Importance of Language Patterns & Phonics for English Learners in Linguistics & Reading, Study notes of English

Download Importance of Language Patterns & Phonics for English Learners in Linguistics & Reading and more Study notes English in PDF only on Docsity! 1. EPOR T RESUMES ED 020 029 . RC 000 449 TEACHING READING TO THE BILINGUAL CHILD. BY- SIZEMORE, MAMIE ARIZONA STATE DEPT. OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, PHOENIX PUB DATE 63 EDRS PRICE MF-$0.50 HC-$2.76 67P. DESCRIPTORS- AMERICAN INDIANS, BILINGUALISM, BILINGUAL TEACHER AIDS, BASIC READING, *ENGLISH (SECOND LANGUAGE); GRAPHEMES, JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL, LANGUAGE HANDICAPPED, *LANGUAGE GUIDES, LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION, LINGUISTICS, LISTENING, *MEXICAN AMERICANS, *PHONICS, PHONEMES, RESOURCE GUIDES, READING DEVELOPMENT, *READING INSTRUCTION, REMEDIAL READING, SPANISH SPEAKING, TENL, TEACHING GUIDES, SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING, ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, DIVISION OF INDIAN EDUCATION, SOME OF THE NEWER APPROACHES TO THE TEACHING OF SECOND LANGUAGES AS APPLIED TO ENGLISH READING INSTRUCTION FOR INDIAN AND MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDENTS ARE EXPLORED. SPECIAL EMPHASIS IS GIVEN TO THE UNIQUE CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS FACED BY THE CHILDREN OF THESE ETHNIC GROUPS. CONSIDERABLE EMPHASIS IS GIVEN TO THE NEED FOR.THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPEAKING AND LISTENING COMMUNICATION SKILLS TO FACILITATE THE LEARNING OF READING SKILLS. A MAJOR PORTION OF THE TEXT IS DEVOTED TO A DETAILED REVIEW OF PHONICS, AS USED IN THE TEACHING OF READING. SPECIFIC REFERENCE IS MADE TO READING SKILLS WHICH SHOULD BE MASTERED BY ALL READING STUDENTS. THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF THE READING PROGRAM IS TO ENABLE STUDENTS TO READ ALL TYPES OF'MATERIAL WITH COMPREHENSION, EASE, AND ENJOYMENT. (DK) CO- es.] TEACHING READING a cZ) to two THE BILINGUAL CHILD 1963 3N. DIVISION OF INDIAN EDUCATION ARIZONA STATE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION STATE HOUSE PHOENIX, ARIZONA 0 czJ CUTER POR CULTURAL STUDT2S Adams Pats College of ColGraio Aleaosii tko STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION Honorable Paul Fannin, Governor of Arizona Chairman of the Board ****** 0000040000046040 ***** 0004000040000000011000 Phoenix Honorable W. W. "Skipper" Dick State Superintendent of Public Instruction Secretary of the Board.. Phoenix Dr. Richard A. Harvill, President, The University of Arizona Ex-Officio Member. OOOOO 000.000000-000 OOOOO 0 OOOOO 400000000000000 Tucson Dr. Lawrence 3. Walkup, President, Arizona State College Ex-Officio Member O OOOO 1000000000004 OOOOO 0 OOOOO 00040000000000000000 Flagstaff Dr. G. Homer Durham, President, Arizona State University Ex-Officio Member. ........... OOOOO 0000004100000100000004100000000000041 Tempe MEMBERS APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR Honorable Charles Burton Principal, North Phoenix High School Phoenix Honorable Sarah Folsom Superintendent, Yavapai County Prescott Honorable Waldo M. Discus superintendent, Ajo Public Schools 00041004,000000041000404000000000040000004 Ajo TA. FOREWORD A WORD TO TEACHERS SCOPE OF PROBLEM OOOOO Effects of Childhood Bilingualism....... OOOOOOOO 040400000 OOOOOs Biculturism 4444.. O 41,00 OOO .. 040404400041 Teachers' Understanding of the Bilingual Child's Background... Language Handicaps.............. C401640004, II. PRIMARY READ/NG... / 1 1 2 2 3 3 The Natuvo of the Reading Process, 4 Linguistics and the Teaching of Reading. ..................... 4 THE BILINGUAL STUDENTS AND THE TEACHING OF PHONICS 7 Definition of Terms411100,0 00004100000,0,4100104140 7 English Sounds ............................................. 7 Relations Between Language and Writing, ....,........ 8 IV. 9 V. THE USE OF BASIC READERS 11 VI. THE BILINGUAL CHILD AND HIS READING VOCABULARY 13 VII. PHONICGENERALIZATIONS0 16a Consonants. 00 4410 4.440004 16a Voiced and Voiceless Consonants 20 Double Consonants ....4 ........ 20 Vowel Sounds 000011000009001;010000008060410049000111001111041140004410 20 Short Vowels. /*0404110* 20 Long Vowels " 21 Functioning of Y as aVowel. 22 The Schwa Sound of the wel 23 Generalizations About Exceptions 11100000000000000011041,00000000 23 Vowel-Consonant Combinations ..... 23 Diphthongs.. . 11,0 25 Vowel Sounds Not Governed by Generalizations ....... 25 Consonant Combinations 27 Consonant Digraphs111 0 27 Consonant Blends. ..... 27 Spellings Standing for Consonantser 28 I Syllabification, 00000 Vowel in Each Syllable Double Consonants, ***** OOOOO 0041, Division Between Vowel and Consonants. Consonant Digraphs and Blends Single Consonant Preceded by Vowel 00000008000,0400006.00 Division of Two Vowels OOOOO OOOOO Letter x OOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOOOO Words Ending With le OOOOO ,,,.. Prefixes and Suffixes TheSuffix ed . OOOOOOOO Compound Words Contractions, Syllables Ending in Vowels OOOOO 0 , OOOOOOO 0 OOOOO * OOOOO 29 29 29 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 31 Principles of Accent OOOOO ., 31 Syllables With Special Sounds ,... 32 Prefixes and Suffixes c Generalization About the Uses and Sounds of Suffixes* 35 Generalization About Changes in Root Words Before Suffixes are Added. OOOOO.0.0. 33 1. Words of One Syllable Ending With a Vowel ..... 2. Words Ending With f or fe ...,..* 3. Accented Syllables .* 4. Words Ending With Silent e, 5. One Syllable Words Ending With e Before c or ja410* 6. Words Ending With Two Vowels ....*".0 7. Words Ending With z Preceded by a Consonant.. ..,,. 8, Adding Suffix Beginning With ...i ..... VIII. YOUR UPPER GRADE BILINGUAL Language Performance.. Reading Skills Guided Silent Readi 36 36 36 36 36 36 37 37 37 STUDENT ia e 38 0,00111004i00.401141*,0410.0011-000,4004100 #0410000,1100000OOM00000040011,00000 OOOOO Oa ng.041140 Factual Questions. Inference Questions 004100,04000.0 Vocabulary Questions , 100t40040011680k Organizational Questions Sequence Questions......... Understanding Main Understanding Figurative Language Appreciating Good Description.... Understanding an Author's Purpose Sounds in English Consonant Biends * VowelSounds00, 11 114,04-1,41-0000000*411000,01,410 11100,0441100411041.0000M all* 004002000.000,000*11104500 4 10000.00i0.0100.94.00100.1103 10.00000001-1400.410.0110,000011aai60 O 000,0*0000***00414,04,1001101641110 and Attitude.. ., 000411011404000tifli 40 42 45 46 46 46 46 47 48 48 48 48 49 49 50 A WORD TO TEACHERS TEACHING READING TO THE BILINGUAL CHILD was written in an effort to share with41.1! the teachers of Arizona some of the newer approaches in second language learning as applied to reading instruction. There is a trend in our state for entire schools as well as individual teachers to experiment with less traditional methods of organ- ization and materials in the teaching of reading to bilingual students. Through experience it has been found that administrators and teachers alike need guidance in trying these newer approaches. Bilingual students are found in large public school systems, where they may be a minority of the student population. Then there are public schools where more than ninety percent of the school population comes from homes where English is not the native language. In addition there are Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Mission Schools where all of the students are American Indians. It is felt by the Arizona Division of Indian Education that they are fortunate in having the oppor- tunity to work with such a wide range of students learning to read English as a second language. The problems of introducing new programs cannot be minimized; nor on the other hand, that change presents too many difficulties to be practical. New instructional approaches have been stimulated by new scientific advances and new approaches to old problems. More demanding standards and added content in our fast moving Space Age, have made it more necessary for teachers and students alike to be provided with the skills needed in order to achieve. It takes more than gathering materials to write a lwlletin on reading. It is, in a way, a culmination of many individuals' professional experiences. In prepar- ing a publication, such as this, thanks and acknowledgement must go not only to the many teachers who have contributed to the content of the book, but also to those who have shared their knowledge and experience in the field of bilingual education. In considering any of the approaches offered in this bulletin, remember, that suggested techniques and organizations, like sample lesson plans, are merely structures from which to deviate. Each reader should look at the suggestions and say, "How can I adapt, not adopt, this to best meet the needs of my students?" Change is disturbing to many teachers. Even with the best of intent and pre- paration it is difficult to effect change. The purpose of this bulletin is to help teachers to evaluate their present reading programs and to introduce newer approaches to second language learning, always, with the reservation that little is entirely new. Also what works for some may not work for others, and that many times a gener- ation may pass before a program can truly be evaluated with our Mexican-American and American-Indian students. MAMIE SIZEMORE CLASSROOM SPECIALIST DIVISION OF INDIAN EDUCATION STATE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION TEACHING READING TO THE BILINGUAL CHILD I SCOPE OF PROBLEM It has been estimated that twenty-five percent of the school population of the United States is bilingual. The five southwestern states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and California were reported to have over 3,000,000 Spanish- speaking people in 1960. In addition here in the state of Arizona we have almost .100,000 American Indians. The melting pot of the United States indeed possesses many children entering school with little or no knowledge of English. These are the children who will be referred to in this bulletin as bilingual. Effects of Childho d Bilingualism Is this phenomenon of bilingualism a curse or a blessing? The question has captured the attention of governmental officials, school administrators, teachers, educational psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, linguists, speech correctionists, and personnel studying child development. By demanding the use of the English language, as the medium of instruction, American elementary schools force upon a large number of children the problem of bilingualism. Many observers and investigators conclude that childhood bilingual- ism, forced or voluntary, results in many disadvantages. Handicaps may accrue to the individual in his: a. speech development b. overall language development c. intellectual and educational progress d. emotional stability (This is not a bulletin on language teaching but is specifically written to deal with the teaching of reading to the bilingual child. However, no dis- cussion of reading can eliminate the other communication skills and their seqkUntIel development.) Faulty articulation and inappropriate pronunciation may be developed in sec- ond language learning. Numerous substitutions will be made of English sounds which other languages do not have, or vice versa. The child tends to carry over habits from his mother tongue. Many times these variations do not tend to decrease with age or skill, for the early influence of the student's native language is too strong. Much literature, and some educators, assert that the bilingual will encounter numerous problems in language development. This is not only in the foreign lan- guage being learned, in this case English, but also in his native language. (For a more ca&plete discussion on second language learning see: A NeyA2211,;?lith do Second Lanaumelaaraiam Arizona State Dept. of Public Instruction, 1962.) A number of authors assert that the bilingual child may become handicapped in his intellectual development. Tending to think in one language and speak in other, he may become mentally uncertain and confused. However, on the other hand bilinguals may develop more flexibility in thinking. They generally switch from one language to another sometimes trying to solve a problem while thinking in one language and then, when blocked, switching to the other. This habit might make them in thinking, as a whole, more prone to drop one hypothesis or concept and try another. Monolinguals might be more rigid in this respect. One of the greatest disadvantages of childhood bilingualism, of interest to teachers, is that the child will suffer retardation in his education progress. He may become handicapped in reading and studying in general, and in specific sub- jects. His interest, initiative, and responsiveness in class may decline, and he may develop an inadequate adjustment to school and education in general, which in turn may result in his prematurely dropping out of school. It is well for teachers to realize that the bilingual child may develop ser- ious emotional instability and social maladjustment. His frustrations arising from his ineffectiveness as a communicator, and ridicule and teasing which society may direct at him may be very damaging to him, particularly if he is a weak person- ality to begin with. Losing his self-confidence and sense of security, he may de- velop extreme introversion and shyness, or he may become very aggressive and anti- social. Much of the emotional stress and tension will center in the family. After being exposed to a second language in school, the child may develop a sense of shame and guilt regarding the language of his family and may direct this into a feeling of arrogance, contempt, hatred, rejection, and avoidance toward his parents. The mother, who usually retains the native tongue longer than the father, loses the ability to communicate easily with the children, and may lose the enjoyment of hav- ing children. When a younster is forced to use a second language and forget his mother tongue, it is tearing up his emotional roots and disrupting his innermost stability. The mother tongue is so intricately connected to the child's first impres- sions of his world that it presumably never entirely vanishes from the unconscious. In this area of emotional adjustment, as in the areas of speech and language de- velopment, and intellectual and educational progress, the evidence, with exceptions, suggests that boys suffer more than girls. Certainly we expect Indian and Mexican-American children in Arizona sdhools to learn to speak, read and write the English language. Yet, if this is made too im- portant a goal per se, an objective to be obtained at the price of a violent break with everything in the past, the result is bound to be disruptive, since the need- ful continuity of life and its relationships will have been destroyed. 1' Biculturism It has been found Indian Americans frequently acquire our technology, including our verbiage, without having either absorbed or even become aware of our values, which put curbs upon our love of gadgets, our "materialism." (While such generali- zations apply to Indian Americans as a whole, there are cultural differences within each tribe of which account needs be taken.) Their own cultures having been largely demolished, however, they do not integrate themselves with ours save on the most mechanistic levels. They gain from us only the externals, the "objective" parts of our culture, without its total fabric, Hence, in effect, they have for a time at least no culture at all. And a people without a culture is in the same desperately isolated straits as an individual who has lost his memory. Teachers' Understanding lin ual Child's Background Competent educators know that most intelligence and achievement tests, if not all, are unfair to bilingual students. Such children have had little opportunity to become familiar with the topics dealt with on these tests. Their parents many times Linguists would advocate, that the Mexican-American or Indian child coming to school, not speaking English, must have mastered certain language patterns in their speaking of English before these patterns can appear in their reading tia. tarlal. You will see the importance of this statement as you read through the nature of the reading process in a first language. Linguists do not quarrel with the assertions given by reading experts con- cerning the need to make careful provisions for "the cultivation of a whole array of techniques involved in understanding, thinking, reflecting, imagining, judging, evaluating, analyzing, reasoning, and in making emotional and social judgements." These techniques of thinking, and evaluating do not constitute the reaang.process. The abilities enumerated above are all abilities that are and must be developed through the uses of language. Every one of the abilities could be developed and has been achieved by persons who could not read. They are all matters of the uses of language and are not limited to the use of reading. For the sake of simplicity, linguists many times use such technical language that we are lost after the first three sentences; we will assume that the first grade student has learned enough English so that he can report satisfactorily, ask questions, and make requests within the range of his social-cultural experiences. What precisely must such a child learn, in addition to his understanding and producing "talk" in order to "read" materials ,tnat also lie within the range of his second language learning, and social-cultural experiences? Simply responding to graphic (written) signs by uttering certain sounds is not "reading." You cannot say a child is talking when he repeats after you the sound patterns in da.dy or ba-by. "To talk" the sound patterns must-have all the features of "some language signal working through a language code to elicit a meaningful response." "Reading" is the response to graphic signals and must have all the features of some language signal operating in a language code, eliciting a meaning- ful response. "Word-calling" (word pronouncing) without the meaningful responses of the patterns that make the language signals of a code is neither reading nor talking. This view is in opposition to that expressed in 3flayWolut Can't Read, and What Can Do About /t, by Rudolf Flesch: "Many years ago, when I was about fifteen, I took a semester's course in Czech; I have since forgotten everything about the language itself, but I still remember how the letters are pro- nounced, plus the simple rule that all words have the accent on the first syllable. Armed with this knowledge, I once sur- prised a native of Prague by reading aloud from a Czech news- paper. "Oh, you know Czech?" he asked. "No, I don't under- stand a word of it," I answered. "I can only read it." To learn to read a language, that you can speak, you must transfer auditory signals for language, to the new signs for the same language. During the "transfer stage" of learning to read, the materials used should be based on the child's speaking vocabulary. This is not the time to push the development of additional language mastery as far as the written material is concerned. This stage of the reading process can become very confusing if the body of language meanings and language signals used is not limited to those already within the linguistic experi- ence of the child. The following statement made by a well known linguist will come as a surprise to many primary teachers: "MateggillavILkildrairaratarig.mat not be conceived of in terms of imparting_knowledge. but in terms of opportunities for practice." We, as adult reader, respond unconsciously to graphic features. This did not came about by "nature" and had to be "learned." These habits of unconscious response have been 5 achieved by thousands of hours of practice or use. In view of these facts, we do not hesitate to say that the rewards of the first steps in reading should not be impressive growth in English vocabulary. There are rewards, however, of many types. There is the great satisfaction of mas- tering a skill in an orderly fashion. If an analogy will help here, we might say the first steps in reading are like first steps in learning to drive an automobile. Both skills have enormous attractions to the eager learner, for they are gateways to many joys. The learning carmdriver has these rewards in mind, but at the start he is totally engrossed Amply in the activity of learning to drive. At this stage he has no thought of going anywhere. Learning to operate the automobile is inter* est enough in itself, and so with reading. The reward of emulating the grownup, for whom reading is obviously very important, is the long-range goal; but the skill itself is reward and delight enough for the beginner. Dr. Charles Carpenter Fries summarizes the above very concisely, in Linguis- tics and Reading (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 1963) page 132. The first stage in learning the reading process is the "transfer" stage. It is the period during which the child is learning to transfer from auditory signs for language signals, which he has already learned, to a set of visual signs for the same signals. This process of transfer is not the learning of the language code or of a new language code; it is not the learning of a new or different set of language signals. It is not the learning of new "words", or of new grammatical structures, or of new meanings. These are all matters of the language signals which he has on the whole already' learned so well that he is not conscious of their use. The first stage is complete when within his narrow linguistic experience the child can respond rapidly and accurately to the visual patterns that represent the language signals, in this limited field, as he does to the auditory patterns that they replace. The second stage covers the period during which the re- sponses to the visual patterns become habits so auto- matic that the graphic shapes themselves sink below the threshold of attention, and the cumulative comprehension of the meanings signalled enable the reader to supply those portions of the signals which are not in the graphic representation themselves. The third stage begins when the reading process itself is so automatic that the reading is used equally with or even more than live language in the acquiring and developing of experiencewhen reading stimulates the vivid imaginative realization of vicarious experience. 6 THE BILINGUAL STUDENT AND THE TEACHING OF PHONICS Definition of Terms Before starting this discussion it might be well to clarify the use of terms many times erroneously used when talking and writing about the use of phonics in the teaching of reading. Phonics is used by teachers as one of the methods of helping students to solve the problems presented by "new" words by "sounding" the letters. It consists primarily in attempting to match the individual letters by which a word is spelled with the specific "sounds" which letters "say." Phonetics is a branch of physics that studies the native speech sounds and a way in which they are produced by the vocal apparatus and received by the ear. Phonetics is not concerned with the ways in which in English.by the traditional alphabet. Phonemics is a set of techniques by which to identify and to describe, es- pecially in terms of distribution, the bundles of sound contrasts that constitute the structural units that mark the word patterns. It is the phonemes, of the language that alphabetic writing represents. An alphabet is a set of graphic shapes that can represent the separate vowel and consonant phonemes of the language. All alphabets are phonemically based, and the procedures of teaching the process of reading alphabetic writing must take into consideration the essential fact of the structural base of alphabetic writing. Reading is first of all, the mechanical skill of decoding, of turning the printed symbols into the sounds which are language. Of course the reason we turn the print into sound (that is, read) is to get at the meaning. We decode the printed symbols in order to hear what they "say." Linguistics is not a teaching method, but a growing body of knowledge and theory based on the scientific study of language. English Sounds First,, the child learning English as a second language needs to learn to utter English sound orally. He needs to learn to hear accurately and produce clearly the vowel sounds that distinguish eat from it, late from let, bed from bad, hot from hat, fool from full, coat from casts, caught from cut, and so on. He needs also to learn to hear accurately and to pronounce clearly the con- sonant sounds that distinguish pig from lag, itig from Ask, thank from sank, then from den, thin from ,thins, place, from plays- -these consonant sound distinctions, and many more. He needs to or voice, now or cluster in hats, in he learn how to produce orally the diphthongs, as in at, oray,lele sound, He needs to learn the consonant c=nslthe It:tt:ound Most of all, the bilingual student needs to be helped to form habits of using these sounds orally before being exposed to them in writing. He needs to make their use automatic, so that he will never have to stop and think how they should be pronounced. 7 So you can see why-the immediate goal of instruction in the first grade, for bilingual children, is to develop understanding and automatic control of oral English. These children, of course, must ultimately gain proficiency in reading and writing. The teacher should therefore make every effort to provide them, when they are ready, with appropriate reading and writing experiences. They need a program of instruction in English as a second language that en- ables them quickly to function adequately in the classroom with their peers and that provides the foundation for further growth in the English language. The ex- periences that are used for helping the child acquire this basic foundation should be keyed to the regular classroom program. The teacher will find that she cannot go far beyond the present in time, lo- cation; or in her daily work with the children. If language is to be meaningful, she must deal with what can be seen, touched, smelled, and tasted. The period between hearing and speaking appears to be an important learning stage and one not always appreciated as such. Much language learning will have actually taken place before newly learned words are spoken. The commonly referred to "developmental feature" of readiness appears es- pecially worth considering in relation to children's other language learning. It is known, of course, that language content, hoWever wisely selected and tactfully presented, cannot go beyond the child's own mental and emotional set. But because it is not easy to know when the child is ready, there often appears to be a tend- ency on the part of adults to carry this concept too far and to stand by for in- determinate periods waiting for the child to speak. Often, all the child needs is a little aid or encouragement. The teacher should be alert to the signals of the child's readiness to try to speak, should be ready to help him with the best aids an_rocedures,.aC hex co d. Second language learning is clearly allied with the child's total development. There is evidence to support an emerging picture of young bilinguals, especially our Indian students, 48 shy, unaggressive and unassertive. These characteristics are not conducive to learning, and much less to expression in a new language. To learn a second language one must have the capacity to take chances, be unafraid of making mistakes, and find satisfaction in an expressive activity. The teacher must incorporate ways of meeting such considerations in her basic planning. There is considerable agreement that the child in his early school years is at a favorable stage physiologically as well as emotionally for learning a second lan.. guage. Recognition of this fact should prompt the primary grade teacher to do not less but more in her efforts to further language learning. First of all, and be cause of her greater freedom, she will maintain an all-encompassing approach to the child who is a "learner not only in language but in a whole cultural milieu. Prom this basis she will purposely and thoughtfully make use of the language aids that are proffered to her by the latest research in second language learning. Even children learning to read in their native language may have difficulties in the area of audi,....1)orsisla. (the ability to hear the differences and similarities in the sounds of various words) and may need supplementary experiences after they enter first grade. Hearing and saying nursery rhymes and other simple poems can be so guided that the pupils will begin to note both the alliteration and the rhyming words in "Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater" and "Sing a Song of Sixpence." Listening to rhymes and word sounds is not enough; the children should also have many opportunities to enunciate them. It is as a child deliberately gets his tongue and lips into position for making a desired sound that he becomes truly 10 S aware of the sounds that constitute any particular word. Introductory reading readiness books for the pupils' use abound in interesting exercises that will help children become alert to the sounds that make up spoken words. Teachers' manuals that accompany sets of readers give careful guidance in the materials and methods that will best cultivate auditory discrimination in children. Every teacher should avail herself of the helps that such manuals pro- vide. Since many teachers, of bilingual children, do not fully understand auditory. discrimination and ways to develop it,they must use manuals for this very funda- mental aspect of reading skills. Another important element in reading readiness is visual discrimination, or the ability to see the differences and likenesses in words. Many reading readiness books have exercises in which a row of five objects has four that are just alike, and one that is a little bigger or that faces the opposite way or that has a part missing. The child then selects the one that is not like the other. Other be- ginning workbooks have similar exercises that involve only letters or words, the principle being that children should learn the kind of discrimination that reading actually calls for. Here, too, teachers' manuals give helpful suggestions for teaching children to develop visual discrimination. For the child who has had meager contacts with reading in his home, the teacher should provide a rich reading environment: a corner with many intriguing, picture books; a bulletin board with announcements, posters and captioned pictures that will arouse curiosity;, a chalk-board that daily features committee listings and plans, news stories dictated by the pupils, and other current notices. There should be daily periods when she reads to the children. Here the teacher must pat vitjAbisilAallAatthoame has failed to give. Readiness for reading is an important factor not only at the first-grade level but throughout all the grades. Just as children may or may not be ready for read- ing a pre-primer or primer, so theylsay, or may not be ready for a fourth or seventh reader. The readiness of every student at each successive stage must be diagnosed, andpig found wanting, must be carefully developed. As they advance through the school program, children meet new words, encounter widened concepts of old words, cope with more complex organization of materials, and develop new needs or purposes in reading. Thus, in a ver real sense the child is alma s be:innin: and there- fo_ rem always in need of readiness. V THE USE OF BASIC READERS In an Associated Press release in May 1963, Indian Commissioner Philleo Nash made the following comments about educational materials provided for Indian chili* dren in our schools: Nash has been critical of the "Dick and Jane" textbooks as educational material for Indian children. He says these are oriented toward the middle-class, suburban family accustomed to having a ntce car, a nice home, and living in a community with uniformed policemen andliieMen* "Indian reservation life is about as far from suburbia as one can get, on the average reservation," Nash said in an interview. The name Jane seldom is found on an Indian reservation. There are some named Dick. But these Indian children, and 80 percent of those 11 in our Indian schools come from non - English speaking homes, need materials related to their own daily occurrences. "They are not accustomed to nice books, nice pictures, nice homes and the tribal policemen do not wear nice uniforms. "There are many wonderful Indian values, such as sharing, that they should have available in material growing out of their own experiences. They should have materials dealing with their background, their traditions, and their heroes." There is truth in Dr. Nash's comments. Too often, Engl.* has been taught through readers which were imitatiol of those used in English speaking countries to teach beginning English speaking children five or six years of age. Such readers were socially and intellectually much too immature for non -English speak- ing students by the time they knew enough of the new language to be ready for for- mal reading. At the same time these readers were linguistically much too hard for non-English speaking pupils who knew no English when they started to school. English speaking six-year-old children have at that ase already learned to use the basic structural signals of the Englidh language, and practically all of them have used, for at least two or three years, only English for all their language needs. These children do not need to have the basic English structures carefully arranged for step to step learning. With the growing national and international interest in the teaching of English as a second language, publishers will be creating more material for the teaching of English as a second language. In the meantime teachers will continue to use text- books provided for all children in our schools. There are advantages and disad- vantages to this procedure. Children need the stimulation, support, and organized approach of a compre- hensive And thorough reading program. Actual specific procedures for handling materials in order to build up recognition responses to printed materials as repre- senting the spoken words the dhildrdn already have in their oral vocabulary, should be the function of any set of basic readers. . Basal ;ceding series offer teachers a planneC and co-ordinated reading pro- gram. It is not a°hit and miss affair. Thus a basal reading program does not in* tioduce.a skill and drop it. Rather, a good series, provides over the years for gradual and continuous development of inyortant reading skills. The thing to re- member is that you cannot fit the child to the program, but must fit the program to the child. Because all children grow at different rates, and are ready for par- ticular learnings at different times, a well-planned program offers opportunities for such learning on different occasions and in different settings. Though basic readers have an important place in the reading program of a modern school, they do not constitute all of the materials used in a full-scale plan for reading activities, but must be supplemented by many different materials. Basal readers become, in most schools, the course of studying in reading skills for most grades--but this should be for the average student only. Slower learners and faster learners must be provided with supplementary materials. A few examples are given below of materials that will contribute to the developmental, recrea- tional, and enrichment facets of a good reading program: 12 If one examines these misconceptions, he finds many that are logical. You and I make the same type of error when we speak in a foreign language. Example: That famous salutation of one of our leading American politicians when he addressed an audience south of the border "Senoras y caballos" (The salutation "Senoras y calalleros" meaning "Ladies and gentlemen." The speaker confused the second word which means horses.) These are only the overt signs. The tragedy of the situation is that for every misconception we note there are dozens, and probably hundreds, that occur to confuse the reader and we are not aware of them. We only know that the child fails to comprehend and are irritated or sympathetic depending upon our own understanding of the problem. A teacher of bilingual-speaking children will find much meat in an experimental study by Gray and Holmes. (William S, Gray and Eleanor Holmes, The Development of Meaning Vocabularies in Reading, University of Chicago, 1938). Miss Holmes pre- sents experimental evidence which shows conclusively that "specific guidance is of relatively more value to pupils of limited initial achievement" than an indirect method. By specific vocabulary instruction, Miss Holmes means (1) to form clear, vivid associations between ward meanings and their oral and written symbols; (2) to promote the meanings of words and phrases; and (3) to provide opportunity for pupils to use the new words appropriately in either oral or written form. Experienced teachers find some of the following techniques to be especially helpful: 1. tape recording 2. vocabulary notebooks in which all new words are listed, with synonyms or definitions and sentences. 3. exercises in selecting accurate words to express meaning 4. listing words often confused 5. listing words with similar words to show differences in meaning 6, listing words with antonyms 7. listing descriptive words 8. dramatization with specific attention to choice of words 9. oral exercises with the specific intention of using the new words to be studied 10. habitual use of the dictionary This program takes much time. The teacher must decide which is more important for the child--to learn to pronounce mechanically a large number of meaningless words or to use a smaller number with understanding. Many a social science lesson in the upper grades is sterile because the teacher has followed the former practice. In the schools of Europe where bilingualism exists, it is a common custom to use the content subjects for language instruction. For example: a history lesson may pro- vide something to talk about in the language that is being learned. They feel that it is rather purposeless to try to talk unless one has something to say. 15 The writer finds phonics and structural analysis useful for the English speak- ing child who has an adequate oral vocabulary. For, as he analyzes the word, he has the possibility of recognizing it through the ear. However, for the non-English speaking child who has a limited oral vocabulary, these tools are less helpful.' Accordingly, we recommend for the bilingual child the introduction of many ex- periences to increase his meaningful vocabulary and in addition, a direct attack on these words to fix them in his vocabulary. In summary: 1. Meaning is attached to words by numerous and varied experiences. 2. If the home environment is meager, the school must compensate. 3. Experimental evidence supports the direct attack on vocabulary. 4. Such a program should receive major attention in all subjects and in all grades throughout the elementary school and probably in the secondary school.. 1. The author of this bulletin does not agree with this statement of Dr. Tireman's. See comments on teaching of phonics above. 16 VII PHONIC GENERALIZATIONS This section of the bulletin will review in detail the content of phonics, as used in the teaching of reading. The resume' is presented in compact form so teachers may use it as a quick reference. You will find many of the generaliza- tions of limited value. Of course you should give careful attention to the many exceptions to most of the generalizations. This resume' does not attempt to answer the question of which generalizations primary children can apply in working out the pronunciation of unknown words. The answer to this question will come only through experimentation in your own classroom. While not directly related to the teaching of reading to bilingual students, the following review was made by Dr. Theodore Clymer, Professor of Education at the University of Minnesota. He made a study of the phonic generalizations taught in the primary grades in four widely used sets of basic readers. Five general types of generalizations emerged from the study of the teachers' manuals. These types dealt with: (1) vowels (2) consonants (3) endings (4) syllabication (5) miscellaneous relationships Arbitrary decisions were made in assigning some generalizations to one or more of the five types. (This you will find the case in the following outline of the content of phonics.) After elimination was made of the miscellaneous types of generalizations, a total of one hundred twenty-one statements were located. Note was made of the wide variations of grade level of introduction, emphasis, and phrasing of the generali- zations. Of the fifty different vowel generalizations, only eleven were common to all four series. None of these eleven was presented initially at the same half- year grade level in all four series. Some series gave a much greater emphasis to the generalizations than did other series. One series introduced only thirty-three of the one hundred twenty-one generalizations, while another presented sixty-eight. These comments were not ;Fade to detract from the usefulness of basic materials, butt...2.ntout1;:heir differences. These differences call for careful ad- justment in the classroom when pupils are moved from one set of materials to an- other. Teachers who chan:e from Series A to Series B ma need to make some im- 2.......itrevisiortarisintheiri..siordreconi. CONSONANTS The simplest way to identify the consonants is to state that they are all the letters in the alphabet with the exception of the vowels. Consonants are relatively consistent in the sounds they produce as compared with vowels. You will find this is true of b, d, f, h, j, k, 1, m, n, p, r, t, v, w, y and z, which nearer always records the sounds heard in the initial sound of the following words: 16-A 2. When c is followed by letters other than. e, i or y, or is the final letter in a syllable, it usually has the hard sound: cat pact arc X Another letter that lacks a distinct sound of its own is x 1. In technical vords x sometimes records the sound associated with the letter z: xylophone xylidine 2. One of the commonly recorded sounds of x is represented b;y the letter combination of ks: fix ax 3. When x is followed by a vowel or a silent: h, you will find it has the sound represented by the letter combination, z: exercise exhibEt G The letter z has a "soft" and hard sound. The following is usually true: 1. The sound of is soft when it is followed in a syllable by e, i, or ix: gesture giant gym 2. If z is the final letter in a syllable or is followed in the syllable by any other letter than e, i or z, it has the "hard" sound. gable ghost pig 3. The letter, can also be a silent letter. The most common instance is when z is followed by n in a syllable: gnaw reign D The letter d records three sounds: 1. Its usual sound is hard in words like: doll do 2. When the consonant sound preceding d in a syllable is that of a voiceless consonant (s, k, to p) the letter d sounds like t helped missed looked puffed 9 19 3. The d sometimes has the sound of j as Sn: soldier S The letter s also has more than one sound: 1. The most common sound of s is found in see (voiceless) when it is at the beginning of a word or a syllable: see insist 2. The consonant s usually has the sound of s in see (voiceless) when it is the first sound in a group of consonants. (The digraph sh is an exception.) rest mask 3. Xf the consonant s comes just before ure in a word it may have the sound of sh (voiceless) or zh (voiced). (It may also have the sound of sh or zh in such words assmar, usual_, and tissue.) Measure sure pleasure 4. The other sound of s is heard in such words as: heads Voiced and Voiceless Consonants wags pads In his technical analysis of sounds the phonetician refers to certain of the consonants as being voiced; to others as being unvoiced or voiceless. Such a classification is based on the state of the vocal cords when these consonants are pronounced. When the voiced consonants are sounded, the vocal cords are drawn to- gether and they vibrate (d,z,g,v, and b). On the other hand, when the voiceless consonants are sounded (s,k,f and p) the vocal cords remain open and are silent. Double Consonants When words contain a double consonant, only one of the letters is sounded, the other is silent. (In multisyllable words the consonant sounded is usually the one in the accented syllable as in cotta'- mu - nist.) stiff Short Vowels uluukru a, e, i, o, u. stress hopping VOWEL SOUNDS The following generalizations are based on the syllable as the unit of pro- ntntiation 20 1. If there is only one vowel in a syllable, and it does not come at the end of the syllable, it is usually short. cat pet pig mop nut 2. When a syllable ends in nce or tm, the preceding vowel is usually short. Another way of stating this in a more general way is to say that in words of one syllable having vowels separated by more than two consonants the first vowel is usually short: badge fence fringe dodge fudge 3. When a syllable ends in ous, the ou assumes the sound of short u. jealous dangerous callous 4. When a comes after w in words of one syllable it usually has the sound of short S. This is true unless 11 or r comes just after it: wad was wand want 5. If the spelling ie ends words of more than one syllable, you usually hear the sound of short i: prairie Long Vowels a, e, i, o, u. brownie cookie The long vowel sounds are those heard in the initial part of age, eat, ice, open and use. The following generalizations should be given special emphasis in phonics instruction: 1. If there is only one vowel in a syllable, and it comes at the end of the syllable, it is usually long. This is especially true of e, o, and 21. she Solo my 2. When words of one syllable contain two or more vowels the first vowel is usually long. All other vowels are silent. The vowels may have one or more consonants between them or they may be together. (Note: You will find that when u is the first of one or more vowels in a word it will sometimes have its long sound or the sound of "615 as in do. Obtample: due) rain meat pie rope cube 3. In line with the above generalization some teachers like to develop an- other generalization. This applies to words of one syllable containing two vowels, the second of which is the final e; the first vowel is usually long and the final e is silent: take Pete pine pole tube 21 1. Usually the spelling or has the sound of the or as in for. The excep- tions to this are when it has w just before it or the letter e right after it, nor cork corner doctor 2. If or is preceded by w it usually has the sound of the ur as in cur: work word worm worship 3. The student will have to use word meaning and content clues for deciding which vowel sound to use when the spelling or has e after it at the end of a word or syllable. a. The spelling or followed by e at the end of word or syllable has the sound of or as in more: Examples: store, core b. The same spelling (or) also has the sound of as in ,porch and fort: 4. If the spelling ar is not preceded by w it usually has the sound of the ar as in car: far darn bark harm 5. The spelling ar when it comes just before e at the end of a sentence has the sound of ar as in care: wares mares bare 6. Usually the spellings er, it and ur have the sound of ur as in cur: merge mirth churn 7. If the'spelling it precedes e at the end of a word or a syllable it usually has the sound of the it in spire: hire mire tire fire 8. If the spelling ur precedes e at the end of a word, it usually has the sound as in the following words: sure pure endure 9. In multisyllable words ending in the spellings er, or, ar or ur they usually have the sound of er in better: scholar distemper reflector murmur 10, The spelling ear may have one of three sounds: clear bear earthen 24 11. Usually the spelling air has the sound of ar as in rare: stair lair flair 12. If you find the spelling ar, er, it and or followed by another r the preceding vowel will usually have its short sound: sparrow derrick Di t...2astst s For phonics, the most useful definition of a diphthong is that it refers to the sound of a vowel combination, which is unlike the sound of either of the indi- vidual vowels. Attention to diphthongs is important not only because of their par- ticular sounds but because they function as a single vowel when phonic generali- zations are being applied. For example: if two unfamiliar words were noise and choice, the of combination in each would function as a single vowel. As a result, the of would have its diphthong sound, and the final e would be silent. Another authority states this generalization as: A diphthong is a vowel, or a group of vowels, that stands for two speech sounds in a one syllable word or in a syllable: 1. of (oil) 4. ou - (out) 2. oy - (toy) 5. ow - (cow) 3. ey (they) 6. ew - (few) (In 5 and 6 of the above the w functions as a vowel. The spellings ou and ow may also have the sound of long (o) as in 2= and know,) VOWEL SOUNDS NOT GOVERNED BY GENERALIZATIONS As stated before in the pronunciation of the vowel, or group of vowels, the spelling cannot be covered by rules. The reader will have to use word meaning and context clues to decide which vowel sound to use in certain words. (This is very difficult for the student learning English as a second language. This is why it is so important for the student to have the word in his speaking vocabulary before being exposed to it in print.) 1. In addition to the sounds of o as described above, it also may have the sound of 64 as in do or the sound of Tao in come: do a some u 2. This is also true of the letter a which may sometimes have the sound of e as in my. any -- many 3. In words ending in such endings as ine and ice and the syllable is accented, the vowel i may have the sound of long e: ice -- police ine -- Pauline 4. The vowel u as has been explained above may have the sounds of: u, 5b,16. Sometimes it will also be heard as 3; as in pull. full oo 5. The spelling oo usually will have the a sound as in 2221 or as in look. In addition, the vowels oo may have the sound of 8 as in door or of tras in blood. floor o flood -- 6. The spelling ou may have the sound as in shout. It also may have the following sounds: four you coo thought o cough 11. rough 7. The spelling ow, may have the sound of ou as in cow; in addition it may have the sound of "6" as in show: how slow ft ou 8. Following the generalization that when two vowels come together in a one syllable word, the first vowel is long and the other vowels are silent. Example: clean. In addition the spelling ea may have the sound of great i bread - e 9. The same applies to the spelling ei. It may have the sound governed by the basic rule as in seize. In addition the spelling ei may have the following sounds: veil heifer I; foreign r 10, The spelling ew may have two sounds as heard in: pew - u flew - 26 SYLLABIFICATION Phonetic analysis of a totally unfamiliar word may begin by a division of the wcrd into syllables. (A syllable is a single letter or a group of letters pro- nounced as pa::t of a word or it may be a whole word: hop, i-rate, tom-a-hawk.) Once the division is made, each syllable may be analyzed, and then the syllable can be blended lino the word itself. With a child learning English as a second language, generalizations about sounds and about syllabification are most productive if the child has the word in his spoken vocabulary. For example, if the child had the word tomahawk in his oral vocabulary, then his skill in phonetic analysis, combined with his knowing the word in its spoken form, would be sufficient to help him identify the word the first time he encountered it in written form. In the beginning the teacher will use monosyllabic words to illustrate various points of phonic analysis. (There are many words with only one syllable that the child will encounter in reading.) However, with monosyllabic words you are unable to demonstrate an essential characteristic of letter-sound generalizations about the English language. For example, the three letter spelling combination of a, r, and e usually sounds as it does in care when these three letters are in the same syllable of a word, but each has its own sound when they appear in different syl- lables (a - re - na). Another example would be the letter combination aw. It has a particular sound when it appears together (aw ful), but each letter has its own sound when appearing in separate syllables (a - wake). Vowel sounds in words are sometimes affected by the stress, or lack of stress, placed on the syllable when it is pronounced. In words of two or more syllables, one of them is usually accented. (There will be a complete section on the use of accent in this bulletin.) How is the division of words made? Within the written form of words there are certain visual clues that suggest correct syllabification: Statements about these clues are generalizations that are very important for the teaching of the communi- cation skills of listening, talking, reading and writing. These generalizations are listed as follows: 1. Each syllable must have a sounded vowel; this may come from the spelling combination of one or more vowels: brisk fee"ble chick en 2. Double Consonants: a. If two consonants are found between two vowels, a syllable may be made between the two consonants: scar let Le no rant b. Words may be divided between double consonants. Usually only one of the consonants is sounded and it is the one in the accented syllable: run' ner 29 V 3. Each syllable must have a vowel sound, so words may be divided between a vowel and a consonant in order to place a vowel in each syllable. Usually when dividing between a vowel and a consonant each new syllable will be- gin with a consonant: baby eta ble e lect 4. When consonant digraphs or consonant blends are found between two vowels they usually are not divided, but remain in the same syllable: a shamed ma chine se cret 5. If a single consonant is preceded and followed by vowels, the consonant sound usually goes with the vowel following it: e lect be gin u nite 6. Two vowels may be divided if they do not form one speech sound or a diphthong: (oi, oy, ey, ou, ow, ew): su et ra di o di e tar y 7. When the letter x is preceded and followed by vowels, its sound usually is in the same syllable as the preceding vowel: taxi ox en ex it 8. If a word ends with le and is preceded by a consonant, that consonant usually forms a syllable with the le: table Grip ple gar gle 9. You will find prefixes and suffixes generally form separate syllables: un tie shoe less re do tug 10. The suffix ed needs a special generalization: a. If preceded by d or t it forms a separate syllable: want ed cord ed b. When ed is not preceded by d or t it does not form a separate syllable: worked banged 11. In pronouncing compound words (playground) divide the word into syllables. Then blend the sounds of the syllables together as you would in avp word of more than one syllable. 12. In pronouncing contractions (don't, can't, etc.), look for a whole word first, sound it and blend the sound, or sounds, of other letters in the word, 30 13. When a syllable ends in a vowel, the vowel is usually long: be eon. (This is called an zalasynallikei) When the syllable ends in a consonant, the vowel is usually short: after, (This is called a closed s liable.) PRINCIPLES OF ACCENT Locating the syllables in a word that get special stress (accent) is part of the job involved in arriving at the correct pronunciation of the word. (This is especially important for the child learning to read English as a foreign language.) Unfortunately this is a difficult task as the stress patterns of American English words show as many variations as do the sounds of the letters. One authority states, "There are even some words, such as detail and address, for which a pattern has not yet been definitely established." In site of these kinds of irregulari- ties, the following generalizations regarding the location of accents are offered. (Some knowledge of generalizations about accents can be helpful to the bilingual in his reading. These are not infallible rules.) 1. When two like consonants follow the first vowel, it usually means an acm canted first syllable, and a short vowel in that syllable. Example: b3nI net 2. When there are two like consonants before an ending or a suffix, there is usually an accented final syllable of the root word, and there is a short vowel sound in that syllable: Example: 13 ted 3. When there are two vowels in the last syllable of a word, usually the ac cent is on the final syllable and a long sound is in that syllable. Example: a rase' 4. In a word where there is a single consonant before an ending or a suffix, the vowel usually has a schwa sound, in an unaccented final syllable, or a long vowel sound and a dropped final "e" in an accented final syllable. Example: or' bit ing in vrt' ed 3. In the English language, words of three or more syllables usually are ac- cented on one of the first two syllables. Example: per' son al 6. In the inflected (prefixes or suffixes) or derived forms, the primary accent usually falls on or within the root word. Example: rWa' son able 7. In compound words, a common pattern of accent is a missy accent on or within the first syllable and a secondary accent on or within the second part. Example: Me' ball' 31 it illiterate inn impersonal Common Suffixes A suffix is placed at the end of a root word to change its meaning and to form a new word. After listing the most common groups of lettere used as suffixes, a list of generalizations will be given governing their pronuncia- tion. able lovable is heroic age bondage ier cashier al musical ing running an European ish girlish ance allowance less careless ancy abundant ly port& dam kingdom vent amazement ed looked, called, it known wanted eer auctioneer ness blackness ....... en broken or tailor ence dependence ous famous ency ewer erne.. a cats, cabs, ant excellent sion tension er farmer teen sixteen ery hatchery th growth es dishes tion adoption ess princess ty seventy est loudest xion complexion ful thankful y soaRx ible terrible In teaching such structural elements as roots prefix, suffix, it is important past the primary level to explain to the children the meanings of these words: 34 prefix (to fix before) suffix (to attach to) root (the body of the word) Do not underestimate or insult the intelligence of your students by describing; these elements as "little parts," or "little words before and after.:" Generalizations About the Uses and Sounds of Suffixes The suffix ed: When added to certain words it shows past time. ILsialluasimEEatmaa: (1) When added to words ending in any voiceless consonant except t, (voiceless consonants p, k. f, s2 h) ed has the sound of t. winked dished tipped puffed hissed (2) When added to words ending in any voiced consonant except d or a vowel sound, (voiced consonants b, g, v, z, m, n, 1, r, w, j) ed has the sound of d. begged spilled An easy way to train oneself to recognize the difference from voicelessness and voicing is to cover the ears tightly with the hands and say aloud, a pair of words like pack: bag. A strong buzz is audible throughout the word bag, but only for the vowel in pack. (All vowels are voiced.) Or the vibration can be felt by pressing them gently against the "Adams Apple." (3) When ed follows the consonants d or t it adds another syllable, sanded wanted The Suffix s: When added to certain words to make a new word it may have two sounds: (1) After voiceless consonants (p, t, k, f, s, h) it has the sound of s as in sin: tops staffs stacks (2) After voiced consonants (b, d, g, v, z, m, n, 1, r, w, j) or vowels (all vowels are voiced) it has the sound of z: clues suns kegs toes The Suffix es: The suffix es is usually added instead of s to root words ending with spirants (letters with hissing sounds) or with sounds that do not blend well with the sound of s. (voiceless f, th, s, sh) or (voiced v, th, z) (also z as in azure). Also es is added to many words ending in e, fe,, ch or z. 35 '77 (1) Meaning more than one: wishes ditches (2) When added to action words it tells that he, she, or it, does what the root word shows: she runs he runs it falls (3) It has the sound of ex or iz when it is added to words ending with a spirant (letters with hissing sounds): O hushes patches glasses (4) It has the sound of s as in in when added to words ending with a voiceless consonant sound other than the sound of the spirant: pops mates cakes (5) It has the sound of z when added to a word ending with a voiced consonant sound or a vowel sound: slides pies toes Generalizations About Changes in Root Words Before Suffixes are Added: 1. Words of one syllable having a single vowel just before the last conson- ant usually doubles the consonant before adding a suffix beginning with a vowel: hop hopping hopped 2. Words ending in f or fe usually change these endings to v before adding the suffix es: half - halves wife - wives 3, If a word's last syllable is accented and ends with a single consonant having a single vowel before it, the final consonant is usually doubled before adding a suffix beginning with a vowel: submit' - submitted regret' - regretting 4. If a word ends in a silent e the e is usually dropped before a suffix be- ginning with a vowel: rope roping roped nudge nudging nudged 5. One syllable words with a long vowel sound and ending with e just after c- ot E, the e is usually kept when the suffix begins with o, a, or a conson- ant: strange - strangely peace - peacable 36 Although reluctant readers are alike in their resistance to reading instruc- tion, each is unique from his fellow-resistor in one or more ways. There are bright and dull bilingual students just as with your entire school population. You find many reading below their ability levels. Because of shyness and fear of ridicule, they are frequently poor classroom performers. Some excell in numbers, but are hard pressed to spell out-the basic concepts of math in words. Artistic and mechanical talents often compensate for defeat in communication skills. Re- sentment is manifest in many different ways with these upper grade bilingual stu- dents who are not up to grade-level. Their reading disability causes embarrass- ment in school, and the constant pressure from teachers adds acid to the brew of their acerbity. Self-confidence is lacking to a dangerous degree. More than your native English speaking student, the bilingual child becomes failure-oriented when it comes to wrestling significance from the printed page. When you study the Indian student's reading disabilities, you will find many times he is not lacking in word attack skills but is woefully inexperienced in reading for functional purposes. He sees no "real" purpose for reading. To him, it is something that adults think he should do. He cannot visualize how the use of words and control of ideas can help him achieve his self-set goals. These in- adequate readers have pitiably limited vocabularies, both in English and their own language, and for them much supplementary assistance is needed. If they do not have the basic skills, these must be taught systematically, repetitiously and con- scientiously. In cases where they have the basic skills but fail to use them ef- fectively, help will be needed to assist them gain skill in applying their know- ledge in order to develop independence and find pleasure and satisfaction in read- ing. Only by knowing each reluctant reader in your class can you help him. The bilingual student is no exception especially here in Arizona where we have Spanish- speaking, as well as Indian students, from many different language groups. It is well to take into account the native language of the student, being taught, when you diagnose his reading disabilities. Since your students vary so in cultural background, native language and mores, this poses a different view on such student's personality and mentality, and yoUab a teacher then have a special responsibility to discover all you-can about each individual student. Your best source of information should be your cumulative records. You need to know what to look for: Has he attended school regularly? If he is Indian, has he moved often, from public to government schools and back again? Has the school- ing been on or off reservation? Does he go with his parents when they take season- al off reservation employment? What has been the philosophy of the schools that he has attended? Have you checked his health record? Frequent or long-term absences, and late enrollment play havoc with reading achievement where no provision is made for make-up instruction. Check for hearing and sight disabilities; these are major factors in failure to achieve basic reading skills. Review closely results of standardized tests of reading achievement he has taken. What are his relative strengths and weaknesses as reported in these tcats? Does his learning profile show'he is an underachiever? Has his progress been steady or are there plateaus on the profile? How does the Indian child in your classroom deal with his lessons and with people? Are his work habits efficient or does he busy himself with many "little things?" Observe his staying power and attention span. (Indian children are great weather forecasters and the spring of the year brings on much daydreaming.) Does he have broad and deep concepts in English or are his understandings superficial? 39 Row is it4 gaccepted by other students and what are his attitudes towards them? One bilingual, who is not achieving in school may be bullying and disruptive, while another Way be timid and withdrawn. His contributions, and his lack of expression, in group discussion are a good measure of his grasp of the communication skills in English. As your knowledge of each student grows so will your competency in ability to give direction to the reading selections and activities you assign to assist your bilingual student. LANGUAGE PERFORMANCE Appraisal of the bilingual's performance with words Should be assessed in de- tail just as your evaluation of his interests, anxieties, and emotional maturity. It is well to remember that you, as an upper grade teacher, must continue to sus- tain, and harmonize the learning of the four communication skills in their logical order: hearing, speaking, reading and writing. The bilingual child will reveal the stage of his vocabulary development in English as he reads aloud or,talits. Be sure to check his comprehension by use of purpose questions for silent readills of sentences, paragraphs, and whole selections. Whatever his limitations in reading, your student learning English as a second language gains much through listening. One authority on second language learning suggests that at the upper grade level, a student should spend at least twenty percent of his time in listening, twenty percent in speaking, forty percent in reading orally and silently, and twenty per- cent in writing. Indian students must be encouraged and many times almost pressured to participate in group discussion. It is against many tribes' cultural patterns to disagree orally with another person's opinion so be sure to study the thought potential in critical response, if and when he makes them, to the response of others. The bilingual student, who is not reading up to his grade level, has word trouble aplenty. By skipping over words he does not understand, he leaves gaps in the sentence he is trying to understand. Words as such have little or no interest to him. The glossary is many times useless to him even if he has the interest and ability to use it, Think how confusing the use of the dictionary becomes when an unknown word is defined in a number of words just as strange to the reader. He can be very inept in locating an entry in the dictionam understanding the sym- bols and then ultimately arriving at the right definition. Context clues are al- most as useless in arriving at the meaning of an unknown word, if he does not understand the content. His general vocabulary is usually very meager. Even the words he has in his spoken vocabulary he fails to recognize in print, if he has been taught by the say-see method. This makes his stock of sight words lower than his listening-speaking vocabulary. Another major problem is that he is apt to know only one or two of the many meanings an English word may have. If he has had a bad attendance record his word-attack skills may be limited and uncertain. Above all if he was exposed to reading before he spoke English fluently, his auditory discrimination is often poor and his sound blending ability worse, With this lack of skill he will be unable to analyze a word and draw mean- ing from its parts: base, prefix or suffix. Compound words even when self-explana- tory baffle him at times. You will find that frequently the bilingual reader's syllable sense is very poorly developed. If he does not know the phoy=es of the English language, it is hard for him to hear parts of words clearly. Figurative language loses much of its delights and subleties in translation. Biblical and mythological allusions frequently mean nothing to him. How can he understand a piece of writing when he has missed possibly the general interpretation, and cer- tainly the overtones of satire, indirect implications, and connotations? 40 a Directly related to his lack of comprehension of what he has read, is his lack of ability to understand and participate in discussion about the reading ma- terial. Hard as he may try the retarded bilingual student can at best learn super- ficially such things as the names of characters, the plot of a short story or de- tails of incidents from the story. Due to his lack of comprehension, his time spent in passive listening to his instructors and classmates is frequently wasted. He has to be exposed to a word orally and written in meaningful context a num- ber of times before it becomes a part of his speaking vocabulary. Much more than your native English speaking students, he must involve himself with your help, in vecabulary building. In addition, he needs skillful coaching in acquiring inde- pendence in word mastery. When he cannot attack the word independently and in addition does not know the meaning, his 7anndicap: is tuoield. Where your student does not speak English fluently, he commonly fails to make necessary connections in reading sentences. He does not mentally close the circuit between a subject and its verb, he finds no connection between a verb and its modi- fier. Spanish-speaking and Navajo students, because of the patterns of their na- tive language, find it difficult to tie the modifier up with the term it was meant to modify. You can be sure if he has not grasped the melody of English in his spoken language, he has never mastered the signal code of punctuation marks. With long sentences, it is very difficult for him to derive the exact meaning set forth by the writer. The intent of a written sentence is many times lost on the second language student. It is very difficult for him to distinguish between a statement of fact and one of judgment. (This is not unique with the bilingual student.) Sweeping generalization will pass over his head like a gentle blowing breeze. One of the major publishing companies of books for reluctant readers advises teachers to assess the several abilitils of their less able readers and to relate parts of the whole selection, and reflect upon them. Consider his performance in the following as you plan your developmental reading program: 1. Sensing relations between main topics and supporting details 2. Finding and reading aloud a passage to probe a point 3. /11ustrating a generalization 4. Generalizing soundly from concrete illustrations 5. Following the order of the author's thinking 6. Visualizing a scene described 7. Sensing a characterization through action and speech 8. Following clues to predict outcomes 9. Entering into the mood of a selection 10. Enjoying humor 11. Understanding the author's purpose 12. Detecting illogical relationships. 41 N Sometimes teachers become so involved in testing to see if the students under- stand what they read that they forget that reading is but one facet of the communi- cation skills, and that all language arts are only agents for communication of a thought. Encourage your students to pursue many kinds of activities growing out of their reading experience. If your students are so disadvantaged in the use of English that they cannot formulate their own questions to give a purpose to their reading, then by all means, read orally and give emphasis to teacher made ques- tions. Unlike the English speaking students, many bilingual students do not ap- proach reading because of their impoverished experiential background, with a pur- pose and with personal inquiries. You, the teacher, must supply this stimulus where it is lacking. Expanding this idea further, you must not only supply a purpose for reading, but also you must vary your methods of motivation. Choral reading, dramatizing, and use of diversified written activities all help to prevent monotony. Your bilinpuglshIld needs a routine that offers security. This he has had in the directed reading activities used by his lower-grade teachers. Your plan can be equally effective if adapted to the grade level of your students. Indian students, especially, need to have confidence in the competence of their teacher. They re- spect a teacher who has well-defined purposes and technical proficiency. They are more inclined to cooperate than students from the dominant culture, when they see a clear market path marked for them--with the:LrreEsibilit made definite by the teacher. Your teacher's manual certainly will not hamper your creativity in working with bilingual students. It is usually organized in terms of the steps of directed reading activity. You, the teacher, are in the best position to key the suggestions offered to the needs, interests and background of your class. Upper-grade and secondary teachers who have not been as well trained in the teaching of reading as they have in their own specialty will find the manual very beneficial in helping them plan for sequential skills development in their reading program. With the fear of being redundant perhaps we should touch briefly on the five steps for teaching a good lesson offered in a manual planned to go with one of the widely used basic readers. As you read through the steps notice how the sugges- tions have been adapted to fit the needs of the bilingual students in the class. These suggestions are offered to be used with material that has been selected using the ten criteria listed earlier. Your bilingual students may have faced failure so many times in the past that they will not be willing to take up the struggle of wading through new material without some assurance that the material can be read and will prove interesting and Worthwhile. The Readiness Step should have a twofold purpose. First the student duet be motivated, but what is the use of motivating the students to read if you have not anticipated their difficulties with concepts and vocabulary. You, as a teacher, must motivate the student to read by your initial enthusiastic presenta- tion of a new selection. Secondary the teacher must prepare the student to read. Of course you certainly cannot remove all problems so that reading poses no chal lenge. Rather, you should try to anticipate and eliminate major obstacles to free, fluent and comprehensible reading. Never fear that there will be more challenges than you can possibly anticipate or prepare for with your student that is penalized because of his ladk of understanding of English, limited reading vocabulary, and background information. Only after a good readiness period of motivation and Prev- aration can your bilingual child strike out confidently into material that would otherwise defeat him. .44 The pictures and other visual aids applicable to the theme of your selection should be used more often with the bilingual reader than with your English speaking students. Examine and discuss these visual aids as you prepare your students to read. They may clarify concepts of size, time or location not familiar to students that have not had an opportunity to have experiences beyond their own environment. Your introduction may be very simple. Have the students turn to an interesting picture in the selection. Good illustrations are invaluable as you work with these students. Through them you can develop both concepts and vocabulary. As you ask questions about the picture bring out new words by informal use. As you talk about the illustrations, pause to write the new words on the board, discussing their meaning and have the students say them orally,. Do not go into analysis at this point as it might interrupt the flow of thought. (Reserve this for a later time.) This way your students will have the experience of 'magas, iftykal and ,seeing the new words. After you have aroused interest in the material, helped students with the new words, you should be able, at this time, to introduce your "Rmostsmat. tions". These provide students with a specific reason for reading. The length of the readiness period may vary from day to day depending upon the material present. For the bilin.L..........as........hisisttnualstudete well spent. They will then proceed to the silent reading with a sense of confidence and purpose. One reading authority adds a word of caution--122410-42111stalwayALSIDILdett GUIDED SILENT READING Most reading teachers of English speaking children, as a general rule, feel that silent reading should precede oral reading after the primary grades. With the bilingual student this will come later in the grades. The silent reading of new materials "at sight" is indeed a major achievement in the learning of a new lan- guage. This istep of reading can be achieved only by those who have mastered the final basic signals of English very thoroughly. The advantage of silent reading with older students after a good readiness period, is that they gain independence in word analysis and the use of context clues by individual practice that is inherent in the process of silent reading. As they are compelled to interpret and organize for themselves, they grow in skills and comprehension. Ths......11a21.....3eomearreaditsalreaditittlishandnot transla- tion. The above can be true only if the students are reading materials on or near their instructional level. No progress can be erected if are,,given terials too difficult for them. Guided silent reading should be just as near as possible to reading in other subjects where the student reads for a purpose. If in the readiness period, stu- dents have formulated their own reasons for reading, then they have the most valid of purposes. But even if they read for a purpose supplied by the teacher, they have a core around which to assemble impressions and organize materials. Circulate about the room as your students read silently, or if you have more than one group, work with only one group at a time. A.student who needs help may raise his hand. Tell the child the word or definition he needs, do not dwell too long on analysis. Make a note of any problems that several students are having. Then you may work on them with the group later. This is an excellent time to help individual students overcome poor reading habits. A word of advice here and there will help students adjust their reading speeds to the material being read. You may use this time as a diagnostic period. 45 It is easy to see which students are uninterested or frustrated in their efforts. The nature of their requests for help will point out their areas of weakness. Students will read at different speeds. They will not all be finished at the same time. You can't have most of your class sitting around idle, or causing dis- turbance, while a few finish. It is a good "rule of thumb" to begin your discus- sion when approximately eighty to ninety percent of your class is ready. The well- advised teacher has found it necessary to provide some sort of seatwork for part of the class if the reading rates in the class are very divergent. Most reading authorities feel that this seatwork should not be on the material just read. (This will come as a surprise to many teachers.) If this surprises you, stop and think: With the bilingual child especially, the material has not been discussed and clari- fied so there is little point in having the students write erroneous or confused ideas. Other students may not read the entire selections, but employ their time in searching for answers to questions. A better type of seatwork is based on com- prehension skills, problems in word analysis and word building that have already been taught. Commercially or teacher prepared material may be used here. Your period of discussion following silent reading is the place where the com- prehension skills are developed. This is a very vital period for the bilingual student and should be very well planned and not a hit or miss affair. First of all, answer and discuss your ximpse questions which were formulated before the silent reading period. Students should know they will be held accountable, if possible, for the answers to these questions. It will help them make a real effort to keep them in mind and organize their replies. A good answer requires selecting among details. It is very likely you will find your bilingual students weak in specific kinds of comprehension skills. Take great care in formulating questions to give practice needed in the following areas: 1. Factual questions are usually easiest for the bilingual student unless they deal with too many minor details. Being the easist, begin the discussion with this type of question, as it gives the linguistically handicapped student a sense of confidence. 2. Inference questions are hard for teachers to compose and are often neg- lected. "Reading between the lines" or to drawing conclusions that are not directly stated in the text is a very difficult task for the student that does not have a good understanding of the English language. Remember an easy way to phrase infer- ence questions is to begin with a phrase such as: "How can you tell that v OR "What makes you think that----?" 3. In vocabulary questions the student should not be asked to define a word. Giving a definition of a word is a very high level comprehension skill. A mistake teachers make is to ask a student to say the word in his native tongue to see if he understands the meaning. The naive assumption that each single word in English and some single word in some other language are simply two different tags for precisely the same bundle of experiences or meaning is entirely wrong. Except for highly technical words, there are no words in two separate languages that cover the same areas of meaning. The best way to define a word is to have the student give a syn- onym or antonym to tell how things are alike or different, or to illustrate with actions, or facial expression. 4. Organizational questions may require the restating of a twain idea for the student to assemble facts and ideas and present them in one, two, three order. 46 Skilled teachers have found with wise coaching and guidance that bilingual students can be trained to frame their own comprehension question. Working in this way can afford some variety from intensive questioning by the teacher. Do not ex- act this too soon. If there is difficulty in answering questions, direct the student to the text for rereading. Here is the perfect time for oral reading as the student reads a- loud, to prove a point. Ask students to read conversation as they think the char- acter in the selection would have said the statement, or asked the question. Good description, or lively action, is highlighted if reaq aloud. These are excellent techniques to use with students that are hesitant to answer questions aloud and should be a must until you can encourage and stimulate them to talk freely. It is interesting to note that the methods recommended by successful teachers for developing comprehension skills through an oral question period is a time hon- ored way of teaching. In essence, it is the Socraticmetmulatinvivid, and effective. Of course one of your major problems is to diagnose areas in which your class is weak. Your upper-grade bilingual student may have come through a primary and intermediate reading program in which he was exposed to a good program for develop- ing word attack skills, However, he is likely to have gaps in his mastery of these skills. Words questioned by students during the directed silent reading period, as do the mispronunciations and hesitations evident during oral reading, will furnish you cities as to their remedial needs. SOUNDS IN ENGLISH Students learning English as a second language frequently are not able to rec- ognize consonant blends that cause difficulty. (Be sure to cheek, as simple as it may seem, that your students are able to associate the blends with the graphic sym- bols standing for them.) Consonant Blends: (Where two or more letters are blended together.) 1. Blends ending with 1: bl, cl, fl, gi, pl, sl, spl. 2. Blends ending with r: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, chr, scr, shr, spr, str, thr. 3. Blends beginning with w: dw, sw, tw. 4. Blends beginning with s: se, sk, sm, sn, sp, st, soh. Digraphs: (A combination of two letters that has a sound unlike that of either of the individual letters.) 1. Some common consonant digraphs in which two letters represent a single sound are: ch, sh, th, wh, wr, ng. 2. Children learning a second language have difficulty in recognizing blends and digraphs in initial, medial, and final positions. Examples: stem, instant, least 49 chime, hatchet, beach (Ch is especially difficult for Spanish speaking students.) Vowel Sounds 1. As a minimum, students should recognize vowel sounds that arekart, short, or silent. 2. Be sure they know that a vowel sound is somewhat modified when it is followed by the graphemes: r, w, or 1. 3. Bilingual students may need practice in recognielig and sounding vowel diphthongs. Unlike your English speaking students they cannot use con- text clues to help them where a vowel or a group of vowels stands for several different sounds. 4, It is not unusual to find students even when they know the basic rules for sounding vowels unable to apply them. Because many teachers have asked for a simple statement of these rules, here they are as listed in the above mentioned Teacher's Manual, a, In a one-vowel word, the vowel is usually long if it comes at the end of the word. Example: he, no. b. In a two-vowel word when one vowel is e at the end, the first vowel is long and the e is silent. Example: ride. c. In a one-vowel word or syllable in which the vowel stands between two consonants, the vowel is usually short. Example: top, nut. d. In v'ords containing a vowel digraph, the first vowel is usually long and the second vowel is silent, Example: rain, boat. WORD ANALYSIS Students must be able to recognize root or base words. In order to do this they need to be familiar with common prefixes, suffixes, and inflectional endings. (Do you know them? OR, do you need to review them?) One of the biggest surprises, to not only thetturtual student in the upper-grades but also many times to English speaking students, is finding a familiar word behaving as a different part of speech. Also when the base word changes in spelling because of the inflectional ending your bilingual student will need help in recognizing the inflected form. Rules for Syllabication If students do not know the basic rules for syllabication they will find it difficult to attack new words. Again, because many teachers have asked for them, they are repeated here: 1. When a word has a double consonant, or two consonants, following a vowel, divide the word between the consonants, such as: Hit-tite, Mis-sis-sip-pi, Ham-mer-feat, col-lec-tive, Ap-pian, Bren-ner, and tun-dra, Mos-lem, mon-soon, or-bit, or Den-mark. 2. When a vowel is followed by a single consonant in a word of more than one syllable, the division is made before the consonants, as in: co-lo-nial, Hai-fa, Rho-de-sia, So-viet, and vex -to, 50 3. When a word contains a consonant blend, the blend is usually not divided, as in: West - min -ester, Rem-brandt, man-u-scripts, Liv-ing-stone, and Ca-sa-blan-ca. 4. When a word ends in "le" the preceding consonant belongs with the unac- cented ending as in: Bi-ble, mid-dle, Con-Stan-ti-no-ple, mar-ble, 5. A word may be composed of a root, plus a prefix and/or a suffix. Common prefixes that should be learned are: un, ex, pre, ab, ad, cam, en, in, re, de, sub, be, dis, pro. Common suffixes include: ment, tion, tive, ly, less, ance, ness, ful, ship. Practice in word analysis is best given in small doses and in meaningful_ ations. Students learning a second language should apply a new word-analysis skill to familiar words at first. An excellent device is to take words from text selec- tion that the students know and develop a principle inductively, and have the stu- dents formulate their own rule. This has proved very successful with older Indian students: USE OF THE DICTIONARY Unless students are given practice in using syllabication skills, both in the regular developmental reading class and as applied in social studies and other classes, they do not acquire the needed ease of recognition that allows them to read material, that is not familiar to them, with interest; thus, simply plodding along and translating can become a deadly bore. Here is a word of warning. It is best not to ask the bilingual student to look up a word in the dictionary unless the word is presented tla context. When a word is given in isolation, the student has no basis for choosing among the many definitions offered. It is good exercise to use his dictionary and glossary meaningfully -- and not just to keep him busy. as...gsloriverelty...of Buffalo has this to sa about teachin students to learn a second %lase: "In foreign-language work there has been a curious lack of clear thinking beyond the elementary level. In the beginning course (this would correspond to primary work,) we carefully and systematically tackle the phonology, morphology, and syntax, designing each lesson to accomplish a meaningful, handleable chunk of work. But as soon as we move to the reading course we abandon all system, Our readings are chosen apparently for their literary value or their excit- ing plots, and not for their value as language-learning aids; and apparently we believe it does the student's soul good to look up word after word in the dic- tionary -- or else that there isn't anything we can do about vocabulary. Un- fortunately, as a veteran of many such courses in which I was the looker-upper, I can assure you there is nothing more hateful or demoralizing than having to look up two and three words per sentence. One feels that it'is4t1L so haphaz- ard, and that there must be more words than there are stars in the heavens -- and how can one ever learn them all?" The follow-up activities become all important, in fact "the proof of the pud- ding." If your students cannot apply the skills taught in the reading period as tools in other subjects you have indeed failed in your efforts to teach him to read. 51 is to be able to read and to follow directions. This is an extra important skill for the bilingual student. He, as well as other teenagers, are eager to learn about the things that interest them--how they are done and why they work as they do. Use materials that give factual reports on youthful exploration. Selections that explain in simple terms how "things" work are valuable in building the skill of following directions. Most Indian students are interested in nature. Assign expository selections that present contrasts in purpose and structure. This type of reading helps the students to sense variations in mood and design. Biographical selections will introduce your students to young people of cour- age and imagination. As your bilingual student reads such material he should be helped to look for emerging characterization, and the daily life depicted in the story. Openly you, as a the real world of the ing can be set forth. people, of all races, teacher, set out to demonstrate the drama and excitement of dominant American society. Behavioral patterns worth follow- In reading biographies, your students will find that all have their problems and failures and triumphs. Teachers have found that bilingual students flounder when reading an article or essay which has little or no story line. This is an advanced skill for they must cope with key words and abstractions which should help them understand the author's thoughts. You will need to make a careful breakdown of the necessary reading process, then the student through step-by-step guidance will eventually read articles on his own. This is easier said than done. First have the students skim the material to be read, noting the title, the headings, and any other clues to the scope and purpose of the selection. Have them try to decide the purpose of reading this material and if possible relating the apparent scope of the article to his own experience or what he knows about the sub- ject. At first you will have to formulate guide questions about the content for which the students seek answers as they read. In time (don't be impatient) he should be able to make up his own purpose questions. Always remember it is towards independence in reading that the class is moving with your guidance. Be sure the non-fiction materials you use fall within the sphere of general adolescent interest. Also, materials where the reading problems challenge but do not overwhelm your linguistically handicapped students who will need help from you in the form of systematic instruction. Non-fiction requires a slow, thoughtful approach to receive the author's mesh sage. Scientific material calls upon the student to grasp directions accurately, to make logical inferences and to apply known principles. Charts, maps and diagrams should be related to this type of reading. Exploration and historical accounts are not easy reading for students coming from a sub-cultural background. It is many times difficult for them to understand time sequence. This is especially true with the Indian student where his tribe's history is as much mythology as fact. 54 "To know anything with thoroughness'is to know it in all its complexities." The longer you teach the bilingual child the more you will know about his problems. Sometimes the complexities of the problems almost overwhelm you. Do not dismay. Always remember that the teacher is the most important single element in any teach- ing-learning situation. It is your personality, your attitude towards your work and the students, and your desire for increased knowledge in your field which will determine the kind of instructional program the bilingual child will receive. You may have to modify certain techniques and procedure that you learned as "gospel" in your teacher train- ing in order to foster the growth of the Indian or Mexican-American children towards socially and educationally desirable goals. Take stock of yourself often. Some of the questions you may ask yourself are: t A, 1. Do I know the background of my pupils? 2. Do I know their educational background, their living habits, their socio- economic conditions, their hobbies and their interests? 3. Do I know the most modern methods of teaching reading and special methods of teaching English as a second language? 4. Do I know something about the native language of the bilingual childzenjn my roam? 5. Do I use a variety of media to strengthen second language learning? 6. Do I take care of individual differences? 7. Do my plans for teaching reading include activities and 'earnings which students feel they can use immediately in all classes and in their daily lives? 8. Do I start where the child "is" and take him to where he "ain't" by definite steps based on the scope and sequence of his earlier schooling? 9. Do I follow the progress of my students in other classes and make certain what I teach is functional in real life situations? V 10. Do I provide for a continuous evaluation of my students? To assess their needs in terms of the various reading skills do I use: a. standardized teats b. interviewing and observing student c. consulting cumulative records and contributing information to the records d. teacher made tests to measure effectiveness of instruction. 11. Do I modify my procedures if I find they are not achieving important lan- guage social and emotional objectives? The es of ultimate oal of the readlaprogram is to enable students to read all material with cou.rehension ease and en ual children will 0 II rit Teachers of bilin find this a challen in: task When ou combine trainin devotion to an idea and enthusiasm ou have a otent force. 55 Adventures in Literature Childs, Sally B. & Childs, R. S. Craig, Lillian P Dawson, Mildred A. Fries, C. C. Harris, Albert J. Companion Series: Adventures in Literature, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York, 1962. Prepared for students in grades 7 and up who do not achieve at grade level in reading. Specific instruction in upper-grade reading skills are included. Excellent teadhera ma_ nual, 1. Adventures 2, Adventures 3. Adventures 4, Adventures 5, Adventures for You. Ahead. for Today for Americans in Modern Literature Sound Phonics, Educators Publishing Service, Inc., 301 Vassar St., Cambridge, Mass., 1962, This is a timely, much needed book. It is a practical book designed to help teachers understand the complex subject of phonics. There are two records with the book Phonetic Readers 1 to 6 - A Phonetic Reader Series. Educators Publishing Service, Cambridge 39, Mass., 1962. (As retold in phonetic words) 1. Puss in Boots. 2, Jack the Giant Killer. 3. Jack and the Bean Stalk, 4. Alladin and the Wonderful Lamp. 5. Robin- son Crusoe, 6. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Fundamentals of Basic Rwinuatimakag, David McKay Company, Inc., New York, 1963. This is a good book for inexperienced teachers and teachers darning back to teaching after an absence of severnl years. A NewlEgslyrIllaLauggsaLearning, The Kensyusha Press, Tokyo, 1961. This small book contains the basic vaterial for a series of text books through which to teach English to those of Japanese linguistic and social- cultural background. himauttsgRaLftalkaa, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc., New York, 1963. This book pre- sents the first attempt to bring together a nontechnical descriptive survey of modern linguistic knowledge, an analysis of the nature of the reading process in a light of that knowledge. ILIWDS12RatglagEaRtEnlataa, David McKay Company, Inc., New York, 1963, This is a col- lection of selections chosen to provide a varied and nutritious diet of supplementary reading. 56