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This resource describes each Language Domain: Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Listening. It explains how all four domains are interrelated and affect one another. It describes how reading and writing depend on oral language skills, but eventually, reading and writing extend the oral language domains. This article also discusses the importance of reading and how it significantly impacts school success. Lastly, this article describes the five components of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

The Center for Literacy & Learning. (2020, March 2). Language | Resources | Center for Development and Learning. The Center for Literacy & Learning. https://mycll.org/for-parents-and-teachers/language/

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Overview

Language is a cognitive process by which we communicate our thoughts and feelings to others. When we think of language and school, most of us think about reading. But language skills encompass more than reading. We talk, we listen, we read, and we write with words. Language skills, then, include reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Reading, writing, speaking and listening play crucial roles in school, and all four are interrelated and affect one another. There is a fundamental and reciprocal relationship among oral language (listening and speaking), written language, and reading. Initially, reading and writing are dependent on oral language skills. Eventually, reading and writing extend oral language. Young children use oral language skills to learn how to read. Older children use reading to broaden their learning.

Reading. Of the four language skills, reading has the greatest impact on school success. Substantial research in reading development and reading instruction has been funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) within the National Institutes of Health. Since 1965, well over 45,000 children and adults from all walks of life have participated in the research (Birsh, 2005). NICHD funded researchers have now defined how children learn to read, why some children have difficulties learning to read, how we can remediate reading difficulties, and how we can prevent reading difficulties.

In 1997, in response to a congressional charge, the National Reading Panel (NRP) was created under the direction of the NICHD. The purpose of the NRP was to conduct an evidence-based assessment of the scientific research on reading and its implications for reading instruction. The panel examined over 100,000 research studies completed since 1966. The panel's report, issued in 2000, stated that, in order to read, children must be taught alphabetics (phonemic awareness and phonics), reading fluency (speed, accuracy, expression, and ease), and reading comprehension.

The findings of the NRP report on the five components of reading instruction are summarized as follows:

Phoneme awareness -the ability to attend to, think about and work with the individual sounds in words

Phonics - the relationship between the sounds and written symbols of language or phoneme-grapheme correspondence

Fluency - the ability to read text quickly and accurately

Vocabulary - the ability to understand the meanings of the words we use to communicate

Comprehension - the ability to derive meaning from what is read, which is the reason for reading

Poor instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics is the most common reason why students exhibit reading problems. The most common cause of reading problems other than poor instruction is dyslexia. While learning to read may be more difficult for children with dyslexia, students with dyslexia can learn to read when they are taught in a direct, sequential and cumulative fashion.

Reading problems may also be caused by breakdowns in other components such as fluency, vocabulary, and/or text comprehension. Deficits in vocabulary and text comprehension are very often associated with oral language difficulties. Poor comprehension of text may be due to challenges with attention and/or memory. Because reading problems have various causes at their root, and because these various causes are treated in different ways, it is critical to specifically identify and address all of the underlying causes.

Writing is the expressive mode of written language and involves using written symbols of language to communicate. Writing not only includes the ability to accurately represent the graphic form of speech (letters and words) but also the ability to develop and express one's thoughts in a cohesive, structured manner. The skills required for effective writing include knowledge of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar, an understanding of how word order in sentences affects meaning, and the ability to distinguish main ideas from supporting ideas or details.

Listening involves understanding what we hear. To listen effectively, one must be able to retain "chunks" of language in short-term and working memory, recognize and understand vocabulary, recognize the stress and rhythm patterns of speech and glean meaning from context.

Speaking skills include the correct pronunciation of words, the appropriate use of vocabulary and grammar and the ability to recall words from long-term memory. The goal of speaking is to make our ideas and explanations clear and understandable to others. Effective speaking also involves the ability to use language within the social context.

Children who struggle with language often perform poorly in school because they have trouble understanding what is said to them, what they read, and expressing their thoughts to others. Students with language processing problems should receive instruction or therapy by a qualified professional, as well as receiving accommodations and modifications in the school setting, if necessary, to assure school success.

Resources

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Language | Resources | Center for Development and Learning

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Language is a cognitive process by which we communicate our thoughts and feelings to others. When we think of language and school, most of us think about reading. But language skills encompass more than reading. We talk, we listen, we read, and we write with words.

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Writing and Using Content and Language Objectives

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Writing and Using Content and Language Objectives

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This Colorin Colorado PDF overviews the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) and how it relates to content and language objective use. It also outlines the differences between both sets of objectives and provides examples of each and verbs you can use when developing them for your students. Lastly, this PDF provides a checklist for evaluating the objectives you develop to ensure they are effective.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., Short, D. J., & Mrs. Carter. (n.d.). Writing and using content and language objectives. https://www.colorincolorado.org/sites/default/files/writing-content-and-language-objectives.pdf

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This resource describes ten different research-based instructional strategies and additional supports for implementing in the classroom to help ELL students learn to read.

Strategies from the document I want to implement:

Support native language literacy

Use audiobooks

Check and support comprehension frequently

Teach phonics in context

Read to students every day

Portland Public Schools (OR) & Colorin Colorado. (n.d.). Supporting ELLs in the mainstream classroom: Reading instruction | Reading Rockets. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/curriculum-and-instruction/articles/supporting-ells-mainstream-classroom-reading-instruction

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1. Read to students every day

2. Support students' comprehension as much as possible

3. Teach the alphabet when necessary

4. Teach phonics in context

5. Check comprehension frequently

7. Support native language literacy

8. Encourage reading outside of the classroom

9. Establish an English Language Learner Center

10. Make up individualized activity packs for your newcomers

You are welcome to print copies for non-commercial use, or a limited number for educational purposes, as long as credit is given to Reading Rockets and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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Supporting ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom: Reading Instruction

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You can and should use what you already know to be effective, research-based reading instruction to English language learners (ELLs). However, ELLs will need additional support in learning how to read, and the strategies here will help you to provide assistance in your everyday teaching, particularly for newcomers (students who have recently arrived in the U.S.).

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ESOL Strategies for each Proficiency Level and competency 

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ESOL Strategies for each Proficiency Level and competency 

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This matrix is beneficial because it lays out different strategies for assisting each language domain depending on the student's proficiency level. This document also describes the activities so you know how to implement them for your students best.

Levine, L. N., Lukens, L. & Smallwood, B. A., (2012). The GO TO Strategies: Scaffolding Options for Teachers of English Language Learners, K-12. US Department of Education, Project ID T195N070316. https://www.pcsb.org/cms/lib/FL01903687/Centricity/Domain/4995/Teacher%20Resources/ESOL%20Strategies%20Matrix.pdf

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This article outlines the difficulties that ELLs experience when writing and how the development of proficiency in writing happens for them. This article also describes how to differentiate writing activities to make them more accessible for students, depending on their proficiency level. Lastly, this article provides various strategies and activities that can be done in the classroom to promote writing practice.

Quote from the article:

"There is a very important correlation between writing and language development. As students develop language skills, they often develop listening skills first (lots of input they can understand), then speaking (they begin to formulate their ideas in the second language), then reading (they can understand the sound/symbol correspondence of the new language and make sense of the words) and finally writing (they have enough language to express their own ideas in writing)."

Robertson, K. (2015, December 1). Improving writing skills: ELLs and the joy of writing. Colorín Colorado. https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/improving-writing-skills-ells-and-joy-writing

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"The meaning of even a single word is rather more complex than one might imagine."

- Editors of the American Heritage Dictionary, 1980, p. viii

"Teacher, do we need our pencils today?" my Puerto Rican elementary students would urgently ask when I came to their classroom to escort them to my English as a Second Language classroom. I was a student teacher in a Massachusetts elementary school, and it took me awhile to figure out the correlation between the pencil and hallway behavior. If I replied, "Yes, you should bring a pencil," the walk to my classroom took 15 minutes and involved a lot of disruptions, student squabbles, drifting students and other various misbehaviors. As a student teacher, I was very focused on keeping order and creating a challenging learning environment. If I replied, "No, you don't need a pencil today," the walk to my classroom took about five minutes, even with a stop at the drinking fountain.

So, what was the correlation? Writing. The students knew that if they had to bring a pencil they would have to do writing in the class, and they dreaded it. If they didn't need a pencil, we would be working on projects or doing more verbal work, and they liked that. What they weren't expecting was that half-way through my student teaching, I bought 10 boxes of pencils and kept them in my classroom, so they never had to bring a pencil to class - I had plenty to go around. This improved the hallway behavior, but still left me with the question of how to improve ESL student writing when they were frustrated by the practice and went to great lengths to avoid it.

I have been teaching ESL for many years and there is no perfect solution to this problem; however, I do believe I have added quite a few writing activities to my bag of tricks and improved my ability to differentiate writing tasks based on student ability. As I improved my ability to ensure that each student would be successful in the writing activity, their confidence increased, and they were less likely to engage in disruptive behavior. You know what I'm talking about - the long, dramatic search for a pencilâ€¦ and then paperâ€¦ or the meandering walk about the room to get yesterday's writing draft, or the ever popular, "15 minute pencil sharpening" session. I hope some of the writing activities I share with you will help you to reduce anxiety in your ESL students and increase their language and writing skills.

There is a very important correlation between writing and language development. As students develop language skills, they often develop listening skills first (lots of input they can understand), then speaking (they begin to formulate their ideas in the second language), then reading (they can understand the sound/symbol correspondence of the new language and make sense of the words) and finally writing (they have enough language to express their own ideas in writing). This is not true for 100% of language learners, but it is true for the majority of them. Why is writing often the last skill to emerge? It almost seems that reading would be more difficult because the student needs to sound out words and understand the author's message. It would seem writing might be easier because students are sharing their own ideas already in their heads and simply putting them on paper. However, writing requires a lot more processing of language in order to produce a message.

First the student must have an idea, then think of the appropriate way to say it, then start to write it and spell it correctly, and then create another sentence to continue to communicate the idea. If we add the students' worry that they are making huge, embarrassing errors or that their ideas aren't very good in the first place, then we begin to understand the complexity involved in writing in a second language. In fact, the way we communicate, or the way students put their ideas on paper, is largely influenced by their culture. In some of my classes, my Asian students were very confused when I told them to revise their writing because this was a "first draft." In their experience they had always written an item once and submitted it as "the final," and then the teacher would correct it. The idea that they had to write it over again didn't make sense to them. Students from other cultures may have developed a storytelling style that involves laying out a lot of background information and detail and takes quite a while to get to the point. In most western writing, we expect a topic sentence or a lead paragraph that will tell us what the point is, and then everything written after that leads to a direct conclusion. Many of my students had great difficulty connecting their ideas this way.

With that said, teachers have a big task in improving ESL student writing skills, but the payoff for instructional dedication can be great. A researcher on adolescent literacy at the University of Minnesota, David O'Brien, did a study on improving the reading skills of adolescent students. All of the students were involved in a six week study and during that time they were responsible for creating brochures and other types of communication on computers. They had criteria to input a certain amount of text and graphics to create a final project. This required lots of thought and revisions to achieve the final result. At the end of the six weeks the students took a reading test and the majority of them had improved their reading skills significantly. This was a very interesting result, considering that the teachers had not focused on teaching reading skills. The conclusion was that students used meta-cognition to process language and work with it in a more meaningful way, so that consequently their reading skills improved even though they were mostly working on writing.

Additional positive academic results have been seen in the "90 90 90 Schools." These are schools that researchers have identified as 90% poverty, 90% students of color and 90% achieving standards. This is a most remarkable combination in the educational world. The researchers examined these schools and found one common denominator among them - they all focused on developing writing skills. Each school had an agreed upon writing curriculum and methodology that was used at all grade levels, and student writing was prominently displayed throughout the building and in classrooms. Students used writing in all content areas to demonstrate academic concepts learned. In the end, 90% of the students in these schools were able to pass state grade-level tests based on the academic standards.

Now that I have hopefully convinced you that all your hard work will pay off, I would like to introduce some effective writing activities. I would like to acknowledge that there are many types of effective writing instruction used in classrooms today, including process writing, graphic organizers as writing planning tools, vocabulary stretchers, etcâ€¦ and all of those are beneficial to ELL students. For the purpose of this article, I will focus on a few writing activities that I think are particularly useful when working with students with a wide-range of English language skills.

How to differentiate writing activities:

With some pre-planning, a teacher can create a writing assignment that will allow every student to be successful. For example, the teacher may give a writing assignment that has A, B and C levels (or they can be number or color-coded).

ELL students at Level A copy a sentence or short passage exactly as it is written. This helps beginning-level students who are not very familiar with the language, but may be able to interpret some of the information as they copy it.

Level B students receive a paragraph or two that has blank spaces in the text. The students write the word or phrase that completes the sentence. This allows the student to write an amount that is not overwhelming and helps them comprehend the information.

Level C students write on their own, but perhaps they receive paragraph prompts or are allowed to look in a book, but must put the idea in their own words. After some practice with this system and getting to know your students' English language skills, you will be able to create a system that works best for your class.

Language Experience Approach

The Language Experience Approach draws on instructional techniques used with younger children who have not yet developed literacy skills. In this approach, the teacher presents information to the students, or they have an "experience" of some sort - for example, a field trip, or acting out a scene in a book. Then the students tell the teacher what to write on the board to explain the experience. This may be useful as an activity for a volunteer or teacher's aide to use with a small group of ESL students during literacy time. Here are the steps.

1. Experience something - for example, the students have listened to the story, "The Little Red Hen" and then acted it out.

2. The teacher stands by the board or a large sheet of paper and says to the students, "Tell me the story of the Little Red Hen."

3. As each student tells a part of the story, the teacher writes it down on the board, just as it was stated. For example, a student might say, "The Little Red Hen work so hard and nobody want help her." This continues until each student has spoken or the story is finished.

4. Then the teacher tells the students, "Let's read the story together and listen to see if the story makes sense and if there is anything we want to change."

5. After reading the story, the teacher asks students if they want to change anything. For example, one student may raise her hand and say, "I think it should say, "worked" not "work." The teacher may ask other students if they agree or disagree.

6. If the suggested change is correct, the teacher offers praise and moves on to the next suggestion. If the suggested change is not correct, the teacher should help the student analyze the suggested change. For example, if the student says, "I think it should say, â€˜The Little Red Hen she worked so hardâ€¦." The teacher would ask if others agree and see if there is discussion, then the teacher could point out that the Little Red Hen is the pronoun or "name," so in English we don't need to put it in twice. We can say "She worked so hard." Or "The Little Red Hen worked so hard."

7. When students have analyzed and corrected the whole text, the teacher may either circle a few more spots where students missed corrections and they can be challenged to figure out what the change should be, or the students can be instructed to copy the text with the corrections included.

8. As a final activity, students are instructed to take the story home and read it to three people and bring it back with signatures.

After this activity, usually even beginning-level ELL students are able to read the story to others because it was their experience, it is in their own words, and they have worked with the text in a meaningful way.

Sentence Auction

This activity helps students analyze common writing errors through a personalized activity since they are trying to buy their own sentences. Once a week or once a month, a teacher can hold a "Sentence Auction." The teacher takes sentence examples from student writing - some of which have errors and some that don't, and writes them on a handout or overhead projector. The identity of the student who wrote each sentence is not revealed. To begin the sentence auction, each student is given an "account" of perhaps $300. The students are told to "bid" on the good sentences. The winner is the student with the highest number of "good" sentences.

1. The teacher takes on the persona of an "Auctioneer" and opens the bidding at $10.

2. The teacher reads out the sentence confidently exactly as it is written. "Him want to go to school very bad." Who will give me $10?"

3. The students take turns bidding until the teacher decides who has "won" the bid.

4. Some sentences will not sell because students will know they are "bad." Just leave those sentences and move to the next one.

5. After all the sentences have been sold, the teacher goes through the list and the students say whether the sentence was good or bad. If they agree that it was a bad sentence, then the teacher asks them to explain how they can make it a "good" sentence.

6. Finally the students can count how many "good" sentences they have (since they may have bought some bad ones) and a winner is declared.

7. The teacher may want to give a little prize or certificate to the student. In a variation of this activity students can work in pairs or groups to buy the sentences.

Error correction

I have never "corrected" my students' writing mistakes, at least not in the traditional way. I have always told my students, "If I correct your English, I improve my English; if you correct your English, you improve yours." I handled corrections in one of two ways: either I identified what errors I would be looking for in the writing submission or I told them I would only circle five errors in the whole paper. If I pre-set the errors I would look for, for example correct use of past tense, I would only correct past tense errors, even if I saw other glaring errors in the paper. Sometimes this was hard to do, but I wanted to maintain the students' focus on the writing improvement we were working on. If I set a number of errors I would circle, for example, five, then I carefully chose those five and ignored the rest. When I returned the papers, the students were responsible for correcting their own mistakes. If they weren't sure how to do it, they could check with a classmate, and if no one knew, then I would assist. Invariably the students would ask, "Are these the only errors in the paper?" and I would tell them no. They might be disappointed, but they came to understand the value of correcting their own errors when they submitted a piece of writing.

Quick Write

One of the challenges for ELL students when they approach writing is their anxiety about writing their ideas correctly and writing a lot of information in English. This may feel overwhelming when a student is assigned an essay. In order to get students comfortable with the idea of just putting ideas on paper and not worrying about mistakes, we do regular "quick writes." For "quick writes" I give the students a topic and then tell them to write as much as they can for five minutes. They need to keep their pencils on the paper and even if they can't think of anything to write or they are worried about how to spell things, they are supposed to keep writing. At the end of five minutes, the students count how many words they were able to write and they keep track in a log. The objective is that they will see progress in the amount of writing they are able to do in five minutes' time and hopefully apply this fluency to their essay writing.

Cinquain poems

Cinquain poems offer great flexibility in working with ELL students of a variety of language levels. The basic Cinquain formula is as follows, but teachers can modify it as needed according to the student language level.

One noun
Two adjectives
Three gerunds (words + ing)
A short sentence.
A one-word summary
An example of a Cinquain a student might write:
Home
Warm, happy
Loving, welcoming, helping
People you love.
Family

There really is no wrong way to do a Cinquain, students can put key vocabulary words together any way they like to create the message they desire. Teachers may want to use Cinquains to reinforce new content vocabulary and concepts as well.

With these writing activities to try in your classroom, the only thing left is to buy a few boxes of pencils, hand them out to your ELL students and help them discover the possibility of joy in writing. Teachers who use a variety of activities and strategies to help ELL students become comfortable with expressing their ideas in a new language and finding success with small writing tasks, will give their students' confidence for a lifetime of self-expression. I offer this Cinquain poem to sum it up.

Writing
Fun, creative
Thinking, sharing, revising
Lots of ideas.
Proud
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Reading Rockets: Writing Webcast
Reading Rockets webcast featuring Dr. Steven Graham, Dr. Louisa Moats, and Dr. Susan Neuman. These three renowned reading and writing experts address why writing is important, what the latest research tells us, and what educators and parents can do to support our children's development as writers.
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Use picture books to teach young writers how to organize plot logically. This article includes examples of basic plot structures, along with picture books that use those structures.
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PIZZAZ: Cinquain poems
A poetry site designed to assist instruction of ESL students in poetry and other creative writing forms. The site has links and detailed information on poetry such as Cinquain, Diamante, Haiku and Limericks. It also has further information on other types of creative writing and tips for instruction.
TeacherVision: Language Arts Graphic Organizers
These graphic organizers can be used to prepare for a five-paragraph essay, organize sentences in a paragraph, map concepts and events, compare topics with a Venn Diagram, organize notes for a presentation, create a double-entry journal, and much more.

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Improving Writing Skills: ELLs and the Joy of Writing

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"The meaning of even a single word is rather more complex than one might imagine." - Editors of the American Heritage Dictionary, 1980, p. viii "Teacher, do we need our pencils today?" my Puerto Rican elementary students would urgently ask when I came to their classroom to escort them to my English as a Second Language classroom.

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This article outlines strategies and techniques teachers can implement to ensure students develop their speaking and listening skills. It provides many great examples of classroom routines, including some that integrate technology. This article also breaks down the speaking and listening standards by grade level, as displayed in the common core state standards.

Quote:

"There is no reading gene that is passed from one generation to the next. Each and every brain must be taught to read anew. Unlike hair or eye color, which are coded in DNA, reading is a complex, rule-based system that must be imposed on biological structures that were designed or evolved for other reasons"

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2014). Speaking and listening in content area learning. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/comprehension/articles/speaking-and-listening-content-area-learning

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Speaking and Listening in Content Area Learning

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Oral language development facilitates print literacy. In this article, we focus on the ways in which teachers can ensure students' speaking and listening skills are developed. We provide a review of effective classroom routines, including some that can be enhanced with technology.

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This article discusses differentiated instruction and why ELL students need to support them at their current proficiency level and linguistic ability. This article also describes characteristics and strategies of how teachers can successfully differentiate their instruction. This website also links great videos displaying differentiating practices and their impact.

Quote:

"The goal of differentiated instruction is to create learning opportunities that allow for differences in how individual students learn to ensure equal access to important academic content. Content may be modified for students who need additional practice with essential elements before moving on; however, the expectation is that modifications in other areas will ultimately allow all students to master the same key content."

Ford, K. (2019, February 7). Differentiated instruction for English language learners. Colorín Colorado. https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/differentiated-instruction-english-language-learners

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Differentiated Instruction for English Language Learners

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Each student comes to school, not only with unique academic needs, but also with unique background experiences, culture, language, personality, interests, and attitudes toward learning. Effective teachers recognize that all of these factors affect how students learn in the classroom, and they adjust, or differentiate, their instruction to meet students' needs.

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This resource highlights the importance of early identification of dyslexia and other reading disabilities in ELLs. This article outlines considerations that are taken and things that should be looked for when screening and assessing ELLs for dyslexia or reading disabilities. IDA also emphasizes the components the tests should have and the factors considered when evaluating the assessment results.

Cárdenas-Hagan, E., Ed. D. (2023, March 12). English learners and dyslexia. International Dyslexia Association. https://dyslexiaida.org/english-learners-and-dyslexia/

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This fact sheet provides information about important considerations when evaluating English learners for dyslexia. Classroom teachers may find it helpful as they observe students for possible referral for further assessment. It also includes guidelines for assessment specialists who may provide screening and assessment support.

Why Focus on English Learners?

Five million English learners attend public schools in the United States. Because these students represent 10% of the school population, it is important to understand the issues surrounding early identification of dyslexia and other reading disabilities among English learners. This fact sheet addresses those issues and offers some recommendations for the identification process.

When discussing English learners and dyslexia, keep in mind that although 400 different native languages are represented within the English learner (EL) population of students, 75% of these students speak Spanish in the home. Therefore, much of what we know about English learners comes from research involving Spanish-speaking English learners.

Importance of Early Identification

Early identification of reading disabilities in all students is very important. When it comes to students whose first language is not English, however, researchers have found that non-native speakers with dyslexia are sometimes less likely to be identified, while at other times, they are over-identified.

In a recent study, English learners with dyslexia and African American learners were less likely to be identified with reading disabilities than other students. This finding was true not only in schools with small numbers of English learners, but also in schools with a higher percentage of EL students. Another study found that EL students might be less likely to be identified with dyslexia early on, but later might be over-identified as having dyslexia. In this case, the study found that the proportion of non-native, English-speaking students who were identified with dyslexia in kindergarten and first grade was lower than expected. Yet by third grade, the proportion of non-native, English-speaking students identified with dyslexia was higher than expected.

Why might this happen? Schools may fail to identify dyslexia by attributing any English reading and writing difficulties to their status as English learners, even if those students also exhibit characteristics of dyslexia. On the other hand, a student with limited opportunities for developing English oral language proficiency and English literacy (Hispanic English learners in particular) might be increasingly likely to be misidentified with dyslexia as they progress in school, when the issue might actually be limited skills due to lack of exposure to English. There is clearly a need to define the important factors to keep in mind when identifying reading disabilities, such as dyslexia, among English learners.

General Considerations for Early Identification of Dyslexia Among English Learners

In 2002 the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) adopted the following definition of dyslexia: " a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge."

Screening and assessments for dyslexia must include an evaluation of the primary characteristics of dyslexia: phonological awareness, decoding, fluent word recognition, and spelling. It is also important to determine the resulting impact these difficulties can have on measures such as reading comprehension, vocabulary, and background knowledge.

To identify English learners with dyslexia, consider the following variables during screening and assessment:

1. Determine the number of years of high-quality, native language instruction in reading and writing, as well as instruction in English language and literacy, to ensure that the difficulty is not due to a lack of instruction.

2. Examine the variables that may be causing any difficulties with reading and writing in English. A lack of proficiency in spoken English will affect the ability to learn to read and write English. In addition, assess the student's ability to read and write in the native language. If a student has difficulty in their native language, that might point toward dyslexia. However, if a student seems to have literacy skills in their native language but struggles with English, the issue might be related to limited exposure to high-quality instruction in English. Teasing apart these two factors is important for an accurate identification of dyslexia.

3. Review the family history. Because dyslexia is hereditary, a family history of dyslexia-or symptoms that might point to dyslexia or other related conditions-should be documented.

4. Note that when comparing literacy skills across languages, students with dyslexia may appear to be within normal limits for decoding skills when they are reading and writing in transparent languages (those with reliable and stable letter-sound correspondences, such as Spanish) due to the regular and reliable patterns of the language. As a result, when screening or assessing in transparent languages, reading fluency and spelling skills may be better indicators of dyslexia.

5. Consider performance, during the screening and assessment process, in relation to peers with similar native languages and background experiences. This comparison is especially important if the available tests do not include a significant number of English learners in the sample used to determine what is expected for the population (the normative sample). This data is another piece of information that can help with the process of teasing apart any possible effects of dyslexia from the effects of being an English learner.

6. Collect samples of the student's work (for instance, written spelling assessment, written expression, and oral reading with error analysis) and evaluate that work along with the results of progress monitoring and other tests to determine the rate of progress achieved and to document any history of limited progress.

7. Review specific error patterns and ensure that they are not a result of overgeneralization from the student's native language to English. Determine if the errors are typical or unusual when compared to other English learners who are native speakers of the same language.

8. Work with the student's parents, caregivers, and educators to determine if any educational, environmental, or personal factors may be related to learning to read. The more data gathered to develop an understanding of the student, the more accurate the assessment and decision-making process is likely to be.

9. Keep in mind that outcomes may vary depending on a number of factors, including the student's first language and the language of instruction (whether English or another language), the type and quality of language and literacy instruction received thus far, and the consistency of its implementation. These variables need to be considered as the student is evaluated for possible dyslexia.

10. Create a team of experts who understand language and reading development among English learners so they may review the data and make decisions regarding the necessary type of instruction and level of intensity.

What to Look for During Screening

A screening is a brief measurement of a set of current skills. Screening tools provide information as to whether students are at the expected level of performance and may also help identify students who are at risk for later skill development.

Dyslexia screening in the early years, such as at the end of kindergarten, typically includes measures of phoneme awareness, rapid naming of letters, and both letter-sound and sound-letter knowledge. For English learners, assessment of oral language proficiency levels is also necessary. By first and second grade, typical screenings may include measures of phoneme awareness, word recognition, reading fluency, oral language, reading comprehension, and spelling. However, for English learners it will be important to monitor progress in each of these areas more frequently than twice per year.

Another important consideration is the language of instruction. Some English learners receive language instruction in their native language. Screening measures should therefore be conducted in that same language to ensure alignment with the language of instruction. Other English learners may participate in English as a Second Language classrooms. They will be screened in English, but it is important to keep in mind that these students will be developing their proficiency in spoken English at the same time they are developing English literacy skills. If proficiency in spoken English is impeded, it will affect the student's ability to progress with reading and writing.

For these reasons and more, it is important to pay particular attention to English learners' progress in English as well as their native language and to compare their progress to their peers who are also English learners. If a student is not making expected progress in English, compare the development of those same skills in the native language and evaluate the results based upon the language of instruction (which is often English). If skills are below the expected level in both the native language and English, further testing should be conducted to determine if the student is exhibiting a reading disability such as dyslexia. The need for further testing should be determined based upon the factors discussed above, including the type of language instruction the student is receiving and the recommendations of teachers, parents, and others involved in the education of the student.

Essential Aspects of Assessment of an English Learner for Dyslexia

An assessment for dyslexia is a more thorough analysis of student performance and is intended to dig deeper than a screening. An assessment will include measures for each of the components of reading and writing. The assessment should be conducted by an individual who is knowledgeable in testing and measurement and understands first and second language and literacy development.

Specific components to assess include the following:

The student's understanding and use of language in general, aligned to the language of instruction

Phoneme awareness

Rapid naming, which can include letters, numbers, or pictures

Word reading skills, including reading of real words and pseudo-words

Word reading fluency, including accuracy and rate

Sentence reading fluency, including accuracy, prosody, and rate

Paragraph reading fluency, including accuracy, prosody, and rate

Reading comprehension at the sentence and paragraph level

Written language skills to include word-level spelling as well as writing composition (narrative and informational) at the sentence and paragraph levels

Factors to Consider When Evaluating Assessment Results for English Learners

To determine the presence or absence of dyslexia in English learners, it is essential to separate the effects of second language acquisition from effects that would result from dyslexia. Therefore, when evaluating the results of standardized tests, a student's literacy levels and environmental and schooling factors for the native language should be compared to their performance in English or any other second language. A list of recommendations follows below:

1. Identify whether diverse populations are included in the normative sample of any test. As an examiner, you must review the characteristics of the population that were used to determine the expected result to establish whether English learners were included in that population.

2. Observe the language or vocabulary that is used within the test directions. Determine if some of the vocabulary will be difficult for the English learner to understand. Review the test manual for any recommendations for testing English learners.

3. Determine if the test items reflect cultural bias. Will some of the test items be irrelevant to the individual student's world experiences?

4. Remember that at the early stages of second language or literacy acquisition, the reading level of an English learner may not be as strong as their monolingual English-speaking peers. However, as the English learner becomes more proficient in language and literacy, the second language skills can be expected to become comparable to the performance of native English-speaking peers.

5. Use multiple measures and formats for testing.

6. Consider the specific context of learning opportunities in both native and second languages. The key to an accurate diagnosis of dyslexia for an English learner is ensuring that the difficulty exists in both the native and second language.

Next Steps
The number of English learners attending schools in the U.S. is continuing to grow. Early identification of dyslexia in English learners is important and can be achieved by understanding some essential considerations for identification. These considerations include a thorough developmental history, a review of the language in which the student is being taught, and the specific approach to literacy instruction that is being used, along with other environmental factors. The tests used to screen and assess must also be valid and reliable for English learners: check to see that English learners have been included in the normative sample and compare the student's progress to that of other English learners. Failure to consider all of these factors is likely to result in over- or under-identification of a reading disability among English learners.

A comprehensive and collaborative team approach can assist in the early identification of dyslexia. Once identified, English learners can benefit from structured literacy instruction with accommodations for language proficiency and, wherever possible, cross-language instructional techniques that capitalize on the similarities of the native language.

It is certainly possible for English learners with dyslexia to learn and achieve second language literacy. Accurate identification is the first step toward this goal.

References

Catts, H., & Petscher, Y. (2018). Early identification of dyslexia: Current advancements and
future directions. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 44, 33-36.

Compton, D. L., Fuchs, D. Fuchs, L. S., & Bryant, J. D. (2010). Selecting at-risk readers in first
grade for early intervention: A two-year longitudinal study of decision rules and
procedures. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(2), 394.

Francis, D. J., Santi, K. L., Khalaf, S., Bunta, F., Rojas, R. Gusewski, S., & Heibert, L. (2020). Identification of disabilities in Spanish-speaking children in English-speaking contexts. In Grigorenko, E., McCardle, P., & Shtryrov, Y. (Eds.), All about language: Science, theory, and practice (pp. 155-170). Brookes.

International Dyslexia Association (2002). The dyslexia definition project. Retrieved from
https://dyslexiaida.wpengine.com/definition-of-dyslexia/

Klinger, J. K., Artiles, A. J., Kozleski, E., Harry, B, Zion, S., Tate, W., Duran, G. Z., & Riley, D,
(2005). Addressing the disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education through culturally responsive educational systems. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 13(38).

McFarland, J., Hussar, B., de Brey, C., Snyder, T., Wang, X., Wilkinson-Flicker, S.,
Gebrekristos, S., Zhang, J., Rathbun, A., Barmer, A., Bullock Mann, F., & Hinz, S.
(2017). The condition of education:2017 (NCES) 2017144). Washington, DC: National
Center for Education Statistics.

Odegard, T. N., Frarris, E. A., Middleton, A. E., Oslund, E., & Rimrodt-Frierson, S. (2020). The characteristics of students identified with dyslexia within the context of state legislation. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 53(5), 366-379.

Petscher, Y., Fien, H., Stanley, C., Gearin, B., Gaab, N., Fletcher, J. M., & Johnson, E. (2019). Screening for Dyslexia. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Special Education Programs, National Center on Improving Literacy. Retrieved from improvingliteracy.org

Samson, J. F., & Lesaux, N. K. (2009). Language-minority learners in special education: Rates and predictors of identification for services. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 49(2), 142-162.
The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) thanks Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, Ed.D., for her assistance in the preparation of this fact sheet.
The International Dyslexia Association (IDA). IDA encourages the reproduction and distribution of this fact sheet.
If portions of the text are cited, appropriate reference must be made. Fact sheets may not be reprinted for the purpose of resale. © Copyright 20223. The International Dyslexia Association (IDA). For copyright information, please click here.

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English Learners and Dyslexia - International Dyslexia Association

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This article discusses the importance of identifying ELL students with learning disabilities and how we can increase identification. It also outlines how to use data to inform decision-making and what research suggests about creating consistent identification processes and policies. Lastly, it emphasizes the importance of identifying students with special needs and identifying them accurately to ensure they get the proper support they need.

Burr, E. (2021, February 10). Strategies to identify and support English learners with learning disabilities. WestEd. Retrieved June 23, 2024, from https://www.wested.org/wested-bulletin/insights-impact/strategies-to-identify-and-support-english-learners-with-learning-disabilities/

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Strategies to Identify and Support English Learners With Learning Disabilities

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Read evidence-based strategies designed to help educators differentiate between English learner students who have difficulty acquiring language skills and those who may have a learning disability.

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Five Pillars of Reading; The Science of Reading 

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Five Pillars of Reading; The Science of Reading 

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This article highlights the importance of using the Science of Reading to guide early literacy instruction. It describes the science of reading and the five pillars of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension in great detail.

Quote:

"Comprehension is the last of the five pillars of reading and the final goal of literacy instruction—where black-and-white sentences are translated into colorful understanding."

Transcend. (2024, February 15). The Five Pillars of Reading: Transforming Literacy with the Science of Reading. Transcend Education. https://transcendeducation.org/the-five-pillars-of-reading-transforming-literacy-with-the-science-of-reading/

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Concourse Village Elementary School

In education, few things are as fundamental as the ability to read.

Educators have long debated the most effective way to teach young people how to read. For decades, a key part of this debate was between structured phonics instruction and a more "whole language" approach. The whole language approach encouraged learners to use context and visual clues to decipher unfamiliar words, providing a contrast to "sounding them out" with a structured dissection of words through phonics.

Now, schools and educators are embracing a long-standing body of research cumulatively referred to as the "science of reading," which highlights the importance of explicit and repeated phonics instruction.

Through the lens of the science of reading, we have a revolutionary opportunity to transform understanding into action, and potential into achievement. Read on to discover more about the science of reading and the five pillars of reading instruction-including examples of implementation from partners on the Innovative Models Exchange.

What Is the Science of Reading?

The science of reading is an evidence-based pedagogy rooted in learning science, a cross-disciplinary area of research that combines psychology, education, cognitive sciences, neo-science, and other disciplines to explain how a person learns.

Pedagogy and instruction based on the science of reading takes a structured approach to helping students become skilled, fluent readers based on the understanding that reading comprehension is the product of two components: word recognition and language comprehension. In other words, children need to be able to sound out a word and decipher the meaning of the word to understand what they've read.

A large recent cultural shift toward the science of reading has led to more educators introducing explicit and dedicated phonics instruction in early grades to build and solidify foundational literacy skills.

What Are the Five Pillars of Reading Instruction?

Research further identifies five pillars of reading schools can focus on to help children learn to read:

Phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency are skills that help readers learn word recognition skills, while vocabulary and text comprehension contribute to language comprehension development. These components build on each other to help readers establish foundational skills they need to comprehend the text they're engaging with.

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is the pillar of reading focusing on understanding that spoken words are made up of separate units of sound blended together when words are pronounced. Once's Early-Reading tutoring model builds phonemic awareness through daily one-on-one tutoring where students are introduced to a new phoneme in a visual and auditory manner. From there, learners practice blending and segmenting, rhyming, and word reading. All the while, students build meaningful relationships with staff.

"Having on-site staff who are already on the school payroll facilitate tutoring has a number of benefits. First, tutoring costs fall dramatically when you leverage people already in the building rather than outsourcing that work to people who do not work at the school," says Once CEO Matt Pasternack. "Second, the tutors can build meaningful, lasting relationships with students that can persist long after the year of Once instruction, since the tutors remain in the building with students and encounter them year after year. Third, by upskilling existing on-site staff through Once, we help districts enhance their para-to-teacher pipeline, which is often a key teacher recruitment source for districts."

Phonics

Phonics refers to the breakdown of written words into letters and sounds, which allows readers to decode words as they read. In Ignite! Reading's virtual tutoring model, students meet daily with an instructor who takes them through a lesson that focuses on word recognition. The lessons start with basic alphabet knowledge and work their way up to multisyllabic decoding.

"Online tutoring gives schools the capacity to deliver differentiated instruction to every student one-to-one so that all students receive the precise instruction and volume of practice they require," says Ignite! Reading Co-founder and CEO Jessica Sliwerski. "It strengthens MTSS because every student is receiving support matched to their skills and levels of need."

Fluency

Fluency refers to the ability to read text accurately, quickly, and with proper expression. This pillar of reading applies not only to individual words but also to connected text such as sentences, paragraphs, and full passages of a story or article. Research shows that as reading fluency improves, students spend less of their working memory on figuring out individual words-freeing up more space to focus on understanding the overall meaning of what they read.

To that end, Literacy Architects' Literacy Masterminds uses a variety of research-based techniques to improve fluency to help students work towards this goal including modeling reading, choral reading, echo reading, and more.

Vocabulary

The explicit integration of vocabulary instruction helps build students' recognition of words. In the Success For All Tutoring model, learners practice vocabulary words and demonstrate mastery by choosing the correct word in a sentence where the word has been removed. The Groves Literacy model uses a structured 30-minute daily lesson that blends visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic components to build vocabulary. Students might use magnetic boards and alphabet tiles to build words. Each lesson roughly follows the same format that touches on different aspects of the science of reading.

Text Comprehension

Comprehension happens when readers move beyond merely identifying letters and words to piecing them together to unlock meanings and grasp the knowledge contained in text. Comprehension is the last of the five pillars of reading and the final goal of literacy instruction-where black-and-white sentences are translated into colorful understanding.

AIM Institute for Learning & Research's Integrated Literacy Model teaches every component of the science of reading, and takes an interdisciplinary approach to reach comprehension. Interactive Humanities is a highly scholastic, arts-based approach that develops literacy skills across academic disciplines, including civics, geography, history, and literature. Students are immersed in a time period, wearing costumes as they discover historical events, learn key vocabulary, and participate in art projects. This helps students build background knowledge that can help inform key literacy practices.

Explore the Science Of Reading Models

The Innovative Models Exchange has several models that feature the five pillars of reading and the science of reading:

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The Five Pillars of Reading: Transforming Literacy with the Science of Reading - Transcend Education

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Explore the Five Pillars of Reading and learn how to successfully implement them into early literacy instruction.

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ELLs and the 5 Essential Components of Reading Instruction

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ELLs and the 5 Essential Components of Reading Instruction

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This article highlights what considerations should be taken for ELLs when teaching them the 5 essential components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency/oral reading, and reading comprehension. This article is helpful because it provides strategies specific to ELL students working to build language proficiency alongside reading skills.

Antunez, B. (n.d.). English language learners and the five essential components of reading instruction. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/english-language-learners/articles/english-language-learners-and-five-essential-components

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August, D., Hakuta, K. (1997). Improving schooling for language-minority children: A research agenda. Washington, DC: National Research Council.

Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. (2001). Put reading first: The research building blocks for teaching children to read. The Partnership for Reading: National Institute for Literacy; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; and U.S. Department of Education.

Clay, M. (1993). Reading Recovery in English and other languages. Keynote address presented at the West Coast Literacy Conference, Palm Springs, CA.

Collier,V. & Thomas, W. (1992). A synthesis of studies examining long-term language minority student data on academic achievement. Bilingual Research Journal, 16(1-2), 187-212.

Cummins, J. (1989). Empowering minority students. Sacramento, CA: California Association for Bilingual Education.

Cummins, J. (1992). Language proficiency, bilingualism, and academic achievement. In P. A. Richard-Amato and M. A. Snow (Eds.), The multicultural classroom: Readings for content-area teachers. White Plains: Longman.

Escamilla, K. (1987). The relationship of native language reading achievement and oral English proficiency to future achievement in reading English as a second language. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Univer-sity of California, Los Angeles.

Hiebert, E. H., Pearson, P.D., Taylor, B.M., Richardson, V., Paris, S.G. (1998). Every child a reader: Applying reading research to the classroom. Center for the Improvement of Earl Reading Achievement. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan School of Education.

International Reading Association. (2001). Summary of the National Reading Panel Report, "Teaching Children to Read." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Reading Association, Washington, DC, July 2001.

Moats, L.C. (1999). Teaching reading is rocket science: What expert teachers of reading should know and be able to do. Washington, DC: American Federation of Teachers.

National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education (2002). Survey of the states' limited English proficient students and available educational programs and services, 1999-2001. Washington, DC: NCBE.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000a). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000b). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction: Reports of the subgroups (NIH Publication No. 00-4754). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

National Reading Panel (2001). "Frequently asked questions." [Online]. Available: http:// www.nationalreadingpanel.org/faq/faq.htm

New York State Education Department, Office of Bilingual Education. (2000). The teaching of language arts to limited English proficient/English language learners: A resource guide for all teachers. Albany, NY: Author.

Peregoy, S. F. & Boyle, O. F. (2000). English learners reading English: What we know, what we need to know. Theory into practice, 39(4), 237-247.

Ramirez, J.D. (2001). Bilingualism and literacy: Problem or opportunity? A synthesis of reading research on bilingual students. A Research Symposium on High Standards in Reading for Students in Diverse Language Groups: Research, Policy, and Practice. Washington, D.C.: Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs, U.S. Department of Education.

Rodriguez, A. (1988). Research in reading and writing in bilingual education and English as a second language. In A. Ambert (Ed.), Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language. New York: Garland Pub.

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U.S. Congress, No Child Left Behind Act (P.L. 107-110), 2001.

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English Language Learners and the Five Essential Components of Reading Instruction

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Find out how teachers can play to the strengths and shore up the weaknesses of English Language Learners in each of the Reading First content areas.