Chapter 5: Language Development, Language Diversity, and Immigrant Education

1. Chapter 5:Language Development, Language Diversity, and Immigrant Education Educational Psychology, 13/e, GE Anita Woolfolk Prepared by RayeLakey

2. Chapter 5 Outline • The Development of Language • Diversity in Language Development • Dialect Differences in the Classroom • Teaching Immigrant Students • Teaching English Language Learners • Special Challenges: ELL Students with Disabilities and Special Gifts

3. Chapter 5 Objectives • Understand how language develops and know how to support emergent literacy. • Discuss what happens when children develop two languages. • Address whether dialect differences affect learning and discuss what teachers can do. • Compare and contrast immigrant, refugees, and Generation 1.5 students, including their learning characteristics and needs. • Discuss teaching for English language learners including English immersion, bilingual instruction, and sheltered instruction. • Discuss how teachers can recognize special learning needs and talents when they do not speak their students’ first language.

4. The Development of Language • Over 6,000 languages in the world • Words based on culture’s interests, needs • Child’s language develops as other cognitive abilities develop • Child attempts to make sense of the world • Child looks for patterns, makes up rules • Biological, cultural, experiential factors play a role

5. Language Development Milestones Early language milestones; ways to encourage development • Age 2-3: 450-word vocabulary (body parts, few colors) • Repeat new words; describe what you are doing • Age 3-4: 1,000 words; tell stories; 5-word sentences • Help child tell stories, play with other children • Age 4-5: 1,500 words; colors, shapes; ask “why,” “who” • Help sort objects, make up stories, talk about interests • Age 5-6: 10,000 words; 6-word sentences; define object by its use; know address; use all sentence types • Sing songs, rhymes; talk with them as you would an adult; listen, show pleasure when child talks to you

6. When and How Does Language Develop? • Most sounds and pronunciations mastered by age 5 • Like playing with sounds as in Dr. Seuss books • Vocabulary and meaning • Expressive vocabulary: Words they use in speaking • About 2,600 by age 6 • Receptive: Words they understand when others speak • About 20,000 by age 6 • Grammar and syntax (word order) • Overregularize by applying rules of syntax/grammar to words that are exceptions (foots or feets for feet) • Expect subject-verb-object word order; have problems with passive construction

7. Pragmatics and Metalinguistic Awareness • Pragmatics: Appropriate use of language to communicate in social situations • How to enter a conversation, tell a joke, keep conversation going, adjust language for listener • Simple talk to a baby; commands in a deep voice to a pet • Rules vary across cultures • Metalinguistic awareness: Understanding about one’s own use of language • Develops around age 5 • Explicit understanding of how language works

8. Emergent Literacy • Foundational skills and knowledge for development of reading and writing • Categories of skills important for later reading • Category 1: Understanding sounds and codes • Know letter names, sounds for each letter • Know that words are made of sounds • Category 2: Oral language skills • Expressive and receptive vocabulary • Knowledge of syntax, able to understand/tell stories • Some educators emphasize one set of skills over the other • Both sets (coding and oral) needed for reading

9. Inside-Out and Outside-In Skills • Inside-out skills (letter-sound) • Graphemes, phonological awareness, syntactic awareness, phoneme-grapheme correspondence, emergent writing • Process: Decode units of print into units of sound, units of sound into units of language to read • Outside-in skills (language comprehension/meaning) • Language, narrative, conventions of print, emergent reading • Process: Understand auditory derivations, placing them in correct conceptual/contextual framework • Two interdependent sets of skills and processes

10. Emergent Literacy: Building a Foundation • Two critical related activities build foundation • Conversations with adults that develop knowledge of language • Joint reading, using books as supports for talk about sounds, words, pictures, concepts • When reading problems persist • Continued support necessary; short-term (year-long) interventions don’t suffice • Even intensive interventions result in minimal improvement for many struggling readers

11. Emergent Literacy and Language Diversity • Difficulties of English language • Inconsistencies in letter sounds, irregular spellings • Much emphasis on decoding required • More consistency, fewer irregularities in many languages • Less emphasis on decoding required; more emphasis on comprehension • Bilingual emergent literacy research • Growth in English receptive language key to child’s ability to identify letters and words in English • Focus on language development rather than forcing child to speak (expressive language) English only

12. Guidelines: Supporting Language and Promoting Literacy Parents • Read with your children. • Choose appropriate books and stories • Simple plots; clear illustrations that precede text Teachers • Use stories as springboard for conversations • Identify and build on strengths from child’s family • Family history, stories, skills, songs/poems • Give families activities to do to promote language/reading Counselors and administrators • Communicate goals, activities of your program to families • Involve families in curriculum decisions, school activities

13. Diversity in Language Development • Dual language development: Bilingualism • Additive bilingualism: Keeping first language and adding another • Subtractive bilingualism: Losing first language when you add second language • Bilinguals reach language milestones in both languages on same timing as monolinguals • Learning two languages before age 5 uses mostly left hemisphere of brain for both languages • Learning second language later requires more parts of brain, greater cognitive effort

14. Second Language Learning • No critical period for learning second language • Sensitive period: Optimal time for bilingual language and reading exposure and mastery • Early childhood is best time to acquire two languages • Critical period for learning accurate language pronunciation • Near-native pronunciation requires early learning, early exposure to sounds of the language • Learning language after adolescence usually guarantees speaking with an accent (not like a native speaker)

15. Benefits of Bilingualism • Increased cognitive abilities in concept formation, creativity, theory of mind, attention, executive functioning • Understanding that printed words are symbols for language • Advanced metalinguistic understanding of how language works • Increased phoneme awareness skills vital to reading success • Advantageous in business world • Benefits apply if child is not expected to abandon first language in order to learn second

16. Language Loss • Heritage language: Language spoken at home or by family members • Often lost because family emigrates to different country • Native American languages disappearing • Preferred goal: Balanced bilingualism (equally fluent in both languages) • Heritage language schools: Focused on retaining heritage languages and cultures

17. Signed Language • Other forms of bilingualism • Communication in both spoken and signed language • Communication in two different signed languages • Distinct languages (not a derived version of a spoken language) • Involves same mechanisms for language acquisition as spoken languages • Same milestones as for spoken language • Example: Child “says” first words at same time with spoken and signed language

18. What Is Involved in Being Bilingual? Truths over myths/misconceptions about being bilingual • Learning English as second language takes 2-3 years for oral language, 5-7 years for academic language • Reading transfers faster than other language skills from L1 (original language) to L2 (second language) • Code-switching indicates high-level language skills • Effort required to maintain skills in both languages • Loss of L1, underdevelopment of L2 are problems • Learning L2 requires interaction, support, time, feedback • L1 or L2 literacy-rich environments support prereading • Test in L1 and L2 to identify language disorders Bilingual students move between 2 cultures, 2 languages

19. Contextualized and Academic Language • 2 aspects of L2 proficiency • Face-to-face communication (contextualized language) • Academic uses (reading, grammar exercises) • Academic language: School language (words, concepts, strategies, processes from academic subjects) • Learned in 5-10 years • Guidelines for promoting language learning • Provide structures, scaffolds, strategies • Teach relevant background knowledge, key vocabulary • Give focused, useful feedback • Keep students involved, engaged (small groups, pairs) • Show authentic respect for student’s culture/language

20. Dialect Differences in the Classroom • Dialect: Variety of a language spoken by a particular group • Part of group’s collective identity • Logical, complex, rule governed • Differences in pronunciation or grammar are not errors • Examples: Not pronouncing word endings; use of double negatives • Dialects and teaching • Avoid negative stereotypes toward children’s dialects • Repeat instructions using different words to promote understanding • Code-switching by students: Moving between speech forms • Between dialects and formal English

21. Genderlects • Different ways of talking for males and females • Girls’ tendencies • More talkative, affiliative in their speech • Boys’ tendencies • More competitive, talk about rights and justice • Differences may not apply across cultures • American boys interrupt more often than girls • Opposite true in many cultures

22. Teaching Immigrant Students • Immigrants: Voluntarily relocate in a new place • Refugees: Voluntarily flee their home country for safety • Assimilated into American culture in past decades • Melting pot: Metaphor for their assimilation • Cultural deficit model developed in 1960s, 1970s • Educators’ view of school achievement problems of ethnic/minority students • Assumed their cultures were inadequate, inferior • Classrooms today: Multicultural (salad bowl metaphor) • 21% speak language other than English at home • US born children of immigrant families, fastest growing group, also need English language teaching

23. Student Profiles of English Learners • Balanced bilinguals • Fluent in English and their first language; academic knowledge to learn in both languages • Monolingual/literate students • Literate in their native language, speak limited English • Monolingual/preliterate students • Not literate; speak limited English; require greatest support in learning academic subjects and language • Limited bilingual • Speak both languages; trouble learning academically • May have learning disability, emotional problems

24. Generation 1.5: Students in Two Worlds • Students with education, language skills somewhere between those of US-born students and recent immigrants • Students from US territories: “In-migrants” • US-born children of immigrants, living in heritage language communities • Sent by parents to live in US for education, “parachute children” • Children moving back and forth between countries • Immigrants who speak other “Englishes” • May lack literacy skills, acquire English by listening (ear learners), have inaccurate conception of English grammar

25. Teaching English Language Learners • Terms • Limited-English-proficient (LEP): Students just learning English (not their heritage language) • English language learners (ELLs) • English as a Second Language (ESL): Classes teaching ELL students English • Two teaching approaches • Immersion in English-only teaching (structured English immersion: SEI) • Maintain native language (language maintenance); teach in that language until child develops English • Current emphasis: Focus on effective teaching strategies; direct instruction, clear learning goals, modeling

26. Research in Bilingual Education • Recommendations of study funded by US Dept of Education • Formative assessment of reading; identify needs • Small-group interventions to address areas of need • Essential vocabulary for content areas • Teach academic English, reading texts, writing academic assignments, formal language usage • Peer-assisted learning (complete tasks in pairs) • Bilingualism for all: Two-way immersion • Mix ELL students and native English speakers • Goal: Both groups become fluent in both languages • Bilingual teachers needed for effective education of ELLs

27. Sheltered Instruction • Approach to teaching subject matter to ELLs and improving their English language skills • 8 key elements in a sheltered lesson: • preparation, build background, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice, delivery, review/assess • SIOP model (sheltered instruction observation protocol) • Observational system to check for each sheltered instruction element in teacher’s lesson • 30 areas to assess during observation (several for each key element of sheltered instruction)

28. Affective and Emotional/Social Considerations Guidelines: Providing emotional support and increasing self-esteem for ELLs • Learning activities that promote reading/writing success • Plenty of practice; targeted corrections • Lessons made relevant to students’ lives • Active involvement of learners • Various grouping strategies (pairs, small teams) • Provide native language support • Involve family and community members • High expectations clearly communicated • Learn students’ strengths and build on them

29. Working with Families: Using the Tools of the Culture • Funds of knowledge: Knowledge of work, home, religious life that can be shared by families/community • Knowledge about agriculture, economics, medicine, household management, mechanics, and other topics • Use this knowledge as teaching tool • Guidelines for family/community partnerships • Make sure communication is understandable to families • Balance positive/negative messages about their child • Welcome new families; assign “buddy” parents • Network; make sure messages get through • Student-led parent-teacher conferences: Build student skills and interest and promote parent engagement

30. Special Challenges: ELL Students with Disabilities and Special Gifts • ELL students with disabilities • Difficult to identify reasons for lack of progress • Ask series of questions related to child’s learning opportunities, experiences, any special skills/talents • Reaching every student: Giftedness in bilingual students • Use case study or portfolio to identify giftedness • Collect variety of evidence, interviews with parents, sample work, assessments and self-assessments • Note students who learn English quickly, show curiosity, express abstract concepts, persist, long attention span