Should We Teach Phonics to English Learners?

Tim Shanahan

I wrote this blog entry largely based on the conclusions that Isabel Beck and I had drawn on behalf of the National Literacy Panel for Language Minority Children and Youth. There were very few experimental studies that looked at the particulars of teaching reading to English Learners, but what was there was consistent: instruction that had been effective with native language populations generally was effective with second language learners, too. There were only three studies of explicit teaching of phonics to ELs at the time and they agreed that such teaching was beneficial. With so few data to go on, I think it is fair to say that I was guessing to some extent.

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