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Bidilectalism Though still a very controversial subject, the education of children whose primary dialect is something other than standard English must be addressed. These children are said to speak varieties of English that some may associate with particular regions of the United States or with speakers of particular races and ethnicities (Green-Lippi, 1998; Heath, 1983). Regardless of one's political standpoint on how these children should be educated, the fact remains that somehow they must be educated. In teaching these children to read, parents and other concerned adults may engage in intensive phoneme practice that emphasizes special attention to the sounds that make up words, rather than the sounds of individual letters (National Research Council, 1999). Because phonemes are sounds, they may be represented either by one letter or a combination of two or more (Hiebert, 1998). These letter combinations are called graphemes (Hiebert, 1998). The long "a" vowel sound, for example, may be represented in the following ways: "a," "ay," and "a_e." They are illustrated in the words "angel," "may," and "ape" respectively. You may use this website to help bidialectal readers by encouraging them to focus on phoneme practice as they hear words narrated in the story. While working with these special children, help them to listen specifically for the sounds found in each word that appears on the screen. This directed instruction will help children foster their concepts of how words are formed. You may also encourage children to read the story aloud with the narrator to provide them with additional practice in pronunciation.
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