Linguistics: Reflection 3

Implications from Phonology for

Teaching Reading and Teaching a Second Language

Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in language.  A phonological system of a language includes an inventory of sounds and the rules which specify how sounds interact with each other.  Phonology is just one of several aspects of language.  It is related to other aspects like phonetics, allophones and phonemes (Wikipedia, 2013). An educator’s responsibility is to determine individual student phonetic awareness and teach content with individual student assessment knowledge.  Two different views of phonemic awareness can be considered: word recognition where phonology plays a major role in phonemic awareness or a sociopsycholinguistic view where phonemic awareness is an acquired ability (Freeman, 2004). Ideally, our decision as educators will be to emphasize using language to communicate. Insightful observation and assessment will allow educators to make decisions about how to teach reading and phonics to our ESOL population.                       

Review

            Educators must be knowledgeable of the implications from phonology teaching reading and a second language.  Not only are there thirty-nine phonemes in the English language but all phonemes have allophonic variations (/t/ has six variations depending on its position in the word).  In addition, dialect and language differences must be considered.  Dialects are variations in language marked by certain ways of pronouncing words, particular choices of vocabulary and even variations in syntax and language differences surface through different inventory of sounds. (Freeman, 2004).  Therefore, the learning connection between teacher and student can be affected by dialect and language difference. But all students are at different levels of language building so a decision lies with schools and educators where to devote their time and instruction, phonemic awareness or authentic reading (Freeman, 2004).

Reflect

            As an ASD special education teacher, I can reflect on a limited amount of experience with the ESOL population but I will reflect upon one past student who was from an ESOL household but his home language was his L2 as he learned English first in my classroom. Unable to completely understand his processing system and if it was congruent to a general education student, I was given an opportunity to observe first language acquisition and tried to assist his family with his home language acquisition.  The area where we struggled, as teacher and student, was phonetics, including his pronunciation of English letter sounds and determining what he heard from me.  I know that since my instruction was significantly based upon visual supports, I was confident of his comprehension of my lessons. Over the past few years in my self-contained moderate autism class, I have seen many readers develop from various reading stages and learn by different strategies; it is a really interesting and an individual process.  Most of my students are more visual learners versus auditory learners and have trouble applying phonemic concepts. I use a reading program in my classroom that builds a word bank through repetitive presentation opposed to phonetics. I still present letters and sounds but it is a secondary strategy.  It has been really interesting to see which students apply phonetics within the repetitive reading program; they were not my stronger readers.  The individual’s learning style and learning deficits affect their reading process and the strategies that should be implemented.

Refine

            Refining reading instruction and second language acquisition to our ESOL population should be determined upon student’s language proficiency level.  Determining a student’s ability and phonetic awareness allows an educator to provide reading modifications such as:

• Differentiated Textbook Instruction

Distribute an article that describes an adaptation you can apply to individualizing textbook instruction.

• Repeated Reading

Use a variety of repeated reading activities to improve reading skills.

• Sensory Imaging

Detailing sensory characteristics by using a graphic organizer helping students fully describe places, events, and objects (Echevarria, 2004).

Conclusion    

Reading is the learning process of decoding letters into sounds, learning the structural rules, and building a word bank for the purpose of determining meaning.  The goal of the reading process is for the action to become so automatic that the reader is free to think about meaning of the text and not the reading process. Towards this end, reading should be a continuous process, practiced and developed. We read to communicate and share information because reading is a communication between the text and reader.  The text provides information and the reader provides prior knowledge and past experiences which result in unique understanding of the text.  As an ESOL educator, we must decide upon the impervious walk between reading with phonetic awareness and reading for meaning and communicating.