Scaffolding Language for Learning teaching academic language to additional language learners

1. Scaffolding Language for Learningteaching academic language to additional language learners Pestalozzi Workshop: „From assimilation and isolation to integration“ Ljubljana * 14th of November 2012

2. Introduction • Education institutions ⇨ social cohesion and respect for human rights • Most education systems have problems to deal with disadvantaged pupils in a way that reduces their disadvantages • Explanations: individual factors, background factors & characteristics of education systems (Diefenbach 2010) • Foci of the presentation: • features of successful multi-ethnic & multilingual schools • language-related features within schools & classrooms • scaffolding as an approach toteaching and learning in multilingual settings • AIM – reducing educational gap & supporting social cohesion

3. What to expect • Why educational gap? Some explanations • Features of successful multi-ethnic & multilingual schools • A model for teaching in multilingual schools: scaffolding language for learning • Practical activity – engaging with the role of language in scaffolding for learning • Summary

4. 1. Why achievement gap? Some explanations

5. Structural differences in the starting conditions of children (social, cultural and financial resources) Secondary effects (educational aspirations and strategies as milieu-specific experiences) 3 sets of explanations Features of schools and educational systems (effects of teaching, contextual aspects, mechanisms of institutional discrimination, language-related issues) Achievement gap ? Why? (Gogolin & Krüger-Potratz 2010; Diefenbach 2010)

6. Need for a multi-level approach OECD, 2004

7. 1) Structural differences:social or cultural background “It has not been empirically verified that the disadvantages of children and youth from migrant families can be satisfactory explained by the assumption that their cultural or religious predispositions do not match the expectations of the schools or by the comparatively poor socio-economic situation of their families.” (Diefenbach 2007 )

8. 2) Secondary effects: low aspirations and motivation of immigrant parents and pupils Research Results: • Migrant families have high aspirations (for girls and boys), are highly motivated to invest in the educational career of their children. • Migrant pupils are highly motivated for school as such and for learning.

9. “Academic language” is a register characterised by a high degree of abstraction and cognitive involvement, it is context-disembedded and contains features of written discourse (also in the oral forms). In education it carries an exceptional weight, as: - it is used in learning tasks, textbooks and other teachingmaterials; - it is used in assessments and exams. 3) Systemic factors of teaching and learning • (Some) mechanisms of institutional discrimination: • “Monolingual habitus” of multilingual schools(Gogolin 1994) • Early tracking • Indirect institutional discrimination(Gomolla & Radtke 2002) • Low aspirations of teachers towards additional language learners(Richardson 2008) • Negative attitudes towards migration-induced multilingualism • Lack of teacher competences in the instruction of academic language

10. Need for educational systems, school politics and teachers to adopt a continuous and systematic model for teaching and learning of academic registers The acquisition of “academic language“ takes time…

11. 2. Features of successful multi-ethnic & multilingual schools

12. An example: the issue of aspirations (Bourne 2010) A father speaks: “The expectation is low. Because they are different cultures or they are from third world countries, they are expected to be down the ladder somewhere.” A mother speaks: “Usually when I go to Parents’ Evenings and that, they are always saying, ‘Oh yes, he has done so well and done this and that’. But the work I see, I know he can do better than that, yet he is not being pushed further, half the time he is just left to get on with it.”

13. Basis for successful multi-ethnic schools (England, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Germany) Prerequisites for successful schools: • Committed leadership • High aspirations • Positive and respectful school ethos • Rich curriculum and extra activities • Culturally sensitive curriculum • Firm, shared behaviour policy • Focus on parent and community involvement • All teachers are language teachers

14. Successful multi-ethnic schools: achievement and identities • Monitoring and tracking achievement by gender, economic background and ethnicity/ immigrant and language background. • Exploring and targeting underachieving groups to raise attainment. • Regular feedback to students, self-assessment and target setting. • Building identities as successful learners.

15. Successful multi-ethnic schools: language(s) • Support for academic language learning across the curriculum. • Inclusive and additive forms of support. • Shared procedures for bilingual support in mainstream classrooms. • Teaching of heritage languages in curriculum alongside EU and other languages. • Any special provision has clear objectives, is agreed with students and parents. • All teachers are language teachers.

16. All teachers language teachers • Teachers provide subject-focused cognitive challenge, lowering language demands. • At times teachers focus on the language of the subject, and lowered cognitive challenge. • Teachers show the value of home languages, encouraged use for learning (including parents). • Teachers integrate aspects of home culture(s) into the classroom. • Bilingual teachers use minority language for subject learning.

17. A recent example (Bourne 2010) • Inner city primary school. • Area of high unemployment, deprivation. • 92% with English as additional language. • 10 different languages spoken.

18. Stage 1 • Identified under-attainment as priority. • Established assertive discipline policy. • Long term commitment to staff training. • Observed no recognition or use in learning of L1 skills.

19. Stage 2 • Recruited qualified bilingual staff. • Whole school training on meeting bilingual needs. • School policy guidelines on developing bilingual skills. • Encouragement for L1 use in all learning. • Home language pairs strategy. • Regular use of home language groups.

20. Teaching does make a difference Attainment of children at 11 years National test scores 1997 English 36% Mathematics 53% 2001 86% 94%

21. Innovation for mainstream: models for inclusive teaching in multilingual constellations Baker, 1996: 175

22. 3. A model for (inclusive) teaching in multilingual schools: scaffolding language for learning 1. Investigacao em escolas multilingues

23. Academic language L2 Foreign languages Didactical methods to include multilingualism Forms of cooperation Everyday language L1 Method for continuous and systematic language support of all learners (Gogolin et al. 2011) Upper secondary Lower secondary Language support across the curriculum Link between language & subject-matter Additional language support / outside school Additive & inclusive language support Involvement of parents & families Inclusion of informal language learning situations & contexts Primary school Kindergarten

24. Teachers plan and organize their classes with the aim of promoting proficiency in academic language and explicitly establish connections between everyday and academic language Teachers assess language competences of pupils individually and plan adequate language support Teachers actively use everyday and academic linguistic means and moderate their use Pupils have many opportunities to actively develop the language proficiency Teachers support pupilsa in their individual process of language development Teachers and pupils controll and evaluate the results of language instruction Method for continuous and systematic language support – 6 features for classroom work (Gogolin et al. 2011)

25. Academic language L2 Didactical methods to include multilingualism Forms of cooperation Everyday language L1 Method for continuous and systematic language support (Gogolin et al. 2011) Upper secondary Lower secondary Language support across the curriculum Link between language & subject-matter Additional language support / outside school Additive & inclusive language support Involvement of parents & families Inclusion of informal language learning situations & contexts Primary school Kindergarten

26. Didactical methods to include multilingualism Method of “language awareness”: support in explicit knowledge about language and conscious use for teaching and learning

27. Didactical methods to include multilingualism

28. Academic language L2 Didactical methods to include multilingualism Forms of cooperation Everyday language L1 Method for continuous and systematic language support (Gogolin et al. 2011) Upper secondary Lower secondary Language support across the curriculum Link between language & subject-matter Additional language support / outside school Additive & inclusive language support Involvement of parents & families Inclusion of informal language learning situations & contexts Primary school Kindergarten

29. Language teaching in subject-matter Questionnaire with teachers of natural sciences and mathematics During my pre- and in-service training I was trained to teach in multilingual or multicultural classes. yes more yes more no than no than yes

30. Language teaching in subject-matter