Literacy and Second Language Oracy. Elaine Tarone

were not literate in their L1 took seven to ten years to learn age-appropriate L2 literacy-related context-reduced and cognitively demanding academic language skills; some never seemed to catch up with their native speaking peers. Those who did have L1 literacy skills took less time to acquire comparable literacy skills in their L2.3 According to this research, the length of time to full academic literacy increases with age of onset of initial literacy.

      Table 0.1. Relationships between L1/L2 oracy and L1/L2 literacy

      However, scholars have not examined the impact of L1 or L2 literacy on L2 oral skills. Even recent major research initiatives fail to examine this. The research questions typically investigated by SLA scholars deal with relationships between literacy and oracy, such as:

      1 What is the relationship between L1 oral skills and L2 literacy?

      2 What is the relationship between L2 oral skills and L2 literacy?

      3 What is the relationship between L1 and L2 literacy?

      Table 0.1 offers another way of understanding these relationships; the focus of most research is on relationships of various cells to Cell 4: L2 literacy.

      However, what has been missing is any exploration of the impact of L1 or L2 literacy (Cells 2 and 4) on Cell 3 – the cognitive processing of oral L2. Using this table, we can better conceptualize such interesting research efforts as those of Keiko Koda and her colleagues (Koda 1989, 2005; Wang, Koda, and Perfetti 2003); these researchers have documented the impact of Cell 2 on Cell 4: literate learners’ knowledge of different types of L1 writing systems (alphabetical versus logographic) on their phonological or semantic cognitive processing of reading materials in L2. Koda and colleagues, while they have perhaps come closest in their work to that explored in this book, carefully documenting the impact of different L1 writing systems on L2 reading and writing, have not, to our knowledge, explored the impact of this knowledge on Cell 3: learners’ L2 oral processing. This omission has been widespread.

      1

      We will follow standard practice in the field of SLA research in using the term ‘second language’ to refer to any and all languages acquired after the native language; such languages may in fact be second, third, or fourth languages.

      2

1

We will follow standard practice in the field of SLA research in using the term ‘second language’ to refer to any and all languages acquired after the native language; such languages may in fact be second, third, or fourth languages.

2

An encouraging recent development has been the ‘Low-Educated Second Language and Literacy Acquisition (LESLLA) publications: Van de Craats, Kurvers, and Young-Scholten (2006) and Faux (2007).

3

This research does not imply that illiterate adolescents or adults who enroll in high school or adult basic education classes will take 7–10 years to finish. This research suggests only that the process of developing literacy to the level of native-speaking peers may take much longer than if the individual were literate upon arrival.

3

This research does not imply that illiterate adolescents or adults who enroll in high school or adult basic education classes will take 7–10 years to finish. This research suggests only that the process of developing literacy to the level of native-speaking peers may take much longer than if the individual were literate upon arrival.