Teaching English Reading: What’s Included in the Textbooks of Pre-Service General Education Teachers?

Abstract

With changing demographics, pre-service general education teachers in many English-speaking countries will face the challenge of effectively teaching English language learners (ELLs) when they enter the classroom. Research into how to teach English reading has emphasized the importance of five essential components as summarized by the National Reading Panel, or NRP (2000): phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. Other research suggests spelling and assessment are additional important components of reading instruction (Coltheart and Prior, 2007; Geva, 2000). Furthermore, pre-service teachers in countries with substantial numbers of ELLs need to learn strategies that are effective for teaching reading to ELLs (August and Shanahan, 2006).