English L2 Reading: Getting to the Bottom

English L2 Reading, Third Edition offers teachers research-based insights into bottom-up skills in reading English as a second language and a solid foundation on which to build reading instruction. Core linguistic and psycholinguistic concepts are presented within the context of their application to teaching. The goal is to balance or supplement (not replace) top-down approaches and methodologies with effective low-level options for teaching English reading.

The text’s pedagogical features― Questions, Study Guide Questions. Discussion Questions, Spotlight on Teaching sections― engage readers of the text in moving easily from linguistic details and psycholinguistic data and theory to practical explanations and suggestions for teaching. Two Appendices provide tables that list the graphemes or the phonemes of English.

• Shift in focus from criticism of whole language methodologies to a more neutral stance ―times have changed and the study of lower-level reading strategies is now mainstream
• Greater focus on linguistic form, along with function and meaning
• Updated information about reading strategies at each level of the reading process
• More Spotlight on Teaching sections, one for each chapter
• New chapter on spelling development

Barbara M. Birch is Professor in the Department of Linguistics at California State University - Fresno, USA.