What is the Role of Phonics and Sight Words in the Primary/Elementary Classroom While Teaching Reading to EL Students?

By Angie Remigio

I have been witnessing a lot of discussion around this topic in social media and in my school building. Teachers in K-2 are concerned that EL students have difficulty learning their letter sounds and sight words/snap words.

What do we know about ELLs? Let’s start there. ELLs might not have the structure for learning the English language yet (Irujo, S). Sometimes they come with strong literary elements in their native language, and sometimes they do not. Even when students are not literate in their native language, they bring with them important assets. For example, a Spanish-speaking student is able to hear sounds in Spanish words and can use that ability to hear sounds within words in English. Although they hear the sounds in English, those sounds lack meaning. In my experience, the focus on teaching ELs should be on teaching them the English language through comprehensible input. Students who do not have enough English will have a difficult time acquiring phonics and sight words in isolation. English learners clearly benefit from explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics for English reading, but this needs to happen within a context that provides comprehensible input (Shanahan & Beck, 2006). Native English-speaking children are likely to know the meanings of more English words than their ELL classmates, so phonics has a bigger positive impact for them than for the ELLs, as it helps to translate from print to pronunciation. This means that phonics instruction will help these students with decoding and fluency.

After I began to focus on teaching language through content for all of my EL students, I have seen a difference in student success, both academically and linguistically. I focus on teaching the language necessary to succeed in the classroom. For example, I use the Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM). This model uses pictures containing familiar objects, actions, and scenes to draw out words from children's listening and speaking vocabularies. Using this model allows for the practice of all four language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It allows me to engage learners in an authentic conversation, where they are both listening and talking with each other. This conversation builds on students’ background knowledge and prior knowledge. I introduce letter sounds within the context of this activity as we talk about the picture and label the picture with what we see. As I label the picture with the corresponding words, I teach the letter names and letter sounds, I stretch the words and spell them as I hear the sounds, and I identify parts of the words that are familiar to the students. As you can see, I turn it into a word study session, targeting skills depending on the grade level I am teaching. The Picture Word Inductive Model provides ELs with a word bank and sentence stems for writing (Calhoun, 1999). As I guide students in building sentences using the labels, I introduce sight words, for example: I see…, There are...The__ has…, She is… In this manner, students are learning these words in context, through comprehensible input, with something that has meaning for them. If the goal is to write a paragraph, this activity can be extended in a way that students use the sentences that they created with my help to write a paragraph. In turn, they can use this paragraph to practice their fluency.

This might be one simple way to address the following questions: "How do you teach phonemic awareness and phonics in English to students who can't yet hear and distinguish the sounds? How do you teach fluency to students whose control of the structures of the English language is still limited? How do you teach them grade-level vocabulary when their vocabulary knowledge starts so far behind that of their English-speaking peers? How do you teach reading comprehension in English when they don't yet comprehend the English language?" (Irujo, S.)

Of course, this is not the only way, but the PWIM is one way to introduce the structure of the English language in a meaningful way in the primary and the elementary classroom while increasing academic language and grade level concepts. To learn more about this topic please see the following references.

Angie Remigio is an English as a New Language Specialist. She strives to close the academic and language gap through comprehensible input and best practices utilized with multilingual learners. Her philosophy is that every student can learn, and they bring a wealth of knowledge with them. She focuses on the students’ assets and not their deficiencies. She values developing trusting relationships, their wealth of knowledge, and their background, and she meets them where they are to set realistic goals and utilize instructional strategies to move them forward. Mrs. Remigio loves to collaborate to grow in the area of second language acquisition to better service the multilingual population.


What is the Role of Phonics and Sight Words in the Primary/Elementary Classroom While Teaching Reading to EL Students? By Angie Remigio I have been witnessing a lot of discussion around this topic in social media and in my school building. Teachers in K-2 are concerned that EL students have difficulty learning their letter sounds and sight words/snap words. What do we know about ELLs? Let’s start there. ELLs might not have the structure for learning the English language yet (Irujo, S). Sometimes they come with strong literary elements in their native language, and sometimes they do not. Even when students are not literate in their native language, they bring with them important assets. For example, a Spanish-speaking student is able to hear sounds in Spanish words and can use that ability to hear sounds within words in English. Although they hear the sounds in English, those sounds lack meaning. In my experience, the focus on teaching ELs should be on teaching them the English language through comprehensible input. Students who do not have enough English will have a difficult time acquiring phonics and sight words in isolation. English learners clearly benefit from explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics for English reading, but this needs to happen within a context that provides comprehensible input (Shanahan & Beck, 2006). Native English-speaking children are likely to know the meanings of more English words than their ELL classmates, so phonics has a bigger positive impact for them than for the ELLs, as it helps to translate from print to pronunciation. This means that phonics instruction will help these students with decoding and fluency. After I began to focus on teaching language through content for all of my EL students, I have seen a difference in student success, both academically and linguistically. I focus on teaching the language necessary to succeed in the classroom. For example, I use the Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM). This model uses pictures containing familiar objects, actions, and scenes to draw out words from children's listening and speaking vocabularies. Using this model allows for the practice of all four language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It allows me to engage learners in an authentic conversation, where they are both listening and talking with each other. This conversation builds on students’ background knowledge and prior knowledge. I introduce letter sounds within the context of this activity as we talk about the picture and label the picture with what we see. As I label the picture with the corresponding words, I teach the letter names and letter sounds, I stretch the words and spell them as I hear the sounds, and I identify parts of the words that are familiar to the students. As you can see, I turn it into a word study session, targeting skills depending on the grade level I am teaching. The Picture Word Inductive Model provides ELs with a word bank and sentence stems for writing (Calhoun, 1999). As I guide students in building sentences using the labels, I introduce sight words, for example: I see…, There are...The__ has…, She is… In this manner, students are learning these words in context, through comprehensible input, with something that has meaning for them. If the goal is to write a paragraph, this activity can be extended in a way that students use the sentences that they created with my help to write a paragraph. In turn, they can use this paragraph to practice their fluency. This might be one simple way to address the following questions: "How do you teach phonemic awareness and phonics in English to students who can't yet hear and distinguish the sounds? How do you teach fluency to students whose control of the structures of the English language is still limited? How do you teach them grade-level vocabulary when their vocabulary knowledge starts so far behind that of their English-speaking peers? How do you teach reading comprehension in English when they don't yet comprehend the English language?" (Irujo, S.) Of course, this is not the only way, but the PWIM is one way to introduce the structure of the English language in a meaningful way in the primary and the elementary classroom while increasing academic language and grade level concepts. To learn more about this topic please see the following references. Angie Remigio is an English as a New Language Specialist. She strives to close the academic and language gap through comprehensible input and best practices utilized with multilingual learners. Her philosophy is that every student can learn, and they bring a wealth of knowledge with them. She focuses on the students’ assets and not their deficiencies. She values developing trusting relationships, their wealth of knowledge, and their background, and she meets them where they are to set realistic goals and utilize instructional strategies to move them forward. Mrs. Remigio loves to collaborate to grow in the area of second language acquisition to better service the multilingual population.
Spring 2021 - Spring 2021