Second Language Learner Considerations
 
 

Because children must distinguish sounds they hear before they can distinguish sounds they say, it is important that children who speak English as a second language learn to distinguish the sounds they hear in words in their primary language before they have to distinguish sounds in the second language.

Examples

Asking second language learners to perform phonemic tasks requires them to shift their focus from the meaning of the sounds (the content) to the manipulation of individual units of speech.  Breaking the words into phonemes which by themselves carry no meaning runs counter to what an English learner wants most-to just understand what is being said, and to be able to express his or her needs.  As with our first language, phonemic awareness for second language learners will develop as they acquire experience with the language in comprehensible contexts.

Because phonemic awareness relates to the distinguishing of phonemes in a stream of speech, this presents particular issues to children who come from a linguistic background other than English who are attuned to hearing and producing sounds different than those used in English.  When we listen to someone speaking a language that is unintelligible to us, we tend to think, "Wow, those people sure speak fast."  It sounds this way to us because our ears have not been trained to distinguish the individual phonemes that carry meaning in that language.  We don’t know where one word ends and the other begins, and we’re likely to miss the subtleties of sounds and perhaps the meaningful tones as well.  By growing up in a sociolinguistic context children learn to hear and distinguish these sounds from birth.

 English and Spanish are similar in that they have many polysyllabic words and many sounds that are similar (even if spelled differently).  Chinese, Vietnamese, Hmong, Lao, and Tai all have many words that are basically one syllable long (one vowel and usually one or more consonant sounds).  Very few words have final consonant sounds.  A word such as pa can have a number of meanings, depending on the tone used by the speaker, and on the context.  Children from sociolinguistic backgrounds in these languages may be unfamiliar with these sounds and syllabic patterns in English and at first may not be attuned to them.  Asking, "Which last sound is different in bad, dad, or bag" could prove difficult at first.

Teachers have been known to falsely ascribe a child’s inability to distinguish or produce a sound in English to lack of phonemic awareness when in fact the child is inexperienced with the sounds of the English language.  The child needs frequent and repeated exposure to meaningful sounds as words in the context of normal speech before s/he will be able to distinguish the individual sounds that make up those words.

A strong English Language Development (ELD) program is critical.  Keep in mind that the early stages of language proficiency involve a silent period of varying length in which the child is mostly listening to the new language.  This is an important period in which the child is attuning his or her "ear" for the sounds of the language.  Demanding that the child speak, especially in isolated sounds, is counterproductive and should be avoided.  Instead, use a variety of games that help the child to hear the sounds and respond to them.

Phonemic awareness involves the breaking down of spoken language, so phonemic activities should be oral, not written.

Involve students in poetry, rhymes and songs of all types.  Many poetry anthologies exist, and an excellent collection to use with English learners is A Chorus of Cultures (Hampton Brown), that includes large charts of many types of poetry and song.  The chants, posters and songs of the Into English program (an ELD curriculum that has been adopted by most school districts in California) work very well for developing phonemic awareness of English sounds for second language learners.  Also, the series of Jazz Chants, by Carolyn Graham (Oxford University Press), especially the Mother Goose Jazz Chants and Jazz Chant Fairy Tales, are effectively for accentuating the rhyme, rhythm and sounds of English.

Use a chant to clap syllables in students’ names. Sitting in a circle or around a table, slap thighs and clap alternately as you chant:
ALL:          Name, name, what’s your name?
                    I have a name and you have a name (pointing)
                    What’s your name? (point to a student)
Child:          Manuel
ALL          Ma-nuel, Ma-nuel, Ma-nuel (clapping syllables)

Important: Be sure to try your best to pronounce the child’s name in the same way that s/he does, or as the parent does. For example, in our sample above English speakers often say the name Manuel more like manual, which sounds very little like how he is accustomed to hearing his name, as a two syllable word with more accent on the second.  This is difficult, especially with languages least similar to English.  Also, in doing name games to develop phonemic awareness, keep in mind that children from Southeast Asia and China use their last name first.

 Once children can hear the syllables, help them to see that one syllable words are often shorter to write than multi syllabic words.  Write a few names to demonstrate.  Pick names like Alejandro and Tran to compare.

 Call students to line up or come to a rug area by stretching out their names and emphasizing each letter.  Have the class say it with you as that child walks over.  This helps them to hear the blends of sounds in their names.  Also, say a certain sound and ask that anyone with that sound in their name to come over.

Sort known objects or pictures into groups of similar sounds.  In a basket, put several items.  Have the children pull out those that begin the /d/ sound, etc. and sort according to sound.  (Be sure to choose items with names that are known, or you’ll defeat the purpose).  Help them to generate a list of other objects that might go in a certain group.  See about bringing some to add the next day.

Play a guessing game using picture cards and help the children to put together blends to make their guess.  For example, during a unit on the family or the home, have pictures of items found in the home).  Show the cards and say, "I’m thinking of a word that sounds t/a/b/l.  The students blend the word together to guess what the teacher is thinking.  Or, turn the cards face down and play a sort of concentration game with them, saying the segmented word and turning them over as they guess.

Sing songs that allow children to replace sounds with others, even (or especially) to make nonsense words.  This can be done with names (as for Miguel Figuel fanana fana fo fana, fee fi fo fana, Figuel), singing familiar songs that change the sounds of words, as in and on his farm he had a bow (cow), bee bye bee bye bo, or singing Bappy Birthday Bo Bou…, or songs that rhyme, as in Down By the Bay (give lots of examples to help children with vocabulary to use), or Wibbly Wobbly Figuel, an Elephant sat on Miguel, Wibbly Wobbly Wee, and Elephant sat on Li, or the end of I’ve Been Working on the Railroad, changing the letters each chorus ? Bee Bye Biddly Bi Bo, Bee Bye Biddly Bi Boooo….Che, chi Chiddly Chi Cho…..

 Read, read and read more  A certain level of phonemic awareness is essential for reading skills to develop, and reading also helps increase a child’s awareness of the phonemes as they relate the relationship of letters in the writing to the known phonemes of the language.

Read rhyming pattern books and have the students reinvent the text with new sound combinations.  Even nonsense words can be fun, and they can invent their own definitions for them.  Some favorites that go well with this type of innovating on the story are:

Africa Calling : Nighttime Falling by Daniel Adlerman
Ming Lo Moves the Mountain by Arnold Lobel  (more of a focus on consonants D, V and K)
Is Your Mama A Llama? By Deborah Guarino,
There Once Was a Puffin by F. Jaques
"I Don't Care!" Said the Bear and "Not Me," Said The Monkey by Colin West
This Is The Bear and The Picnic Lunch by Sarah Hayes
Sun is Falling, Night is Calling by L. Leuck
The Thing That Bothered Farmer Brown by Teri Sloat
Sun Sand Sea Sail by Nicki Weiss

Make a list together of the words that rhyme and if students are ready, extend their learning by pointing out that many words that sound the same are also spelled in a similar way.

 Use Alphabet Books with Care ? Many of these use stilted language that doesn’t help English learners acquire an ear for the sounds of English in meaningful context.  A few that have been used successfully are :
Gathering the Sun: An Alphabet in English and Spanish By Alma Flor Ada
Animalia by Graeme Base
 Ashanti to Zulu by Margaret Musgrove
 Easy as Pie by Marcia and Michael Folsom
 On Market Street by Arnold Lobel
 The Z was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg
Also in Spanish Abecedario de los Animales by Alma Flor Ada

Non examples:

Attributing lack of response to questions similar to the following to low phonemic awareness:
What word can you think of that rhymes with back?  Failure to respond successfully may be attributed to a developing vocabulary and not to lack of phonemic awareness.

What is the first sound you hear in the word spin?  What sound do you hear and the end of bath? Although children may distinguish the sound, to assess phonemic awareness we can not ask them to reproduce a sound that they are not yet able to make.  A Spanish speaker with less experience with English would be more apt to respond "esp", since words the s/he has learned since birth do  not begin with a consonant s.  Similar difficulties might occur with the beginning sh sound (the student may substitute a ch), the z, some words that end in consonants, and the th (from some Spanish speaking countries).

Dividing words into individual sounds for children in the early stages of language development.  Children at these levels need exposure to whole words that carry meaning, in normal context.  With all second language learners, always work from whole to part and back to the whole, and for less proficient students it is better to spend far more time with the language as a whole meaningful unit.

Attempting to measure a child’s phonemic awareness by his or her familiarity with nursery rhymes.  Because these nursery rhymes are culture specific, a child from another culture may not have ever heard Humpty Dumpty or Mary Had a Little Lamb.  Also, keep in mind that many of the most famous rhymes use old English that sound different than what we hear on the street to day.  Still, introducing second language learners to many of these old rhymes is worthwhile for its phonemic value and for the exposure to popular culture.

  Other Phonemic Awareness Activities

Counting Words. Cups, counters. Say words of objects around the room. For each word you say, the children place a counter in the cup. Expand to sentences, Purpose: to cement the understanding of what a word is.

Clapping Syllables. Once children can separate speech into words, they are ready to start clapping syllables as a way to divide words. First children listen to the word. Next they clap the syllables. Third, they look at the word and you show them where each syllable occurs. Purpose: To develop metalinguistic awareness - that is - that words can be segmented and some cannot be (morphemes).

Rhyming. Use nursery rhymes, rhyming books, rhymes and riddles. Purpose: to develop a sense of the rhythm of the language.

Make up games where you use letters, syllables, rhymes, etc. orally while children line up, wait for the bell.

Have children make up their own rhymes.

Recognition of their own name and the names of other children in the classroom. Ask children to tell you the letter with which their name begins and to tell you what sound that letter makes. Works well when names begin with consonants. They can tell you the sound of a vowel with which their name begins, but make them aware that that sound might change in different words. Purpose: To develop a recognition of a variety of letter sounds and to relate those sounds to words.

Listening and Retelling. Have children listen to informational books and stories and retell you what they remember. You might point out in the text key words they remember to include in their retelling. Purpose: To develop a sense of story and how stories are made up of letters, words, ideas all connected together.