Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h2AMMsH22273; Mon, 10 Mar 2003 17:22:54 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 17:22:54 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <B24038C0D3E160419E320030D92C22DE014D9F81@hobbes.cal.org> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Miriam Burt" <miriam@cal.org> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:8796] New from NCLE: Reading and Adult English Language Learners X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 2941 Lines: 29 When a teacher looks out at the students in her reading class, she probably has many questions about how best to help her students decode and comprehend the written word. For example, she may ask herself: How do reading models (bottom-up, top-down, interactive, and learner's internal) apply? What about the reading skills (phonological processing, vocabulary recognition, syntactic processing and schema activating)? A teacher of adult English language learners has even more questions: Will learning to read be different for her students because they are adults and know how to read already in their own language? What effect will this have on their learning to read in English? And will the speed and ease at which they learn to read in English be different for the students depending on their proficiency in English? What about their first language literacy, will that help or hinder them? Will Anya's reading skills in her native Russian, which uses the Cyrillic alphabet, transfer to English? What about Lilly? Will her ability to read Chinese logographs serve her well in decoding English words? Surely Liana's reading ability in her native Spanish, should help her with English, another Roman alphabet language, shouldn't it? And what about Khalid? Will he have troubles reading left to right because of his facility in reading Arabic, a right to left language? Finally, what about Toua Vu, who never learned to read in Hmong, and is just now finally able to attend class. Will his lack of literacy skills mean different instruction is needed for him? There's been a lot of talk about using scientifically based research to teach reading. How much research is there on adult English language learners learning to read? What additional factors need to be considered for them? What else do we know? Two new pubs from NCLE address these questions. The first is a 4-page brief on Reading and Adult English Language Learners: The Role of the First Language. It's available from NCLE at address below, or online at http://www.cal.org/ncle/digests/reading.htm The second is a 56-page report, Reading and Adult English Language Learners: A Review of the Research. In addition to discussing the role of the 1st language it talks about the role of other factors, and reports on research done with adult English language learners specifically. It's also free from NCLE. To order it, click on http://www.cal.org Happy Reading! Miriam Miriam Burt Associate Director, National Center for ESL Literacy Education (NCLE) Center for Applied Linguistics 4646 40th Street NW Washington, DC 20015 (202) 362-0700 (phone) (202) 363-7204 (fax) miriam@cal.org ***************************************** Visit NCLE's Web site at www.cal.org/ncle ***************************************** We're the only national center devoted exclusively to providing technical assistance to those working with adults learning English as a second language.
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