  adult 
English language learners.  For a quick overview of issues that will  be 
covered in the special discussion, see How Should Adult ESL Reading  Instruction 
Differ from ABE Reading Instruction?  (CAELA  brief).  Miriam Burt, Joy 
Kreeft-Peyton, and Carol Van Duzer, 2005 
_www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/briefs/readingdif.html_ (http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/briefs/readingdif.html)  
. A sample of  other resources is below.  
“_Activities to Promote Reading Development_ 
(http://www.cal.org/caela/tools/program_development/elltoolkit/Part2-57ActivitiestoPromoteReadingDevelopment.pd
f) ”  in _Practitioner Toolkit: Working with Adult English Language  
Learners_ 
(http://www.cal.org/caela/tools/program_development/elltoolkit/CombinedFilesl.pdf) .  National Center for Family Literacy and National Center for ESL 
Literacy Education at the Center for  Applied Linguistics (2004) 
_www.cal.org/caela/tools/program_development/elltoolkit/Part2-57ActivitiestoPr
omoteReadingDevelopment.pdf_ 
(http://www.cal.org/caela/tools/program_development/elltoolkit/Part2-57ActivitiestoPromoteReadingDevelopment.pdf)   
Reading and Adult  English Learners—online resource collection 
_www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/collections/reading.html_ 
(http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/collections/reading.html)   
_Reading and Adult English Language Learners: A Review of the  Research_ 
(http://www.cal.org/caela/research/raell.pdf) . Miriam Burt,  Joy Kreeft Peyton, & 
Rebecca Adams (Center for Applied Linguistics and  National Center for ESL 
Literacy Education, 2003) _www.cal.org/caela/research/raell.pdf_ 
(http://www.cal.org/caela/research/raell.pdf)  
Second  Language Acquisition in Adults: From Research to Practice  (NCLE  
Digest) Donna Moss and Lauren Ross Feldman, 2003 
_www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/SLA.html_ 
(http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/SLA.html)   
Teaching Reading to Adult English Language Learners  (module from the CAELA 
Guide for Adult ESL Trainers,  2007) 
_www.cal.org/caela/scb/III_D_TeachingReading.pdf_ (http://www.cal.org/caela/scb/III_D_TeachingReading.pdf) 



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