At the beginning of the year we do a quick review of letter sounds, short vowels and letter names. Then in every time we use text - on the board or overhead, on a handout, doing read aloud, etc., letter sounds (short & long vowels, blends, etc.) and other structures (prefixes, suffixes, syllables, etc.) are pointed out, reviewed, questioned and explained. If something in particular is troubling - the -ed ending pronunciation is an issue this week - then I'll teach a mini-lesson on it. But the overall focus is to keep sounds within material the students are familiar with and talk about everything all the time. 

Kathleen




 --- On Wed 05/07, Martin Senger < MSenger at GECAC.org > wrote:
From: Martin Senger [mailto: MSenger at GECAC.org]
To: dezreen at excite.com, englishlanguage at nifl.gov
Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 15:32:27 -0400
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2343] Re: Multiple language learning

Pax all!<br><br>I completely agree than full language acquisition<br>(listening/speaking/reading/writing) cannot be accomplished through<br>passive listening alone. What I am looking at here is how the brain<br>learns the "sounds" of a language only (auditory phonetics), and nothing<br>more.<br><br>That being said, do we have any evidence, yea or nea, about how the<br>brain hears and remembers specific sounds in any language, L1 or L2?<br>Unless someone here is privy to very new and advanced research on the<br>brain, we may not have the answer. Until we have that research,<br>anecdotal evidence may be our only choice.<br><br>And is there a "critical period" for acquiring language sounds? Steven<br>has said the he disagrees, but I am not convinced. Is it 100%? No, but I<br>cannot help but feel that an infant is somehow "hardwired" for learning<br>new sounds (a vital skill for a new human). When one tries to acquire a<br>second language later in life, has something changed in 
our brain from<br>infancy which makes it harder?<br><br>And if, if that is true, is there anything we can do in infancy to lay<br>groundwork for later sound acquisition? Again, I must state that this is<br>regarding phonemic awareness only.<br><br>Then, what about adults learning new sounds? In your classes, do you<br>teach specific problem sounds to your students, and how? In my classes,<br>I try to identify my students' specific speech problems, then try to get<br>the student to see their problems themselves. The "first step to solving<br>a problem is admitting you have one" sort-of-thing.<br><br>Most of us here are teachers. What do you think about this? What<br>anecdotal evidence is there?<br><br>Ciao!<br>Martin<br>----------------------------------------------------<br>National Institute for Literacy<br>Adult English Language Learners mailing list<br>EnglishLanguage at nifl.gov<br>To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to 
http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage<br>Email delivered to dezreen at excite.com<br>

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