Connected Texts: 
Kathleen and others have mentioned the difficulties of finding authentic
texts that use connected prose for beginning level learners to read, and
Eileen asked about the use of an assessment strategy known as a Running
Record (see the details below for how this works). Eileen also mentioned
"graded readers".  
Here are my thoughts: 
 
1.	I don't know of any research that looks at "graded readers" as a
way of moving low literate adult language learners into literacy, but
Penguin books has a series of novels that have been rewritten at
different levels. There is a debate on whether close enough to authentic
(that is modified) counts as long as it reflects what students may
encounter in their daily lives. So that's fine for informational text
particularly in cases where the information is important enough for
students to know and when they get a chance to grapple with content,
source, purpose etc. I'm not so sure about modifying novels or God
forbid - poetry since quite often it kills the spirit of the piece. So
I'm all for teachers writing a few short pieces about some issue of
interest to their students and then sharing it with other teachers who
then add another piece at a slightly higher level so that you can have a
program-wide reader (this could be done as part of PD). In terms of
commercial materials, many of the adult ESL students seem to love the
True Stories series although most are still too difficult for beginning
ESL. 
 
Starting points for beginning students are approaches we've discussed -
Telling stories orally with the students and using photographs from all
over the world (I love Material World) and personal pictures. We've
mentioned using instructional strategies such as Language Experience,
Chalk Talks, and other forms of story boarding where the connection
between oral language and written language are clear and connected text
is the end result, rather than the beginning of doing print-based
literacy work with students. 
 
Assessment of students' ability to read and make sense of connected
text: 
 
As other researchers have found (and most teachers know), adult
beginning ESL students have highly uneven reading profiles so it is
difficult to place them into a particular book that is just right for
their reading level.  
*	Students often have interests, background knowledge and real
life experience related to particular topics that allow them to obtain
meaning from stories and other texts that are significantly above the
level they test at. A large vocabulary in particular can do much to
propel a student forward when it comes to making sense of print.
Students with this sort of "pragmatic competence" may still be missing
some foundation skills (and could benefit from activities that focus on
building those), but they should have the opportunity to encounter texts
on "hot topics" (defined by them) and get a chance to work together to
sort things out (graphic organizers and other learning aids can be
helpful here). 
*	It's often difficult to determine what the nature of the reading
challenges are that beginning students face. 
	*	For some it may mean not having a strong foundation in
L1 reading that might transfer and the mistakes they make are not so
much errors related to reading English, as errors related to basic print
processing (in any language)
	*	Others may have L1 reading skills but their knowledge
and experience with English is not strong enough to decode English or
their difficulties with pronunciation may get in the way or reading text
aloud correctly
	*	Still others may not have the vocabulary needed to
recognize and read words fluently 
	*	And for some English word structure and syntax remain a
mystery although they have developed the kind of decoding skills that
allows them to read aloud without making too many mistakes. 
 
What then should we do? 
 
*	It's important to have a sense of what the student can do with
print in the native language - self report of what they read, inviting
the student to read a L1 short passage aloud and using years of
education in the home country as a proxy are all good starting points. 
*	Here's a variation of a Running Record that has been helpful in
my work - it's a way to develop a Reading Profile for each student or a
way to use selected students to gain a better sense of what they can do
and where they stumble. 
	*	Select a story or text that you KNOW students are
familiar with because you have talked about it in class and the
vocabulary has been introduced. 
	*	Select a second story written at the same level but
using a text that is not as familiar 
	*	Have the class do some group or independent work while
you spend a few minutes with an individual student
	*	Invite the student to read with you (choral or echo
reading) and pay attention to fluency (decoding, expression, speed). Pay
attention and make notes on where the student tends to stumble (basic
vowel sounds; longer words etc) and try to determine to what extent the
errors are decoding errors and to what extent they are pronunciation
errors (a Spanish speaking student saying "espays" for "space" is a
pronunciation error; a student saying "espah-se" for space is a decoding
error. 
	*	Invite students to mark 3 important words they know  in
the text and 3 words they are not sure about (they may think they should
know these words). Mark the words on your sheet and discuss them with
the student. 
	*	Ask the students a couple of comprehension question,
making sure the student understands that the answer can be found in the
text. Reread a short section around the answer with the student, ask the
question again  and see if the student picks up the answer. 
	*	Invite the student to ask a question that can be
answered by the text (students should have practiced this perhaps as
part of the strategies associated with "question generating"  and
"question answering" - (Robin made some very good points about the
culture of question asking that we have in the States) 
	*	Use the opportunity to ask the student some open-ended
questions about what's hard and easy around reading English, what the
student likes to read and reads at home in L1; what kinds of things
(s)he is interested in reading about (having some examples on the table
is good) etc. It's important to keep the focus on reading since this is
a Reading Profile you are trying to develop. 
 
I have a rubric that I use for the different categories but again that
takes a bit of work to develop. Again, it seems to me that teachers
might work together as part of their professional development create
such an assessment that can be shared. They can then use this
information to see what students need and where they are stuck. Some may
indeed be at a level where they cannot hear the distinctions in sounds
and could benefit from some individual work in sound discrimination
while the difficulties of others may have to do with vocabulary or with
trying to figure out how English sentences are structured.  
 
In the end, the adult ESL teacher still has to teach an entire class
focusing on those skills that help move students forward in their
understanding of language and texts. Taking a bit of time to spend with
individual students who are stuck seems worthwhile to me, but assessing
each student in a large class seems unrealistic.  In the end, the task
of adult ESL teachers is quite different from that of clinicians and
speech pathologists whose job it is to work with clients one on one. 
 
Which doesn't mean we can't learn from each other. And special thanks to
Robin for providing such rich details on the topic. 
 
Soon more 
 
Heide
 
 
________________________________

From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Cameron Eileen
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2007 12:40 AM
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 260] Three Questions Regarding Research Articles
andRelated Topics in ESOL Instruction
 
1. In the article "National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and
Literacy: A Conversation With FOB... What Works for Adult ESL Students,"
it states that ESL students are better able to learn and understand
English when the teacher or instructor of ESL is bilingual, in which
case, the instructor can speak the students' native language or
languages in order to clarify the students' understanding to further
construct meaning.  This statement is also made in the article "Real
World Research: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Research for
Adult ESL."  However, if a teacher or instructor is not bilingual, and
they want to improve ESL students' written proficiency levels, should
the instructor who is fluent only in English be encouraged to permit his
or her ESL students to first write an essay or paragraph, depending upon
the written assignment, within the student's own native language and
then work closely with the student to translate that writing into
English?  Is this a recommended form of instruction?  For one thing,
allowing ESL students to write within their native languages helps the
instructor familiarize themselves with languages that may be foreign to
them.  This can also help the student translate and interpret their own
native language and correspond their thoughts and ideas within a
contextualized English language.  This can permit ESL students to
demonstrate writing that displays clearer contextualized meanings.  It
also allows ESL students to demonstrate a complexity of thoughts and
ideas as well as express critical, analytical thinking skills within
written English, especially those ESL students who struggle with written
English in terms of writing incoherent sentences or clauses, or students
who write mere phrases or simple sentences with incorrect word choice
and improper use of grammar.  The article, "Real World Research," states
"English learners who, for example, have good higher order reading
strategies in their own language cannot call on those strategies to help
them understand English texts until their understanding of English
vocabulary and syntax are good enough to understand basic sentences and
expressions."  Can this same principle be applied to ESL students'
written English? 
 
2. The article "Real World Research: Combining Qualitative and
Quantitative Research for Adult ESL" briefly refers to the codings of a
running record.  A running record that is incorporated in the teaching
of standard American English and literacy within elementary schools in
this country is used in a way that teachers can determine a student's
reading abilities and potentialities through close observation of a
student's reading processes.  Before a running record can be
implemented, the teacher or instructor first must decipher the probable
reading level of a particular student.  For instance, the teacher must
select a book that the student will easily be able to read along with
selecting two other books that may be more challenging to this same
student.  Students must read 50 words within each of the three books.
To correspond the running record in accordance with the student's
reading, the teacher must listen closely and observe, paying strict
attention to the student's substitution or replacement of words,
repetition of words, omission of words, pronunciation and/or
mispronunciation of words, and number of self-corrections the student
makes during their reading.  Once the student is finished reading 50
words within all three selected books, the teacher must add up all of
the student's errors.  The book in which the student made no less than
five errors is selected for appropriate reading in terms of a
substantiated reading level since it presents more of a challenge.
However, a book in which a student makes more than five errors is
considered too difficult for the student to read or comprehend.  I
brought this up because in a standard English or literacy class in
grades K-12, a student can be placed within a specific reading level or
group and is given reading material in accordance with that particular
reading or grade level, as it pertains to a balanced literacy model in
adherence with the curricular standards of a running record.  Students
are given reading material that is slightly more challenging in order to
assist these students in mastering the English language.  Once students
have mastered the English language and have acquired appropriate English
reading skills, they will be able to read books that are several reading
or grade levels above their current reading performance level.  Can a
running record such as the one I have previousy described be applied
within an adult literacy program for ESL students?  Instead of using
grocery store fliers, electricity bills, and immigration documents, can
literature be incorporated in an adult literacy program for ESL
students?
 
3. In the research study discussed in the article "Instruction,
Language, and Literacy: What Works Study for Adult ESL Literacy
Students, the BEST Oral Interview was incorporated in measuring
listening comprehension, communication, and fluency.  In the footnote of
that same research study, it states that the BEST Oral Interview also
includes measures of pronunciation and a reading and writing score which
were not used in the study.  I would actually like to know more about
those measures of pronunciation, reading, and writing, and how they are
assessed in determining a student's perfomance level.  Recently, I
completed a training session for both print-based and the
computer-adaptive BEST PLUS software program which measures the same
items that were measured in the research study 1)listening
comprehension, 2) language complexity or fluency, and 3) communication.
When I completed the training session in BEST PLUS there was no mention
of scoring for pronunciation, reading, or writing.  Also, I wanted to
know if these measurements had been included in your research study,
would it have any effect on the students' performance levels
quantitatively? Also would it have any statistical significance
whatsoever in this particular research study if these variables had been
taken into consideration when the BEST Oral Interview was administered?

  
________________________________

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