Although second-language students that find themselves
immersed in a new language may learn conversational language fairly quickly,
they may run into trouble when asked to read and write in their new
language. Reading is the physical
representation of language. “…It
requires more linguistic skills to use language for academic purposes than it
does to use it in everyday conversation.”
(Gibbons, 2002).
There are a number of reasons for this difficulty. The language we use for writing and see when
reading is more formal and can be very different from the causal,
conversational language we use when we talk to people we are acquainted with “…Many second language learners seem able to
cope with English at school, yet have academic or literacy-related difficulties
in class.” (Gibbons, 2002).
This being the case, teachers may need to spend additional
time on vocabulary or decoding as students read. Perhaps teachers need to spend additional
time on word study and sentence structure in an effort to support
second-language learners. In turn, this
may mean that teachers will need to adjust their teaching methods in order to
more closely meet the specific needs of second language learners. . Even more basic to the problem is the
difference in pronunciation between a student’s first language and his
second. It’s one thing to adequately
adjust to this difference conversationally and often quite another to make the
transition in terms of reading and writing skills. If a word is slightly mispronounced during conversation,
the other person in the conversation can determine and understand meaning
through the context of the conversation.
However, if a word is mispronounced as a student is sounding out a word
to write it, they may write the word in a way that the reader is unable to
decode what was written.
References
Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching Second Language
Learners in the Mainstream Classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
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