Running head: LIBRARY RESOURCE ANALYSIS

Library Resource Analysis:

Is Abington Public Library ELL-Friendly?

Viviane Freitas Scofano

TESL 505 – Read/Write Sheltered Content Class

Dr. Alexandra Dema

Bridgewater State University

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General Overview of Library Resources

The Abington Public Library is home to various workspaces to accommodate the needs

of students of all ages. The library is divided into sections; children, teens, and adults. The

children’s section is rich in literacy materials, such as easy reader books, which are books with

short chapters and pictures. These books are great for emerging and independent readers.

Likewise, the feature of pictures make it easier for ELLs build the schema they need to make

connections to the reading. These easy readers, fiction and non-fiction, are shelved together.

Most of the books in this section are also leveled readers. The librarian pointed me in the

direction of the collections of phonics books from Moncure, each book in the series is about an

adventure of words with the same letter sound. The National Reading Panel (NICHD, 2000)

found that instruction that provides substantial coverage in the key components of reading, such

as; phonemic awareness, phonics amongst others, is beneficial for “language-minority students”

(August and Shanahan, 2006). These books focus on building phonemic awareness and can be

used by the student for pleasure read or in a classroom setting with guided instruction.

The Nero Young Adult Room is for teens in grades 6 - 12. The resources available in this

room are computers, tables, comfortable chairs and games. I experienced difficulty finding

language-learning material for teens and adults. Even though I am fluent in English and sought

help from the librarians, we were unable to find a vast variety of language learning material.

ELs already face the challenge of not understanding the language, the fact that the resources

available to them were limited just adds more to that. I also requested information on literacy

materials for teens and adults, in general, and discovered none was available.

I was able to locate resources for ELLs in the children’s section with ease, however, only

a few grammar books and English didactic books were available for adults. There were definitely
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more material available for children. The material for adult language learner was actually

surprising. I found different sets of language lessons in; Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and French.

These seem to be great resource for adults who are not literate in their first language. The adult

section had more books on grammar and explicit language teaching. This resource seems more

useful for a teacher who is able to create a lesson plan making the grammar meaningful.

Nevertheless, I would recommend the library as a space for children and teens to go to in order

to study and find books of their interest according to their level. I would have to say that the

library at Abington Middle-High School is more prepared for older students at different reading

levels.

The online resources at Abington Public Library are interesting as well. They offer the

option of downloading books and the audio resources linked to them. The website is linked to

the Old Colony

The knowledge gained from the library visit will affect my teaching in two ways. First, I

would like to somehow advocate and collaborate with the library and possibly work on an

exchange project with schools in Brazil where we can exchange donations and broaden our range

of books in Portuguese for all ages. This is important for children born into Portuguese speaking

household without any knowledge of print in their L1. However, I do believe that the library

offers resources for students of all ages. Just the access to the internet itself and the quiet space to

sit down and study may be useful for adults with very young children at home.

Analysis of One Hard Copy Material and One Electronic Resource

For ELLs, school is generally the primary source of adaptation to culture of the larger

society. It is at school that students generally begin to integrate aspects of the new culture

(Peregoy & Boyle, 2016), defining culture is just as important as teaching vocabulary to Els for
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they need to make a connection and the content needs to be meaningful. Without the explicit

teaching of background knowledge about the American culture, much of what is taught may

come without meaning. The hard copy material I chose to analyze was from the adult section.

The reason being is that I found several resources in the children department made for aiding

children in the literacy process. This was not the case with the adult section. Therefore, the focus

was put on a book of the very few in the adult ESL section; English the American Way - A Fun

ESL Guide to Language & Culture by Sheila MacKecknie Murtha and Jane Airy O’Connor. The

book seems like a thorough guide to basic American language and culture. It is accompanied by

an audio CD and MP3. The book focus on special dates and traditions practiced in the United

States such as; Thanksgiving and Independence Day. The book contains common expressions

and idioms that help explain the major celebrations and social customs in the United States.

There are contextualized grammar activities that follow these themed lessons and mini quizzes at

the end of each section. The audio CD and Mp3 download contain dialogues focused on

improving listening and speaking skills. This resource seems to be efficient for an ELL who has

some basic knowledge of the language. The content seems to be geared toward gaining

understanding of the American culture and different expressions used in conversational English.

Because ELLs benefit from explicit instruction that is comprehensible and at their level, a

teacher would facilitate the language acquisition process by leveling the content to foster each

student’s needs. (August & Shanahan, 2006).

The content in this book could be very useful for a person who has studied English

abroad and is looking to become more familiar with more common American terminology. A

self-motivated learner could use this resource to improve in the domains of listening, reading and

writing. However, interaction is needed for a student to build on the skill of speaking, therefore, I
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would say that in a classroom setting this material could be used as part of a course’s content.

Because the book seems to go in chronological order by dates, I would use this material for

presentation of special holidays and events to familiarize my students with the origin of these

festivities as well as the language used.

Under the eResources tab on the Abington Public Library website there were several

helpful links that I was not aware of before. It was hard to narrow to just one electronic resource.

Tumblebooks is an interesting site that I could see being used to assist families whose first

language is not English while the child is learning to read. The website has a vast collection of

storybooks that are read aloud interactively while the images come to life in an animation. The

resource I chose to analyze was the hoopla digital, which provides Abington Public Library card

holders with movies, television shows, music albums, audiobooks, eBooks and graphic novels

available for temporary mobile download and online access. This resource is highly effective

because it provides a great range of resources that may be used in the classroom setting and as a

way for students to build on their language development at home. Students can download a book

of their choice to either their laptops (which Abington has provided for) or on a mobile device to

read for pleasure.

Hoopla also makes it easier for a teacher to choose a book for the whole class to read and

analyze based on their development level. ELLs are generally given less opportunities to read

aloud in English and receive feedback than their English speaking peers (August & Shanahan,

2007), ELL teachers can assign students reading, through the audiobook option to help them

build confidence to read aloud in class. I found the comics section to be beneficial for ELLs

because they rely heavily on images just as emerging readers do to support their reading

development. This resource can be used by the students, with their parent’s supervision, for
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proper choice of content. What I like the most about this resource is that it is suitable for all ages.

Hoopla focuses primarily on listening and reading, nevertheless, it can also foster to speaking

and writing exercises when aligned to a well thought out lesson plan. I would use this resource

with my students in many different ways. As a “weekend homework”, I would assign a

television show in which each weekend the students would be assigned to watch just one

episode. This could generate our Monday morning warm-up discussion.

This resource would make choosing a book to read with as a class much easier. I would

choose a different book every month or so to try to foster to the taste of each student and develop

in them a passion for reading. The students would be stimulated to retell the part of the story they

read. According to Lenski and Verbruggen when students write in response to what they read,

they listen more actively, their listening is then focused on their required response to retell the

story in their own words (Lenski and Verbruggen, 2010, pp.62).

At first glance, I would have rated Abington Public Library as a needs improvement for

ELL resources. However, this analysis made me dig deeper into the resources available and

when, although the physical space could use some more adaptations to aid adult learners, the

resources offered online are a valuable addition to the newcoming immigrante looking to learn

and/or improve their English language proficiency.

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References

Klinger, J. K. & Geisler, D. (2008). Helping classroom reading teachers distinguish

between language acquisition and learning disabilities. In J. K. Klinger, J. J. Hoover & L. M.

Lenski, S. and Verbruggen, F. (2010). Writing instruction and assessment for english

language learners K-8. New York: The Guilford Press.

August, D. and Shanahan, T. (2006). Developing literacy in second-language learners.

Peregoy and Boyle (2016). Reading, Writing and Learning in Esl + Pearson Etext Access

Card. Pearson College Div.

Murtha, S. and O'Connor, J. (2011). English the American way: A Fun ESL Guide to

Language & Culture. Piscataway, NJ: Research and Education Association.

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