Background
Foundation Focused Training Opportunities course
2013
TEC funded
37 week course of 30 hours per week
Operated within Waikato Institute of Technology
Countries of origin in FFTO class
Colombia
Somalia
Iraq
Egypt
Kiribati
Cambodia
Students
22 students ,range of ethnicities
Age range 18 – 53, mainly in 20’s and 30’s
Mainly refugee backgrounds
Mostly lived in New Zealand for less than 2
years
Range of educational backgrounds 3 -10 years
schooling
Range of L1 literacy from Starting Points Level
1 through to High School Certificate
Three students already had part time
Some literature about Reading
…. the ability to read well makes an enormous
difference to one’s school performance, career
potential and personal success.
Reading in a second language involves adapting the
schemata already developed in the first language to the
second language
Controlled texts assist this process
Second language readers have greater metalinguistic and
metacognitive awareness which enables them to readily
transfer their L1 skills when reading in another language
The FFTO programme
Aimed to support English language development so that
students can gain employment or move to further
training
TEC funded (discontinued in December 2013) had
contractual outcomes
Level 1 Certificate in Training Opportunities (Wintec)
Reading programme
Workbooks for unit standards with
content for
Unit standard e.g Roles and
responsibilities of employees and
employers. Students complete
workbooks cooperatively.
Daily silent reading: Extensive
Reading programme 15 minutes a
day. Students obtained graded
readers from Wintec Library.
Class Reading time: Used available
texts National
Literacy series and others. Intensive
reading; predicting, gaining meaning
from text, observing syntax.
2 hours in computer room per week
Study ladder, FLAX (stories and
tasks), Reviewed episodes of
“Sisters and Brothers, on Australia
Network.
Wintec resources: “In Words of One
Syllable”
Shared reading using short
sentences of basic sight words.
Picture Dictionary: High frequency
words organised phonetically.
Research questions
What are the students’ perspectives in relation to:
methods and approaches used in the programme that are helping
them to read better?
Reading methods or approaches that are more helpful than others?
Class survey 3 times (July, Sept, Nov)
Reading
activity
How it has helped
you
Reading English online (web pages, emails).10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Very helpful Quite helpful Not very helpful The reading workbooks for the unit standards
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Very helpful Quite helpful Not very helpful Class work: vocabulary, comprehension, grammar exercises
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Very helpful Quite helpful Not very helpful
FLAX stories in the Computer Lab
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Very helpful Quite helpful Not very helpful
…continued
Daily Silent reading with readers from the Wintec Library10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Very helpful Quite helpful Not very helpful
The Green book “In Words of One
Syllable ”
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Very helpful Quite helpful Not very helpful The Yellow Book “Picture Dictionary ”
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Interviews
Two interviews with the tutor and a bilingual
assistant
The students were interviewed in a group with
others with the same native language
What aspects of the Reading programme have
Survey results
Very
helpful
Quite
helpful
Results from Interviews
Although high correlation that all approaches were useful there was
a wide variety of responses for each approach about why they were
useful
Silent reading – divergent responses “prefer to read aloud so I
could be corrected.” Others said that they like reading silently as
“reading aloud is too difficult.” “ I prefer reading silently as it helps
me to focus.”
The value of reading a wide range of texts had a high level of
Range of students’ perceptions about what
helps with reading
Reading the books
that the tutors give
us is really helpful.
When I read them I
think “Oh, this is
how they write.”
I like reading long
books. I like fiction
and mystery and I
read at home.
Every morning I
read at home. I
read the paper
from New World,
Forlongs and
Countdown. I
read the specials
.Reading silently
helps me because
reading aloud is
too difficult , but
when its silent it
helps me to focus.
Silent reading is
good but I prefer
to read aloud so I
can be corrected.
I remember the
words I forgot when I
Other resources also highly valued
the Picture Dictionary
“In Words of one syllable.” “The green book helps
me to understand reading better. Now I can just look
and understand.”
The computer based FLAX programme “FLAX is
really good because sometimes I miss the word. It
helps to develop skills for reading and thinking about
the meaning.”
Confident dictionary users. “When the teacher tells
Discussion
No clear themes emerged as to what approach was
most helpful so data was re-examined
Allwright (2006) ….. a change from a precision
approach to a scattergun approach to teaching is a
promising directions in Applied Linguistics
“if we accept the notion of the essential idiosyncrasy of
humanity, then there are two possible responses that
can be made. Either we match the individual
differences of the people around, or we decide to offer a
scattergun approach whereby you offer a multitude of
learning opportunities and expect them to select
according to their needs.”
Some literature on learner autonomy
..the capacity of the learner to take control of one’s own
learning.” (Benson, 2003, p.50)
“measuring autonomy is difficult” (Benson, 2003)
measuring autonomy is difficult in that autonomy is a
multidimensional construct (p. 51)
behaviours can take numerous different forms depending on
their age, how far they have progressed with their learning,
what they perceive their immediate learning needs to
Findings
Students developed their reading skills over the 37 week
course.
A strong possibility that students took from the
programme what they needed
They were able to verbalise what had helped them to
read better
Multi-level classes
Many ESOL classes have learners – diverse
literacy, educational, orthographic backgrounds
Meeting individual needs can be daunting
I suggest that focusing on a broad approach that
Conclusion
aligns with Freeman, Freeman and Mercuri (2002)
1. Engage students in challenging theme-based
curriculum to develop academic competence
2. Draw on students’ backgrounds - their
experiences, cultures and languages
3. Organise collaborative activities and scaffolding –
to build their academic English proficiency
FFTO learners graduating with a Certificate in
Training Opportunities for Speakers of Other
Bibliography
Benson, P.(2011).
Teaching and Researching Autonomy.
(2ndEd.).
Harlow,UK:Longman Pearson
Holec,H.( 1988).
Autonomy and self-directed learning present
fields of application.
Strasburg: Council of Europe
Nation, I.S.P. (2009)
Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing
.
New York: Routledge.
Allwright ,D. (2006)
Understanding the Language Classroom
New York
,
Palgrave Macmillan
Freeman, Freeman and Mercuri (2002).
Closing the
achievement Gap: How to Reach Limited- Formal Schooling and