France is notorious for its single-language policy, which ranks French as the only official, national language in the country—despite the country being home to more than 20 different regional languages, like Occitan, Alsatian, and Basque. While these languages have historically been quite robust, France’s policies regarding language use and education have largely ignored— and at times, even banned—their use, ultimately leading to a decline in speaker populations. A recently adopted policy, entitled the May 21 2021 Law Intended to Protect and Promote Regional Languages (also called the Molac Law, after the politician who pushed most strongly for its passage), could potentially slow that decline a bit. Still, the law has been the subject of controversy in recent months, as it turns out that it might not do enough to protect these regional languages. The law—part of a larger global trend in which many nations are making efforts to protect and revitalize their Indigenous languages that have historically been neglected—has been deemed particularly questionable due to an ambiguous clause that many interpret as banning immersive schooling in these languages. According to a report from Global Voices, many in the French Basque Country protested the law’s perceived banning of immersive language education in regional languages.
It ultimately turned out to be a slight misunderstanding—following the eruption of similar protests throughout the country, the government clarified that the law would only ban immersion classes in state-funded public schools. Private institutions, on the other hand, are allowed to continue offering immersion classes in regional languages.
Additionally, the Molac Law has been criticized for its vagueness—while the law is named for its efforts to protect and promote the regional languages of France, the course of action the state has planned for doing so is not so clear. The law gives regional languages the status of “national treasures” and also urges local government authorities “to contribute to the tuition costs of private schools that offer bilingual education.”
Whether this is enough for regional languages to survive in the long term remains to be seen. Since France began tightening up its language policies in the 1800s, regional languages have continuously declined as a result of neglect and even systemic abuse (students throughout the country’s state schools used to face stringent punishment for speaking in any regional language other than French). Global Voices notes that it’s not even clear whether or not French students in Occitan- or Basque-speaking regions will be able to study in their own languages come the beginning of the 2021–22 school year on Sept. 2. Andrew Warner
Taiwan’s Minister of the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC), Tung Chen-yuan (童振源), opened the new Taiwan Center for Mandarin Learning in Irvine, California, to provide Chinese language courses for American adults.
The center aims to provide a language learning environment that values “freedom and democracy while respecting cultural diversity,” Tung said at the inaugural ceremony of the institute. “This is something that Confucius Institutes can simply not compete with,” he added.
Recently, Confucius Institutes worldwide have been heavily criticized for promoting China’s agenda through soft power and pushing Chinese government-backed political positions.
The establishment of the Taiwan center is part of the collaboration between the U.S. government and its Taiwanese counterpart on academic exchanges and education of the Chinese language, Tung said.
The OCAC has approved the sponsorship of the establishment of 18 branches of the Taiwan Center for Mandarin Learning in the U.S., Britain, France, and Germany, with 15 of them to be set up at Chinese language schools in the U.S. operated by overseas Taiwanese communities, according to the council.
The funding was established in accordance with the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative, a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. in 2020.
The OCAC will finance the operation of the institutes, textbooks, and equipment, as well as other language-related events, the council says on its website.
Tung noted that textbooks provided for the center’s courses will be in traditional Chinese, but in practice teachers are free to provide materials in simplified Chinese to help with their teaching.
“Chinese is one of the eight languages critical to national security here in the U.S.,” Irvine Vice Mayor Tammy Kim, who attended the ceremony, told Focus Taiwan.
“The Taiwan center is coming at the most critical time for us regarding our national security because the Confucius Institute is no longer allowed to work on any language projects,” Kim said.
Meanwhile, the OCAC said Tung would be visiting other American cities, including San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and New York, in the following days to inaugurate other branches of the Taiwan center, as part of his three-week trip to the U.S. that began at the end of August.
With the recent natural disaster and assassination of the country’s president in July, Haiti is in the middle of major political, economic, and social upheaval. Amidst the turmoil, some commentators believe now might be the right time for Haitians to take up a revolutionary linguistic policy: adopting Haitian Creole as the primary governing language. Benjamin Hebblethwaite, a Haitian Creolist and assistant professor at the University of Florida, recently published an op-ed in Foreign Policy about the necessity for a new, more equitable language policy in Haiti. “People ask me why Haitians struggle economically and politically, with conditions worsening since the approval of Haiti’s new constitution in 1987,” writes Hebblethwaite. “There are lots of reasons for Haitians’ struggles, but language policy represents an underlying condition.”
While French and Haitian Creole both serve as official languages in the country, French is spoken by a very slim minority (most sources estimate between 5% and 10% of Haitians speak French fluently and use it regularly in their day-to-day lives). Still, the language has a pretty major hold on the country—for example, most Haitian elementary school students are educated in French, even though the vast majority of teachers and students alike speak the language with low proficiency. When Haiti first gained its independence from France, most of the elite survivors of the Haitian Revolution were French speakers—as such, legislation was conducted exclusively in French, despite the fact that the entire country spoke Haitian Creole as its primary language. French remains strongly associated with the country’s elite; however, even many of the country’s wealthiest citizens use Haitian Creole as their main language. Historically, Haitian Creole was seen by many of the country’s elites as a sort of misspoken, error-ridden form of the French language (most of the language’s vocabulary is derived from French, though the grammar is significantly different). It wasn’t until 1987 that the country officially recognized Haitian Creole alongside French, rather than treating it as a bastardized version of French.
The use of French in government and education has significantly limited social mobility—if only a small minority of the country’s population speaks French, using French in legislation and education shuts out the masses from engaging with and truly understanding the government, Hebblethwaite argues. Andrew Warner
More than 50 languages other than English are commonly used in daily encounters between patients and healthcare providers in the U.S., according to the 2021 Healthcare World Languages Index compiled by AMN Languages Services, a division of AMN Healthcare (NYSE: AMN). The report is based on more than 110 million minutes of interpretation services the company provided over the last twelve months for patients in hospitals, medical groups, and other clinical settings. “The pattern is clear,” said Maureen Huber, president of AMN Healthcare workforce technology solutions. “From Mandarin to Arabic to Swahili to Hmong, and many others, patients in U.S. healthcare facilities are speaking a broader array of languages than ever before.”
According to the report, the top ten most common languages nationally in healthcare encounters requiring interpretation are Spanish, languages commonly spoken in China (Mandarin and Cantonese), Vietnamese, Arabic, American Sign Language (ASL), Russian, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, and Korean. By far the most frequently used language other than English, Spanish is spoken in 74% of non-English patient–healthcare provider encounters nationally. Hawaii (Mandarin), Vermont (Nepali), and Maine (Arabic) are the only three states in which Spanish is not the most spoken language other than English. Vietnamese is the second-most spoken language, but when Mandarin and Cantonese are combined, the languages commonly spoken in China represent the second-most spoken language other than English. Huber noted recent U.S. Census Bureau data indicating that 67 million people in the U.S. now speak a language other than English at home—double the number from 1990 and triple that of 1980. This trend has resulted in a growing number of English learner patients who require interpretation services to ensure appropriate care. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), language barriers put 9% of U.S. patients at risk for an adverse safety event. To ensure equal access to healthcare, Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act requires that interpretation services be provided to LEP patients at facilities that benefit from federal funding.
The use of American Sign Language (ASL) in healthcare encounters is relatively common, according to the report, with it ranking second behind Spanish as the most commonly used language other than English in 13 states and the District of Columbia.
The Caribbean Sea encompasses over 7,000 islands, including the famous tourist destinations of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and Barbados. Taken all together, the Caribbean islands, sometimes referred to as the West Indies, are incredibly diverse, yet they share distinct historical traits, behaviors, and values which have created a Caribbean culture and identity. For countries like Jamaica and other islands, English is a shared language. Not only is it a shared language, but it is the mother tongue, making these groups of English-speaking Caribbean islanders indeed native English speakers.
Even in this age of heightened awareness of cultural, historical, and political ties to the English language, the English language teaching (ELT) industry struggles with the fact that not every native English speaker speaks the same way, has the same accent, or even shares the same background.
We step in to acknowledge and challenge this overwhelming misconception in the ELT industry: that English is a White-hegemonic language and therefore native speakerism is reserved for the individuals who fit that description.
So how do we move from misjudging an English speaker’s culture, skin color, or country of origin as a qualifier to be an English educator? Instead, how can we use life experiences, such as culture, to enhance English instruction? Is there space in the curriculum to leverage culture, identity, and history to confront systemic bias, even racism, when teaching English as a world language?
The answer is yes. We can debunk the myth that the native English speaker is solely synonymous with Western culture when English is in fact the primary language of many populations in the Global South too.
In 2020, Happy Teachers and Bridge Education Group partnered to survey Caribbean English teachers to understand what’s been successful in class, which then helps to deconstruct falsities about who qualifies as a native speaker and who doesn’t.
World English versus World Englishes Native speakerism is a hot topic in the ELT arena and is discussed often. Yet discrimination toward nonnative English teachers is overtly practiced and documented. It’s all too common to view a job posting from a tutoring company and notice the glaring requirements for native speakers. Images of the U.S., Australian, Canadian, and UK flags allude to their preferences.
We understand every company reserves the right to set their hiring requirements, but it’s these kinds of practices that eliminate a huge chunk of nonnative speakers, people of color, and citizens of smaller English-speaking nations from the hiring pool. How did we get to this point, exactly? It boils down to “othering,” or categorizing those who are part of the “English inner circle” apart from those who are not.
As discussed by Mary Romney in “All Englishes Matter,” the spread, acquisition, and use of English is commonly referred to as the lingua franca model.1 This model was theorized by linguist Braj Kachru, in which he identified the three distinct concentric circles of English: the inner circle, the outer circle, and the expanding circle.
The inner circle includes places whose inhabitants speak English as it originally took shape and was spread across the world in the first diaspora, largely through conquering and colonizing new geographic territories. Those same areas would then adopt English as the primary language or the mother tongue.
Take the Caribbean island of Jamaica as an example. English was brought to Jamaica and other parts of the Americas when British colonization was prevalent in the 16th century. Since gaining independence from Great Britain nearly 400 years later, Jamaica has retained English as its official language, despite the commonly spoken patois.
The second concentric tier of English, the outer circle, grew roots through imperial expansion of Great Britain in the continents of Asia and Africa. In countries like India, Nigeria, Malaysia, and the Philippines (via U.S. colonialism), English is not the native language, but it is the auxiliary language, or the lingua franca, between ethnic and language groups. This plays out in countries like India where there are over 20 official languages belonging to different ethnic groups, but English is the common denominator in institutions like higher academia, government, and national commerce.
Then there is the expanding circle. This third concentric circle branches out to countries where English has no ties to the country’s history, culture, or government. The main difference in the expanding circle (compared to the outer circle) is that English “has not become institutionalized with locally developed standards of use,”2 but, in an effort to compete globally, it is widely studied and used as a medium of international communication.
Kachru’s concentric English circle model shows us one thing for certain: if the mode of communication is English, then a native speaker from the expanding circle should efficiently understand and converse with a nonnative speaker from the inner circle, and vice versa.
What we need to steer away from is the preconceived notion that only Americans, Australians, and the British speak English the most naturally and “properly” when in fact those from South Africa, New Zealand, and parts of the Caribbean do too, along with nonprimary speakers who’ve mastered the language. If we are to label English a global language or lingua franca, we need to first understand that the language has evolved to occupy many different corners and pockets of the world, not just those of the Global North.
With this understanding, world Englishes can and should be used to communicate between circles, without discrimination or hierarchy between the native and nonnative speakers. Only then is it truly a world English.
World Englishes in the Interview Room We understand that biased imagery of the English speaker plays a role in the unethical hiring practices for English teachers. The hypothesis is that lack of diversity and knowledge leads hiring managers to ignore qualified English teachers of color, regardless of their being native or nonnative speakers. The prototypical English speaker is a problematic image because it eliminates people of color who are indeed skilled and trained in the language.
When we surveyed a pool of 27 Caribbean teachers from the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, and the British Virgin Islands, they felt they were viewed respectfully in their trade, but there was a growing trend: some teachers felt employers didn’t view them as “good enough” or “as qualified” as their U.S. and UK counterparts.
For instance, both the UK and the U.S. are developed nations, whereas many of the Anglophone Caribbean nations are considered developing or underdeveloped. The teachers indicated that recruiters desired candidates from so-called reformed socio-economic cultures, adding another branch of hierarchy to questionable hiring practices.
There’s also the social construct of race and the implicit yet bigoted biases that determine a candidate’s fit for the job. It’s been argued that “neo-racism” is at the core of common recruiter behavior; neo-racism dismisses the ability to deliver adequate English instruction because of skin color, accent, ethnicity, or name.3
Therein lies the troublesome correlation: that native English is reserved for White, Western European-looking teachers, and therefore the English language is a proxy of Whiteness.
And the opinion is not without merit: 70% of teachers we surveyed felt their Caribbean heritage, nationality, and/or race affected their job prospects. One respondent went so far as to say that it is a desire on the part of students to have a White English-speaking teacher, which then influences companies’ decisions when recruiting ideal candidates.
But as more global citizens continue to spread the English language across borders, the model of associating native speakerism to so-called White-dominated countries continues to trend toward obsolescence. The silver lining to such an outdated practice lies in the resolutions where Anglophone Caribbean teachers, or any native English speaker of color really, can enrich the study of English with cultural exchange and awareness.
Cultural Influences in the English Classroom From the same survey, Caribbean teachers revealed a surprising and refreshing general testimony: their students tended to be more trusting and less scrutinizing of their Caribbean backgrounds.
Still, the teachers faced peculiar questions about their backgrounds and appearances. In recorded responses, some teachers cited that learners were not aware that Black Caribbeans are not from Africa, although they are part of the African diaspora. Other testimony pointed to the fact that some students naively assigned a language to a race. Questions like “Do Jamaicans speak English?” or “What language do Jamaicans speak?” let us know that English is still linked to Anglo-dominated wealthy countries rather than developing nations with non-White dominating populations.
In addition, teachers relayed that students sometimes anticipated their Caribbean teachers would pronounce words and orate sentences like an American or a Brit, as if those types of English were the only acceptable ones.
Situations like these offer opportunities to include cultural and social understanding in education programs or culturally responsive teaching of the English language. Learning English is not only the process of mastering language forms but also includes recognizing the cultural thought patterns of English speakers around the world, which truly make it a world language rather than a language that is assigned a geographic place and race.
As a starting point, English learning through cultural immersion could include comparing and contrasting. Compare-and-contrast models aid learners who are not from the same culture in understanding the difference between cultural behaviors, which in turn increases cultural competence and understanding. Comparison and contrast can distinguish acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior, allowing learners to accept the target culture, reinforcing English as a global language.
A further proposition for this learning model includes engaging in culture-based activities. In a traditional learning model, acquisition of knowledge of culture relies on written materials in which learners are enlightened about psychology, cultural characters, customs and habits, and social relations through text and not experience.
Communicative activities are those involving learners’ active participation in communication, such as role-play, information-gap activities, and problem-solving activities. For example, an English teacher may want to introduce learners to varieties of cultural dishes from around the world, which could include teaching learners to cook a traditional recipe, how to order at a Caribbean restaurant, or how to order food by phone.
Lastly, using authentic materials and sources from a variety of English-speaking sources helps to engage students via authentic cultural experiences and furthermore aids the destruction of implicit nativism biases when dissecting the qualifications of an English speaker.
Take the song “I Shot the Sheriff” by Bob Marley and the Wailers, as was recommended by one survey respondent. As controversial a message as it was when the song was composed in 1975, and even in current times, the song presents an opportunity for learners to practice the /ʃ/ (sh sound) as it is used in English. Other authentic sources can include films, news broadcasts, and television shows, along with plenty of printed and digital materials that can be adapted to suit the age and language proficiency level of students.
More importantly, when teachers draw on multicultural awareness and understanding, they open their students’ eyes to combat the misconceptions that English is a White, Western European-dominant language, therefore showing them it also belongs to people of color.
World English Teachers and World English Learners English has evolved to become an international language with over half a billion people occupying the native speaker space, with another one and a half billion learning or using English as a secondary or foreign language. That is what makes English unique to the world—the total number of English speakers globally, not the number of native speakers.
Through teachers’ grassroots efforts to promote cultural awareness and reduce other biases (like those relating to accent and race) in the teaching of English as a global language, they are actively combating this systemic issue of native speakerism and racism in the industry.
Of course, new methods of English learning, particularly those paired with cultural exchange and enrichment, should always fit the needs of the student and their ability to grasp this new approach. One way to ensure this is to request and set realistic expectations for learning. Will world Englishes from the outer circle be accepted by the student? Teachers must always keep in mind whether world Englishes will be accepted in the student’s experience and if they will stunt or support the student’s growth. Finally, educators should reflect on how this immersive cultural learning models respect, exploration, and inclusivity for inner, outer, and expanding circle English speakers.
Venice Irving, an expert in the ELT field for more than 20 years, taught all levels in Asia before founding Happy Teachers in 2009. She is a sought-after speaker for global ELT events, particularly in Latin America and Europe. She also consults with local and international government agencies and NGOs on education development in the region. She currently leads an online group of over 3,000 teachers as CEO of Happy Teachers (https://happy-teachers.com).
Anna Hearrell is Bridge’s product manager (https://bridge.edu/tefl). She has developed innovative online programs designed to meet the needs of English language teachers around the world, including a micro-credential course dedicated to teaching English as a global language. As a teacher training provider, Bridge seeks to empower the global English language teaching community with accessible professional development options, teacher recognition, and advocacy.
A recent FairTest tally finds that more than 1,600 four-year schools will not require students to submit ACT/SAT scores to be considered for fall 2022 enrollment. Therefore, more than two-thirds of the 2,330 bachelor-degree institutions in the U.S. should have in place admissions policies which are generally regarded as more inclusive to minority students, including multilingual learners.
The list of ACT/SAT-optional and test-blind schools (https://fairtest.org/university/optional) is made available by the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest). The organization has been at the forefront of the U.S. test-optional admissions movement since the late 1980s.
“The coming year’s high school seniors should take advantage of the full range of admissions options,” explained FairTest executive director Bob Schaeffer. “Nearly all the most competitive liberal arts colleges in the country will not require ACT/SAT scores from applicants for fall 2022 seats. Similar policies will also be in place at a majority of public university campuses.”
“Study after study—the most recent from the University of California—has shown that eliminating admissions test requirements enhances undergraduate diversity without reducing academic quality,” Schaeffer concluded. “FairTest expects the number of test-optional institutions to continue growing because the policy is a ‘win– win’ for both students and schools.” The UC system announced in July that for fall 2021, without using SAT or ACT scores in admissions, “students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups comprise 43% of admitted California freshmen, the highest proportion of an incoming undergraduate class and the greatest number in UC history at 36,462.” The major exceptions to the strong test-optional trend, according to FairTest, are public college systems in Deep South states such as Georgia and Florida, U.S. service academies, and some small religious colleges.
After years of research, neuroscientists have discovered a new pathway in the human brain that processes the sounds of language. The findings, reported last month in the journal Cell, suggest that auditory and speech processing occur in parallel, contradicting a long-held theory that the brain processes acoustic information then transforms it into linguistic information.
Sounds of language, upon reaching the ears, are converted into electrical signals by the cochlea and sent to a brain region called the auditory cortex on the temporal lobe. For decades, scientists have thought that speech processing in the auditory cortex followed a serial pathway, similar to an assembly line in a factory. It was thought that first the primary auditory cortex processes the simple acoustic information, such as frequencies of sounds. Then an adjacent region, called the superior temporal gyrus (STG), extracts features more important to speech, like consonants and vowels, transforming sounds into meaningful words.
But direct evidence for this theory has been lacking, as it requires very detailed neurophysiological recordings from the entire auditory cortex with extremely high spatiotemporal resolution. This is challenging, because the primary auditory cortex is located deep in the cleft that separates the frontal and temporal lobes of the human brain.
Over the course of seven years, neuroscientist and neurosurgeon Edward Chang at the University of California, San Francisco, and his team played short phrases and sentences for study participants, expecting to find a flow of information from the primary auditory cortex to the adjacent STG, as the traditional model proposes. If that were the case, the two areas should have been activated one after the other.
Surprisingly, the team found that some areas located in the STG responded as fast as the primary auditory cortex when sentences were played, suggesting that both areas started processing acoustic information at the same time.
The latest evidence suggests the traditional hierarchy model of speech processing is oversimplified and likely incorrect. The researchers speculate that the STG may function independently from— instead of as a next step of—processing in the primary auditory cortex.
The parallel nature of speech processing may give doctors new ideas for how to treat conditions such as dyslexia, where children have trouble identifying speech sounds.
“While this is an important step forward, we don’t understand this parallel auditory system very well yet. The findings suggest that the routing of sound information could be very different than we ever imagined. It certainly raises more questions than it answers,” Chang says.
What motivates students to study languages? How do our students prefer to learn languages? Does school actually “get in the way” of language learning?
To explore the learner’s perspective on the current state of high school language learning, the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages (NCSSFL) organized a diverse group of students from across the country to share their insights on language learning.
Their stories are compelling not only on a personal level, but also for the picture of language learning that they painted for the audience that day. We were haunted by stories of the denial of opportunity because of class scheduling conflicts and troubled by stories of frustration with obstacles encountered, but we also heard stories of hope and opportunity.
The practitioner brief is divided into five overarching themes, from motivation to recommended activities. Below are excerpts from Theme 1, “Students’ motivations” and Theme 2, “Focusing on learning speaking skills.”
Theme 1: Students’ motivations for learning languages
What motivates students to study languages? Although language teachers and school administrators often promote the career value of learning a language as a key reason for enrolling, the six students on the panel described a desire for connections as their principal motivating factor.
In one case, a student had connections with many native speaker classmates. At a small boarding school in the Northeast, George appreciated the sizeable number of Chinese students at his school.
That’s what keeps me wanting to learn the language—having these kids around that speak Chinese as their native language. That inspires me to keep going and learn more about the culture and not just the language.
Ella was interested in getting in touch with her roots.
I’m half Mexican, so getting in touch with that culture and having a sense of belonging with my ancestors was my motivation [for learning Spanish]. The language wasn’t necessarily passed down through my family because they did move to the States, and the language got lost, so getting back in touch with it was important. Also, there are a lot of Spanish-speaking people in Arizona, and I like being able to connect with them and help them because not all of them speak English.
Another motivation for language learning that Karla mentioned was the engaging polyglot YouTuber known as Ikenna, who is learning German, Spanish, and Japanese on his own by connecting with native speaker tutors online.
I want to get to that level. He really inspired me to learn German and Spanish! He makes videos of things like “learning as much Spanish as I can in 26 days” or “rap songs in German” that I really enjoy. And that introduces you to the culture and language and you can pick up words from his videos.
Most of the students described a teacher or teachers along the way who sparked and helped maintain their interest in the language. George stated, “My teacher does a really good job” of teaching about cultural topics and focusing the discussions on topics of interest to students. “Specifically, I liked when we discussed what sports we’re interested in, because our school is a very athletic-oriented school.”
Theme 3: Increasing interactive activities, focusing on cultural topics and interpersonal connections
Most of the students preferred authentic activities—not worksheets—to promote conversational skills, including presentations, short conversations, and real-life scenarios. Madison thought the best way to learn a language was to do activities that are more realistic,
…things you’re going to need and want to talk about, and to do it in a manner that’s not just a worksheet. [Teachers should encourage students] to do presentations, have conversations, and act out something. It’s almost like going back to kindergarten! If you go back to kindergarten, that’s how they learn.
All students would like more interaction with native speakers, whether in person or virtually, to improve their fluency. Ella commented:
Personally, the biggest thing for me that’s aiding my progression in Spanish is definitely just being immersed in the culture. Before [COVID], I would go to the Spanish church and go to Spanish Mass and spend time with Spanish speakers. Because hearing the pronunciation helps you phonetically and finding someone that you can speak to and feel comfortable with is helpful. Oftentimes, our pronunciation isn’t perfect and so it can hold us back a lot, so finding that person to connect with and help you and guide you is really beneficial.
Karla also benefited from in-person interactions with native speakers—in her case, on field trips with her Korean class to the H Mart, an Asian supermarket.
I believe that field trips are really helpful [to encourage short conversations with people from the culture you’re studying]. It’s going there and talking to the cashiers or saying in Korean, “Can you please tell me where this is?” Starting up a conversation with someone helps immensely when it comes to going to another culture and being able to speak to them.
This article includes excerpts from “Student Voices: High Schoolers’ Insights into World Language Learning” by Tom Welch and Nancy Rhodes. You may download the full version online at CAL.org.
Secondary teachers are at a disadvantage when it comes to reading instruction. So much of the focus beyond fourth grade is on meeting English language arts (ELA) standards, particularly comprehension, that preservice middle and high school teachers often receive very little information about identifying and remediating reading difficulties. Even after decades of low reading scores in fourth and eighth grades, teachers often assume that students will come to their classrooms with the reading skills to independently access grade-level content in textbooks, novels, and online articles.
Misconception One To support older readers and their teachers, it is helpful to address several common misconceptions. A big one, often based on reading assessment measures, is that comprehension is the problem. The majority of reading assessments and standardized tests for older students focus on reading comprehension measures without determining gaps in the essential components that lead to comprehension: decoding, fluency, and vocabulary. A low comprehension score doesn’t tell teachers what they need to know to intervene, yet the proposed solution is often more reading “strategies.” This is generally unsuccessful, because—as stated by Dr. Anita Archer— “there is no reading strategy powerful enough to compensate for the fact that you can’t read the words.”
Decades of research have identified that effective readers must have a solid and automatic knowledge of how to translate the sounds of our language to the print that represents those sounds. This begins with accurately knowing consonant and vowel sounds, regardless of age, and understanding how speech and print work together for reading and spelling.
Secondary teachers are often unsure of how to assess foundational reading skills or address deficits, yet studies show that aggressively correcting phonological awareness difficulties and providing phonic decoding instruction are two of the most successful elements for intervention.
Misconception Two Another misconception is that struggling readers aren’t trying hard enough or must be less intelligent than their peers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most students with dyslexia, for instance, have average or above-average intelligence. Teachers may assume that students are lazy or not working very hard because secondary teachers often don’t know the characteristics of dyslexia or how to identify a struggling reader who has spent years hiding this. When a student with learning or language difficulties is identified, has the school established an appropriate process for ensuring that the time, materials, and trained professionals are available to provide effective intervention? Here are steps educators can take to support struggling readers in middle or high school.
Identifying a Struggling Reader in Middle or High School Students with dyslexia and weak decoding skills build coping mechanisms in their early years to avoid shame, which gets stronger as they get older. It benefits educators to become aware of what students are doing when they’re performing reading or writing tasks and to look for these compensation strategies.
For example, do students participate in discussions but avoid anything connected with reading out loud? Are the same students conveniently requesting to use the bathroom or go to the nurse’s office during independent reading? Do they appear fidgety and distracted during reading? Are there consistent behavior issues when students are asked to share reading or writing assignments in front of their peers? These are common strategies to avoid embarrassment.
Educators can also watch for repeated spelling errors, letter reversals, and the use of simple words and limited responses in their students’ writing—or not turning in work at all.
Supporting These Readers in a Virtual or Hybrid Setting There are two primary ways to support these students. The first is providing access to the curriculum content that will help them keep pace with their peers. During this unusual school year, teachers have the opportunity to do things differently to better support struggling readers. For example, a number of teachers are reading a book out loud with their students online, who are following along, and then having virtual discussions to support understanding. Students working from home can also access resources like text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and spellchecking apps to support decoding, writing, and spelling. Adults use these resources all the time, and they can be incredibly helpful accommodations for students to use without the knowledge of their peers. Also, there is often more time now because students aren’t in class all day five days a week. At home or during breaks in instruction, students can:
• Keep pace with the English class by listening to an audio book;
• Connect to science and history topics by watching an educational video that increases background knowledge;
• Have access to resources that provide reading content at their instructional level; and
• Work on projects where their strengths can be highlighted.
Most importantly, these students require targeted reading instruction with a research-based program for secondary students that can be delivered virtually or in person. During the pandemic, older students may be working remotely more often and missing valuable intervention. Instructional software ensures that students continue to receive structured literacy delivered at their own pace and that they can join small-group interventions online without being pulled from other classes. Research supports the need for adequate time for secondary students to apply the skills they need to become more proficient readers. Without these skills, students are destined to fall further behind and join the 19% of graduating seniors who leave school with only marginal reading ability. Thirty-two million adults fall into this category. The current school situation may allow for an increase in the amount of time available to prevent that.
Taking the Time to Prepare Students for Life beyond the Classroom Reading is the only skill that students need for six hours a day, every single day, for twelve years. Limited reading skills impact every academic area: the ability to do word problems in math, to read articles in social studies, and to participate in discussions and assignments about novels in English class. As students get older, a driver’s license is often a necessity—but a major challenge if they can’t read the manual or pass the test.
Getting a summer or part-time job may be very difficult if reading or writing is involved. The emotional impact of shame and students’ beliefs that they are less intelligent cannot be underestimated, and it takes a toll on self-esteem that extends into adulthood. This year provides an opportunity for educators to become more aware of the students who are struggling readers and how to better support them, and for school administrators to ensure that reading intervention is available in any setting. Although COVID restrictions won’t always be necessary, the need for appropriate instruction for older struggling readers will continue.
Laura Axtell, a former special education teacher and high school administrator, is now an education specialist for Reading Horizons (www.readinghorizons.com). Reading Horizons Elevate is a research-based program for secondary students that can be delivered virtually or in person.
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