The Science of Reading - a current Movemement in teaching reading in Australia.
Multilingual students learning English-as-an-Additional-Language whilst participating in 'mainstream' education, have twice the learning load of English Speakers. This current Movement focuses on the physiology of the brain as it works in learning literacy. This is not a bad thing in itself. As teachers, we need to know how the brain works. However the methodologies employed in classrooms as a result of this Movement ignore the essential sociolinguistic and sociocultural learning needs of these multilingual students. The teaching focus is on decontextualised micro skills involved in initial literacy education, most notably, Phonics instruction, to the exclusion of the essential knowledge and skills required by EAL/D students in literacy development.
This movement ignores the teaching of Spoken English for Multilingual students learning English. The outstanding gap is that of COMPREHENSION of and about the new language presented in its decontextualised form. Learning initial literacy in a new language requires a level of SPOKEN English that enables sociocultural understanding of the additional language and its speakers. Comprehension is entwined in Sociolinguistic and Sociocultural knowledge of a new language and its cultural reality.
Use this presentation at your school to promote discussion on this issue in relation to the EAL/D students enrolled. The source of this is based on research done by Ester de Jong and Soccoro Herrera.