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Overcoming the Reading Challenges Faced by L1 Arabic Emirati Students

Overcoming the Reading Challenges Faced by L1 Arabic Emirati Students. Dr Melanie Gobert Higher Colleges of Technology. Objectives. Background Challenges IELTS Home Literacy Practices Reading in Arabic Word Recognition Reading in English Recommendations. The UAE Student.

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Overcoming the Reading Challenges Faced by L1 Arabic Emirati Students

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  1. Overcoming the Reading Challenges Faced by L1 Arabic Emirati Students Dr Melanie Gobert Higher Colleges of Technology UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  2. UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  3. Objectives • Background • Challenges • IELTS • Home Literacy Practices • Reading in Arabic • Word Recognition • Reading in English • Recommendations UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  4. The UAE Student • National or Non-national? • Urban/rural • Public (government) school/private school • Male/female • Linguistic heritage • Arabic reading ability • Reading disability UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  5. Why English? • Used extensively in most Arab countries • Lingua franca for foreign workers • Language of international communication, science, technology, and medicine • English medium of instruction for many university departments, community service centers, on-the-job training in ministries, banks, private companies, joint-ventures, etc. (Kharma, 1998) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  6. Why English? • English replacing Arabic as Lingua franca in the workplace (Samimi & Randall, 2010) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  7. Why Now? • Poor standards of English amongst UAE citizens (Al Kitbi, 2006; IELTS Annual Review, 2006; IELTS Analysis of Test, 2008) • $80 million spent annually on foundation programs at tertiary institutions (1/3 total budget) (Hoath, 2004) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  8. Challenges • IELTS (International English Language Testing System) • Home literacy practices • Arabic Diglossia • Reading in Arabic • Word Recognition • Reading in English UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  9. IELTS UAE Reading Scores UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  10. (Jazzar, 1991) Home Literacy Practices UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  11. (Jazzar, 1991) 207 + 95 = 302 = 191 148 + 43 TESOL Arabia Conference, Zayed University, Dubai

  12. Jazzar’s (1991) Ethnographic Study • 302 books versus 191 books • 91 hrs/week reading versus 49 hrs/week • Weakest students : -- most luxurious homes --more cars --more servants • Strongest students -- bigger home libraries -- more literature in Arabic & English --spent more time reading UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  13. Trends in Math and Science Study (TIMSS) Report 2007 • Dubai pupils –fewer books in average than across the globe • Majority - fewer than 25 books at home • 461 points in year four; 489 points in year eight • Global average 500 points • Only 25% 100+ books at home UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  14. Home Literacy Practices • Correlation between • # of books in the home • performance at school/ university • UAE students do not have many books at home (Jazzar, 1991; TIMSS Report, 2007) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  15. Time Spent Reading UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  16. Challenges • Home Literacy Practices (Jazzar, 1991; TIMSS, 2007) • Educational system (Suliman, 2000; Taouk & Coltheart, 2004) • 50% of Emiratis attend private schools (Gulf News, 2006) • Prized Oral Tradition (Shannon, 2003) • Arabic Diglossia (Abu Rabia & Awwad, 2004; Maamouri, 1998; Saiegh-Haddad, 2004) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  17. Arabic Diglossia • Different versions of the same language for different purposes (i.e. “high” and “low” version) (Ferguson, 1959) • Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) • Classical Arabic (CA) • Spoken Arabic Vernaculars (SVA) (Saiegh-Haddad, 2004) • True diglossic situation (Abu Rabia & Awwad, 2004; Maamouri, 1998; Saiegh-Haddad, 2004) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  18. Challenges • IELTS (International English Language Testing System) • Home literacy practices • Arabic Diglossia • Reading in Arabic • Word Recognition • Reading in English UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  19. Reading in Arabic • Read slowly • paying attention to detail • teacher “catching them out” • asking difficult questions • Extensive reading is not encouraged • novels and short stories taught intensively • read carefully b/c of difficult questions set by teacher • Negative associations • “grades”, “assessment” • “points”, “wrong”, “punishment” (Kandil, 2001) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  20. Word Recognition in Arabic Is Arabic a deep language or shallow language? (Brown & Haynes, 1985; Randall & Meara, 1988) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  21. Deep language Diacritics that mark the vowels removed from text at apx. 9 years of age (Maamouri, 1998; Saiegh-Haddad, 2004) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  22. Homographs • “branch” of a tree, “branch” of a bank • Frequent in Arabic • triconsonantal root system • diacritics marking the short vowels removed UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  23. Visual Processing Strategy • Deep dyslexia in French and Arabic • letter reversal errors • “qird” (monkey) for “qidr” (cooking pot) (Beland & Mimouni, 2001) • Sentence context necessary for lexical retrieval due to frequency of “homographs” (Abu Rabia, 2002) • English Dual Access Route Theory (some words by sound and some words by sight) (Coltheart, 2006) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  24. Vowel Blindness? • “sprt” for “separate”; “pulls” for “plus” (Ryan & Meara, 1997) • Guessing? • “chapter” for “character” • “communicate” for “commitment” • “abroad” for “aboard” • “claps” for “clasp” • No difference in reaction times if vowel or consonant is missing (Hayes-Harb, 2006) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  25. Lexical Access in Arabic “…the Arabic language consonantal trilateral root system constitutes a privileged unit of access to the Arabic mental lexicon” (Beland & Mimouni, 2001) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  26. Lexical Access in Arabic “the nominal derivational morphology is represented in the mental lexicon as separate whole words, and the nature of the morphology exerts no influence on the process of word recognition” (Abu Rabia & Awwad, 2004) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  27. Research shows: • UAE students • poor home literacy environment • Reading in Arabic • intensive • negative connotations (diglossia, grades, etc.) • Arabic • unique access to the mental lexicon • very different from English UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  28. Word Attack Skills of Emirati Learners UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  29. Research Question Does phonics instruction contribute to an increase in phonological awareness among adult L1 Arabic Emirati females studying in a government tertiary foundation level ESL program? UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  30. Framework • Differences in learning to read in L1 and L2 (Koda, 2005) • Threshold Hypothesis (Alderson, 1984) • Orthographic Depth Hypothesis (Geva & Siegel, 2000) • Automaticity (Segalowitz & Hulstijn, 2005) • Dual-route process to lexical access in English (Coltheart, 2006) • Deficient word recognition directly linked to poor comprehension (Lesaux & Siegel, 2003; Nassaji, 2003) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  31. Methodology • Quantitative nonrandomized, pretest/posttest quasi-experimental design • Treatment variable • Explicit phonics instruction • Get Reading Website (Get Reading, 2006) • Dependent variables • Phonological Awareness Test (PAT) (Word Attack Subtest ) (Woodcock, 1987-1998) • Orthographic Awareness Test (OAT) (Siegel, Share, & Geva, 1995; Massaro et al., 1980) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  32. Get Reading Website UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  33. Word Attack Subtest • tat • op • dee • glack • dreek • vunhip • rejune • straced • brecked • translibsodge UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  34. Minimum, Maximum, Modeon Word Attack Subtest UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  35. Independent Samples t test UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  36. Single Sample t test UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  37. Pre and Posttest Scores on PAT and OAT UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  38. Summary of Results • No significant difference between groups on independent samples t test • No significant difference on either test within groups on single sample t test • Increase in PAT in Treatment Group but not significant • Decrease in OAT in both groups but not significant UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  39. Ehri’s (2005) Phase Model of Reading in English • Pre-alphabetic phase (visual features) • “look” (two talls and two circles) • Partial alphabetic (connections only at beginning and end of words) • “skin” for “spoon” • Full alphabetic (learn sight words by forming complete connections) • Consolidated alphabetic (advanced readers) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  40. Possible Explanation • Possible validation of the Orthographic Depth Hypothesis • Arabic interference • Increase in phonological scores • Decrease in orthographic scores • Arabic accessed through a whole word, visual strategy • Moving from partial alphabetic to full alphabetic phase in Ehri’s model UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  41. Possible Explanation • Moving from partial alphabetic phase to full alphabetic phase (Ehri, 2005) • “spoon” for “skin” • “bird” for “boat” • “chapter” for “character” • “communicate” for “commitment” UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  42. Challenges • Home Literacy Practices • (Jazzar, 1991; TIMSS, 2007) • Arabic Diglossia • (Abu Rabia & Awwad, 2004; Maamouri, 1998; Saiegh-Haddad, 2004) • Reading in Arabic (Kandil, 2001) • Word Recognition • Phonological Awareness • Reading in English • Top-down vs Bottom-Up Reading (Birch, 2002; Koda, 2005; Singhal, 2006) UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  43. UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  44. Learning to Read in English for NS Whole Word Reading Phonics two step process: print  sounds  meaning decoding of sounds accurate decoding is stressed no context given to prevent guessing letters graphemes words reading aloud reading drills • one step process: print  meaning • visual decoding • meaning is paramount at all times • word guessing encouraged • smallest focus: whole words • extensive silent reading • authentic and meaningful language UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  45. Reading in English Extensive reading Intensive reading Quality Short texts Usually authentic Many tasks Slow and careful Understand the text in detail Teacher-driven Inside the classroom • Quantity • Long texts • Easy texts (i + 1) • Few tasks • Fast and fluent • For pleasure, information, and LA • Learner-driven • Outside the classroom UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  46. ESL vs Native Speaker Methodology ESL Methodology Native Speaker Methodology Read to by a care giving adult Phonics and sight words Reading aloud Reading as a social activity Reading fiction (Hill, 2007) Reading for pleasure Quantity • Activate schema by questions, vocab, etc. • Read alone • Read silently • Answer questions • Communicative activities (i.e. jigsaw) • Read short texts UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  47. UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

  48. Three-pronged Approach • Read Graded Readers • Teach Phonics • Intensive Reading UNESCO Open Lecture Series Sharjah, UAE

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