Tips for Teachers: Take Transfer Literacy Issues into Consideration

Transfer literacy is the process of transferring literacy skills from one language to another.  The transfer can go either from a new language to one's native language or vice versa.  In the language learning classroom, if a literacy transfer is taking place it will most likely be going from native language literacy to new language literacy.  However, realize that you may also have students who are transferring literacy skills from a second or third language to a new language (hence those students may not be literate in their native language).

Considerations:

1. Existing literacy level of the students:  Are your students literate?  Are they literate in their first languages?  Or have they developed their literacy skills in a second or third language?  How literate are they in their other languages?

2.  Writing System differences: Are your students familiar with the writing system of the language you are teaching?  Is a similar writing system used in the language in which they are most strongly literate?

• Types of writing systems: alphabet, syllabary, logographic/ morphemic, alpha-syllabary (abugida), abjad, featural 
• Writing system ambiguities: understand the ambiguities of the writing system of the language you are teaching.  For example, both English and French have words that are spelled a certain way for grammatical or morphophonemic reasons, while other words are spelled a certain way for phonemic reasons.  Because of this some words can be sounded out according to a phonemic pattern while others cannot.  These ambiguities can be very confusing for learners. 
• Diacritics: Are your students accustomed to giving attention to diacritics?  Are they familiar with the diacritics in the language you are teaching?  
• Punctuation: Are your students familiar with the punctuation marks used in the language you are teaching?  Do the same symbols carry the meaning your students assume?
• Directionality: If your students are learning to read in a new direction, they will need to give themselves time to become comfortable with such a change in eye movement.