Jennifer Wilson presented strategies for teaching literacy to non-native English speakers ages 3-5. The key components are: 1) Focus on oral language development through songs, stories, and actions before expecting reading and writing. 2) Immerse children in the language by using everyday phrases, labeling items, and exposing children to English TV and books. 3) Teach the sounds of the language systematically while continuing to provide rich vocabulary through stories, pictures, and questions.

1. Ready, Steady,Ready, Steady,
Read.Read.
Madrid, Spain 2014Madrid, Spain 2014
Jennifer WilsonJennifer Wilson

2. Goals for the session
• To understand what literacy really
means. Or try to!!!
• To identify essential components to
ensure success.
• To focus on strategies to teach reading
and writing to non-native English
speakers from3-5 years old.

3. I never try to teach pupils.
I only try to provide conditions in
which they can learn.

4. What is Literacy? . . .
BLA; BLA; BLA.
Can it be the same for non
native speakers of English?

5. Songs + Stories + Actions
+Picture +Letter
Letter
Pictures
Songs
Action
Stories

6. Set the stage
• Create a supportive enviroment.
• Be methodical and stick to the
routines and class rules.
• Stimulate a love for the new
language.
• Find constant connections with
everyday life.
• Make them laugh.The sillier the
better!!!
• Sing and talk a lot in English.
• Give chunks of classroom language
not vocabulary lists.

7. The Four Skills
• Until children have listened for a long
time to the new language and have
begun to produce words, it is
unrealistic to expect them to read and
write.

8. Linguistic Immersion
Saturated by
Enveloped in
Flooded by
Steeped in
Bathed in that which is
to be learned.

9. Children who cannot or do not listen are at a
huge disadvantage when beginning the literacy
process in a second language.
There’s always one or two in every class
They seem to be switched off for language
learning
• Observe
• Listen
• See
• Witness
• Experience
• Feel
• Explore
• Try out

10. The recipe for success is:
• Lots and lots of listening and singing.
• Listening to stories and acting them out.
• A stress free environment.
• A good role model.
• Lots of images to connect to objects.
• Use Infant Directed Speech or
motherese as you would when talking to a
baby.

11. Classroom Language.
Be natural. Don’t think grammar.
• Hang up your coat. Put it on. Take it off.
• Put the paper in the bin. Do up your buttons.
• Line up. Tie up your laces. Tidy up!
• Look, listen and Be Quiet ! (Dream on)
• Sit down, stand up, Zip up your coat!!!
• Put it in the bin!!
• Colour in your picture.
• That’s wonderful, beautiful, marvellous!!!
• (So, non native teachers of English beware, make sure
you know your phrasal verbs).

12. ©Maiers,2007
Thankyou so much
Reading in Action!
Limbic:
Emotion
Visual Cortex:
See the Word
Visualize
Auditory:
Hear the
sounds
Long Term
Storage Sites:
High frequency
words
Background
Experiences
Brocha’s and
Wernicke’s
Areas

13. Most language learning takes
place before the age of two
• Babies brains are programmed to pick up
on new sounds from different languages.
• If those sounds haven’t been heard before
the age of two, the human vocal aparatus
shuts down the parts it deems unecessary
and therefore it is much more difficult to
articulate these sounds later.

14. Jwilson2014
Role play is a great way to practise language in a
stress free enviroment.
Masks really help to give confidence.
Kids needs to hear the word before
they can say the word, decode or read
the word, and then finally write the
word.

15. TalkTime all the time
• Rich Experiences
• Rich Language Experiences-
• Reading and Writing this can be a
picture
• Rich Text Great story books
• Rich Images but nothing abstract
• Rich Talk-DAILY! Routines 20-30
minute carpet session
• Rich Questions
• Use intonation as a teaching tool

16. Leading Research says……
• Storybook Learning has an essential
role in literacy development in young
children. Particularly within the family.
So, create a cozy, classroom
environment for story time.

17. Experts also say…………..
• Literacy in English when initiated early improves
accent, intonation stress and understanding.
• Oral language is the foundation for literacy
development. Kids that are poor in their mother
tongue usually have more problems learning the
second language
• Children’s experiences with the world and with print
greatly influence their ability to learn in later life. So
make them fall in love with books!

18. Demonstrate Writing
• Make the connection of language to print.
Use the same script as in mother tongue
writing.
Their words=meaning
PICTURES ARE WRITING
• Do NOT correct infant writing
It’s not motivating to see lots of red pen!
Write the correct version underneath

19. Give them a reason to write
• Make writing something important
• Like writng an invitation to the class party
• Write a guided story (always funny or scary)
together. Scary and funny sticks!!
• Include things close to kids that they can
relate to. My weekend! Classroom diary!
• My head teacher always ends up eaten by the
shark. It’s pay back time!!!!

20. Provide a wide selection of
wonderful children’s books
Read them great stories!
• Spot The Dog stories and Maisy Mouse
for three year olds
• Anything by Eric Carle, Nick Sharatt and Tony Ross
Four year olds
• The Gruffalo Julia Donaldson, Handa’s Surprise
Eileen Browne, We’re going on a bear hunt Michael
Rosen. Traditional fairy tales (with a twist)
for the five year olds. (No Disney God Forbid)

21. Encourage parents to read to
their kids in their own
language if they don’t speak
English
• Children who are fluent and have a
good level of language in their mother
tongue can easily transfer their
knowledge to the second language.
• So if parents ask how they can help,
tell them to talk and sing a lot and read
to them in their mother tongue.

22. Exposure to theExposure to the
languagelanguage
15 Minutes of T:V every day in15 Minutes of T:V every day in
EnglishEnglish
Just an episode of Pepa PigJust an episode of Pepa Pig
Or Dora The Explorer is enoughOr Dora The Explorer is enough

23. Don’t forget………
• Literacy learning is nurtured by responsive
adults. (Make them love English)
• Literacy learning is deeply rooted in a
child’s culture and family so always
include the family in your teaching.
(So be literate in L1)
• Being literate always follows the same
steps. First we listen, then we talk then
read and finally we write.
• (So watch T:V in English)

24. “The Big Five” up to five
• Holistic approach to teaching the very young.
It’s never just about reading and writing.(Lots of HuGs )
• Vocabulary input through songs and stories
• Make them scared and make them laugh!!!
• Between 70/80% of class time is oral work
• Phonetics teaching of the individual sounds. 5/10
minutes (maybe not every day!!!)
• Three letter word building and beginning to decode.
• Exposure to the language

25. Begin to teach the sounds of the
English Language from 4 years old
One each week. Be systematic!
Non native students need more
time to build up vocabulary
In the 3 year old classroom
teacher input should be
80%Oral and Listening skills
Colouring in (although a nice
quiet activity) is not
Unfortunately Learning
English

26. Begin to teach sounds in this
order
so kids can start to three
letter word build ASAP
No more than 5/10 minutes a day
Don’t get carried away with phonics for
non native speakers of English real
language input is much more important
• S, A, T, P ,N CK, E, H, R, M, D,
G ,O, U, L ,F , B, AI, J ,OR, EE,
• This is usually as far as I get with Spanish 5
year olds plus first fifty high frequency
words with parents help.
Don’t forget classroom vocabulary!!!
And all the vocabulary input from songs and
stories.

27. What games to play?
• I spy with my little
eye………….
• Pairs or memory
games (pelmanism)
• Simon Says (My
personal favourite)
• Key Word Bingo
• Magnet board
figures
• Song and action for
each letter
• Hang Man (another
favourite) with steps and a shark
waiting at the bottom
Usually for my head teacher.
• I packed my bag to go to
London and in my bag I
put a…..
• Who’s got…?

28. Tricky Words
At the same time as you are
teaching individual sounds, don’t
forget about high frequency words
that are not decodable. In The five
year old class. Get parents
involved. Try ten every 15 days.

29. Student’s with mini black
boards and tricky words

30. Walls Talk…
• Label everything in
the classroom in
English.
• Have the students
names on display
• Always write
teachers
explanations of
what’s on display.
• Have word banks at
children’s height.
• Have the alphabet on
display also at the
right height
• The calendar
• The weather chart
• The daily helpers
• The numbers

31. • A good story can keep you going for
two and sometimes three weeks of
classroom time and that’s a session
every day.

32. What do I do with a
book?
• Read aloud, Retell, Revisit. Focus on Key words.
• Look for patterns of words that look the same
• Focus on new words. The title, the author.
• Prediction about the story. Use repetitive language
• Shared reading, Group reading (Oxford reading Tree) .
• Changing the story ending. Tell the story wrong
• Make comics, draw pictures. Understand and sequence the
stroy
• Finishing sentences. Say who the characters are.
• Inventing dialogues act out the story
• Don’t read the book. Tell the story!!!!

33. How to choose a story
• Find texts with a repetitive element
• Text with a strong story line, beginning,
middle end.
• Texts with rhythm and that match the
pictures
• Nice images, a big copy for whole class
reading.
• Be easy for children to retell

34. Look after your voice
It’s exhausting work and if it’s your first
year teaching English in pre- school
take lots of vitamin C, royal jelly and
gargle with antiseptic mouth wash.
Even so, by November you will probably
have no voice left. If you’re doing it
right!! This is not a joke!

35. The End
Remember . . .
Teach a child to read,
Give a gift for life!!
Teach a kid English and
it’s a job for life!!!
Thank you for your
kind attention!
Happy Teaching!

36. Contact information
Jennifer Wilson
Jenny-learningshouldbefun.blogspot.com

37. Websites of Interest
• http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/
• http://supersimplelearning.com/
• Youtube Meg and Mog Funny Bones
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqm3lisZGN4
• http://www.storyplace.org/preschool/preschool.
http
://www.familylearning.org.uk/images/hfwordsrec
.