Multilingual Learners' Struggles?

Multilingual learners may encounter specific challenges when developing phonemic awareness, language skills, and reading abilities. Here is a summary of their struggles, along with?specific examples:

1.?Phonemic Awareness: Multilingual learners' struggles with phonemic awareness include difficulties in:

a) Differentiating between phonemes that don't exist or have different representations in their native language.?

For example, Mandarin speakers may struggle with distinguishing between the /r/ and /l/ sounds in English. Also, the /n/?and?/l/ sounds?in some dialects.?

b) Grasping the phonetic patterns and sound combinations unique to the target language due to limited exposure. This can impact their ability to accurately recognize and produce specific phonemes.

2. Language Skills: Multilingual learners face challenges in their language proficiency, affecting their overall reading comprehension. Key struggles include:

a) Limited vocabulary knowledge in the target language, which makes it difficult for them to understand and decode unfamiliar words while reading.?

For example, many students I've taught that they?have the diffuculty when learning the academic contents as they don't have a advanced English language skill. They don't know many common words which will stop them learning.?

Another example is, for the unfamiliar words, it is difficult for them to unpack those words as the limited vocabulary foundations.

b) Transferring grammar rules and sentence structures from their native language to the target language, resulting in syntactic errors and hindering comprehension of complex texts.

3.?Reading Skills: Developing reading skills poses challenges for multilingual learners. Examples include:

a) Difficulty decoding and recognizing words due to variations in phonetic patterns and letter-sound correspondences between their native language and the target language. For instance, Arabic speakers might find it challenging to decode English words without explicit instruction on the differences in pronunciation and spelling conventions.

b) Limited exposure to cultural and contextual background knowledge associated with the target language, making it harder for them to infer meaning from context and fully comprehend the text.

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To address these struggles, educators can implement strategies such as:

• Providing explicit instruction and practice in phonemic awareness activities that focus on the specific phonemes and sound patterns of the target language.

• Offering targeted vocabulary instruction to develop word knowledge and support reading comprehension.

• Assisting multilingual learners in transferring language skills by explicitly addressing grammar rules, syntactic structures, and language differences.

• Incorporating culturally relevant texts and diverse literature to enhance cultural understanding and exposure to different contexts.

• Providing additional language support through bilingual resources, peer collaboration, and differentiated instruction to meet the individual needs of multilingual learners.

By acknowledging the struggles faced by multilingual learners and employing targeted instructional approaches, educators can support their phonemic awareness, language development, and reading skills, ultimately promoting their overall literacy proficiency.