Running Record with ELL Students

I performed two running records. My first one was with a boy who speaks Spanish and the second was with a girl whose first language is Cantonese. She also speaks Vietnamese. English is her third language.
The students read a selection without having previously viewed the text. I set my timer for one minute and the students read the text as I took notes on another page. I selected students who were around the same academic level so I could compare what I noticed within the same text. I have this knowledge from conducting DRA tests of these students from the beginning of the year. Both students are performing right on a 6th grade reading level. (DRA 60)

For the Spanish speaking student, I noticed several things. First, I saw that some of the /i/ to /e/ sounds were confused in unknown words. This did not occur in words with which he was familiar. I also heard that when he pronounced a word like “chair”, he would have trouble saying it like a native English speaker would due to his accent. The word would sound more like “share”, though the pronunciation did not interfere with the meaning. This experience made me think about the fifth chapter of the Freeman text. There is a similar pronunciation reference in this chapter regarding students who produce the /d/ and /th/ sounds. “Spanish speakers acquiring English will come to understand this difference between the two languages….This is not a problem as long as the focus is on made meaning. “ (Freeman & Freeman,2004 ,p.93) This student also tended to leave the endings off of words as well. For instance, if the word was sits, he would say sit. The final thing I noticed about this student is that he would insert words, but again, this did not interfere with the meaning of the words. In reference to the book Miscue Analysis Made Easy (Wilde, 2000), these errors are classified as, “Semantically, syntactically acceptable despite uncorrected miscues. Since readers have a strong impetus to ensure that what we read sounds like language, they may leave miscues uncorrected as long as the result is grammatical.” (Wilde, 2000, p. 65) As far as meaning is concerned, the errors this student made did not affect the meaning of the text. “These distinctions involve judgment calls. When a sentence is coded syntactically acceptable, semantically acceptable and no meaning change, this is a sign that it’s been read effectively.” (Wilde, 2000, p.71) These errors are simple and can be corrected through continued oral practice within the English language.

I thought listening to the second student was quite surprising. She has no detectable accent, so much so that I did not know she spoke another language until I met her mother several months ago. She reads very quickly and made little errors in her reading. I did notice that as she spoke to her mother to translate during the parent/teacher conference that she spoke equally as fast. Perhaps this is a trademark of Chinese dialects. Her comprehension is very good. I see that she makes mistakes because of the speed at which she reads. However, she is very cognizant of going back and correcting her miscues. “There are two reasons for accepting a certain level of error in any activity. First, it usually doesn’t matter that much, is correctable, or both. Second, there’s a trade-off between error and speed or efficiency.” (Wilde, 2000, p. 26) I thought this quote really applied to this student because there are things we can work on to help her fix the minor errors she makes. We can practice slowing down and work more on expression. We also practice pausing at certain areas in longer texts to ask what the passage was about. What I really connected with in the readings for this week had to do with the chapter on English Orthography (Freeman & Freeman, 2004). In thinking about this student for this week’s blog, I wondered about the additional struggles she must have in learning English. “Chinese writing is a modern-day example of a largely ideographic writing system, and it can be read by both Mandarin and Cantonese speakers. The disadvantage of pictographic writing is that a writer has to learn a great number of different symbols, one for each idea.” (Freeman & Freeman,2000, p. 100) She seemed to have no struggles at all. It is obvious that she is getting a lot of practice as she continues to learn English.

In closing, neither student is a perfect English speaker. The time to address the minor errors these students are making is during conferencing or small group time. Increased talk time in the classroom will also help with their speaking skills and structured time to implement the things they learn by reading and in speaking can be practiced in their writing. This approach reinforces the sociopsycholinguistic and acquired approach to reading and writing.

Freeman, D.E. (2004). Essential linguistics. What you need to know to teach reading, esl, spelling, phonics, grammar. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Wilde, S. (2000). Miscue analysis made easy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Fredericks, A.D. (2001). Guided reading in grades 3-6. Harcourt Achieve Inc.