All Students Can Learn: Understanding and Educating English language Learners (ELLs )

1. All Students Can Learn: Understanding and Educating English language Learners (ELLs)

2. Goals

3. Setting the Context • Timelines and Importance of understanding and educating ELLs • WHY?

4. Communities throughout the United States are experiencing rapid influxes of immigrant families in their neighborhoods and multilingual classrooms.

5. Schools nationwide are facing significant challenges in understanding how to build on English language learners (ELLs) assets, support their learning, obtain resources needed, and support staff to meet the needs of children and families.

6. The State of ELLs in Massachusetts

7. The Concept & Science of Second Language Acquisition

8. “Language not only expresses ideas and concepts but actually shapes thought.” • (Robert B. Moore, 1985)

9. LANGUAGE Language is more than a means of communication between peopleLanguage contains the shared experiences, feelings, history and art of a culture. Honoring families means honoring their cultures and the languages they use to communicate.

10. Language is social in nature; it is the vehicle that helps humans connect with and name their social world.

11. FamilyThe family is a child’s first source of information and the primary model for how a child experiences relationships. The family is the constant in a child’s life.Each family is unique.

12. Our home language is more than just sounds, gestures, and symbols; our home language is socially constructed to reflect the way our family and cultural community see the world and how they have chosen to interpret and name it.

13. Culture is the system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.

14. A community is a shared network of formal (public school system…) and informal entities (extended family, social clubs, networks…). It usually has commonly understood geographic boundaries and, possibly, political boundaries as well (neighborhoods, counties…). In the most meaningful sense, communities, like families, are defined by its members.

15. English Language Learners English Language Learners are students who are in the process of acquiring English and have a first language other than English. ESOL is generally used to mean English for Speakers of Other Languages.

16. BICS - Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills is the use of language for basic conversation and communication, and CALP Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency is the academic use of language

17. Research states: • All children are inherently driven to use their home language. • Linguists state that humans possess a strong biological drive to acquire language (Chomsky 1968) impelled by the social need to belong to their linguistic community (Vygotsky, 1986).

18. WHAT EDUCATORS NEED TO KNOW

19. DO YOU KNOW THAT THERE IS MORE THAN ONE TYPE OF BILINGUAL CHILD? • Types of Bilingual Children • Sequential Bilinguals • Simultaneous Bilinguals

20. SIMULTANEOUS BILINGUALS • A child exposed to two languages or more before their first language develops • The process of acquisition is the same as that of monolinguals • Patterns of development are different than monolinguals • Rate of development and achievement of milestones is similar to monolinguals • * Note: the amount of exposure plays a role in both of these processes

21. SEQUENTIAL BILINGUALS • Children exposed to another language after they’ve acquired the first or about 3 years old • This process is more widely known as second language acquisition • Children follow a different course than that of simultaneous bilingual children

22. Simultaneous Bilingualism Simultaneous bilinguals, who are children that have learned a second language while they the first, or before they had fully developed the first. These are kids that are generally exposed to a second language before the age of three.

23. Language Development in Sequential Bilinguals Early Stage (0-3) continued… The child is learning how the language sounds (phonology), how words are structured, and the rules for using words together in a sentence (morphology and syntax).

24. Language Development in Sequential Bilinguals Early Stage (0-3) The child is learning how to use language in different situations (pragmatics). The child begins to learn to put together questions and sentences, to say no or refuse something (negations and questions).

25. Language Development in Monolinguals Middle Phase (3-4) At this point the sound systems of both languages are pretty well developed and the child can distinguish between the two. By four years of age, the child can put together questions and negations well and is using longer sentences.

26. Language Development in Monolinguals Later Phase (5-6) Typically by six years of age, a child can communicate well in both languages. The child has mastered many of the sounds of both languages and has the ability to use more complex sentences in both. (www.preschoolenglishlearners.org, Lightobown and Spada, 2003, Genesee)

27. Simultaneous Language Development • The most widely accepted model is a variation of the Dual Systems Model known as the Interactional Dual Systems Model of phonological representation (Paradis, 2001) • It suggests that bilingual students possess two separate phonological systems with mutual influence • Many findings show bilinguals using resources from both of their languages for efficiency in production while maintaining separation for language-specific elements

28. What is Typical of Simultaneous Bilinguals • Pattern of acquisition is similar to monolinguals • Some cross-linguistic effects; errors that are different than those that are made by monolingual students in either one of the languages • By preschool age 3-4 students are developing phonological skills match with each language. • There are clearly two different sound systems that they are learning • Shift in Patterns and Complexity • Greater amount of vocabulary in one language

29. What is Typical of Sequential Bilinguals • Interference or transference (ie. Adjective placement) • Silent Period • Code switching • Language Loss, subtractive bilingualism • students may experience a temporary language imbalance • Cultural patterns in language use influence a student’s production

30. These are general guidelines, it is important to remember that this will not apply to every single student

31. Developmental Progression for Sequential Bilinguals

32. Home Language Use- The child enters the new situation speaking the language of his/her home. In this situation, the child can either continue to speak his/her language or stop speaking altogether. Most young children, but not all, follow the first option for a brief period. During this time, the child may become frustrated at trying to get others to understand him/her. This frustration can lead to a silent period.

33. Non-Verbal/Silent Period- This period occurs when the child gives up trying to communicate with others in his/her language and stops talking altogether. It may be a brief period or it may last for a long time. Crying, pointing and miming are all nonverbal requests used by the child during this period.

34. Non-Verbal/Silent Period- This period occurs when the child gives up trying to communicate with others in his/her language and stops talking altogether. It may be a brief period or it may last for a long time. Crying, pointing and miming are all nonverbal requests used by the child during this period.

35. Telegraphic/Formulaic Language- At this time, the child is ready to begin speaking the second language. For most young children, breaking out of the nonverbal period means using a combination of telegraphic and formulaic language.Telegraphiclanguage is concise, often one-word usage of the language, such as naming people or objects or reciting the alphabet or numerals.

36. Telegraphic/Formulaic Language- At this time, the child is ready to begin speaking the second language. For most young children, breaking out of the nonverbal period means using a combination of telegraphic and formulaic language.Telegraphiclanguage is concise, often one-word usage of the language, such as naming people or objects or reciting the alphabet or numerals.

37. Continued… Formulaic language is when children can use phrases to get in and out of social situations such as no, yes, OK, mine, bye-bye, and I don’tknow. A combination of these two types of languages helps children get into theflow of classroom activities.

38. Productive Language Use- During this period, the child goes beyond short telegraphic utterances and “memorized phrases”. The child begins the process of building his/her own unique sentences by combining formulaic and telegraphic language. The child begins to demonstrate an understanding of the arrangement of words.

39. Intermediate Fluency/Fluency- This is the stage when children begin to use more extensive vocabulary. The spoken language is beginning to show varied grammatical structures comparable to English speaking children of the same age.

40. Phonological Development and Bilingual students • Phonological Awareness has been found to be very important for bilingual language development • Simultaneous bilinguals have differentiated language systems initially • In sequential bilinguals, you will see more transference of sound systems and as a result different errors than simultaneous bilinguals

41. SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION • CASE STUDIES • DEBRIEF

42. Key Factors contributing to ELLs’ academic success • Classroom Environment • Curriculum Planning &Instructional Practices • Professional Development and Linguistic/ Cultural Competency • Engaging Families and Communities

43. Classroom Environment • Have ample props • Use puppets and flannel boards to aid in telling and retelling stories • Provide safe havens in the classroom where children can go to spend some time away from the communicatively demanding activities

44. Labels ( both picture and word) • Listening center (books on tape) • Print rich environment • Provide pictures/visuals of stories being read to reinforce comprehension • Invite parents to bring music and books from their home culture which can be integrated into the classroom environment

45. CURRICULUM PLANNING & INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES

46. Provide a safe, accepting classroom environment • Extend instructional time for ELLs • Be enthusiastic and animated when interacting with students • Recognize that all students thinking, language and emotional skills are connected to their home language and culture

47. Observe students • Establish literacy routines such as monthly calendars, students sign in sheets • Observe students • Establish literacy routines such as monthly calendars, students sign in sheets

48. Use demonstrations, modeling and role-playing • Daily story time • Small group experiences • One on one experiences between teacher and student • Use physical movement and gestures in conjunction with language activities

49. Point to objects or touch them • Present new information in the context of known information • Paraphrase often • Use simple sentence structures • Mirror back to the student what they have said and expand on the words • Read predictable and patterned books in small groups and individually

50. Model conversational language between/among teaching partners • Rather than correcting the student’s attempt at English, try to understand and respond to the meaning and/or model the correct use of language • Finger plays/rhyming songs • Use repetition and key words