5.remedial English Instruction
5.remedial English Instruction
5.remedial English Instruction
A remedial program primarily helps students address language skills deficits by helping them
acquire self-confidence to face their own weakness and overcome these through the acquisition
of self-help strategies. A thorough assessment must be conducted before organizing a remedial
program, while consistent monitoring is imperative in managing the program.
Below are general instructional guidelines that should be considered (Strickland, 1998 cited in
Gunning, 2003 and in Vacca, Vacca, and Gove, 1991):
1. CURRICULUM
a.Base goals and standards for language learning
on theory and research.
b.Relate teacher beliefs and knowledge about
instruction to research.
c. Organize the curriculum framework so that it is
usable
d.Select materials that facilitate accomplishment of
school goals.
2. INSTRUCTION
a. The program must identify instructional strategies and activities for learners.
b. Instruction must be based upon what we know about the effective teaching of
language skills.
c. Those involved in designing or selecting instructional activities need to consider the
variables that contribute to success in language learning, given its interactive and
constructive nature.
d. Time must be provided in the classroom for practice.
e. Composing should be an integral part of the program.
f. Students should be given opportunities to become independent and to self-monitor
their progress.
g. The climate in a school must be conducive to the development of students.
h. The school must develop an organizational structure that meets individual needs of
students.
i. The program must provide for coordination among all language programs offered in
the school.
B. Management
School-based remedial sessions tend to
involve 3 to 10 learners, and typically last
between 30 to 50 minutes, depending on
whether they are in the elementary or
secondary level. A plan to maximize the
utilization of that time should be a high priority.
To ensure that the program is effective, one
must consider the six components of an ideal
remedial program (Manzo & Manzo, 1993).
These principles may also be applicable in
remediation for other skills aside from reading.
1. The orientation component. The orientation component provides continuity and focus
to the remedial session. It may be an engaging question or statement related to local or
national news, or even school life. It must focus on structured routines, materials,
equipment, venue, people involved, and the objective of the program.
2. Direct Instruction Component. This is the instructional heart of the remedial session. It
should never be traded away, even for one period, without some compelling reason.
3. Reinforcement and Extension Component. This period of time ideally should build on
the direct instructional period and be spent in empowered reading, writing, and
discussion of what was read. Writing activities may vary from simply listing key words to
summarizing and reacting.
B. Definition of Terms
1. Alphabetic Knowledge: understanding that letters represent sound so that words may
be read by saying the sounds represented by the letters, and words may be spelled by
writing the letters that represent the sounds in a word.
2. Sight-Word Knowledge: all words any one reader can recognize instantly (with
automaticity) not necessarily with meaning.
3. Basic Sight Words: a designated list of words, usually of high utility.
4. Knowledge on Sound-Symbol Correspondence: (a.k.a. graphophonic knowledge) the
readers’ ability to use phonics, phonemic, and structural analysis knowledge.
NOTE: Accent has less importance for a corrective reader than the vowel rules. This is true
partially because a student who properly attacks a new word in his or her speaking-listening
vocabulary but not sight vocabulary is likely to get the right accent without any knowledge of
accent generalizations.
Also, teach students the use of affixes so they will have better understanding of
contractions, inflectional and derivational endings for change tense, number form and function.
These will lead to students’ sufficient use of structural analysis strategy.
Syllabication Principles
1. When two consonants stand between two vowels, the word is usually divided between
the consonants, e.g., dag-ger and cir-cus. In some of the newer materials, materials are
divided after the double consonant, e.g., dagg-er. It should be remembered that in
2. Blending (Example: /sss/ - / uuu/ - /nnn/ is sun). In blending instruction, use scaffold
task difficulty.
a. When students are first learning to blend, use examples with continuous sounds,
because the sounds can be stretched and held.
Example: "Listen, my lion puppet likes to talk in a broken way. When he says /mmm/
- /ooo/ - /mmm/ he means mom."
Non-example: "Listen, my lion puppet likes to talk in a broken way. When he says /b/
- /e/ - /d/ he means bed."
b. When students are first learning the task, use short words in teaching and practice
examples. Use pictures when possible.
Example: Put down 3 pictures of CVC words and say: "My lion puppet wants one of
these pictures. Listen to hear which picture he wants, /sss/ - /uuu/ - /nnn/. Which
picture?"
Non-example: ".../p/ - /e/ - /n/ - /c/ - /i/ - /l/. Which picture?" (This is a more advanced
model that should be used later.)
c. When students are first learning the task, use materials that reduce memory load and
to represent sounds.
Example: Use pictures to help them remember the words and to focus their
attention. Use a 3-square strip or blocks to represent sounds in a word.
Non-example: Provide only verbal activities.
3. Segmenting (Example: The sounds in sun are /sss/ - /uuu/ - /nnn/) In phoneme
segmentation instruction, strategically integrate familiar and new information.
a. Recycle instructional and practice examples used for blending. Blending and
segmenting are sides of the same coin. The only difference is whether students hear
or produce a segmented word. Note: A segmenting response is more difficult for
children to reproduce than a blending response.
Example: "Listen, my lion puppet likes to say the sounds in words. The sounds in
mom are /mmm/ - /ooo/ - /mmm/. Say the sounds in mom with us. "
b. Concurrently teach letter-sound correspondences for the sounds students will be
segmenting in words.
Example: Letter sound /s/ and words sun and sit. Put down letter cards for familiar
letter-sounds. Then, have them place pictures by the letter that begins with the same
sound as the picture.
Non-example: Use letter-sounds that have not been taught when teaching first
sound in pictures for phoneme isolation activities.
c. Make the connections between sounds in words and sounds of letters.
Example: After students can segment the first sound, have them use letter tiles to
represent the sounds.
Non-example: Letters in mastered phonologic activities are not used. Explicit
connections between alphabetic and phonologic activities are not made.
d. Use phonologic skills to teach more advanced reading skills, such as blending letter-
sounds to read words.
Example: (Give children a 3-square strip and the letter tiles for s, u, n.) Have them
do familiar tasks and blending to teach stretched blending with letters.
PROCEDURE
1. Take a difficult word from the text, write it on the chalkboard, pronounce it, and tell
what it means.
2. Ask students to imagine a simple pantomime for the word meaning (“How could
you show someone what this word means with just your hands or a gesture?”)
3. Tell students that when you give a signal, they will do their gesture pantomimes
simultaneously.
4. Select the most common pantomime observed. Demonstrate it all to the students,
saying the word while doing the pantomime.
5. Repeat each new word, this time directing the class to do the pantomime while
saying a brief meaning or simple synonym.
6. Let the students encounter the word in the assigned reading material.
7. Try to use the pantomime casually whenever the word is used for a short time
thereafter.
B. Internal Factors
1. Problems in language proficiency (cover problems on phonetics and phonology like
phonetic discrimination, and phonetic varieties; problems in grammar; and
lexicological problems)
2. Poor background knowledge
3. Lack of motivation to listen
4. Psychological factors
5. Other internal factors (age, attention span, memory span, reaction and sensitivity)
C. External Factors
1. Speed of delivery and different accents of the speakers
2. The content and task of listening materials
3. Context - refers to the spatial-temporal location of the utterance, i.e. on the particular
time and particular place at which the speaker makes an utterance and the particular
time and place at which the listener hears or reads the utterance.
4. Co-text - another major factor influencing the interpretation of meaning. It refers to the
linguistic context or the textual environment provided by the discourse or text in which
a particular utterance occurs. Co-text constrains the way in which we interpret the
response. Here we can infer that the person is not going to a picnic by judging from
the co-text.
A: Are you coming going to Baguio with us?
B: I have a paper to finish by Monday.
B. Teaching Pronunciation
Below are techniques and practice,materials (as cited in Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin,
1996) in teaching pronunciation which have been used traditionally and continues to be
utilized in speaking classes.
1. Listen and imitate. Learners listen to a model provided by the teacher and then repeat
or imitate it.
2. Phonetic training. Articulatory descriptions, articulatory diagrams, and a phonetic
alphabet are used.
3. Minimal Pair drills. These provide practice on problematic sounds in the target
language through listening discrimination and spoken practice. Drills begin with word-
level then move to sentence-level.
4. Contextualized minimal pairs. The teacher established the setting or context then key
vocabulary is presented. Students provide meaningful response to sentence stem.
5. Visual aids. These materials are used to cue production of focus sounds.
6. Tongue twisters
7. Developmental approximation drills. Second language speakers take after the steps
that English-speaking children follow in acquiring certain sounds.
8. Practice of vowel shifts and stress shifts related by affixation
Vowel shift: mime (long i) mimic (short i)
Sentence context: Street mimes often mimic the gestures of passersby.
Stress shift: PHOtograph phoTOGraphy
Sentence context: I can tell from these photographs that you are very good at
photography.
9. Reading aloud/recitation. Passages and scripts are used for students to practice and
then read aloud focusing on stress, timing, and intonation.
10. Recording of learners’ production. Playback allows for giving of feedback and self-
evaluation.
2. Skill Difficulties
Students with writing problems:
a. Often do not plan before or during writing;
b. Exhibit poor text transcription (e.g., spelling, handwriting, and punctuation);
c. Focus revision efforts (if they revise at all) on superficial aspects of writing (e.g.,
handwriting, spelling, and grammar);
d. Do not analyze or reflect on writing;
e. Have limited ability to self regulate thoughts, feelings, and actions throughout the
writing process;
f. Show poor attention and concentration; and
g. Have visual motor integration weaknesses and fine motor difficulties.
D. Teaching Handwriting
The following are research-based suggestions for teaching handwriting.
1. Curriculum Considerations
a. The initial use of one type of script (e.g., manuscript versus cursive or different
versions of manuscript) does not appear to affect handwriting performance.
b. Special emphasis is placed on difficult-to-form letters and those that are frequently
reversed.
c. Lowercase letters are introduced before upper-case letters, unless they are formed
using similar strokes (e.g., C, c).
d. Letters that share common strokes are grouped together (e.g., o, c, d, a).
e. The introduction of easily confused letters (e.g., b, d, p, q) is staggered.
f. The formation of individual upper- and lowercase letters and, for cursive, difficult
letter transitions (e.g., roam) are modeled.
g. Visual cues, such as numbered dots and arrows, and verbal descriptions are used to
guide letter formation.
h. Activities to reinforce letter recognition and naming are combined with handwriting
practice.
i. Students practice using a comfortable and efficient tripod pencil grasp.
j. Students are shown and expected to use appropriate posture and paper positioning
for their handedness.
k. Handwriting fluency is developed through frequent writing and speed trials, with an
emphasis on maintaining legibility.
l. Opportunities are provided for distributed practice and judicious review of individual
letters and letter sequences.
m. Students are permitted to develop their own handwriting style and to choose which
script (manuscript, cursive, or even a blend) they prefer to use after mastering
handwriting (manuscript tends to be more legible than cursive and can be written just
as quickly if given equal emphasis).
n. Students are prompted to identify when a high degree of legibility is and is not
necessary.
2. Weekly Routines
a. In the primary grades, 60–75 minutes per week is allocated for handwriting
instruction.
b. Students are encouraged to compare letters to discover patterns and to highlight their
similarities and differences.
c. Students are given opportunities to reinforce target letters by tracing them (a dashed
or faded model), copying them, and writing them from memory.
d. Students’ handwriting is monitored and immediately reinforced for correct letter
formation, spacing, alignment, size, slant, and line quality.
e. Students are asked to self-evaluate their handwriting and to set goals for improving
specific aspects of their handwriting each day.
f. Students are encouraged to correct poorly formed letters and to rewrite illegible work.
2. Weekly Routines
a. A minimum of 60–75 minutes per week is allocated for spelling instruction.
b. Students take a Monday pretest to determine which words they need to study during
subsequent activities and to set spelling performance goals.
c. After studying new spelling words, students take a Friday posttest to determine which
words were mastered.
d. Immediately after taking a spelling test, students correct their misspellings.
e. The teacher conducts word sorts and guided spelling activities to explicitly teach
spelling patterns and rules at the beginning of the week.
f. Daily opportunities are provided for cumulative study and testing of new spelling
words (e.g., through computer-assisted instruction).
g. Students work together each day to learn new spelling words.
h. While studying, students monitor their on-task behavior or the number of times they
correctly spell a target word, to promote active learning.