How to Incorporate Language Development into Foundational Skills Practice

Another extra feature that we must include as we're teaching the foundational skills of literacy, such as being able to decode the words, includes bridging that also with language. And what I mean by that is I'm not only going to practice decoding the word, but I'm going to understand the meaning of the word, right? That's the semantics, the use of the word, the pragmatics, right? I'm going to understand the function of the word and all the various functions because a lot of times the words have multiple meanings and our students who are learning English as an additional language may know one or two of the meanings, but many of the meanings might be used in little idioms or sayings, right? And I still to this day love exploring idioms because I want to learn them. I didn't experience all the idioms that perhaps a monolingual English speaker has experienced, but I am bringing language to that foundational skill practice.

And not only in phonics, by the way, I can do the same in phonological awareness. Oh, I'm going to give you some sounds, right? And as I say these sounds, what I want you to do is put the sounds together.

Oh, what word does that make? Light. Very good. Let me show you this light bulb. It will give us light. But have you ever heard someone say, "I feel lightheaded, a little bit dizzy,” right? Or, "I'm light on my feet.” Those all have different meanings and connotations, but what I want to tell you about that is our students may know one or two, but we can really get deep into meaning.

So I just gave you an example about phonological awareness that as I'm blending words together, I'm going to really explore the meaning, the different uses, have them turn and talk to their neighbor, create a sentence with that. I'm getting at language as I'm working on phonological awareness and it doesn't take me that much more time. And then as I have them reading the words, I'm asking questions and they already know the questions and the routine.

I start with, “Which word has one syllable or which word has two syllables? Which word has an ending like the suffix S? Which word can rhyme with this word?” So I'm asking about the phonology and then I ask about the meanings. “Which word can mean something that is bright, can mean something that the sun gives out? Light. Which word can be used as a noun? Or, which one can be used as a verb, that's getting to syntax or it can be a describing word like lightheaded, right? And then can you tell me which word we can use in this phrase or this idiom or this saying. And the students know that I do that as a routine. Oh, she's going to ask me about the sounds. She's going to ask me about the words. We're going to explore the words and their meaning. She's going to ask me about the functions of these words. We're going to build more words with the morphology from there.

And then we're going to do all about the use and I'm going to use it in a sentence. We're going to create sentences. We're going to share them out. So all of that is bringing language into that phonics practice. And then as I'm building fluency, I need to work on the cadence of the language, the new phrasing of the language, but I also need to work on the meaning of what we are learning about. I'm reading this paragraph. What is the meaning? What is my background to know that meaning? What is my vocabulary to understand that? How can I summarize that? Even syntax, how we form sentences and the syntax and the function of words, that can also lend itself to reading comprehension. Knowing about words, how they relate to one another in a sentence, that helps my fluency and my comprehension.

So I just gave you an example of how to bring language into phonological awareness, into phonics, into fluency, how can we build vocabulary through that morphology and how can I use it, the pragmatic language use, the use of the language, the discourse. All of that I bring into phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension.