From Language Skills To Literacy

The narrowing of English language education curriculum in many contexts has negatively impacted classroom teaching and learning. High-stakes standardized testing, scripted curricula, and the commodification of English have converged to challenge socially meaningful classroom literacy instruction that promotes holistic development. Although in different ways, these factors have shaped the teaching of English as both first and second language. How can English educators respond? This book argues that the first step is to take account of the broader policy, political and cultural landscape and to identify the key constraints affecting teachers, students and parents. These will set the broad parameters for developing local pedagogic approaches, while still recognizing the constraints that actively push against them. Using Singapore English language teaching as a case study, this book illustrates how this process can unfold, and how media literacy principles were vernacularized to design English classroom pedagogies that stretched the bounds of what is acceptable and possible in the local context.

This established text--now revised and updated--reveals how spoken language skills are acquired and how they affect children’s later reading and writing achievement. With a unique focus on the needs of educators, the book examines the foundations of language in the developing brain. It explores the relationship of language processes to core literacy skills and probes the impact of motivational and sociocultural factors on children’s learning. Implications of developmental knowledge for classroom instruction are highlighted, and effective practices reviewed. Revealing vignettes, clear explanations of research, and lists of “main ideas” enhance the text’s accessibility for preservice teachers. New to This Edition *Chapter on emergent literacy and the predictors of reading success. *Incorporates the latest research, including findings from key longitudinal studies. *Increased attention to English learners, low-income children, and children with disabilities. *Updated and expanded topics, including usage-based theories of language acquisition, morphological knowledge in vocabulary and comprehension, phonological processing skills, and writing development.

Shows parents how to help their child communicate and learn language during everyday activities.

For use with the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills(TM) (TILLS(TM)), other assessments, or on its own, the TILLS Student Language Scale is a simple, cost-effective way to screen for language and literacy disorders, including dyslexia. This quick and easy 12-question screener is filled out by parents, teachers, and students to show each party's perspective on how the student is performing on academic tasks as compared to their same-age peers. The SLS helps you: Screen for language/literacy disorders such as dyslexia by gathering teachers' and parents' ratings of students. When teachers or parents rate more than two areas on items 1-8 less than 5, SLS results indicate the student is at risk and needs further assessment with TILLS. (Sensitivity and specificity are strong: sensitivity is .92 for teachers and .85 for parents, and specificity is .90 for teachers and .83 for parents.) Gather input about a struggling student's strengths and needs from multiple sources--a key requirement of IDEA Enhance home-school communication by gaining new insight into student performance, whether or not there are concerns Sold in a pack of 50, the Student Language Scale (forms only) is also included in the TILLS Examiner's Kit. It can also be used as a standalone tool to gather valuable information about a student, or used with other assessments of student performance and potential. To learn more about the SLS, watch this free webinar, Quickly and Reliably Screen Students for Language/Literacy Disordersâ "Including Dyslexia.

The narrowing of English language education curriculum in many contexts has negatively impacted classroom teaching and learning. High-stakes standardized testing, scripted curricula, and the commodification of English have converged to challenge socially meaningful classroom literacy instruction that promotes holistic development. Although in different ways, these factors have shaped the teaching of English as both first and second language. How can English educators respond? This book argues that the first step is to take account of the broader policy, political and cultural landscape and to identify the key constraints affecting teachers, students and parents. These will set the broad parameters for developing local pedagogic approaches, while still recognizing the constraints that actively push against them. Using Singapore English language teaching as a case study, this book illustrates how this process can unfold, and how media literacy principles were vernacularized to design English classroom pedagogies that stretched the bounds of what is acceptable and possible in the local context.

Grounded in state-of-the-art research, this book explores how English language learners develop both the oral language and literacy skills necessary for school success. Chapters examine the cognitive bases of English acquisition, and how the process is different for children from alphabetic (such as Spanish) and nonalphabetic (such as Chinese) language backgrounds. The book addresses a key challenge facing educators and clinicians: identifying students whose poor English skills may indicate an underlying impairment, as opposed to still-developing language proficiency. Implications for diagnosis, intervention, and instruction are highlighted throughout.

Using Singapore English language teaching as a case study, this book illustrates how media literacy principles were vernacularized to design English classroom pedagogies that stretched the bounds of what is acceptable and possible in the local context.

The role of parent-child and teacher-child shared story telling and storybook reading is a key vehicle for supporting children's development of emergent literacy and early language skills. This highly usable and practical book brings the advantages of sharing books and stories to educational and clinical settings, effectively demonstrating how it may be used to support: print knowledge phonological awareness vocabulary inferential language abilities grammatical and narrative skills With contributions from notable scholars who actively conduct research in the areas of education, developmental psychology, speech language pathology, reading, and early literacy, this unique resource synthesizes and applies current theory and research on uses of sharing books and stories in educational and intervention contexts.