How To: Building a Strong Foundation for Literacy in Your New Language

Give yourself opportunity to exercise all literacy skills in your new language.  

Literacy is a combination of several skills:

1. Oral comprehension: have native speakers read aloud texts which are a bit above your reading level, then discuss them together (don't follow along with your eyes, but allow your oral comprehension to be stretched a bit).  This also helps develop the correct reading intonation.
2. Visual memory: much of spelling ability is based on visual memory of word appearances (length, letter height, etc).  Reading the same texts (at your reading level) over and over will give you opportunity to exercise this literacy skill in your new language.
3. An understanding of the logic of a writing system: leafing through some texts meant to help kids learn to read in your new language, or watching DVDs with this intent are two possible ways to gain an understanding of the logic or perceived logic (sometimes the linguistic logic and the perceived logic of a writing system are different) of your new writing system.
4. Vocabulary foundation: this is where knowing your reading level comes in as a literacy skill.  If you try to read texts which are too far beyond your vocabulary foundation you risk developing a discouraged attitude toward reading in your new language.
5. Whole word recognition: this is again where your reading level is important.  You should mainly encounter words you are very familiar with in your verbal exchanges.  Sounding out words as you read silently is a sign that you may not have the proper vocabulary foundation, and it significantly slows down reading speed.
6. Reading fluidity: be patient with yourself by staying within your reading level.  As your reading level progresses, so should your reading fluidity.
7. Writing fluidity: this is another area for patience.  In order for your writing fluidity to increase first your verbal fluidity must increase, you must have a strong vocabulary foundation and a large number of words in your visual memory.  A great way to encourage writing fluidity is through dictation.  Start by dictating a text to a native speaker and then copying what he/she has written.  Later, you can have a native speaker dictate texts to you and help you correct your errors.
8. Intonation/ Punctuation: oral comprehension exercises are helpful for strengthening this literacy skill.  Reading aloud to a native speaker and receiving correction is also helpful.  Reading aloud books that you have heard read aloud several times will help you avoid guessing.
9. Reading comprehension: read, repeat, read, repeat.  Reading the same books over and over, and discussing them with native speakers is the key to building this very culturally tied literacy skill.
10. Interaction of texts: make connections between the texts you are reading, regardless of your reading level.  Connections can be made even between the simplest of texts.  Still, doing so with a native speaker, will give you particular cultural insights and a broader use of vocabulary.
11. Spelling: again be patient with yourself.  Spelling will come with time, as your visual memory strengthens in your new language.  Dictation is also helpful for exercising and building this skill.

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.

Suggestions for Students: Know Your Reading Level

Don't get ahead of yourself.  There are many details to take into consideration when determining your reading level.  However, if you are a strong reader in first language, and your new language uses a similar writing system, a good rule of thumb for choosing reading material is that you should be able to determine the definitions of unknown words from context without the use of a dictionary.

This assumes a couple things:

1. When you first begin learning your new language, reading should not be viewed as a resource for learning, although it may be necessary for survival situations.

2. You should know enough of the words in a text, so that you have a strong context from which you can surmise the definitions of any unknown words.


If you want to become a proficient reader in your new language, you should give some thought to the building blocks of literacy, as well as the concept of transfer literacy (the process of transferring literacy skills from one language to another).  I will be addressing these two subjects in the following posts this week.