Phonological Processing

Phonological processing (or decoding) involves interpreting written letters as sounds (phonological awareness) and combining letters into syllables and words (word analysis) (Adams, 1990; Kruidenier, 2002; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Some researchers argue that phonological processing skills are among the primary reading skill components that differentiate native and non-native English speakers learning to read (Koda, 1999). Researchers also argue that teaching adult ESL literacy students the letter-sound correspondences in the English writing system through phonics instruction will improve their reading (Jones, 1996; Koda, 1999; Strucker & Davidson, 2003). Even advanced English learners whose native language is written with the Roman alphabet need instruction in decoding and in matching letters to sounds in English (Hilferty, 1996; Strucker & Davidson, 2003).

Some ways that teachers can develop students' phonological processing skills are to provide opportunities for them to do the following:

• Match letters to sounds (phonics).
• Listen to words related to a specific topic that begin with similar sounds (e.g., food — cheese, chicken, cherries) (phonemic awareness).
• Attach morphemes to words (e.g., past tense markers on verbs, plural and possessive markers on nouns) and observe pronunciation changes (word analysis).
• Participate in oral readings and choral readings (phonemic awareness).

(See Activities to Promote Reading Development for descriptions of specific activities.)

Note: Beginning literacy learners may need structured, systematic instruction in decoding (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001). Kruidenier (2002) cites research on children that may apply to adult learners. This research shows that systematic phonics instruction is more effective with beginning readers than incidental instruction. Although the research cited was not done on English language learners, teachers working with groups of very low readers may find a structured program useful. "A program of systematic phonics instruction clearly identifies a carefully selected and useful set of letter-sound relationships and then organizes the introduction of these relationships into a logical instructional sequence" (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001, p. 16). Some examples of systematic language programs include The Wilson Reading System, Lindamood-Bell, and Orton-Gillingham.

Vocabulary knowledge

Vocabulary knowledge has been found to have a strong effect on reading comprehension (Brown, 1993; Sökmen, 1997; Coady, 1997; Coady, Mgoto, Hubbard, Graney, & Mokhtari, 1994; Folse, 2004; Zimmerman, 1997). Reading specialists argue that readers need to know 3,000- 5000 words in the langua ge they are reading in order to read independently (Grabe & Stoller, 2002; Laufer, 1997). Vocabulary knowledge includes both breadth (the number of words a reader knows or the number of content areas in which a reader is familiar with the vocabulary) and depth (the amount of knowledge a reader knows about individual words including their pronunciation, spelling, the parts of speech they may be used for, prefixes and suffixes that can be used with them and how those change word meaning and use, how the words are used in sentences, and various meanings of the words).