“Maestra! The letters speak.” Learning to Read for the First Time: Best Practices in Emergent Reading Instruction

Abstract

Young adult and adult students with little or no literacy in their first languages are tackling a double challenge: acquiring English while learning to read for the first time later in life. There is a considerable lack of research in this area of ESL, but the available research and professional wisdom can guide our practice. Five general principles help us create vibrant, successful classrooms for our low-literacy students: keep lessons contextualized, combine bottom-up and top-down approaches, cater to a variety of learning preferences, tap into students’ strengths, and nurture their confidence. This report outlines these principles and connects them specifically to serving adult emergent readers.