Basa, Maria Angelica R.

MA Ed Reading

Dr. Melchor A. Tatlonghari

Linguistics 599

On Learning from Abdallah: A Case Study of an Arabic-Speaking Child in a U.S. School

Bilingualism was once seen as a threat to the language development of children. Nonetheless it
is now embraced widely by many as a result of the countless number of researches and studies that
prove bilinguals to be as competent as monolinguals (Genesee, 2006). In some cases, however, it is
important for young English Language Learners (ELL) to have a strong foundation in their first language
as is seen in the case of young Abdallah (Palmer et al., 2007).
Abdallah is a 9-year-old Palestinian boy whose family transferred to America, forcing him to study
in the said country as well. However, his teacher Sara Chang, noticed that Abdallahs performance was
not at par when compared with other ELL students like him. In fact, even with the scaffolding techniques
such as the Rosetta Stone technique that the ELL teachers employ, there has been little improvement in
Abdallahs English language learning. What bothered Chang the most was the fact that there were two
more Arabic-speaking children of approximately the same age from Jordan studying with Abdallah who
were, progressing more than he is.
Chang observed that the Palestinian boy could read and write some words in Arabic; however,
his Arabic oral reading was dysfluent (Palmer et al., 2007). They reported that while Abdallah could

recite the English alphabet, decoding was another thing and spelling and constructing sentences were
torturous for the boy. In an interview with Abdallahs parents, they said that they wanted the boy to gain
facility in English for academic purposes and for the social environment in which he was now living, but
did not want him to experience language attrition in Arabic (Palmer et al., 2007).
Abdallah then underwent a series of tests for his teachers to know what was going awry. He was
first asked to read an Arabic reading text for second graders entitled The Bee is a Beneficial Insect. It
was observed that the boy read the singular form of plural words 2 out of 4 times and even ignored the
diacritical marks which were important if one was to understand the sound and the meaning of the Arabic
word read aloud. Moreover, according to Palmer et al. (2007), his reading required a high degree of
phonological mediation. In other words, his oral reading in Arabic is comparable to that of an early
childhood learner of Arabic.
In the succeeding test where he was asked to read a passage entitled Thank You, the teachers
noticed that when asked to echo read (read after the mentor), Abdallah could read fluently, and his
comprehension of the passage, as reflected in the result of direct questioning, was high.
Finally, Abdallah was given a translated version of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test III. It is
through this instrument that the teachers were able to conclude that Abdallah had a strong receptive
vocabulary in Arabic. The results of his tests led the teachers to conclude that the boy has not yet
developed sufficient literacy skills in his first language, which is Arabic, and can thus not make the
necessary transfer from his L1 to his L2, which is of course English. Palmer et al. (2007) specifically
pointed out that
Abdallah had strength in comprehension strategies in Arabic reading
when the text was somewhat accessible; strength in oral vocabulary in
Arabic, but not in English; and weakness in both languages in wordrecognition strategies and fluency.
And so, the teachers began to device and plan instructional strategies for Abdallah:
1. Strengthen Abdallahs Arabic reading strategies for word recognition and
fluency.
2. Place Abdallahs instruction within a familiar cultural environment.
3. Provide scaffolding for Abdallah to identify and strengthen positive and
mitigate negative transfers from Arabic to English.
In the first stage of Abdallahs instruction, he met with Fathi, the Arab teacher who administered
the tests to him earlier. His instructional plan for Abdallah included Continuous Diagnostic Assessment

which assessed mastery of the material studied the previous session, Guided Reading where after four
months, Abdallah improved from using second-grade to fourth-grade materials, Skills Strategies (direct
instruction), and Elaborations and Extensions, where the main goal is to help the boy enjoy the language,
therefore encouraging him to read and write more within and beyond the tutoring time.
For the second phase of Abdallahs instruction, he was transferred to another school where he
was given instruction in English instruction while Fathi worked on him. His English instruction in his new
school was supported with texts in his first language, and was provided an Arabic-English dictionary.
Sensing the boys enormous progress, Fathi tested Abdallah again using the DIBELS test (2002)
for reading fluency in English, and discovered that the boy can now read approximately 42 words per
minute with an accent closely approximating that of English-speaking children. He was then asked to
write about anything he wants or can write about in English. The figure shown on the next page is
Abdallahs writing.

Abdallahs Writing Sample (Palmer et al., 2007)

From his sample writing, the teachers were able to make the following observations (Palmer et
al., 2007):
1. Abdallah has a firm grasp of English concepts of print, left to write directionality,
possessive case, and some punctuation.
2. Abdallah is beginning to make sense of the deep orthography of English; for
instance, he knows that the word question contains more letters than phonemes.
Although he still does not spell the word conventionally, when his invented spelling
of the word is read aloud, it approximates the English phonemes he is trying to
represent.

3. The spelling of wath indicates that he is attending to the visual patterns of words,
though he still has an unconventional spelling for a sight word.
4. He is representing the verb to be (absent in Arabic) in some sentences although it was
still missing in the first sentence.
Lastly, Abdallah once again took the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test III in Arabic translation,
and the teachers found that the tutoring had not affected Abdallahs high initial score (Palmer et al.,
2007) and thus the tutoring sessions came to an end.
If anything, this case study on Abdallahs progress all but verifies and demonstrates Cummins
Common Underlying Proficiency or CUP. Pearson (Theories of Cummins, n.d.) described CUP as
being based on the idea that language fundamentals for the L1 establish a foundation on which to build
additional languages. This means that whatever knowledge or metalanguage of the first language that a
learner has, he/she may use it to learn another language. One language skills in the first language can
be transferred to the second language to help one learn and use the second language better. Cummins
in Shoebottom (2013), says, Conceptual knowledge developed in one language helps to make input in
the other language comprehensible. If the child is already acquainted with the concepts of the words hot
and sunny in his/her first language, all she has to do is to learn its equivalent label in the second
language he/she is trying to learn.

In Abdallahs case, his foundations in his first language were

insufficient, causing him to have difficulty in learning the English language. This explains the need of the
teachers to have the boy tutored in Arabic simultaneously with his instruction in the English language.
Furthermore, the researchers mentioned that aside from having an Arabic- and English-speaking
tutor, it may have also helped Abdallah that his tutor was of the same gender, and that it may be a
subject worthy of a more careful study. Personally, from the little knowledge I have of the culture of
countries in the Middle East, I strongly feel that it was helpful for Abdallah to have a tutor of the same
gender. Since they are both male, they more or less know what the other is feeling, and the teacher can
sense what the boys interests are.
As a whole, I believe the case study was a success. The teachers/researchers were able to
catch Abdallah before he falls, so to speak. I think this is what our country needseducators who have
the resource and the knowledge of bilingualism, and, more importantly, the heart to help make our
Filipino youth become better in Filipino and in English. Although I know that this would mean more paper
works for our poorly-supported educators, the results would surely be life-changing if done properly.

In the advent of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) that the
Department of Education is advocating, it is very important that the teachers understand the relationship
between their pupils foundations in their mother tongue and their acquisition and/or learning of the
English language. More importantly, teachers, especially the ones teaching in very culturally diverse
classrooms (i.e. consisting of pupils from different places in the country like Pampanga, Ilocos, Iloilo,
Manila, Bicol, Surigao, etc.), need to know their pupils. They need to be aware of the pupils first
language and provide even just a little bit of scaffolding. I believe that in this way, we will be helping
more Abdallahs become better readers, writers, speakers, and listeners of the English and Filipino
languages.
References
Genesee, F. (2006). Bilingual First Language Acquisition in Perspective. In P. McCardle & E. Hoff (Eds.),
Childhood Bilingualism: Research on Infancy Through School Age (pp.45-67)
Pearson, L. (n.d.). Theories of Cummins. http://www.wou.edu/~lpearso/website/Cummins.html
Shoebottom, P. (2013). Second Language Acquisition Essential Information.
http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/cummin.htm
Palmer, B., El-Ashry, F., Leclere, J., and Chang, S. (2007). Learning from Abdallah: A Case Study of an
Arabic-Speaking Child in a U.S. School. The Reading Teacher, 61 (1), 8-17.