Read-alouds show success in the ELL Classroom:
September 23, 2008 by ehaveman05
When ESL students are given the opportunity to sit back and listen to a piece of English literature read aloud—with the intended “intonation and pauses”—students have shown a greater understanding of the literature presented to them. Alejandra Varela, an ESL teacher in New Jersey, decided to read “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe to her first year students. She made special note to read slowly, adjust the tonality and inflection in her voice and leave pauses where she naturally read them.
The results: astounding.
She reflects,
“This was a beginning ESL class, and many of the students are newly arrived immigrants. In spite of this, most of them were able to understand who the poem was about, the mood, and what had happened to the main character. All of this from just one brief read-aloud.”
She recommends reading fictional stories and introducing unknown words before reading them to your students. She claims the benefits of read-alouds include: “helps students sharpen their listening skills and hear the phonetic variations of the English language, which in turn helps them improve their reading, writing, and oral skills”.
What is the problem with this great method?
High school teachers have looked upon read alouds as elementary “pedagogical strategy”. In addition to their skewed view of the strategy, high school ESL teachers are torn between teaching the required curriculum for graduation requirements and taking time to read to their students in an effort to better help them understand the language they’ve been emerged into.
How can I pursue this useful strategy as a future high school ESL teacher?
Well, Alejandra advises an attitude change:
“It is time to recognize that our role as language teachers is not only to teach linguistic competency in the second language, but to help ELL’s acquire reading comprehension skills that will be valuable for them in their future academic endeavors. “
I’m beginning to sense a theme here: answer the question,
“Why do I have to learn this?”
When it comes to teaching, especially ELL’s, students need a purpose, a drive, to motivate them to learn. The traditional mommy answer of, “Because I said so”, simply won’t cut it with these students. They are hungry for knowledge that will allow them to socialize and function with accuracy enough to fit into their new surroundings.
They need to read, they need to write, they need to talk, and they need to live. I have to supply their oxygen to feat the adventure of language learning.
Read-alouds helpful in high school esl classes
By: Alejandra Varela
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments
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This blog is pretty cool, it seems to be discussing ESL students, but most of what was said fits into the general population too. I agree with Alejandra Varela that all of our ESL students should learn how to read and comprehend sentences before they are forced to learn the other English components. If the students cannot read for themselves and capture what the sentences are producing, then how are they going to write sentences that have meaning? They won’t is the answer. I believe this, because I think that you have to see something done and understand it in order to reproduce it. A person does not just read a book and become a surgeon, as that person would have to use models to practice on, and do some observations of the real thing. If you read to the students, they will be able to see and hear the structures of the sentences, and be able to feel the real meaning behind them.
This is definitely an interesting issue…I’ve come to find truth in the notion that “listening comprehension” is typically easier than “reading comprehension.” To hear something read aloud improves one’s idea of the tone of the paper, as you alluded. Listening rather than reading does seem to be easier at times as well. Of course, there are those students who are actually better at reading a second language than they are at listening to one. So, then, of course, the presence of an ELL accommodation may be necessary in regards to reading/listening comprehension, but what’s the best way? It seems to me that reading aloud while having students read the text throughout the reading could be beneficial. But are the students paying attention? Perhaps a “popcorn read” could be effective, so that the students are working together at a common pace, taking turns reading aloud, while simultaneously reading the text in front of them. To promote individual reading comprehension, perhaps the teacher can provide the students with a general idea of what the text is about…like a brief sort of summary that will create a skeleton around which the students can supply the meat of the material. There are so many different ways to go about teaching alone, and the accommodations for ELLs add a whole new selection to the buffet!
I really found this entry to be interesting because I had recently written up a lesson plan based around a read-aloud. Even though it was for an elementary classroom, I had wondered how well it would work in a secondary ESL setting. I know some might think that this is a juvenile like way to teach students, but I don’t really see the problem as long as it is working. I think the whole point of the read-aloud is so that the students actually learn and start to comprehend the material, so when people go against it saying that it is an elementary activity then I think they should reevaluate there educational goals.
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