How do Students' Primary Languages Affect their English Reading Development?

Blog #7

Without going into great depth to answer this question, let's look at a case study of two second grade students.

While observing the reading of two second grade students who are acquiring English as a second language, I asked myself these questions:

1. How does their first language influence their decoding of English print?
2. What errors or strategies do they use that are most common for children at their grade level (and stage of literacy)?
3. Based on these observations, what techniques or lessons could be implemented to assist these learners with their reading in English?

I chose two students. The first student’s first language was Spanish. The second student’s primary language was German. I chose them because both were reading at a similar level (near or at grade level).

The first student I observed while reading was Ulises. He read “A Job for Karla, “ a passage used as a benchmark fluency test from CA Progress Monitoring Unit Assessment, Grade 2, Theme 3 from a Macmillan/McGraw-Hill text. His fluency was 78 words per minute. He had only four errors in the reading of this passage. The first error was graphophonic, but did change the meaning (although he didn’t self correct). He replaced “across” for “actors.” My guess is that he saw the visual cue“ac” at the beginning of the word and the “s” at the end and he quickly guessed that the word was across.” “Across” is a familiar sight word. This visual miscue resulted in a syntactic error.  Obviouslyn, the preposition "across" couldn't replace the noun "actor.  In a similar way, he substituted “sit” for “still.” Again, they look similar and he was trying to do a quick reading (knowing that he was being timed). None-the-less, this did change the meaning, but he didn’t self-correct. Later, he substituted “at” for “like” which is a visual mistake with a substitution that might make syntactic sense (preposition for preposition). Instead of decoding, he predicted from the syntax what word would fit and made an incorrect assumption. The phrase was, “Ann looked like a real queen,” and Ulises read, “Ann looked at a real queen.” . Lastly, he substituted “for” for “from.” These both have the same initial consonant and the same vowel.

This is the only error which I think could be related to Spanish language syntax. In Spanish there are two words for “for.” They are “por” (which could mean doing something for another person) and “para” (which refers to whom an item or action is for). There is a possibility that this student is using “from” for “para.” This could be clarified through a lesson about the meanings of “for” and “from” and how they are similar and different than “por” and “para.” This might help the student internalize the meaning of “for” and predict it in the syntax of a written sentence while reading. Repeated exposure may also correct this problem over time.

The second student I observed was at another school. His home language is German. I used a level “N” text (DRA 20+) which was a green, Early Fluency Sunshine Book published by McGraw-Hill. At this school, they don’t use textbooks in reading instruction. I chose a text that was similar in level with the one Ulises was reading. Pascal read this story, Herding Dogs, at 75 words per minute. He had 6 errors. The first error was one many readers make. He substituted “the” for “this.” They are both articles beginning with “th” and the syntactic difference is slight. In analyzing some of his other errors, I decided to consult with his mother (who, obviously speaks German) because I know very little German. My purpose was to see how Pascal may have substituted German phonemes for English phonemes. Three of his errors were related to decoding the “er” sound. He read, “harding” for “herding,” “ranchars” for “ranchers” and “hard” for “herd.” His mother told me that the “er” in German is pronounced like “air’ with the tongue high up arching in the mouth making an “r’ sound. This is similar to what I heard. I believe that Pascal was substituting the German sound for “er” for the English sound “er.” It might seem like a small difference, but this substitution would make these words unintelligible to the English speaking ear. (Although Pascal may have understood those words even though he pronounced them incorrectly). I also asked her about two other sounds. One was the “y” between two consonants. She said that she couldn’t think of a word with the “y” between two consonants in German, but the “y” in general makes the long “e” sound. This could account for Pascal’s graphophonic error decoding “types” as “teeps.” His last error could have also been due to German phonemic information. He decoded “suited” as “suded.” The “ui” doesn’t exist in German. Often, his mother says, the “t” is a soft sound as the “d.” This could account for the error.

In the course of the second grade, they will most likely do mini-lessons related to the “er” sound in words. This instruction Pascal will receive with the rest of the group at his grade level. It might be helpful for a bilingual (German-English) speaker to discuss with Pascal the different “er” sounds in German and English. It may just take time for him to hear the differences and pronounce them correctly. Practicing the hard “t” in the middle of a word (between vowels) might also be helpful to train his ear.

Overall, I was very impressed with both of these second language learners at the two school sites in Morgan Hill and Gilroy, California. Both had began learning to read in English in kindergarten. Both spoke a primary language other than English at home. Both were reading at grade level fluency in English. Ulises is in a Spanish-English Two-way Bilingual Immersion program in which they learn to read in both languages from kindergarten. Pascal learned to read first in English and is learning to read in German school on the weekend and at home in his primary language. It appears that as they are acquiring English, they are decoding very well using English phonemes.  As they continue to hear the language and become more fluent, a sociolinguistic point of view, errors related to language interference should self-eliminate.  From a word recognition philosophy, some direct instruction could help.  Why not both?