Who benefits from That Reading Thing?
ESOL and EAL learners
Many That Reading Thing learners speak other languages at home. The key to their success is either a good level of spoken English or a teacher who understands how to adapt TRT for a student's language learning needs.
If your student has little spoken English
TRT doesn’t work as written with ESOL/EAL students who have very little spoken English. However, the linguistic phonics principles that underpin TRT are still important for both reading and spelling so teaching English vocabulary with the TRT strategies and activities will help your students. It will take a little more planning than just working through the TRT programme but it could be a great addition to your EAL teaching toolbox.If your student has good spoken English
On the other hand, if your learners have fairly good spoken English, then That Reading Thing can be delivered as it is. About a quarter of the students in our external evaluation spoke English as an additional language. José is now at Level 27, and it is such a delight to see him reading a whole page of text! It's such an improvement from only being able to read one word from the first page of the assessment! I am so grateful for TRT; it is empowering my students! (24-year-old José had several unsuccessful literacy interventions before TRT.)
Adult literacy tutor in Cleveland, Ohio
When I referred Nazir to TRT, he lacked confidence in his abilities, was not keen on reading and had a fairly low level of literacy. Since then, he has made great progress both in the skills he has gained and in his attitude. He is engaging more, asking questions, bringing in papers from the mosque which interest him, reading complex texts, has taken a book home to read, comprehending what he is reading, responding to texts, has become more focused with greater stamina, is more punctual.
Secondary teacher's feedback on student who did TRT with a youth worker
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