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RESOURCES

link the written and spoken words as, inevitably, their speaking and
listening vocabulary range will far outstrip their reading ability. For
example, a student may never have seen the written word ‘money’, but Seven
if they can decode the sound they will probably recognise the word.
This means focusing on decoding the sounds without necessarily
learning the associated meaning, otherwise this part of the lesson spelling
will become unmanageably long and the vocabulary load to difficult.
The decoding tasks should have a quick, game-like quality and occur
alongside the more familiar drilling of similar and contrasting sounds, secrets
e.g. ‘ash, cash, crash’ and the endlessly amusing ‘ship vs sheep’ (when
I taught refugees in
When I taught Calais, we regularly Seven secrets to teaching
joked about ‘going to
refugees in Calais, we the UK on a sheep!’). spelling to ‘real beginners’
regularly joked about Decoding can be done
in pairs or groups and Tell them about the English system of spelling.
‘going to the UK on a comprise levels of 1 Their own system may be very different. For
sheep! difficulty for different example, you could tell them that English has 44
skill levels. sounds but only 26 letters.
It is easy to underestimate how difficult it is for a complete script
beginner to decode even a three-letter word. This apparently simple Teaching some metalanguage may save a great
skill needs focussed practice. Students who are literate in L1 may 2 deal of ongoing explanation, even with zero
transliterate sounds and words into their own script as it helps them to beginners. For example it may be useful to refer to
remember the sounds and practice at home. ‘consonants’ and ‘vowels’. Choose only those terms
Teachers may feel especially anxious teaching an absolute beginner that you can use regularly.
who has no literacy in any language. In my experience, if this is a
problem it is not specifically due to the lack of writing experience. Find out which sounds are the most troublesome.
Starting with some practice on penmanship and making curves 3 For example, Arabic speakers find vowel sounds
and shapes, these students can potentially progress as quickly as L1 difficult, as they are very different in English.
literate students. It really depends on why they are not literate in L1.
Students who have not had the opportunity to learn literacy may be You may not want to use the phonetic alphabet –
very eager to get the chance and progress well. But just as with any 4 yet another script. But you can just choose those
class, some students may be less motivated or have some learning symbols that clarify key troublesome sounds. I find
difficulties or health issues which are not immediately apparent. the schwa very useful – it miraculously transforms
Students with no literacy skills may be unfamiliar with the general pronunciation and students can hear the difference
themselves immediately.
processes of learning and studying and need basic study skills (e.g.
keeping a note book, doing homework, attending class regularly).
But the biggest issue for these students is that they cannot make any Allow students to transliterate English sounds
notes or transliterations in their own script and it is very difficult to 5 and words into their own script. Transliteration
is commonly used when learning Arabic and I’ve
remember everything orally. tried learning Arabic both ways. When I look back at
The absolute beginners’ learning schedule will need copious assorted my notes, I can easily follow my colloquial Egyptian
short tasks, especially when learning the script, as there is little scope Arabic, which is written three ways: in Arabic script,
for role-play or discussion. The game-like quality of decoding tasks English transliteration and English translation. My
definitely helps to lighten the load and shorten the gap between Modern Standard Arabic teacher was much stricter
reading and writing, and listening and speaking. and my notes are only in Arabic – now I can hardly
understand a word.
WSOTW.WEEBLY.COM 6 shapes. Grouping letters by shape may be more
Spend time on learning and comparing the letter

useful than by sound. And remember that writing
by hand rather than typing helps students learn the
shapes.

Have students regularly practice decoding word
7 sounds from the written script. Include unfamiliar
words, without teaching the meaning of all the new
words. At first students may push to discuss all the
new words, but keep up the pace and they will get
used to the method (they can always look them up
later if they really insist!).

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