Sounds of OUGH

I was recently asked if I knew of any rules that govern the differing pronunciations of ough. This letter combination can prove to be very tricky. First of all, it may be helpful to consider the combination gh.

GH can do three things:

1) When gh comes at the beginning of a word, it has the sound /g/ (e.g., ghost).
2) When gh comes at the end of a word, it sometimes has the sound /f/ (e.g., laugh).
3) When the vowel i comes before gh, the i is long, and the gh is silent (e.g., high; night). This is the case for most gh words.

But what about the ough combination? 

Bottom-Up Reading Strategies for an Interactive Reading Approach: TESOL 2016 Presentation in Baltimore

I always appreciate the opportunity to attend the International TESOL Conference. I enjoy learning what other professionals in the field are doing to contribute to their respective contexts. I also enjoy "stirring the gray matter" and the ideas that come to mind that I can apply in my areas of responsibility.

I had the opportunity to present this year on Bottom-Up Reading Strategies for an Interactive Reading Approach. I shared the rationale behind the use of bottom-up reading strategies and their role in promoting an interactive reading approach. I also shared specific bottom-up strategies (decoding and encoding strategies originating from Reading Horizons) that I've used with my students, as well as application activities for applying these strategies in the ELL classroom. The session was well-attended, and several individuals mentioned to me after the presentation that they had been introduced to things in the presentation that they'd never learned before. I shared the free Online Workshop where teachers and teachers-in-training can learn additional bottom-up strategies to apply in their classrooms.

Blended Learning Resources

Blended learning employs an appropriate balance between—and implementation of— technology and face-to-face teacher/student interaction to maximize a student’s learning experience. Blended learning is generating interest and gaining increased attention in K-12 and higher ed contexts. Although blended learning is gaining popularity in classrooms across the country, there are still many teachers who are just beginning their quest to learn what blended learning is and how to best implement it in their classrooms. There are several resources available to assist with meeting this objective, some of which are listed below.

Resources Available to Learn About Blended Learning:

Khan Academy, the Clayton Christensen Institute, and Silicon Schools have teamed up to provide a Blended Learning 101 course, which shares a myriad of resources to promote and implement blended learning. The course takes participants through a five part course with resource guides and over 40 videos that teach different models and how to select resources. View the course here.

The Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation is a non-profit striving to solve problems related to health care and education through research. Learn more about blended learning on their website here.

The Blended Learning Universe (BLU) provides several resources to inform and instruct on blended learning implementation, including videos, guides, and a directory of blended learning sites world-wide.

Aspire Public Schools has produced a Blended Learning 101 Handbook to guide teachers through the orientation and implementation of blended learning.

I recommend reading the book Blended, which provides a practical overview of the what, why, and how of blended learning.

I recently wrote a white paper on blended learning that explains what blended learning is and the models associated with Blended Learning.

My colleague, Tasi Young, recently conducted a webinar on blended learning. The recording can be viewed here. Tasi is also featured on a recently-produced blended learning video which can be viewed here.

Dr. Charles Graham, professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology at Brigham Young University, has published several articles on blended learning. Video demonstrations of blended learning are available here. In addition, Dr. Graham discusses the six P's of blended learning, which can be viewed in the video here.

Literacy Training in Zimbabwe

One of my job responsibilities includes traveling to various locations to train teachers in literacy strategies. My objective is to empower teachers with additional tools for their teaching strategies toolbox. I’ve traveled to urban middle schools and high schools, community colleges and universities, literacy centers and libraries, and a myriad of other sites to train teachers, paraprofessionals, and tutors. I’ve met hundreds of teachers and students, and in the process, I’ve witnessed a variety of different backgrounds and needs. Once in a while, I have experiences while training that teach me life lessons, whether it be a lesson learned about how literacy strategies unlock a struggling student’s world of learning, or feeling inspired by a teacher’s passion.

This year I had a unique training opportunity. I traveled to Zimbabwe to provide literacy training for people in various remote villages where such services had never been provided. During this experience, I learned life lessons about individual dignity and the hierarchy of needs—physical, social, and educational. We drove on long, bumpy, dusty roads without air conditioning and proper suspension, and we traveled with little water and food. We traveled through and camped in wild game parks, witnessing rare sightings of wild animals and waking up to the sounds of the competing roars of lion prides. Although the conditions were not ideal, I felt privileged to have had the opportunity to interact with teachers and students that few people will ever get to meet.

Literacy Training in India at Pathway

Last month, my colleagues and I had the opportunity to visit Pathway India, a non-profit organization located in southern India that serves underprivileged and handicapped children. Pathway educates, empowers, and enlightens the students they serve by providing vocational and academic training, rewarding students for their contributions, and sustaining an environment in which the students feel safe, loved, and confident in their abilities to contribute using their knowledge and talents.



We had an opportunity to train the teachers at one of Pathway's schools located in rural Chennai. We also had the opportunity to conduct a training for English teachers in the surrounding area and were privileged to have Dr. Swaminathan in attendance.







Pathway India recently published their latest newsletter article which documents our recent visit. It can be accessed here. To learn more about this organization, visit their website at http://pathway.org.in/, or visit their Facebook page: Pathway India.

Free, Engaging 2014 Winter Olympics Activities for ELL Classrooms

With the 2014 Winter Olympics rapidly approaching, teachers are gearing up for ways to integrate the excitement of the games into their English Language Learner classrooms. A colleague recently informed me of a free Winter Olympics Activity Toolkit created by VIF Learning Center that can be downloaded on their blog here. The toolkit provides engaging activities to bring global learning into the classroom. You can also upload photos and videos of students engaging in the activities onto the VIF Learning Center website to be entered into prize drawings. You can learn more information by reading their blog post here. The toolkit was developed for students in grades K-12, but activities are also relevant to older learners.

English Language Learner Strategies

Visit my ESL teaching tips blog post to learn about pronunciation, spelling, grammar, decoding, and listening strategies. Also, come back to my blog soon to see the launch of my new YouTube channel where I will be demonstrating decoding strategies using a tablet and screen captures!

Specific strategies taught elsewhere on my blog can also be accessed here:

ELL-U Online Discussion: Interactive Reading Strategies for Emergent ELL Readers (Part 2)

Welcome to Part 2 of the online discussion hosted by ELL-U. 

To join the Online Discussion:

1) Watch Part 2 of the webinar below.

2) Post your responses on ELL-U at http://www.ell-u.org/forum/viewthread/279/.

3) Visit ELL-U before May 3 to view others’ feedback and participate in the online discussion.

4) Watch Part 1 of this webinar on www.ESLtrail.com at any time to review.

The objectives of the webinar are as follows:

Part 1:

• Provide examples of bottom-up, top-down, and interactive strategies for teaching L2 reading.
• Offer rationale for the use of explicit, systematic bottom-up strategies instruction.

Part 2:

• Discuss the role of students’ phonemic and phonological awareness.
• Provide practical methodology and approaches to teaching bottom-up strategies in L2 reading.

Self-reflection Questions:

1) Was there at least one strategy you learned in this webinar that you didn’t know before?

2) Which bottom-up  strategies would you like to implement?

3) When would be an appropriate time to implement bottom-up strategies?


Join the Online Discussion  here!

Sources

Aebersold, J. & Field, M. L., (1997). From reader to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for second language classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Anderson, N. J. (2003). Exploring Skills: Reading.  In D. Nunan (Ed.), Practical English Language Teaching (pp. 67-86).  New York: McGraw-Hill.

Birch, B. M, (2002).  English L2 Reading:  Getting to the Bottom. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Carrell, P.  (1993).  Introduction: Interactive approaches to second language reading.  In P. Carrell, J. Devine, & D. Eskey (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language reading  (pp. 1-7).  Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Eskey, D. (1993).  Holding in the bottom: An interactive approach to the language problems of second language readers.  In P. Carrell, J. Devine, & D. Eskey (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language reading (pp. 93-100). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Nunes, T. (1999).  Learning to read: An integrated view from research and practice.  Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.

Forum for Adult Emerging ELL Readers

I have written a blog post before about ELL-U, a free online resource for professional development. I am pleased to be moderating a forum hosted by ELL-U later this month. Following is the information provided by ELL-U that has been recently disseminated.

Be sure to stop by the ELL-U community forums to join the online discussion with Heidi from April 22 - May 3, 2013. ELL-U is excited to have Heidi join the community to share her expertise in first- and second-language literacy and reading, language learning strategies, learner characteristics, pronunciation, and computer-assisted language learning. 

  

Heidi is the Curriculum and ESL Director at Reading Horizons where she oversees curriculum development, training, and research. In addition, she is also a current member of the international association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Inc. and has presented her research at the international convention. She also served as President of the Intermountain-TESOL (I-TESOL) affiliate from 2008-2009 and currently serves as Secretary on the I-TESOL Board.

Be sure to check the ELL-U Forums and Discussion page to participate in this special discussion. For additional information, email info@ell-u.org. 

Free Online Speed Reading Tool

I have blogged before about learning strategies for reading faster and speed reading, as well as optimal silent and oral reading rates--both of which have proven to be popular posts. In that light, I was recently introduced to a free online tool called Spreeder, developed by 7-Speed-Reading. The objective of this tool is to help improve reading speed and comprehension. This tool could be used to help students practice reading at a faster rate, helping them to avoid the sub-vocalization that often occurs in their reading which, in turn, slows reading down.

To use the tool, first, paste the text you'd like to "speed read" into the box.

Then, select from a drop-down menu the settings you'd like to use. Settings include the number of words you would like displayed on the screen at a time, words per minute, background color, etc.

When you click "start," the text will flash across the screen at the rate prescribed in the settings, allowing the reader to read the text at that designated reading rate.

Teaching English to Emergent Adult Readers

Teaching emergent adult readers presents unique challenges, including knowing which fundamental skills to teach and how to appropriately deliver these skills in ways that are accessible, practical, and motivating. Adults who lack print literacy also lack essential pre-literacy skills, including phonemic awareness and phonics skills (Gombert, 1994; Kurvers & van de Craats, 2007; Vinogradov, 2010; Young-Scholten & Strom, 2006). These adults may be able to name the letters in a word, but they are often unable to assign correct sounds to the letters, combine them to decode the word, or attach meaning to the word (Vinogradov, 2012). This research suggests the critical need for teachers to provide explicit phonemic awareness and decoding instruction in their classrooms (Evans, 2008; Trupke-Bastidas & Poulos, 2007).

However, since reading is more than simply knowing the alphabet, how do teachers know which fundamental phonemic awareness and decoding skills should be taught and how to implement these fundamental skills with limited instructional time? Teachers need to be equipped with a toolbox of teaching strategies that can be employed to effectively address the varying needs of their students, as well as be provided with a framework to know how much instructional time should be spent to develop these skills.

Visit my teaching tips page for specific strategies that can be taught to students in adult education contexts (or students learning to read for the first time). Visit also www.phonicstraining.com for free access to an online teacher training workshop.

Repetition in the ESL Classroom

I was pleased to have received a series of guest blog posts authored by the English Skills Learning Center (ESLC) in Salt Lake City, Utah. (I've mentioned them in a blog post before here.) I have conducted literacy training for some of their volunteers and staff, and I have been consistently impressed with their efforts to make a difference in the lives of those they serve. To provide a little more background on the ESLC, I've included an introduction from their website:


The English Skills Learning Center provides individualized English instruction to adult refugees and immigrants. Our students speak little or no English, and often are not literate in any language. We train and supervise volunteer tutors who then teach our students twice a week. Instruction is provided at times and locations that are convenient for both the tutor and the student.


We currently tutor students from 34 different countries. We are currently working with over 175 volunteers to serve close to 400 students in the Salt Lake City area.  Our approach focuses on helping our students become better integrated members of American society.


We have operated continuously since 1988, and provide the only free and individualized ESL tutoring program in Salt Lake County, Utah.


The first blog post of this series is about using repetition in the ESL classroom.

A Documentary on Humanitarian Efforts in India

If you followed my blog earlier this year about my efforts to promote English and literacy among the leprosy-affected in India, you may be interested in this documentary by Doug Jardine that was aired this past Sunday on Utah Business Matters. It will also be aired this next Sunday. Following is the link to the documentary on YouTube:

Rising Star Outreach Documentary

The documentary illustrates the three-fold mission of Rising Star Outreach: microfinance, education, and a mobile medical clinic. Much of the video on the documentary was shot while I was in India earlier this year. Other volunteers featured on this documentary include Shaun Parry (founder of Promethean Spark), Stacy Tookey, and David Archuleta, all of whom were also among the volunteer corps on my expedition earlier this year.

See my other blog posts about India from January/February, 2011, here:
Post-India: Thoughts on Service
Ensuring Success with English in India
Back in India
A Day in My Life in India
More On a Day in My Life in India
Abolishing the Stigma of Leprosy by Teaching Children to Read in English

See my other blog posts about India from May, 2008, here:
English Language Instruction and Teaching in India
Why the English Language? Why Literacy? Why India?

Teaching English and Literacy Skills to Rising Star Outreach Students in India

Free Webinar on ELL Emerging Literacy

I wanted to announce a wonderful free resource for teachers of non-native English speakers with no prior literacy. Dr. Robin Schwarz will be presenting a webinar on best approaches for helping these students to acquire literacy. She will be conducting the webinar on Tuesday, November 15, 2011, from 1:00-2:00 PM MST.

Here is the abstract of the webinar:

One of the major challenges of ESL teachers is working with learners who have no prior literacy. How can you best teach these learners to read? Teaching non-literate or very low literate non-English speakers to read is NOT like teaching students who are literate in another language. Robin Lovrien Schwarz, PhD, will help you learn what research has discovered about the challenges these learners face and what the best approaches are for helping them begin to acquire literacy. Dr. Lovrien Schwarz will also direct you to sources that will support you in teaching reading to this population.

View the recorded webinar here.

For a list of other free webinars on literacy, click here.

(Read a follow-up post on the webinar here.)

Free Online Videos for the ESL and ELL Classrooms

Do you like to use online videos in your ESL classroom? Here are a few websites that showcase videos that can supplement your ESL instruction (some of which I've blogged about before):

TED.com showcases "ideas worth spreading." The goal of TED is to "foster the spread of great ideas" on a variety of topics, including education. TED talks have teaching application in the classroom. (See Teaching with TED and click on a topic or talk on the right sidebar.) In addition, administrators have used applicable TED videos for in-service training meetings with teachers and staff to inspire, educate, and instill vision. (See my previous blog post on using TED videos in the classroom here.)

bigthink.com shares short video clips of experts in a variety of fields sharing "ideas" by responding to a question posed to them. Some of the video clips have transcripts provided, as well. You can peruse by topics, or you can conduct a keyword search for a topic or person of interest. Also, viewers can post responses and reactions to the experts' views. (See my previous blog post on bigthink.com here.) 


"6 Milliards d'Autres," or "6 Billion Others," documents 5,000 interviews filmed in 75 different countries in which individuals were asked the same questions about life. As the website states, this project is "a perspective on humanity" that reveals "what separates us and what unites us." (Click on the "6bO Testimonies" button at the bottom left of the screen, and then click "Portraits" from the drop-down menu. You can then click on any picture tile in the mosaic to view that individual's portrait. You can also search by topic, location, etc.) (See my previous blog post on ideas for using this website in the classroom here.)

One in 8 Million shares the stories of individuals in New York City through still shots and voice narration. As the website describes, this series showcases "ordinary people telling extraordinary stories -- of passions and problems, relationships and routines, vocations and obsessions."

Khan Academy is a non-profit organization that provides video-based education via the internet. Salman Khan has personally narrated over 2,400 lessons on topics ranging from algebra and computer science to biology and economics. His mission: to provide education that is free for all. (See my previous blog post on Khan Academy here.)

Documentary Heaven provides access to over 1,600 documentaries found on the Internet. Topics include education, history, and nature, to name a few.

ESL Teaching Tip: Common Suffixes

The previous blog post discussed spelling with the suffixes -ing, -ed, -er, and -est. There are other common suffixes that would be helpful for students to learn. Learning common suffixes helps students determine the meanings of unknown words. Students can use their knowledge of word parts with Latin and Greek roots, specifically prefixes and suffixes, to pull an unknown word apart and determine its meaning. Following is a list of commonly used suffixes.

Suffix   Example Words

-able    capable, notable, desirable

-al        central, coastal, general, hospital

-ant      pleasant, important, distant, constant

-ance   continuance, allowance, abundance, balance

-ee       employee, trustee

-en       harden, sweeten, golden, driven

-ence   excellence, evidence, difference, reference

-ent      innocent, confident, ardent, eloquent

-ful       cheerful, careful, wonderful, shameful

-hood   manhood, statehood, womanhood

-ible     possible

-ice      justice, service, notice, practice

-id        timid, solid, valid, frigid

-ish      finish, vanish, punish, abolish, perish

-ine      engine, famine, genuine

-it         limit, deposit

-ite       definite, infinite, opposite

-ive      relative, possessive, active, effective

-ize      realize, fertilize, specialize, apologize

-less     shameless, careless, restless, blameless

-ment   assignment, department, apartment, agreement

-ness    happiness, sickness, brightness, darkness

-ward   awkward, downward, upward

-cian    Grecian, politician, musician

-ciate   appreciate, emaciate

-cient   proficient, efficient, sufficient

-cial     racial, social, facial, crucial

-tial      partial, initial, essential

-sial     controversial

-cious   gracious, delicious, vicious

-tious   facetious, pretentious, ostentatious

-xious   anxious, obnoxious, noxious

For additional ESL teaching tips:

Click here to read about the pronunciation of -ed.

Click here to read about pronouncing plurals.

Click here to read about voiced and voiceless sounds.

Click here to read about rising and falling intonation in questions.

Click here to read about syllable stress and the schwa.
Click here to read about adding the suffixes -ing, -ed, -er, and -est.
Click here to read about teaching common prefixes. 
Click here to read about decoding multi-syllabic words. 
Click here to read about spelling words that end in S, F, and Z.
Click here to read about other sounds for c and g.

ESL Spelling Tip: Adding Suffixes

Sometimes, an ending can be added to the end of a word to make a new word. We call this ending a suffix. A suffix contains one or more letters. Sometimes, adding a suffix will change the word’s part of speech. 

Following are some skills that could be taught to non-native English speaking students to help them properly spell words with suffixes.

1)  In a short vowel word ending in a single consonant, that same consonant must be doubled before adding the suffixes -ing, -ed, -er, or -est.

           r   u  n         r u n n e r                        h  o  p           h o p p i n g

Note: If a word ends in an x, simply add the suffix since x has two sounds: /ks/.

           w a x         w a x i n g                         f i x               f i x e d

2)  If a short vowel word already has two consonants at the end of the word, simply add the suffix.

          j  u  m  p       j u m p i n g                      h  u  n  t        h u n t e d

ESL Pronunciation Tip: Syllable Stress and the Schwa

The following is an activity that can be used to teach students about syllable stress and the schwa. (More comprehensive information on word stress predictability can be accessed from a previous blog post here.)

Why:
• Stress is the volume and pitch a speaker gives to a sound, syllable, or word while speaking.
• Every multi-syllabic word (a word with more than one syllable) has one syllable that is emphasized more than the others.

• All English vowels in unstressed syllables can take the schwa sound. The schwa has the sound of short u (example: pencil) or short i (example: leverage). We show that a vowel has a schwa sound with an upside down e.

• Learning syllable stress will help you improve your pronunciation.

How:
• Following is a list of general rules for syllable stress. Even though there are many exceptions in English, it is helpful to use these general rules as guidelines when you come across a word you don’t know. Try to predict what the syllable stress will be for the new words you learn. If you need to, you can use a dictionary to check the syllable stress.
• There are no rules to help you decide if a vowel says the schwa sound. One helpful thing to remember is that the schwa sound is usually in an unstressed syllable (examples: open; human; pencil). Also, usually the vowel a at the beginning or end of a word says the schwa sound (examples: sofa; agenda; America; away).

ESL Pronunciation Tip: Rising and Falling Intonation in WH- and Yes/No Questions

A question mark is placed at the end of a sentence that asks a question. Questions end in both rising and falling intonation. If the sentence ends in falling intonation, the voice tone goes down at the end of the sentence, much like musical notes on a piano. If a sentence ends in rising intonation, the voice tone goes up at the end of the sentence.
 

Falling Intonation 

Questions that begin with who, what, when, where, why, which, and how (often referred to as “wh-questions”) usually end in falling intonation.

Examples: 

What time is it?
Who is she?
When is he coming?
 

Also, commands and statements end in falling intonation. Commands and statements end in a period.
Examples: 

Commands
Shut the door. 

Write your name.

Statements

The color is blue.
It is raining.

ESL Pronunciation Tip: Recognizing and Pronouncing Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

The last two teaching tips I posted referred to recognizing voiced and voiceless sounds to predict ending sounds (plurals and the suffix -ed). If your student needs help learning to recognize voiced and voiceless sounds, you may find the following lesson helpful.

Recognize Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

Why:
• Knowing if a sound is voiced or voiceless will help you pronounce certain sounds better, such as plurals, possessive s, and -ed endings.

How:
• Put your fingers on your throat. Say these vowel sounds: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/. Do you feel your throat vibrate when you say these sounds? That is voicing. All vowels are voiced.
• Put your fingers on your throat. Say these consonant sounds: /p/, /f/, /t/, /s/. You do not feel your throat vibrate when you say these sounds. These consonants are voiceless.
• Put your fingers on your throat. Say these consonant sounds: /b/, /v/, /d/, /z/. You feel your throat vibrate when you say these sounds. These consonants are voiced.
• Put your fingers on your throat. Say these consonant sounds: /p/, /b/, /f/, /v/, /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/. Compare the voiceless sounds and voiced sounds.

Apply:
• Below is the alphabet. Say each sound. Which sounds are voiceless? Which sounds are voiced? Write the sounds that are voiceless in the left column. Write the sounds that are voiced in the right column.

          a     b     c     d      e     f     g      h     i     j     k     l     m
          n     o     p     q     r      s     t    u      v      w      x     y      z

                                  Voiceless                                            Voiced 



 

Evaluate:
• Can you hear the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds? Which ones are difficult for you to distinguish between?


For additional ESL teaching tips:

Click here to read about the pronunciation of -ed.

Click here to read about pronouncing plurals.

Click here to read about rising and falling intonation in questions.

Click here to read about syllable stress and the schwa.
Click here to read about adding the suffixes -ing, -ed, -er, and -est.
Click here to read about teaching common suffixes. 
Click here to read about teaching common prefixes. 
Click here to read about decoding multi-syllabic words. 
Click here to read about spelling words that end in S, F, and Z.
Click here to read about other sounds for c and g.