Characteristics of Novice Level Readings

(This blog post is a continuation of a series on literacy in the language classroom)

As I began to research literacy, its effects on language learners, and how we as language teachers can support the continued development of L1 literacy levels in our students, I found it necessary to look at the characteristics of readings designed for novice level readers. I think that one of the biggest pitfalls for us language teachers is that we assume that since our students can "read" at X level in their L1, then that literacy level should automatically transfer to reading in their L2 (e.g., since my students can read at the 8th grade level in L1, they should easily be able to read at the 8th grade level in L2). However, it is much more complicated than that - we must remember that for our novice L2 students, they are babies/toddlers when it comes to their L2 knowledge. This is not wrong at all - it is reality!  

When we dive into L2 readings with our students which are way above their L2 literacy levels, then we are setting them up for failure. Reading becomes a "survival of the fittest" activity, and as Margarita Perez Garcia noted in her video on my previous blog post, reading can then create a huge divide in our classrooms of those "who can" and those "who cannot." The culpability then lies on us, because we have not chosen readings which are level-appropriate based on our students' L2 literacy (I am talking to you, textbook publishers!).

So what are characteristics of readings for novice-level L2 readers (traditionally levels 1 and 2 as defined by ACTFL proficiency standards)? Although much of the information which I found relates to novice-level L1 reading proficiency, the same can apply to our L2 students:

• Short, simple sentences, which increase in length and structures with a growth in L2 literacy
• Predictable sentence and grammatical patterns 
• Repetitive patterns of word chunks or grammatical structures
• Repetition of limited, focused vocabulary, with amount of vocabulary increasing as L2 literacy develops
• Cannot rely solely on student decoding and translating words/sentences for understanding 
• Familiar concepts
• Compelling subject matter
• Limited text per page, which increases with a development in literacy
• Large font
• Illustrations which can serve as additional input for text

In her video, Margarita Perez Garcia also references a reading grading scale produced by the Extensive Reading Foundation speciciallty for novellas and graded readers. This grading scale rates them based on individual unique/headword counts and categorizes those novellas/graded readers according to proficiency level. I had never heard of the Extensive Reading Foundation prior to Margarita's presentation, but wow, what a great resource!

I have specifically drawn attention to the Beginner/Elementary/Intermediate levels - look at the unique/headword count for Intermediate novellas/graded readers - 801-1500 words! This grading scale is EYE-OPENING to me! I have never before seen something like this which outlines and aligns unique/headword count with reading proficiency levels - this makes so much sense to me! So if you are currently incorporating novellas into your curriculum, consider using this grading scale to see where they line up and if they are considered level-appropriate.

Next post: Experiencing L3 Literacy Myself - My Reading Experiment