How do uneducated adults become readers? Looking at the small steps.

1. How do uneducated adults become readers? Looking at the small steps. Martha Young-Scholten Rola Naeb

2. There are many LESLLA learners who are NESLLA learners: non-educated. • In the USA, 40% of working age immigrants arrive with primary schooling or less, including no schooling (US Census. • In the UK 14% of 500+ students on one project reported no ability to read or write in their native language (Baynham et al. 2007). • But “hardly anything is known [about the] emergent literacy or metalinguistic awareness of adults [=immigrants] in Western countries who never went to school.” (Kurvers et al. 2006:69)

3. Can native-language-non-literate adults learn to read in an L2? • Two ways to approach this question • Find successful adult L2 readers • Ask what might underlie their success • Conclude that adults who fail lack these qualities/opportunities • Or look at cognitive and linguistic pre-requisites assumed to underpin children’s reading • Study adult first-time L2 readers in the same way that first-time native language readers have been studied

4. Children acquire most syntactic, morphological and phonological competence by 4-5, before learning to read. • Children develop considerable linguistic awareness prior to learning to read, for example, they develop phonological awareness in terms of syllable, onset and rhyme (Bryant & Bradley 1983). • Without awareness of phonemes (of the grapheme-phoneme correspondence/the alphabetic principle), new words cannot be sounded out. • Research points to children’s development of phonemic/segmental awareness during reading. (Goswami & Bryant 1990)

5. Burt et al.’s (1999) UK children regardless of social class followed common patterns of phonological awareness development:

6. To keep in mind when considering English • 1-10% of all children (depending on language and script) fail to master reading (Muter); due to lack of orthographic transparency. • Reading in English takes the longest (Ziegler & Goswami 2005). • In an alphabetic script, failure seems to be connected to non-mastery of phonological awareness(Goswami & Bryant; Muter et al. 1998, and many others).

7. Late L1 literacy • Only those literate adults exposed to an alphabetic script such as that used for English demonstrate phonemic awareness. (Read et al. 1986) • Development of syllable, rhyme and onset awareness is • Not dependent on age • Not dependent on training/schooling • Phonemic awareness is • Not dependent on age • Dependent on instruction in learning to read in an alphabetic script (Morais et al.’s 1979, 1987, 1988 studies of Portuguese adults).

8. Replication of studies on children with low-literate L2 English adults • 17 Somali and Vietnamese adults (Young-Scholten & Strom 2006) in Seattle • Age range at testing: 26 to 70 years old • ¾ year to 20 years’ US residence • Two weeks to four years in ESL classes • Eight learners immigrated with 0 schooling, nine with 1-5 years schooling • Both Somali and Vietnamese use the Roman alphabet

9. Linguistic competence • If a language threshold needs to be attained to provide a basis for reading skills (Bernhardt & Kamil 1995 and Alderson 2000:24 on transferability of L1 reading skills) • we should measure linguistic competence to see if learners have the level of 4- or 5-year-old children • and with respect to vocabulary, beginning readers need a vocabulary of roughly 5,000 words; any reader should know 95% of the words in a text (Alderson 2000:35) • to gain adequate comprehension • to be able to guess unknown words from context

10. Young-Scholten & Strom’s (2006) linguistic competence measurement

11. Literacy skills tests + awareness tests from Burt et al. and Karmiloff-Smith et al. (1996)

12. Results: Interaction between linguistic competence and awareness found An interaction between linguistic competence and reading was also found.

13. Interactions found between phonemic awareness (1st table) + onset/rhyme (2nd table) w/ single word decoding. This suggests adults similar to children when learning to read.

14. Summary of the Seattle study results • Variable results obtained for adults with 1-5 years schooling (including attainment of the highest level in the study for reading and for linguistic competence) • Results for the 0-schooled adults uniformly low, as shown on the next slide. • Most 0-schooled adults have low oral competence in morpho-syntax; there is variation in phonological competence. • Adults’ onset and rhyme awareness considerably exceeds their phonemic awareness, which approaches zero for some.

15. Seattle study 0-schooled adults

16. Variable success in the group: Taking a look at two learners Phung 20 years’ residence in the USA Children had all attended school; some even at uni She’d had one year of ESL at testing Sharif Two years’ residence in the USA Family members were only literate in Arabic and Somali, not in English He’d had two weeks of ESL at testing

17. Why do some succeed but not others? • “We have to conclude that truly successful L2 learners who started as full illiterates are really very rare.“ (Kurvers & van de Craats 2008) • But consider Sharif • Need for further study • The Seattle study • Did not produce any results for vocabulary (the X-Lex test was not a valid measure) • Could not test segmental perception: students’ vocabulary was too small • Did not look at actual development

18. The UK study: Young-Scholten & Naeb Focus on adults with no schooling or minimal schooling in a language which does not use the Roman alphabet Collect information on students’ background, including exposure to English outside the classroom Administer the same phonological awareness tasks as in the Seattle study, adding words students are learning (henceforth ‘ESL words’) Measure vocabulary (British Picture Vocabulary Scale, similar to the Peabody) Test students twice (June 2008 and March 2009)

19. Participants’ education, ESL, English contact

20. Results: Students (at two sites) improved between time 1 and time 2

21. Correlations We looked at relationships between sets of scores (typically correct/attempts made) and found statistically significant correlations between the sub-components of phonological awareness, reading skills and vocabulary The numerous correlations found suggest positive developments in these adults’ cognitive processing, their linguistic competence and their reading skills By examining – essentially under a microscope - these students’ knowledge and skills, we can document the small steps they take as they learn to read in English

22. Testing of vocabulary size, alphabet knowledge, rhyme awareness Vocabulary: British Picture Vocabulary Scale Alphabet: identification of letters in different fonts B X L l p Rhyme awareness: students heard sets of 3 words (4 words used in Burt et al., Seattle studies) picked the “odd one out’ can, SHOP, man SIT, thin, skin hot, SHIRT, not sun, fun, LEG chip, CAR, lip

23. Positive correlations between vocabulary and other measures

24. Testing of onset awareness Onset awareness: which word is the odd one out? sleep, sport, CASH red, WITH, ring KICK, this, that big, MILK, bus fast, fish, PARK

25. Testing of phoneme awareness: after examples, researcher read words in left column; students needed to say those in right column Initial (phon awareness 1 on tables below) broom room leg egg meat eat clock lock train rain Medial (phon awareness 2 on tables below) frog fog swing sing spoon soon glass gas sport sort Final (phon awareness 3 on tables below) lamp lamb weak we fork for soup Sue port poor

26. Testing phonological competence: consonant clusters and vowels Consonant production Students were prompted to say words with word-initial and word-final consonant clusters using pictures of objects (e.g. clock, train, bread, desk, milk, six; 14 objects in all). Attempts counted only if the word students produced contained a cluster. Oral segment distinction (vowels) Using pictures, students prompted to say 14 words containing monopthongs (especially lax vowels) and diphthongs, e.g. metro, chicken, cat, smile.

27. Correlations between consonant production and other measures Site 1 Site 2 All measures correlate positively; those in red correlate negatively.

28. Testing syllable awareness Syllable counting Familiar words pencil, Manchester, Victoria, supermarket, paracetemol Unfamiliar words agility, nomenclature, derelict, abyss, periodical

29. Testing reading skills Single word attack: reading familiar words in isolation mobile phone, supermarket, teacher, station, community, medicine, floor, table, wedding, breakfast ESL words (phonic in tables below): reading orally familiar mono- and disyllabic words from the ESL programs’ literacy-level syllabus 59 monosyllabic words: verbs (crash, sit), nouns (man, leg), adjectives (red, sick), function words (not, this, can) Four disyllabic words: garden, flower, market, today

30. Correlations between syllable awareness and other measures Site 1 Site 2 All measures are positively correlated except when red

31. Correlations between rhyme awareness and other measures Site 1 Site 2 All measures are positively correlated except when red

32. Correlations between onset awareness and other measures Site 1 Site 2

33. Correlations between phoneme awareness and other measures

34. Correlations between single word attack and other measures Site 1 Site 2

35. Correlations found only in site 2 All measures are positively correlated except when red

36. Summary We found correlations similar to those found in the studies of children and other studies of LESLLA between what students are being taught (ESL words; the alphabet) actual word attack skills phonological awareness environmental print (sign recognition) aspects of linguistic competence complex onsets/consonant clusters segments (vowels) vocabulary

37. Future directions • Why are truly successful L2 readers who started fully non-iterate so rare? (Kurvers & van de Craats 2008); consider Seattle Sharif’s exposure to English. • He must’ve learned English outside the classroom, in the two years he’d been in the US before starting ESL. • We know high levels of oral proficiency are possible for naturalistic adults (e.g. Jose in Vainikka & Young-Scholten 1996) • Had Sharif got the 9,000 hours’ exposure children get by age five? (see e.g. Piske & Young-Scholten 2009) • Did he start reading for pleasure soon after he was able to decode? (see e.g. Rodrigo et al. 2007)

38. Future directions • We are finishing the analysis of the current, longitudinal data. • We are testing (cross-sectionally only) more 0-shooled adults, adding NL phonological awareness tasks (labour-intensive, for up to 8 NLs). • Remember that 1-10% of all children (depending on language and script) fail to master reading; we wonder whether • There are common reasons why these children and first-time L2 readers experience insurmountable difficulties with reading. • LESLLA researchers can pursue this by working with psycholinguists studying such bilingual children. • To address the exposure issue, we are working with creative writers on fiction for Newcastle LESLLA adults’ pleasure reading.

39. References • Alderson, C. (2000) Assessing Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Bernhardt, E. B. and M. L. Kamil. (1995). Interpreting relationships between L1 and L2 reading: consolidating the linguistic threshold level and the interdependence hypotheses. AppliedLinguistics. 16:15-34. • Bryant, P. E. & L. Bradley (1983). Psychological strategies and the development of reading and writing. In M. Martlew (ed.) The Psychology of Written Language. Chichester: Wiley. pp. 163-178. • Burt, L., A. Holm & B. Dodd (1999). Phonological awareness skills of 4-year-old British children: an assessment and developmental data. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. • Dunn, L. M., L. M. Dunn, C. Whetton & J. Burley. (2007) British Picture Vocabulary Scale II. London: National Foundation for Educational Research. • Goswami, U. & P. E. Bryant (1990). Phonological Skills and Learning to Read. Hove: Psychology Press. • Karmiloff-Smith, A., J. Grant, K. Sims, M-C. Jones and P. Cuckle. (1996). Rethinking metalinguistic awareness and accessing knowledge about what counts as a word. Cognition 58:197-219. • Meara, P. (1992). EFL Vocabulary Tests. University of Swansea, Centre for Applied Language Studies. • Morais, J., L. Cary, J. Alegria & P. Bertelson. (1979). Does awareness of speech as a sequence of phones arise spontaneously? Cognition 7:323-331.

40. Morais, J., J. Alegria and A. Content. (1987). The relationship between segmental analysis and alphabetic literacy. An interactive view. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive 7:415-438. • Morais, J. , A. Content, P. Bertelson, L. Cary and R. Kolinsky. (1988). Is there a critical period for the acquisition of segmental analysis? Cognitive Neuropsychology. 5:347-352. • Muter, V. , C. Hulme, M. Snowling and S. Taylor. (1998). Segmentation, not rhyming predicts early progress in learning to read. Journal of Experhymental Child Psychology 71:3-27. • Piske, T. and M. Young-Scholten. (2009). Input Matters in SLA. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. • Read, C., Y. Zhang, H. Nie and B. Ding. (1986). The ability to manipulate speech sounds depends on knowing alphabetic spelling. Cognition 24:31-44. • Rodrigo, V., D. Greenberg, V. Burke, R. Hall, A. Berry, T. Brinck, H. Joseph and M. Oby. (2007). Implementing an extensive reading program and library for adult literacy learners. Reading in a Foreign Language 19:106-119. • Vainikka, A. and M. Young-Scholten. 1996 The early stages in adult L2 syntax: Additional evidence from Romance speakers. Second Language Research. 12: 140-176. • *We are grateful to the British Academy for supporting this study (SG34193).