What Multilingual Learners Really Need: Practical Support for Phonics and Vocabulary

In classrooms today, the question "Can they read?" often feels too simple. For multilingual learners still developing English, reading is a rich, multi-layered process — and understanding it through this lens is key to supporting learners' success.

Reading isn’t a single skill. Research like the Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) reminds us that reading comprehension depends on two main components: decoding (the ability to translate text to speech) and language comprehension (understanding this language). For multilingual learners, challenges in either area can impact their reading.

Scarborough’s Reading Rope (2001) further unpacks these components, showing us that reading is woven from multiple strands—phonological awareness, decoding, vocabulary knowledge, language structures, and more—all working together.

In the interest of chunking down this pedagogy into practical tips and examples, we'll explore phonics (decoding skills) and vocabulary (language comprehension) in this blog, exploring what these mean in practice, the challenges these can present for multilingual learners, and practical strategies to support them at both primary and secondary levels.

1. Phonics: Not Just for Beginners

What is Phonics?

Phonics is the relationship between sounds (phonemes) and letters or letter patterns (graphemes). It’s how readers decode written words into sounds.

Why it matters for multilingual learners

Just because a learner can read fluently in their home language doesn’t mean they automatically decode English words easily. English spelling and sound patterns can be irregular and unfamiliar—especially if their first language uses a different writing system or phonetic structure.

Older learners might have missed early phonics instruction or struggle with specific sounds not found in their native language (like /θ/ in think or /v/ in voice). Without this foundation, they can decode words incorrectly or rely on guessing.

Practical strategies for teaching phonics to older learners

• Explicitly revisit tricky sounds and spelling patterns
• Use short, focused mini-lessons on English sounds that commonly challenge multilingual learners, such as /th/, /ch/, /v/, and digraphs like ph in phone.
• Model pronunciation clearly and provide opportunities to practise.
• Example: A daily 5-minute warm-up reviewing “tricky spellings” with words like science, chaos, and guarantee.
• Contrast English sounds with learners’ home languages
• Discuss differences and similarities in sounds and letters. For example, Spanish speakers often confuse /b/ and /v/ sounds, so teach them strategies for clarifying meaning (e.g., berry vs very).
• Tip: Ask learners, “How is this sound different or similar in your first language?”
• Use phonics in meaningful contexts, not isolation
• Try dictogloss activities: read a short academic paragraph aloud, learners jot down key words, then reconstruct the text in pairs.
• This builds phoneme awareness within authentic language use.
• Create a “tricky spellings” board
• Have learners collect and categorise words with silent letters, unusual stress patterns, or confusing homophones (e.g., there, their, they’re).
• Use these for group spelling and pronunciation games.
• Provide audio support
• Share recordings of key texts so learners can listen and annotate stress patterns or sounds, supporting both decoding and fluency.

2. Vocabulary: More Than Just Knowing Words

What is Vocabulary?

Vocabulary refers to the words we understand and use. Academic vocabulary, in particular, consists of words learners rarely hear in everyday conversation but must understand to access subject content (think: analyse, justify, consequence).

Why vocabulary challenges multilingual learners

Multilingual learners often bring rich cultural and linguistic knowledge but struggle when they don’t know the English terms for academic concepts. This gap can block comprehension and written expression, even when they understand the ideas.

Practical strategies for teaching vocabulary to older learners

• Teach academic vocabulary explicitly and tier it
• Break vocabulary into tiers: everyday words, general academic words, and subject-specific terms.
• Focus teaching time on tiers 2 and 3 which learners are less likely to know.
• Use a “3-column vocabulary table”For each new term, ask learners to write:
  • The word (e.g., photosynthesis)
  • Their own definition in simple language (e.g., how plants make food using sunlight)
  • A translation or drawing to connect meaning (e.g., the word in their home language or a diagram)
• Explore word families and morphology
• Help learners spot patterns by studying prefixes, suffixes, and roots.
• For example, explore how predict relates to prediction and predictable.
• Activity: Do a morpheme hunt—find words with the same prefix inter- and discuss common meanings.
• Encourage bilingual connections
• When introducing words like migration in History, invite learners to share similar words or concepts in their first language. This builds meaning and affirms learners’ linguistic backgrounds.
• Create dual-language flashcards or sentence banks
• Especially useful for assessment preparation, these resources allow learners to access academic vocabulary more confidently.

Phonics and vocabulary are the building blocks of reading—especially for multilingual learners navigating multiple languages and complex English texts. When we intentionally support these layers, learners gain stronger decoding skills, richer word knowledge, and greater access to meaning.

Small, targeted shifts in teaching practice—whether revisiting phonics patterns or making vocabulary explicit—can have a powerful impact on learner confidence and achievement.

Try this in your classroom:

• Pick a recent text your learners are studying.
• Identify one phonics challenge (e.g., a tricky sound or spelling) and one vocabulary barrier (e.g., unfamiliar academic words).
• Plan a quick warm-up or activity to address these specifically, linking to learners’ home languages where possible.

Want more practical strategies for supporting multilingual learners? Stay tuned for upcoming posts diving into fluency and comprehension — or sign up for tools and resources at www.ealinclusive.com.

Let’s make reading accessible for all — one step at a time.

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