| "Teacher, Why Can't Marie Read Yet?"
Today I would like to tell you a story. Do you like stories? Yes? Me too. Well, this is a special story. A true story…but the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Once upon a time, in a classroom much like yours and mine, there was a teacher. Her name was Becky. She always prepared her lessons and cared about her students. One day a parent, Mrs. Lee, asked her, "Why can't my little Marie read? She's been studying English for three months now. I thought she would have progressed further."
Becky was surprised by this question and asked, "Well, Mrs. Lee, can Marie read Chinese?"
"No, not very well. She is just a little girl. So, she is just learning to read Chinese," answered Mrs. Lee.
"Well," replied Becky, "It's the same in English. She is just a beginner so she is learning how to listen and speak first. As her listening and speaking skills grow, her reading ability will develop too."
Mrs. Lee thought about it for a moment then asked, "Well, why are you teaching her phonics? Aren't phonics used for learning to read?"
"Yes," answered Becky, "but phonics also help develop listening and pronunciation skills. It's like ear training and mouth training. The ears learn to hear the sounds to identify words and the mouth learns to make the sounds correctly so other people can understand."
"Oh, I think I understand," replied Mrs. Lee. Still thinking she asked, "Then why does she have a story book? Isn't the story book for reading?"
"Yes, it is," answered Becky.
"So why Marie can't read it?" Mrs. Lee questioned quickly, "When I point at the words she can't read them."
"That's true. But can she tell you the story?" asked Becky. "Yes, she can," laughed Mrs. Lee. "She loves pointing at the pictures and telling me the story. She even does this with her grandma, grandpa and even her little baby brother."
"Perfect! That is one of the first steps to reading. She sees a picture and can identify thoughts and ideas and then relate them to the pictures. And, she does this in English. That's wonderful!"
"Hmm." Mrs. Lee was thinking about it but not convinced yet.
Becky continued, "Isn't this what she does when she pretends toread a story to you in Chinese?"
"Yes," replied Mrs. Lee, "She points at the pictures and tells me the story."
"That's right! Learning is learning no matter what language we use. That's why we use a storybook in class. It isn't for the children just to memorize the words. It's to give them something interesting to talk about."
"Oh," replied Mrs. Lee, "but that's not reading."
"Well, it is…almost. It's the first step to reading. As she talks about the story in English she learns to identify meaning with the pictures. Then eventually she'll get curious about the words and attach meaning to the words."
"So reading words isn't the first step in learning English?" Mrs. Lee asked.
"No. What is the first thing you did with Marie when she was a little baby? Did you teach her how to read Chinese first?
Mrs. Lee laughed, "Of course not! We just spoke to her naturally in Chinese. She slowly started to understand and then she eventually spoke some words."
"Exactly! It's the same with English and all languages! First Marie develops her listening and speaking skills. In my class I do this by doing different activities like playing games and telling stories so students can listen and talk."
"Oh!" replied Mrs. Lee.
"But I am also teaching beginning reading, which is the foundation for actual reading and writing."
"Really?" asked Mrs. Lee.
"Yes. I use two approaches. One is based on phonics. In the phonic approach Marie will learn the sounds of letters (a = /a/), letter combinations (s+p = sp) and rules to help her read and write ( a_e = /e/). This is very important so she can try to read words she doesn't know. Plus, it will help her improve her listening and pronunciation skills."
"Oh, so that's why you teach phonics. Now I understand," acknowledged Mrs. Lee.
"The second approached is based on the Whole Language approach. Children love stories so I tell stories so my students can listen and talk about them. Then my students listen to and learn to speak specific vocabulary words and language patterns from the stories. After they understand and can produce this language verbally, we start beginning reading. I have special activities like word hunts, sight-word memory matches and various other activities to raise their curiosity for words and reading."
"I understand. She'll memorize the story verbally then connect the spoken word with the written word," continued Mrs. Lee.
"Exactly! And we help her to do this by playing games and letting her point to the words as she reads. Eventually we see she's making the connection.
"Yes, I see her doing that with Chinese," laughed Mrs. Lee, "Marie loves ice-cream. So whenever we are in the supermarket she always looks at the packages looking for the characters for ice-cream."
"That's right," added Becky, "And eventually she will do the same in English. She'll have littleE-moments."
"E-moments?" asked Mrs. Lee.
"Yes,E-moments.These are natural English moments when she just speaks out in English, or reads something in English."
"Oh, I see. E-moments!" replied Mrs. Lee smiling, "I think I have already seen some of those. I know she'll be able to read soon."
"Well, remember, it takes time. Think of how long it has taken Marie to read in Chinese, and that's her native language. Our goal is to keep English fun and to keep developing all four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. During this time we can be happy with the E-moments as they happen naturally."
"Yes, I look forward to those little E-moments!" replied Mrs. Lee. "Well, thank you for your time."
"Your welcome!" answered Becky, "And any time you have questions please ask."
And they all lived happily ever after… Well almost… Mrs. Lee later called to ask "Why is Marie's grammar so terrible?" But that's a story for another day.
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