• Tutors should explain to learners that the purpose of learning phonemes and phonics is to help them read and sound out unknown words. Learning phonics and developing phonemic awareness is not an end in itself. Its goal is to help learners become better readers.
• Tutors should use only a small portion of the tutoring session to focus on phonics and phonemes. Remember that a good tutoring session focuses on all the components of reading.
• Plan the lesson and adjust the difficulty of what you are presenting. Make it possible for the learner to be 80-90 per cent successful. Make the exercises easier by having fewer choices and shorter words.
• If the learner becomes frustrated, discontinue the exercises and move on to something where she experiences success.

Teaching reading to ESL learners

It’s not important to use all the components of reading when working with ESL learners. The greatest challenge they face in reading English is vocabulary development, not phonemic awareness development or decoding instruction. They may have difficulty pronouncing words and therefore have weak phonemic awareness skills, but that doesn’t affect their understanding of print; it affects their understanding of speech. As McShane points out, ESL learners often have strong word attack skills and reading fluency, with a relative weakness in comprehension. What holds them back is their limited English vocabulary.

Tutors should keep in mind that beginning ESL learners will need to focus on basic vocabulary, while more advanced learners will need to learn idioms.