Learning to Read in a Second Language
Learning to read a new language is a very challenging task starting at a certain age. The difficulty is more with students taught languages that lack the general word structure, for instance, Chinese. This paper delves into strategies to use to overcome reading hindrances in a second language focusing mainly on English Language Learners.
The Diversity of the English Language
The English language is the most diverse language; it borrows heavily from other languages that it comes into contact with. The infusion of other languages into English has generated a vocabulary unmatched in size by other languages. The English language has roughly ten percent English words; the other percentage is borrowed from Africa, Latin, Greek, South Asia, French and other European languages (Coelho, 2016).This diversity makes the English Language words impossible to be understood by a single person.
Understanding Word Meanings
Knowledge of the different meaning of a word heavily depends on education and experience. People know the meaning of some words before they enter school. As children grow older, they get exposed to other meanings of the same word and to differentiate the application in the various context (Gibbons, 2015). For instance, English-speaking kids understand the use of the word ‘run’ before they go to school as a verb of movement. As they grow old, they come to comprehend its various applications like in baseball or cricket, political context, and in ‘run a business.’
Vocabulary Knowledge in Second Language Learners
A person’s word knowledge should be vast enough to differentiate between active vocabulary – the words one can use- and passive vocabulary – the words one can understand or recognize when spoken by others or printed. Second language learners and native speakers’ passive vocabulary are broader than their active vocabulary. According to studies, English-speaking students by the time they start kindergarten know an estimated one thousand words and an annual addition of one thousand words. This makes them have a more prominent advantage over children learning English as a second language which is required to work extra-hard to catch-up to their peers, approximately two thousand words annually compared to English-speakers one thousand words annually.
Strategies for Reading Comprehension
The process of reading is not as mundane as it appears, to get meaning from a written paragraph, a reasonable reader uses a range of strategies. Phonic knowledge and awareness are included in reading a text, and these two are not enough as in other cases one is required to draw from their perception of the field or background knowledge of the topic. According to researchers, readers use three types of knowledge to gain a sense from a text: graphophonic knowledge (knowledge of the association between letters and sounds); syntactic knowledge (awareness of the structure of the language) and semantic knowledge (knowledge of the field of the text or world). When producing or interacting with text, bilingual children use all their linguistic resources (Hafernik, "Wiant, 2012).
Alphabetic Knowledge and Deciphering Words
An essential foundation for advancing alphabetic knowledge and deciphering words is the capability to distinguish between the prominent sounds of the language. Children can be taught the phonic system and to represent the sounds in print. The English language appears to have many spelling exceptions because the sounds of a word are not orderly related to its spelling. This means that the same sound can be written using a variety of spelling patterns. Different languages have different phenomes, but sometimes there are few sounds close to the learner's native language. We say someone has a ‘foreign accent’ comes as a result of an individual's inability to produce or hear the distinction between the sounds, and also as a result of using the nearest sound in their language when they encounter an unfamiliar phoneme.
Building Vocabulary through Reading
Second language learners can tell the meaning of a vast number of unfamiliar English structures when they are shown in an environment of meaningful sentences. This insinuates that some language structures need not be in the active vocabulary of the learners for the meaning to be apprehended during reading. Students need focused instruction in daily teachings as new vocabulary comes up in various subject areas and thereby giving them opportunities to practice those newly learned words (Colombo, "Furbush, 2009). When reading independently, second language learners need to create strategies for tackling unfamiliar words in teaching resources and textbooks. There are suggested activities designed to aid students in increasing their vocabularies, such as vocabulary notebook, cloze activities and word walls.
Conclusion
Students need to be taught practical techniques for dealing with new words when they encounter those words while reading on their own. Through focused instruction and extensive reading of well-chosen words, will help in increasing the vocabulary of any new language learners. This is because vocabulary knowledge is a crucial factor in reading understanding and wholesome academic performance.
References
.Coelho, Elizabeth. 2016. Adding English: A guide to teaching in multilingual classrooms (2nd. ed). Toronto: Pippin Publishing.
Colombo, M., " Furbush, D. (2009). Teaching English language learners: Content and language in middle and secondary mainstream classrooms. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Gibbons, Pauline. 2015. Scaffolding language scaffolding learning: Teaching English language learners in the mainstream classroom (2nd ed.). Portsmouth: Heinemann
Hafernik, J. J., " Wiant, F. M. (2012). Integrating multilingual students into college classrooms: Practical advice for faculty. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
