510 essay qs

• Critical Literacy created by Freire (1970) seeks to empower adult L2 learners through critical consciousness in order to effect socio-economic and political change via nonviolent revolution.
• Functional Literacy is focused on teaching learners L2 skills and knowledge that is needed in the modern workplace and the ever-changing economy.
• New Literacy Studies (NLS) believes that “literacy” is a set of practices embedded within a certain framework (culture, constructivist, relativist) and seeks to equip every L2 adult with the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy and with the capacity to exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
• Today, Critical Literacy continues to be highly influential on adult literacy education as instructors and theorists hope to, as Freire (1975) said, teach ESL students to “read the word and to read the world.” Influenced educators teach workers the literacy skills needed to advance themselves in their work and to share in power -- as well as begin the “point of decolonization.”

• Characteristics of Adult L2 Learners: cognitive maturity, disadvantage in acquiring native-like pronunciation, self-directing, focused career paths, psychological vulnerability,(due to concerns about job and family security).
• Characteristics of Adult ESL Classrooms: large class size, multi-level, diversity in population and motivations (vocational, family, citizenship, academic), often nights or Saturdays, and open enrollment.
• Characteristics of Adult ESL Teachers: often unprepared, may have either a certificate or a master’s degree, culturally sensitive, adaptable, has stamina, and is resourceful.

Reading readiness is the preparation for reading (often early childhood) and includes the directionality of text. Beginning reading includes phonics or whole word approach (introduction to alphabet and sounds, along with individual words). Many of those requirement have been changed and supplanted by the Common Core standards.


The Interactive Reading Model is recommended by researchers including Gunderson since it includes bottom-up (phonics) and top-down (LEA) strategies.

Methods of Beginning Reading include: ABC/Syllabic Method, Whole Word, DRA, ITA, Linguistic Approach, Phonics, LEA, Whole Language, and Critical Literacy.

• Students aren’t able to complete classes, leading to low retention and completion rates.  
• mixed educational backgrounds.
• different levels of investment in learning; some students have plenty of time to study while others are very busy.
• Problems with the standards and/or curriculum design.
• difficulty obtaining visas or fulfilling requirements
• Critical literacy: the idea that reading and writing are related to political and person power and choice; literacy has been equated to “cultural capital.” In essence, they believe literacy is liberating.
• However, knowing how to read and write does not necessarily mean participation in society.
• Critical Literacy theorists argue that students must read texts to analyze how and when their own discourse differs from the discourses of the dominant society.

• PRE-READING: Activate schema, set a purpose, prepare students for success
• DURING READING: Provide a reading experience that compliments objectives.
• RESPONDING: Reflect on the reading experience.
• EXPLORING: Provide new information (teaching, presentation)
• APPLYING: Practice what has been taught.

• The Interactive Reading Model includes both bottom-up and top-down strategies.
• The Socio-Psycholinguistic Transactional Model is an expansion of interactive reading model.
• In both of these models, the reader samples the text and seeks information based on predictions, confirms and disconfirms their predictions, interprets, regresses in the text to gather more information; in sum, the reader uses a wide variety of prediction techniques to make guesses about what is to come in the text.
• These are also referred to as general cognitive strategies.

Research that supports these model include: eye movement photography, miscue analysis, think-aloud technique, metacognitive questionnaires, interviews, strategy training studies, schema research studies

• In Academic Reading, study skills are integrated into the reading (eg skimming and scanning).
• This includes ways of looking at a text (title page, preface, table of contents, glossary, bibliography, index).
• The SQ3R method is primarily used for Academic Reading.
• Academic students also need to learn how to read visuals like tables, charts, and graphs (Gunderson pp. 221-223).
• Other study skills include: taking notes, using a library, exam preparation, information literacy, and speed reading.

• Multiple Choice Questions: including quizzes or exercises
• Reading Logs: may contain a list of all independent reading done at school and at home with personal reactions
• Cloze Tests: may used fixt ratio (every nth word) or rational deletion of words in a text
• Vocabulary Tests: use of words in context, parts of speech, appropriate usage questions
• Short Answers: Require students to write a few sentences or a paragraph, test higher order thinking skills.
• Authentic and Communicative Tasks: summarize and make reference to a reading, synthesize more than one reading, relate personal experiences to a reading, etc.
• Computer-Based Testing: multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, drag-and-drop, computer-adaptive testing (adjust to ability level of student)

• Readability formula advantages: They help educators use material at appropriate levels for their students
• Readability formula disadvantages (Gunderson p. 88): Selection of formula criteria has been greatly constrained. Many of the elements felt to be good indicators of difficult were omitted, such as figures of speech, abstract vocabulary, and all factors related to a reader’s interest in the content. Only features of style, items reliably quantified, have found their way into readability formulas.
• Word list advantages: They are good for quick estimations of a students’ general reading level, for determining what further assessments are needed, and can help determine what phonemes are difficult for students to articulate.
• Word list disadvantages: However, word lists should not be used in placement tests for determining reading programs, or for determining what reading materials to use.