1 How Does the Use of Reading Strategies Improve Achievement in Science for Language Minority Students? Shannon Hicok Glasgow Middle School Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools Submitted June 2000 Introduction Two years ago, I began teaching science at Ellen Glasgow Middle School in Fairfax County, Virginia. I realized right away that my language minority students, especially those still in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program, needed differentiated instruction in their mainstreamed science class. The question then became, “How do I meet the unique needs of this population?” This is a question with which I have continued to struggle over the past two years. I recognized that my ESL students had a great deal of difficulty reading their science textbook. Although some students had success with pronunciation and word recognition, adequate comprehension eluded them. Working with an ESL teacher, I began to make accommodations in my instruction that seemed to increase understanding during whole class and small group activities. However, I was still puzzled as to how to help these students during lessons that required individual reading. In the 1999-2000 school year, I have had the privilege of working with a small group of researchers who also teach language minority students. During discussion, we agreed that improving literacy for these students should be our primary goal and the focus of our research. Based on the difficulty my students have experienced with reading comprehension, this is the piece of the literacy puzzle on which I have focused. Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study was to identify how the implementation of various reading strategies improved achievement in science for ESL students. I was particularly interested in their use in the science classroom. Using data collected from this study, I hoped to make better decisions about the type of instruction my language minority students needed. The end result was more confident, successful learners. Scientific vocabulary development is an area in which language minority students historically struggle. In addition to learning new technical terminology, students must deal with the varied use of familiar terms. For instance, in science class, the words table and compound have a very different meaning than they do in most other classrooms (Chamot, 1994). For these reasons, I decided that one of the strategies chosen for the study would specifically target vocabulary development. 2 The remainder of the strategies chosen for the study were intended to help make reading a more active endeavor. I chose these strategies with the hopes that they would help students comprehend written, scientific, factual material. Literature Review Much research has been done regarding the effectiveness of using learning strategies to promote literacy. The basic premise behind this research is that students can benefit from t ...

1. 1
How Does the Use of Reading Strategies Improve
Achievement in Science for Language Minority
Students?
Shannon Hicok
Glasgow Middle School
Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools
Submitted June 2000
Introduction
Two years ago, I began teaching science at Ellen Glasgow
Middle School
in Fairfax County, Virginia. I realized right away that my
language minority
students, especially those still in an English as a Second
Language (ESL)
program, needed differentiated instruction in their
mainstreamed science class.
The question then became, “How do I meet the unique needs of
this population?”
This is a question with which I have continued to struggle over
the past two
years.
I recognized that my ESL students had a great deal of difficulty
reading
their science textbook. Although some students had success
with pronunciation
and word recognition, adequate comprehension eluded them.

2. Working with an
ESL teacher, I began to make accommodations in my instruction
that seemed to
increase understanding during whole class and small group
activities. However, I
was still puzzled as to how to help these students during lessons
that required
individual reading.
In the 1999-2000 school year, I have had the privilege of
working with a
small group of researchers who also teach language minority
students. During
discussion, we agreed that improving literacy for these students
should be our
primary goal and the focus of our research. Based on the
difficulty my students
have experienced with reading comprehension, this is the piece
of the literacy
puzzle on which I have focused.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to identify how the
implementation of
various reading strategies improved achievement in science for
ESL students. I
was particularly interested in their use in the science classroom.
Using data
collected from this study, I hoped to make better decisions
about the type of
instruction my language minority students needed. The end
result was more
confident, successful learners.
Scientific vocabulary development is an area in which language
minority
students historically struggle. In addition to learning new
technical terminology,

3. students must deal with the varied use of familiar terms. For
instance, in science
class, the words table and compound have a very different
meaning than they do
in most other classrooms (Chamot, 1994). For these reasons, I
decided that one
of the strategies chosen for the study would specifically target
vocabulary
development.
2
The remainder of the strategies chosen for the study were
intended to
help make reading a more active endeavor. I chose these
strategies with the
hopes that they would help students comprehend written,
scientific, factual
material.
Literature Review
Much research has been done regarding the effectiveness of
using
learning strategies to promote literacy. The basic premise
behind this research is
that students can benefit from the implementation of activities
that help them
understand and construct meaning from text. The results of this
extensive
research have shown that better reading comprehension leads to
increased
achievement.
Margaret Hill states, “Perhaps our first campaign must be the
promotion of

4. literacy. We must convince our youth of the importance of
literacy, and then it
must become a necessary goal for their own survival.” Hill
contends that
struggling adolescent readers need an increased level of
involvement with written
material in order to construct meaning. This involvement can be
achieved with a
variety of strategies that tap into student areas of interest, such
as speaking or
drawing. Students should also have the opportunity to interact
with one another
while processing written information. Hill outlines several
instances in which the
use of strategies has increased student confidence and
achievement (Beers,
1998).
Joseph Vaughan and Thomas Estes agree that all students
benefit from
the direct instruction of learning strategies. In Reading and
Reasoning Beyond
the Primary Grades, Vaughan and Estes break reading lessons
down into three
phases: anticipation, realization, and contemplation.
Anticipation activities should
introduce the topic of the selected passage and access student’s
prior
knowledge. Realization activities make the reader focus on the
meaning of the
passage as a whole. Contemplation activities aid in the
processing of information
after the passage has been read.
Robertta Barba’s research pertains specifically to culturally
diverse
science classrooms. She feels that, especially in this setting,
reading must be an

5. active endeavor. She advocates the use of reading guides and
post-reading
activities to help students comprehend and summarize the most
important
concepts in a text (Barba, 1998). This same view is evident in
the Cognitive
Academic Language Learning Approach, (CALLA), developed
for ESL learners.
This instructional approach is based on the idea that “active
learners are better
learners.” Strategies ranging from metacognitive to social are
used across the
curriculum to help ESL students acquire and understand new
content vocabulary
and concepts, (Chamot, 1994).
Certain aspects are common to all of the studied research. The
research
clearly shows that reading should be treated as an active
process. Readers
should be aided in their quest to derive meaning from text.
Adequate processing
time, carefully selected reading and questioning strategies, and
cooperative
grouping are essential components in this process. When
reading and learning
3
strategies are properly implemented, this research indicates a
positive impact on
student self-confidence, reading ability, and overall
achievement.
Data Collection and Observations

6. This study examines 22 seventh grade ESL B2 students in three
different
Life Science classes. These students were reading on the fifth or
sixth grade
level. The study spanned two seventh grade content units:
Genetics and
Ecology. The chosen reading strategies were intended to do the
following things:
1) assist students in the development of scientific vocabulary,
2) access student’s
knowledge prior to reading a passage in their text, 3) help
students pick out
essential information while reading, and 4) process and
remember important
concepts after reading. The data collected was primarily
qualitative. My own
notes, answers to student questionnaires, and an analysis of quiz
and test scores
served as the basis for my conclusions.
Before beginning the study in earnest, I decided to administer
the CLOZE
reading test, a test designed to measure the readability of the
science textbook
(Vaughan, 1986). As I predicted they would, the results showed
the text to be on
the frustration level of the readers. The group’s ability to
interpret context clues
and recognize vocabulary within the text was low, and therefore
their overall
understanding of the information it contained was minimal.
Several reading strategies were implemented over the course of
the four-
month study. For vocabulary development, students constructed
graphic
organizers in the form of vocabulary books. To help students
access and build

7. knowledge prior to reading, anticipation guides and concept
maps/webs were
implemented. Anticipation guides were also used during reading
and were
intended to help students pick out essential ideas. Students
processed
information after reading by using a variety of strategies such
as graphic
organizers, fill-in-the-blank activities, and informational webs.
Vocabulary Books. These books were intended to help students
interpret the meaning of scientific vocabulary. The books
themselves were made
with copy and construction paper. Each book contained enough
space for
fourteen words. Three surfaces were used for each term. Each
surface contained
various information about the term. On one surface, the word
itself was written.
The definition and a drawing that depicted the meaning of the
term were on the
other two surfaces respectively. These books were constructed
at the beginning
of each content unit and terms were added in the order in which
they were
studied (Figure 1).
4
Figure 1

8. When I initially implemented vocabulary books, students
struggled with the
process. Copying the definition of each word was easy, but
drawing a picture
proved to be quite the opposite. My notes and observations led
to the belief that
as students struggled, their understanding of each term
deepened. Students
were able to visually represent information with greater ease by
the end of the
first unit of study. Also, it is evident from my observations that
the students began
to enjoy the activity more as they became accustomed to the
process. When
students were asked if vocabulary books had helped them learn,
all of the
students in the test group responded positively. When asked if
vocabulary books
were useful when studying for quizzes, 17 students said, “Yes”
and the remaining
five responded, “Sometimes.” When asked if they liked
vocabulary books, 14
students said, “Yes,” four said, “Sort of,” and four said, “No.”
The following
5
comments were written by various students in the test group
regarding
vocabulary books:

9. “The vocabulary book helps me because I try to draw pictures
that I would
remember and that mean something, so I can remember back to
the
pictures.”
“The vocabulary book helps me because it shows what the word
means,
but it’s hard work to do one.”
“It helped me learn because it has pictures and that makes me
remember
the word better so that I can do better on quizzes and tests.”
“ ...sometimes it’s hard to draw the picture or write the
definition of some
words, but it helps me learn as I draw pictures.”
“The pictures help bring my memory back when I forget.”
“I like the way the book is organized.”
“It’s easier for me to study using the vocabulary book.”
All of the comments were extremely positive. Although a few
students
commented on the hard work that goes into making a vocabulary
book, all of the
students felt that the books helped them in some way.

10. Anticipation Guides, Concept Maps/Webs. Anticipation guides
were intended to make students more active readers by: 1)
introducing the topic
of the passage and accessing each student’s prior knowledge, 2)
helping
students focus on the pertinent points in the reading by giving
them specific
things to look for, and 3) giving students a study guide to use
after reading was
complete. Before reading, students were asked to respond to a
series of
statements about the topic by identifying each as true or false.
They then
discussed their answers as a class or in small cooperative
groups. Their job as
they read the passage independently was to correct all the
incorrect answers on
the anticipation guide. (Figure 2)
6
Figure 2
Anticipation Guide - DNA is Here to Stay
Directions: Before reading pages 3 - 15 in the book DNA is
Here to Stay, read
the statements below. Decide whether each statement is true or
false and write
your answer in the blank beside the statement. As you read,
correct each wrong
answer and rewrite the incorrect statements so that they are

11. true.
_____1) Every cell carries a complicated “plan” for making an
organism.
_____2) The plan for making an organism is on it’s deoxyribo-
nucleic acid
(DNA for short.)
_____3) DNA is located in the chromosomes, which are in a
cell’s
mitochondria.
_____4) Every human cell has exactly 38 chromosomes.
_____5) DNA strands are easy to see with a microscope.
_____6) When a cell is about to divide, it’s DNA coils up
tightly and that is
why we can see the chromosomes at that time.
_____7) DNA looks like a twisted ladder. We refer to this
structure as a
single helix.

12. 7
Concept maps were used in different ways depending on the
purpose of the
activity. One way these maps were used was as an introduction
to a topic. This
activity began with one word written on the overhead projector.
Volunteers were
asked to share all their knowledge about that topic with the
class. As students
generated information, the teacher added it to the concept map
on the overhead.
Concept maps were also used after reading as a processing
activity. Students
were asked to fill in the missing information on a teacher
generated concept map
that contained the most important points from the passage.
(Figure 3)
Figure 3: All Organisms
____________ __________
cannot make their can make their
own food own food

13. __________ ___________
eat plants eat plants and
animals plants and other
producers go
through the
detritivores process of
eat
______________
_________
carnivores
eat
_________
8
When anticipation guides and concept maps were incorporated
into a
reading assignment, the level of student interest and
involvement increased.
Students in the test group were observed sub-vocalizing as they
read to one
another quietly. These behaviors, which often indicate focused
reading, had not
been observed during previous reading assignments. Also,
students stopped
often during reading to make corrections to their anticipation
guides, indicating
the processing of important information. Constructing concept

14. maps before
reading increased the amount of student excitement regarding
the topic of the
selected passage. Students seemed to thoroughly enjoy
discussing the given
topic. This was noted when many students in the class began
eagerly yelling out
terms and phrases to be added to the class web. In addition,
when these
strategies were used, students were able to retain important
information for
extended periods of time. For example, after constructing a
concept map on
camouflage, many students referenced the information from the
web on written
assignments over the course of several weeks.
The following comments were made by students in the test
group
regarding anticipation guides:
“ Anticipation guides help me not to get confused. ”
“ Anticipation guides help me a lot because I can remember the
things that
they say.”
“ Anticipation guides help me because they make me read
slower and
more
carefully to figure out if a statement is right or if I will have to
fix it.”

15. “ Anticipation guides help me remember what I’ve read
because you really
have
to focus on what you are reading.”
Despite some success, a few students continued to flip through
the text
looking for key words without truly reading. This was a source
of frustration for
me throughout the study.
Fill-in-the-blank review guides. These guides were intended to
help
students pick out and remember main ideas and important
supporting details
after reading. The teacher- generated paragraphs reviewed key
concepts
presented in the text. Several key words were deleted from the
document and
students were responsible for filling them in. This activity was
done individually
with the hopes of generating greater student-text interaction
(Figure 4).
9
Figure 4
Name - ______________________ Date - ______________
Block - ___________

16. ECOSYSTEM CONCEPT REVIEW
Directions: Fill in the blanks below with the appropriate word
or words. You may use
your notes, book and lab book to help you.
_____________________ factors are the living organisms in
the biosphere,
whereas ____________________ factors are not living. Elodea,
snails, and duckweed
are examples of _________________ factors in your aquarium.
Water quality and
temperature are examples of ____________________ factors in
your aquarium.
Organisms of the same species living together make up a
_________________.
When a variety of species are found living together, they make
up a
___________________. ___________________ are comprised
of communities and the
abiotic factors that affect those communities. In our class fish
tank, all of the neon tetras
would be an example of a ___________________. All of the
fish in the tank make up a
_____________________. All of the living and non-living
things in our fish tank make up

17. an ________________________.
__________________________ are organisms that can make
their own food.
__________________________ cannot make their own food and
must eat other
organisms for energy. In your aquarium, duckweed, elodea, and
algae are examples of
________________________ because they carry on the process
of
____________________. This process takes place in the
___________________ of
each cell. It is through this process that water, _____________
_______________, and
__________________ energy are used to make sugar and
____________________.
The oxygen is given off and the sugar is broken down in the
process of
______________________. During ____________________,
food is broken down and
___________________ is released. Oxygen must be present in
order for this to occur.

18. 10
When this strategy was initially implemented, I expected
students to hate it. I was
pleasantly surprised when quite the opposite occurred. Students
worked
diligently to fill in all of the blanks on the activity. The room
became completely
silent as students flipped through their notes and textbooks
looking for the
answers. Students were forced to use context clues in order to
figure out the
correct answers. When this sort of activity was given
immediately prior to a quiz,
quiz scores among the test population were quite good. Written
responses from
students regarding this strategy were extremely positive. When
asked which of
the studied strategies helped them the most, a majority of the
students in the test
group described this strategy as their “favorite.” Below are
several examples of
student comments:
“ I really like the fill in the blank activity. I think of it as a
contest and there
will be a big prize if I can answer all of them. I try to go back
and check the
answers, so that lets me know what I still need to learn and
what I already
know.”
“ I like the fill in the blank review best because we got to use

19. our notes and
review them. I also liked it because it helps the answers stay in
my mind.”
“ I liked the fill in the blank review because we got to look at
our notes and
by reading my notes I learn more.”
“ For me, the fill in the blank review is the most helpful
because all of the
blanks match up with important words in the chapter. This
activity makes
me read to find the answer.”
“ Fill in the blank helps because we have to go through our labs,
so not
only do we get the answers, we also remember some of the old
stuff.”
“ Fill in the blank is good because it made me reread my notes,
labs and
science textbook.”
“ With the help of the sentences on the fill in the blank review,
I
remembered the facts.”
“ The fill in the blank review helps me rethink about it and
remember it.”

20. “ Fill in the blank review keeps me very focused because
somehow, in a
way, it knocks the memory that I forgot back into me. It is also
useful for
studying for tests.”
“ The fill in the blank review helps me remember what I study.
It’s like a
reminder to me.”
11
In addition to my own notes and student input regarding the
strategies in
the study, I also looked at student quiz and test scores. When I
began the study,
I hypothesized that quiz and test scores would show
improvement. After
constructing individual student graphs however, I found that no
pattern emerged
among quiz and test scores. Although some student’s scores
improved, others
declined and some showed no change at all. This was the most
disappointing
and baffling finding in the study. It is my belief, given the
positive qualitative
findings, that a longer study would yield more positive
quantitative results.
Findings

21. In order to appropriately report findings, one must return to the
study’s
original purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine
how the use of
reading strategies improves achievement in science for language
minority
students. Looking at quiz and test scores, one could argue that
achievement did
not improve. Achievement, however, is not only defined by
numbers and grades.
An increase in one’s ability to derive meaning from text is an
achievement. The
ability to pick out and remember the main ideas in a written
passage is an
achievement. The development and use of scientific vocabulary
is an
achievement.
Although the study was disappointing in the respect of quiz and
test
scores, some positive conclusions could be drawn. The most
significant findings
as to how these strategies affect student achievement are as
follows:
• The use of these particular strategies increased the amount of
student
focus during reading and aided in the processing of pertinent
information.
• Students were better able to pick out and remember important
facts within
the text when reading strategies were used.

22. • The reading/vocabulary strategies themselves became useful
tools when
studying for quizzes and tests.
Implications for Further Study
This research study raised many questions that warrant further
investigation. The fact that quiz and test scores did not shown a
pattern of
improvement despite positive qualitative results was puzzling.
As stated before, it
is my belief that the brief length of the study was a major
contributing factor.
Designing a similar study with a much longer period of data
collection would be a
worthwhile undertaking.
Another possible outgrowth of this research is a comparison of
the
effectiveness of each type of reading strategy. Which strategy
seems to work the
best and why? The study could be expanded to include several
additional
strategies in order to better accommodate all learning styles.
12
References
Barba, R.. (1998). Science in the Multicultural Classroom, A
Guide to Teaching

23. and Learning. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Beers, K. & Samuels, B. (1998). Into Focus: Understanding and
Creating Middle
School Readers. Noorwood: Christopher-Gordon.
Chamot, A. & O’Malley, J.M. (1994). The CALLA Handbook,
Implementing the
Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach. Reading:
Addison-
Wesley,
Vaughan, Joseph. and Estes, Thomas. (1986). Reading and
Reasoning Beyond
the Primary Grades. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc.
How Does the Use of Reading Strategies Improve Achievement
in Science for Language Minority Students?IntroductionPurpose
of the StudyLiterature ReviewData Collection and
ObservationsFindingsImplications for Further StudyReferences
1
How Does Phonemic Awareness in ESL Learners Impact
Reading and Writing?
Anthony S. Terrell
J.E.B Stuart High School
Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools
Submitted June 1999
Abstract

24. This paper documents the findings of an 18-week action
research project
to measure the effectiveness of a curriculum which included
systematic
phonemic instruction provided to two experimental groups of
students, versus a
traditional whole-language curriculum that did not include this
instruction,
provided to two control groups of ESL learners. A total of
thirty-eight
intermediate level secondary ESL learners were divided into
four groups, two
high intermediate groups and two lower intermediate groups.
One group at each
level served as the experimental group, the others as the control
groups. The
experimental group participated in the curriculum featuring Jane
Fell Green’s
Language! program as part of a traditional whole-language
approach to second
language instruction. Language! is a reading/language program
that is
sequential, cumulative, and taught to the level of automaticity.
Students in the
high intermediate experimental group averaged a gain of 12.2
points on the
Degree of Reading Power (DRP) post-test over pre-test scores.
Those in the
control group posted an average 6.8 point gain on the same test.
Students in the
lower intermediate experimental group scored an average 9.5
point gain on the
DRP post-test over pre-test scores. The lower intermediate
control group posted
an average 10.4 point gain. In the area of writing, the lower

25. intermediate group
posted a 1.1 point gain in pre and post writing scores on a
writing sample,
compared to a 0.3 point gain posted by the control group. There
was no
significant change in writing scores at the higher intermediate
level. The results
of the research suggests that phonemic instruction is of greater
benefit to high
intermediate level ESL learners’ reading and that the instruction
benefits lower
intermediate ESL learners’ writing. Both quantitative and
qualitative research
findings are presented.
The Question
How does the phonemic awareness of ESL learners impact
second
language acquisition as measured by facility in reading and
writing? This
question came to me during my first semester at Stuart High
School. I was
teaching three different groups of intermediate level ESL
learners Process
Writing, using Native American and Chinese proverbs as
writing topics. As we
worked to master the various steps of the process: formulating
what to write (pre-
writing); starting to write (rough draft); focusing what has been
written; correcting
(revising); and finally presenting a final draft and publishing,
many of my students
had little difficulty finding what to write once shown how to
first organize their

26. 2
thoughts on a chart, then into a paragraph, and ultimately into
an essay.
Students often had much to say, had enough passive vocabulary
to say it, but
lacked the ability to use that passive vocabulary to effectively
put their thoughts
onto paper. The perennial question in the room became, “How
do you
spell…how do you spell….Mister, Mister, how do you spell?”
My natural response to the numerous spelling inquires was a
good old-
fashioned, “I am not going to tell you. Get the dictionary.” I
soon realized that
instead of having the intended effect of helping students build
both vocabulary
and a sense of academic self-reliance, my response often caused
even more
frustration and withdrawal from students. Why? Quite simply,
students often had
little idea where to even begin to look in a dictionary for the
word they were trying
to spelling. The sounds of the words students knew they wanted
to use had no
connection to the symbols that represent those sounds in the
English language.
My students had little-to-no phonemic awareness. What impact
was this having
on their ability to express themselves in writing? Additionally,
was this why I was
hearing them stumble over words in print that I was sure I had
heard them use? I

27. have heard it said that good readers are usually good writers. If
this is true, then
the converse may also be true. What does the research say?
The Research
There is a significant amount of research pointing to the
essentiality of
teaching phonemics as a part of reading instruction. Much of it
was done in
response to the argument over whether it is better to teach
reading through
phonics only or through whole-language only. It is fair to say
that there is at least
as much research supporting whole-language as the optimum
way to teach
reading. There is little information about teaching reading
using a blend of the
two methodologies. Since the focus of this research study is to
determine if there
is a clear advantage for students in teaching a curriculum
containing systematic
phonemic instruction over one that does not, we focus on
research concerning
the effectiveness of the phonemic approach. Both the control
groups and the
experimental groups are exposed to structured language in a
whole-language
context; but the experimental group is also receiving systematic,
phonemic
instruction. The aim here is to determine what the research says
about this
added component to the curriculum.
What is phonemic awareness and of what benefit to reading and
writing in

28. ESL learners is it? Stanovich (1993-94) defines “phonological
awareness” as the
ability to deal explicitly and segmentally with sound units
smaller than the
syllable. In terms of importance, he found that phonological
awareness is the
best predictor of the ease of early reading acquisition. In
agreement, Lundberg
et al (1988) also indicate that students who increased their
awareness of
phonemes facilitated their subsequent reading acquisition. That
research goes
on to say that phonological awareness can be taught, which
conflicts with the
pure whole-language argument that phonological awareness is
only truly
naturally acquired.
As for how phonemic awareness relates to writing, Greene
(1998) cites
Lyon’s (1998) observation that throughout history, most
societies never
3
developed a written language. Written language is invented; it
is code based. In
order to become literate, students must master the code. To
master written
English, the entire code must be taught systematically (Green
1998). Adams
(1990) suggests that it is critical for children to be able to link
phoneme
awareness to knowledge of letters. This is known as “sound

29. symbol matching.”
The two most powerful skills that predict later reading success
in students are
letter-name knowledge and phonemic awareness (Cunningham,
1990; Fielding-
Barnsley, 1997; Philips and Mason, 1996).
The research suggests that a balanced approach is needed in
reading
instruction. Phonemic awareness alone does not address the
needs of older
students, like the ones in this study, for higher level thinking
activities. Whole-
language instruction alone assumes wrongly that a student can
acquire the skills
associated with affective reading and writing naturally, through
mere exposure to
literature or through a language-rich environment. Sensenbaugh
(1996) feels the
right approach would combine the language- and literature-rich
activities
associated with whole language activities aimed at enhancing
meaning,
understanding, and the love of language with explicit teaching
of skills as needed
to develop fluency associated with proficient readers [and
writers].
The Students
All three of the ESL classes (groups) assigned to me were
involved in this
action research project. Two different groups of students
assigned to two
different ESL teachers in the department served as the control
groups to my

30. groups 1 and 2. This provided me a large cross-section of
grade-levels, native
languages, years and types of prior schooling, and ages. Each
of these was
important in trying to determine: one, if there is a critical
period among secondary
students for raising phonemic awareness; two, whether raising
phonemic
awareness benefits native Spanish speakers over native speakers
of Vietnamese
or Arabic; and three, if literacy in the native language is aided
by phonemic
awareness in second language acquisition. Students were
distributed as follows:
Experimental Groups Control Groups
Group 1 Group 1
No. of students: 10 No. of students: 10
Grade Levels: 9th – 4 Grade Levels: 9th - 5
10th – 5 10th - 2
11th – 1 11th - 3
Native Languages: Spanish – 5 Native Languages: Spanish - 4
Somali – 2 Arabic - 1
Arabic – 1 Urdu - 3
Kurdish – 1 Bosnian - 1
Vietnamese – 1 Vietnamese - 1
4
Group 2 Group 2
No. of students: 11 No. of students: 7
Grade Levels: 9th _ 2 Grade Levels: 9th - 5

31. 10th _ 8 10th - 2
11th – 2
Native Languages: Spanish – 7 Native Languages: Spanish - 3
Bosnian – 1 Arabic - 1
Arabic – 1 Urdu - 2
Urdu – 1 Vietnamese - 1
Somali – 1
The Program
The specific program designed to raise the phonemic awareness
of
students in this study is simply called LANGUAGE! It is a
three level, 54-unit,
whole language within structured language program. According
to the program’s
author, Jane Fell Greene (1998), Ed.D., structured language
refers to a special
type of reading/language program that is sequential, cumulative,
and taught to
the level of automaticity, the ability to perform a learned task
quickly and
accurately with little conscious attention or effort. Louisa C.
Coates (1998) says
the strength of the LANGUAGE! curriculum is its
comprehensive and integrated
treatment of language, pointed directly at the skills poor readers
typically lack.
She goes on to point out critical concepts about language
(sounds, spellings,
syllables, sentence structure, grammar, semantic organization,
and text
structure) are defined, ordered, and practiced in relation to one
another. They
form the fabric of language.

32. In the research project, LANGUAGE! was presented to the
experimental
groups as part of a multifaceted approach to language teaching.
It was not
taught in isolation or singularly. The curriculum served as a
warm-up or primer
for reading comprehension, process writing, interviewing and
reporting, sustained
silent reading and other now traditional whole-language
activities in which
students were engaged during the same 90-minute lesson. The
topics raised in
the experimental part of the curriculum were dovetailed and
highlighted in other
activities throughout the lesson. LANGUAGE! merely
suggested the scope and
sequence of sounds, symbols, and grammar concepts of which
students should
be made phonemically aware.
The Implementation
Step 1: Students in both the experimental groups and the
control groups were
given a code-based placement test. [Test Words: a, bat, cat, fat,
sat, cab, mat,
Sam, Tam, Bam]
a) The instructor dictated each word, gave a sentence containing
the word,
and then repeated the word.
b) The students wrote the word.

33. 5
c) The teacher scored the placement tests, identifying the
number wrong at
each level.
d) The teacher identified the number of the first Unit at which
each student
made two or more errors.
e) The teacher identified the book where the students began.
Step 2: Students in all five groups (3 experimental, 2 control)
tested at Unit
1. That is, of the 51 students tested, none could spell more than
eight of the
words listed above.
Step 3: Students were instructed for 15-20 minutes each day on
the phonology
concepts of units 1-17. Each unit is designed to build students’
mastery over a
particular sound, i.e. short “a” and the letter (grapheme)
associated with it. In the
beginning units, students engaged in: phoneme
reproduction/replication;
phoneme isolation; phoneme segmentation; phoneme blending;
rhyming;
phoneme deletion; and phoneme substitution. Units progress in
size and scope
of phonemic (syllabication) /grammatical (parts of speech)
material presented.
Step 4: At the end of each unit, students were tested on the
material
presented in the unit.

34. Results
Empirical
High Intermediate Group
Experimental Control
Reading (DRP) 12.2 point gain 6.8 point gain
Writing (Rubric-scored writing sample) 0.8 point gain 1.0 point
gain
Low Intermediate Group
Experimental Control
Reading (DRP) 9.5 point gain 10.4 point
gain
Writing (Rubric-scored writing sample) 1.1 point gain 0.3 point
gain
• Explicit ESL instruction has a greater impact on higher-level
students’
reading than that of lower-level students. It is thought that this
is due in
part to those students’ possessing a larger inactive or passive
vocabulary
from which to draw than do lower-level students.
• Explicit ESL instruction has a greater impact on lower-level
student’s
writing than that of higher level students. It is thought that
lower-level

35. 6
students benefit from the lowering of affective filters associated
with
writing. Raising phonemic awareness lowers those filters.
Anecdotal Observations
These quotes are from teachers observing research project
students in a
class other than ESL:
• “Sahro sounded-out the following words and actually used her
fingers [one
of the skills taught in the program] to break-up the sounds:
‘hideous;’
‘humiliating;’ ‘collapsed;’ ‘nominate.’”
• “In our reading today, Gusma came across words she did not
know. At
first she wanted me to tell her the words. I reminded her of the
sounds
she is learning in your class and to use them; look at the words
and apply
the sounds she knows. She figured out the following words:
‘unpredictable;’ ‘antique;’ ‘thrilled;’ ‘fabulous;’ ‘astonished.’”
• “Agus, during his individual reading, noticed the “qu” sound
in figuring out
a new word in his novel. The “g” sound is another one he
mentioned he
had learned and used to figure out a word.”

36. • “During our reading session today, Tina was wonderful. She
tried to
sound out every word she was not sure of and sincerely met
success.”
• “Roland had trouble with “thr,” but he could do “th.” He was
cognitive of
the sound and he tried to use it. When the “th” was followed
with an “r” he
had trouble.
Conclusion
It is clear from the research project that raising the phonemic
awareness
of ESL learners impacts positively both reading comprehension
and writing skills.
The degree to which these areas are impacted varies with the
ESL level, native
language, and years of schooling each student presents.
Phonemic awareness
seems to unlock the substantial passive English vocabulary
older ESL learners
bring with them, but are unable to access or decode from
written text. It is
similarly true that students would use this same passive
vocabulary in their
writing if they could only encode it. It is now available to them
through the
newfound ability to match sounds with symbols. Much of the
anxiety my students
associated with reading and writing at the beginning of the
study has all but
dissipated. As evidenced in the anecdotal references found in
the results,
students are now actively reading for both pleasure and

37. academia and have
become measurably more prolific in their writing. These are
two of the
consequences intended with the implementation of the phonemic
awareness
piece of the program. Having a systematic approach to
phonemics as a part of a
rich, whole-language curriculum is the complete package
needed to build solid
reading comprehension and writing skills in ESL learners.
7
References
Cunningham, A.E. (1990). Explicit instruction in phonemic
awareness. Journal
of Experimental Child Psychology, 50, 429-444.
Fielding-Barnsley, R. (1997). Explicit instruction in decoding
benefits children
high in phonemic awareness & alphabet knowledge. Scientific
Studies of
Reading, 1, 85-98.
Greene, J.F. (1998). Middle and High School Students: Effects
of an
Individualized Structured Language Curriculum. Annals of
Dyslexia, Vol.
46. Baltimore: The Orton Dyslexia Society.
Lundberg, I. et al. (1988). Effectiveness of an Extensive

38. Program for Stimulating
Phonological Awareness in Preschool Children. Reading
Research
Quarterly, 23(3), 263-284.
Lyon, G.R. (1998). Why reading is not a natural process.
Educational
Leadership, 55:6, 14-18.
Phillips, L.M., Norris, S.P. & Mason, J.M. (1996).
Longitudinal effects of early
literacy concepts on reading achievement: A kindergarten
intervention &
five-year follow-up. Journal of Literacy Research, 28, 173-195.
Sensenbaugh, R. (1996). Phonemic or Phonological Awareness?
ERIC Digest,
5-6.
Stanovich, K.E. (1993-94). Romance and Reality
(Distinguished Educator
Series). Reading Teacher, 47(4), 280-291.
How Does Phonemic Awareness in ESL Learners Impact
Reading and Writing?AbstractThe QuestionThe ResearchThe
StudentsThe ProgramThe ImplementationResultsAnecdotal
ObservationsConclusionReferences