How To Teach Decoding to Multilingual Beginning Readers

Learning to read is a complex process. Students need to learn how to decode words while also understanding what those words mean. The science of reading gives valuable research about how children learn to read. Many effective teaching strategies come from this work. When you are working with multilingual beginning readers, it’s important to remember that much of this research was done with monolingual students.

For multilingual learners (MLs), it is important to think carefully about how to apply these strategies. Phonics instruction is critical for beginning readers, but it’s not the same as ELD instruction. The good news is, you don’t have to choose one or the other. You can integrate phonics with language development so your students build strong reading foundations while growing their English skills.

Include Visuals

It is important that multilingual beginning readers to be given opportunities to decode words. Beginning language learners also need visuals to help make meaning of the words that they are reading. There are different ways to include visuals in reading instruction. You can first show students a word or phrase and later show the matching picture. You can include a picture of key vocabulary, but have additional words surrounding the vocabulary word, which requires students to decode and not use the picture to guess.

Introduce Letter Sounds in a Sequential Way

The order in which you teach letters and sounds to beginning readers makes a difference in how quickly students can begin reading words. The vowels a and i, along with the consonants m, t, p, n, s, and g, can be used to create a number of CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words. Use decodable texts based on the letters that you have introduced, so that students have the opportunity to practice the new letters that they are learning.

The speed at which letters are introduced also makes a difference. Best practice is to quickly introduce letters and their sounds, so that students are able to begin decoding. This is true for multilingual beginning readers as well. At the same time, it is important to provide enough opportunities for students to practice the new skills that they are learning without overwhelming them. Often, as more letters and sounds are introduced, the density of reading text also increases. Some students are able to handle this. Other students require shorter chunks of text so as not to overwhelm them.

If the books or reading passages you are using become too long for students to manage, consider chunking them. You can use a white board and write one sentence at a time. Use sentence strips for students to match with the picture. Then students can read, or chorally read, a longer set of sentences. This way, students still get the opportunity to decode but also benefit from focusing on meaning, and do not get overwhelmed with longer text.

Include Oral Language

Multilingual Learnes need many oportunities to practice oral language. As students are learning to read, give them chances to speak about what they have read. For a student new to learning English, use sentence frames such as “I see ____.” “The ___ can ___.” Sententence frames can also be used as an oportunity to introduce high frequency sight words. These are words that appear frequencly in text but are not alway easily decodable for beginning readers.

High frequency words are often words that are difficult to illustrate. Using them in sentences addes in meaning. Model filling in a sentence frame and then give students the opportunity to use them. Some multilingual beginning readers, especially newcomers may not want to talk outloud. In this case encourage them to point to a picture that can be used to fill in the sentence frame.

Include Repetition

Many phonics programs introduce new skills quickly. Make sure to build in time for review. Reread familiar books at the begining on a reading lesson. Use corall reading to review longer texts. Have students keep books that they read in a small reading group in a book box to practice reading independently. Introduce new phonics concepts in small chunks so that students have time to absorbe the new content.

Use a phonics skill sequence that builds in review. After introducing the letters of the English alphabet, next focus on reading words with short vowels. Start with CVC words and then introduce blends. Next digraphs. After that comes words with long vowels. Continue using decodable texts for students to practice their decoding. Sentence strips and phonics games are other ways to practice. Look for activities that include pictures to build vocabulary. Review the names of pictures before students play the game.

For older students that are learning how to decode, consider controlled text such as decodable chapter books. This allows them to practice their phonics skills and read age appropriate books.

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