Carrillo, Annette

English 487-Dr. Z
April 27, 2015

Teaching Reading
Teaching children how to read or how to decode and comprehend the text they are
reading is crucial in establishing the future for an educated society. Children are taught to read at
a young age and the development of phoneme knowledge which includes a thorough
understanding of the alphabet and its multiple uses a consonant or vowel can have in multiple
words. The sequences and success of reading development lies in the early years of schooling,
where effective teaching and activities will strengthen their knowledge of reading.
Students begin learning to read usually around preschool where they are introduced to a
pre-alphabetic phase. In this logographic stage, the students begin with a small sight vocabulary
of written words. They are able to recognize certain print through the assistance of shapes,
colors, and symbols. Although they may fail to notice detail in words, they may be able to read
words because they are able to recognize the familiar shape, this usually results in a child
pretending to read a book but are unaware of what to do with a book when given to them. They
are unaware that letters represent a certain sound. In order to recognize that letters represent a
part of speech, children are usually introduced to activities that are interactive and help the
development of print awareness.
The next developmental step in reading is the novice stage. At this point, the child is
beginning to decode print and understand the meaning of what they are decoding as they read.
This is accomplished by teaching the students to understand that the alphabet letters are a part of
speech and each letter makes a variety of sounds (phonemes). If a child is not taught how to
sound a word out, they may rely solely on the help of pictures to help decipher odd and new
words. It is crucial that they learn to hear and manipulate. Nursery rhymes where sound-symbols

are used is a perfect example where a student can continue to build an understanding between
sounds and letters.
In the mature alphabetic stage, children will be able to understand that when combining
letters, they will end up with a word that has a specific meaning or definition. They begin to read
and decipher simple words and will be able to decode simple syllables as well. This seems to
strengthen their phonetic awareness and prepares them for the orthographic stage. Here they
begin to recognize patterns and are able to read at a faster rate. They notice familiar words and
spend less time sounding out the words, unless it is unfamiliar. They are able to establish this
through their practice, therefore increasing the fluency of their ability to read. The goal is to have
a child comprehend what they are reading through various reasoning strategies; this happens
when a child can not only name the words, but interpret the words as well. Phoneme awareness
and letter recognition is part of the written alphabetic code which will allow for accurate word
recognition at a faster rate.
One fact that illustrates the importance of proper teaching lies in the fact that speech
evolved first, almost 30,000 years before a writing system existed. Therefore it is believed that
children should be taught speech and sound first, then introduce the letters. Being phonetically
aware eases the addition of the letters into the instruction. The print-to-sound approach, which is
todays most conventional approach, has proven to create leave many paths untouched, creating
confusion for the children. Teaching a student the sound of each letter fails to cover the alternate
sounds in its entirety. For example the letter C can make the /k/ sound but when paired with
h can drastically alter the sound like in chorus which has the /k/ or child which has the /ch/
sound. This can be confusing and is usually what leads to children making mistakes when
sounding out the letters while reading. Many students can then fall into the habit of just

memorizing words without truly understanding the rules or connection between the letters and
sounds. It would make more sense to teach the children the sounds first, then add the letters to it
afterwards.
Students will learn to understand word structure for reading and spelling purposes. It is
one thing to read and another to write, the orthographic skills is what allows a student to write a
spoken language. When sound changes within a word, this is when spelling mistakes can occur.
A student needs support in word recognition to allow themselves to become a better speller with
a diverse vocabulary bank. Students will be able to familiarize themselves with a root word such
as rupt and will be able to identify that if a word is using rupt, then the words definition will
have to involve breaking of some sort.
Children must be taught in a clear and detail manner that will leave absolutely zero room
for confusion. It is suggested that in order to achieve this, the phonic elements are to be taught at
a reasonable pace and structure. It should be taught from one simple step to the more complex
structured segment of the language. It is crucial that the student is taught the importance of
pattern recognition rather than memorizing the rules. One can memorize anything, but without a
full comprehension of what is being memorized or taught will prove to be a bottomless pit in
attempting to reach the goal of effortless reading and learning
Most students are able to decode print because of their phonological, orthographic and
morphological knowledge. This is achieved through many teaching strategies that help students
build phoneme awareness and sound symbol linkage. The English language has many obscure
rules that are applied to where a vowel is placed or what sound is applicable when you have
spellings that include /au/ or /aw/. These examples are important for pronunciation for when a
child is reading and writing. Certain mistakes are common for a child when they are learning to

decode and write, for example a student may write out HOSPIDAL instead of HOSPITAL
because when she has heard the word hospiTal, the /t/ sound has been sounded out as a /duh/.
This can occur by listening to her parents, classmates or even teachers. I used to have a habit of
saying supposable instead of supposedly although they are both real words, I was never
corrected on the correct use of either one. It could also be that I would confuse the speech sounds
when I would hear others speak, but since I was never corrected, I alone reinforced the bad habit,
and this happened in more than one word.
My love for reading has been a result of love for literature and love for storytelling. How
I pronounce a word greatly influences the way the story could be read out loud. It is important
for a teachers to have a full understanding of sounds, spelling, and syllables when teaching and
correcting a student. Helping a student identify his or her mistakes through constructive criticism
can help them identify or better understand speech sounds. The English language is complex and
can be difficult to understand as they begin to decode print. Some students will rely on their
previous knowledge of phonemes and can easily get confused when reading a word where they
use the wrong sound. However, they are using their previous knowledge of speech sound to
create their own outcome, which is a step in the right direction. Decoding comes from learning
language and through activities and coherent lessons, a student should be able to decipher print
to a full understanding of what role vowels and consonants play when reading and most
importantly the relationship they share.
Although Moats does not directly address any ESL students, I do believe that her ideas
are worthwhile for these students to a certain extent. Moats ideas on teaching a child to develop
phonetic awareness begins at a very early age, preschool. This is where I can see that ESL
students were not considered when writing this because there are many who arrive in the United

States well after preschool, some later on or in middle school. Even adults who move to the
United States would find many difficulties in learning academic English.
Since decoding relies on the knowledge of language, including phonology, it is easy to
see how this article is not set up for students with and ESL background. It does however
emphasize the importance of teaching decoding in reference to a students stage of reading,
Therefore, a new student who is 11 years old and whose native language is Chinese would be
taught at the beginners level of logographic, The unfortunate thing about the logographic stage is
that a child from China or Japan will more than likely have zero knowledge of English
vocabulary Pictures and symbols wont immediately have the child understand what is being
taught, especially when the sound of the English language is foreign to them.
The article does emphasize the importance of avoiding gaps and confusion, this is
something that may be beneficial to an ESL. Since many ESLs lack any understanding of
academic English, instilling all of the different and complex sounds will be intimidating. Starting
small and in effective increments can prove to be helpful for an ESL. Moats also makes note of
many activities and practices that can help a student to decode and strengthen their
comprehension; this is something that a behaviorist would enjoy seeing. Practice and repetition is
essential in helping a student understand the reasons behind the rules rather than memorizing.
ESLs will begin to recognize what was once an odd sound and include it into their vocabulary.
Another thing Moats writes about is the importance of phonological awareness,
something that an ESL may always struggle with. No matter how many times you repeat the
word Joe or enjoy to a native Spanish speaker, the /j/ sound will not be sounded out to fit the
English language correctly. This is one of the biggest mistakes a Spanish speaker will make,
and it is something that cant be fixed through practice, it may be too late to change the way they

read print and sound it out. Although many may pronounce the word incorrectly does not mean
they do not understand what the word means.
Moats article makes a point on the importance of being able to sound out a word and
break it up into syllables to help understand the link between a root word and recombining it
with other letters. In my opinion this idea is too complex for an ESL student to understand early
on, especially a student whose native language shares zero resemblance to that of the English. I
met a girl at my community college who had moved from Africa in the 8th grade and struggled
to learn the English language due to the dialects used in her hometown. I do not recall the
location from where she lived, but accents were a huge part of her dialect, so much so that it
didnt seem like a language to me, it sounded like a few clicks of the tongue and nothing more.
She did spend a lot of time reading out loud and had others do the same, this she says was crucial
in helping her to become a good reader and decent writer.
Anyone can learn to read and write, I believe it is never too late. In fact, if Helen Keller
was able to accomplish both and she is someone who I consider to have been well educated
despite her disabilities, then learning to comprehend text can be done. I admit it is not an easy
task, and as someone who is a Generation 1.5 student, I had to re-read Moats article over and
over with a dictionary by my side. The reason for that was because there were so many words
that were odd and new to me. I was able to use context clues and my previous knowledge of
root words to decode her article, although intimidating at first, I was eventually able to
understand her work. I would definitely struggle to read some political propositions, only
because I havent made it a habit to read such literature on a daily basis, but I am confident that
anyone, including myself can read and decode any instructions without being labeled as
uneducated.