What Reading Skills Do Adult English Language Learners Need?

Researchers working with native English speakers have focused on the following component skills of reading development: alphabetics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. (See Kruidenier, 2002, for discussion of these reading component skills with adult native English speakers.) Researchers working with adults learning English as a second language have focused on similar skills, but they are labeled and grouped somewhat differently— phonological processing, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic processing, and background knowledge. Figure IV-1 shows the terms used in reading research and instruction with native English speakers and gives implications for instruction with these two groups. Following the figure is a discussion of findings from research on English reading with adults learning English and their implications for instruction.

Figure IV-1: Reading Terms and Their Application

Alphabetics. "Alphabetics includes both phonemic awareness, or knowledge of the sounds of spoken language; and word analysis, or knowledge of the connection between written letters and sounds (letter-sound correspondence)" (Kruidenier, 2002, p. 35).

Phonological awareness is the "broad term that includes phonemic awareness. In addition to identifying and manipulating larger parts of spoken language, such as words, syllables, and onsets and rimes, phonological awareness encompasses an awareness of other aspects of sound, such as rhyming, alliteration, and intonation" (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001, p. 3).

Phonemic awareness. One type of phonological awareness, "phonemic awareness, is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds—phonemes—in spoken words" (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001, p. 4).

Phonics "is the understanding that there is a predictable relationship between phonemes (the sounds of spoken language) and graphemes (the letters and spellings that represent those sounds in written language)" (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001, p. 4).

Word analysis involves decoding words, sight word recognition, dictionary use, and structural analysis of words (e.g., knowledge of prefixes and suffixes) (Kruidenier, 2002).

  • Application to native English speakers: Instruction in word analysis with native English speakers is usually done by having learners pronounce letters, word parts, or whole words. Nonsense words are often used to push learners to decode and not rely on sight words. The ability to read sight words is often assessed by having learners read lists of regularly and irregularly spelled words.
  • Application to non-native English speakers: Alphabetics instruction often assumes high oral language skills and vocabulary knowledge, which adults learning English may not have. Using nonsense words is a questionable activity with these learners, who do not necessarily have proficiency in oral English.

Fluency is the ability to read easily and accurately with appropriate rhythm, intonation, and expression.

  • Application to native English speakers: Instruction focuses on the accuracy and speed of oral or silent reading.