Instructor-Generated Orthographic Assessments in Intensive English Classes

Author(s):  
Abdulsamad Y. Humaidan ◽  
Katherine I. Martin

Orthographic knowledge, or knowledge of spellings, word forms, and conventions of print, is a crucial skill underpinning a range of literacy skills. Despite its importance, orthographic knowledge receives relatively little attention in second language contexts, including in adult English as a second language (ESL) programs. This chapter provides an overview of orthographic knowledge, its development in first language (L1), and what is understood about orthography in second language (L2). The chapter then reports detailed results of a qualitative interview study in which current and former ESL instructors shared their experiences, practices, and perspectives on orthographic instruction and assessment, including the development and use of instructor-generated assessments. The chapter concludes with a summary of results and suggestions for ESL orthographic instruction and assessment.

Author(s):  
Alex P. Davies

One's linguistic discourse is directly linked to his or her identity construction. The author conducted a qualitative study that investigated the sociolinguistic and sociocultural identities, both current and imagined, of a newly arrived adolescent of refugee status, named Yerodin, through a photo-narrative approach. Yerodin was unique in that he was 11 years old when he arrived to the United States but did not have any prior formalized schooling. Therefore, he was illiterate in both his first language of Swahili and second language of English. This study took place during a summer school program that sought to develop Yerodin and his siblings' literacy skills before the upcoming school year. Findings illustrated Yerodin's current identity as one who appreciated his experiences in the refugee camp prior to resettlement and as an English learner. Furthermore, Yerodin realized that English, his second language, and academics were key to accessing his desired communities of identity, including aspects of American culture and friendships with “American peers.”


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junping Hou ◽  
Hanneke Loerts ◽  
Marjolijn H. Verspoor

The use of ‘chunks’ is not only a common and characteristic feature of first language use, but may also be a distinguishing factor between less and more proficient second language users. The present study aimed at investigating potential correlations between chunk use and holistically rated proficiency scores and development over time in advanced Chinese learners of English as a second language (L2) over the course of 18 months of English classes. Neither holistically rated proficiency scores nor common complexity measures had shown any progress in these learners, but a few lexically based measures did. Therefore, the development of chunks in these learners was examined as chunks are mostly lexical in nature and might show more subtle progress over time. The use of chunks was examined in the first and last two texts of the learners and, in line with previous research, it was found that more proficient writers use relatively more chunks, specifically collocations. Chunk coverage, the total number of chunk words divided by the total number of words, also correlated with some holistic proficiency scores, and increased significantly over time. Average chunk length did not show any correlation with proficiency scores nor did it increase over time. Increased proficiency in written texts is thus specifically related to the use of more chunks. This study shows that development in advanced Chinese L2 learners of English appears to be subtle, which might be due to the fact that at this advanced level mainly lexical changes take place. Future research into development over time in advanced learners may thus have to zoom in on lexical measures especially. Implications of this study point to the importance of promoting the use of target language chunks to advanced learners of English.


MANUSYA ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-95
Author(s):  
P. Sudasna ◽  
S. Luksaneeyanawin ◽  
D. Burnham

The present experimental research studies whether Thai-English bilinguals’ language experience in their non-native language influences the pattern of language processing of the bilingual lexicon. Two groups of 100 native Thai bilingual speakers with high or low English language experience were asked to perform Stroop Interference Tasks, with the processing of word forms being either Thai or English and the processing in colour naming also being either Thai or English. The results showed that when the processing of word forms was in Thai, there was more intra- than interlingual interference, and that the degree of interference was equivalent between the two English experience groups. When the processing of word forms was in English, the high and the low groups showed more intra- than interlingual interference; however, the high group showed more interference than the low group did. The results provide evidence that the maximal interference occurs in the processing of the first language and the interference in the processing of the second language is proportional to L2 language experience. The results suggest that there is a relationship between language experience and language processing of the bilingual lexicon.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Ion Drew

AbstractThis article reviews research on how three first language (L1) approaches designed to promote reading and other literacy skills have been applied to second language (L2) classrooms in Norway: The Early Years Literacy Programme (EYLP), Reading and Writing Workshops, and Readers Theatre (RT). Key ways that L2 readers differ from L1 readers are initially addressed, high-lighting the needs of L2 readers. Following Grabe (2009), L2 readers would benefit from a balanced approach to developing their reading skills, one that incorporates both implicit and explicit teaching and learning. Implicit learning involves plenty and frequent reading input, for example through extensive reading. Explicit learning involves, for example, the development of learners’ metacognitive and metalinguistic awareness, and an understanding of what it means to be a strategic reader. Benefits and challenges involved in the implementation of the three approaches are addressed. With the exception of RT, no research is known to exist at present on how these approaches have been adapted to L2 contexts outside of Norway. The research in Norway shows that each approach can help English as a foreign language (EFL) learners to develop their reading skills both implicitly and explicitly, as well as their metacognition, but that there are challenges, especially of a practical nature, involved in their implementation. Of the three, RT is arguably the easiest to apply to an L2 context.Keywords: L1/L2 reading approaches, implicit/explicit learning, metacognitionLesing i andrespråksklasser: Overveielser over førstespråkstilnærminger i andrespråkskonteksterSammendragDenne artikkelen går gjennom forskning på hvordan tre tilnærminger til lese- og skriveopplæring i førstespråket er blitt anvendt i andrespråksundervisning i Norge: The Early Years Literacy Programme (EYLP), lese- og skriveverksted, og leseteater. Innledningsvis diskuteres viktige forskjeller mellom førstespråkslesing og andrespråkslesing, med vekt på andrespråksleseres behov. Med utgangspunkt i Grabe (2009), vil andrespråkslesere dra fordel av en balansert tilnærming til å utvikle leseferdigheter, en tilnærming som inkluderer både implisitt og eksplisitt læring. Implisitt læring innebærer mye og hyppig lesing, for eksempel gjennom ekstensiv lesing. Eksplisitt læring innebærer for eksempel utvikling av elevenes metalingvistiske og metakognitive bevissthet og en forståelse av hva det betyr å være en strategisk leser. Fordeler og utfordringer ved å implementere disse tre tilnærmingene blir omtalt. Med unntak av leseteater, kjennes det ikke til forskning på hvordan disse tilnærmingene har blitt tilpasset andrespråkskontekster utenfor Norge. Forskning i Norge viser at hver av de tre tilnærmingene, både implisitt og eksplisitt, kan hjelpe elever til å utvikle sine leseferdigheter og metakognisjon, men at det fins utfordringer, særlig av en praktisk art, når de skal anvendes i andrespråkssammenheng. Av de tre tilnær-mingsmåtene synes leseteater å være den enkleste å anvende.Nøkkelord: førstespråkslesing, andrespråkslesing, implisitt/eksplisitt læring, metakognisjon


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Zinszer ◽  
Joelle Hannon ◽  
Aya Élise Kouadio ◽  
Hermann AKPE ◽  
Fabrice Tanoh ◽  
...  

Children around the world learn to read across radically different educational systems and communities. In the west African nation of Côte d’Ivoire, children enter the fifth grade (CM-1) with widely varying literacy skills in French, the official language for primary education. Previous studies have often linked performance in statistical learning tasks with differences in children’s and adults’ literacy outcomes, mainly in Western and high-income educational contexts. We asked whether Ivorian children’s individual differences in emergent second language literacy skills and analogous first language skills could also be explained by their performance in non-linguistic visual statistical learning (VSL). Across three iteratively-developed tasks, 157 children in rural communities surrounding the Adzópe region in Côte d’Ivoire completed a VSL task on touchscreen tablets. We found strong group-level evidence that children exploited the statistical regularities in the image sequence to decrease their response times, but in a post-test, their discrimination between valid and invalid sequences did not exceed chance. Overall, their responses were slower than U.S. children completing a similar task (Qi et al., 2019), and these individual differences in processing speed both confounded statistical learning and predicted second language emergent literacy skills. Moreover, the weak correlation to analogous skills in their first language further suggests that this task did not measure the same skills for the Ivorian children as in previous samples. We recommend adaptations to the statistical learning paradigm that may improve its generalizability across the wider global population.


2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 1133-1153 ◽  
Author(s):  
VICTORIA A. MURPHY ◽  
ERNESTO MACARO ◽  
SONIA ALBA ◽  
CLAUDIA CIPOLLA

ABSTRACTThis study investigated whether learning a second language (L2) has a facilitative effect on first language (L1) literacy and whether there is an advantage to learning an L2 with transparent grapheme–phoneme correspondences. One hundred fifty Year 3 children were randomly assigned into one of three groups: L2 Italian, L2 French, and control. Children were pretested on measures of English (L1) spelling, reading and phonological processing. The L2 groups then received 15 weeks of L2 instruction in Italian or French, respectively. The L2 groups outperformed the control group on posttest measures of English reading accuracy and different aspects of phonological processing. In addition, there was an advantage for the L2 Italian group as their scores were higher than the L2 French group on English reading accuracy and phonological processing.


2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhonda McClain ◽  
Eleonora Rossi ◽  
Judith F. Kroll

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document