ESL 502, Unit 12, Activity Topic 2

View Robin Scarcella's discussion related to academic vocabulary and the brief presentation on academic vocabulary from "What Works." A transcript of the presentation is provided as a resource. Respond to the prompt below.

Consider what types of support ELLs may need in developing literacy to be successful in the academic content areas. Consider the best practices discussed in topic 2 as well as phonology, grammar, semantics, syntax and pragmatics as it applies to content area reading and writing. Review texts or reading materials from one content area of your choice, and explain how you might help a content teacher create learning opportunities that would support literacy? Where are their opportunities to support language development from a linguistic perspective (studying word parts in science, use of past tense in social studies, etc.) and where are their opportunities to build background, foster interaction, build vocabulary and make content meaningful to increase comprehension? Post your response on your blog only.

ELLs need much support in developing literacy and success in their academic content areas.  If I were an ESL teacher working with a content teacher, I would meet with that teacher during staff development time and come up with a plan to support the instruction going on in the content classroom.  Coordination and communication are vital.  For example, if the subject of the content area were social studies, I would develop a plan to pre-teach the vocabulary for those students.  If the lesson was to be about the United States Civil War, I might introduce the students to the topic so they have foreknowledge of the subject before the lesson.  I would teach vocabulary that might be specific to this lesson and allow them to become familiar with using it.  I would also incorporate topics such as historical people and events so the students become comfortable with the subject matter before the content is presented in the mainstream classroom. 

As Dr. Scarcella stressed, it is not enough just to have the ELL students learn the definition of words, but to actually have them use them.  I may divide my students into leveled groups to practice using the new, specialized academic vocabulary that they will be learning in their content classroom.  It also might help to use cognitive strategies to slow down the study of the text in order to aid in comprehension.  I also would encourage and be willing to assist the mainstream teacher in using sheltering in the content classroom.

ESL 502, Unit 12, Activity Topic 1

Watch the following webcast featuring Diane August, Margarita Calderόn and Fred Genesee on best practices for teaching ELLs, and the two short videos on literacy development at home. Consider how the information shared in the webcast and videos relates to the best practices for instructing ELLs shared in Topic 2 and in the assigned readings. Your response will be posted on your blog.

The webcast covered many topics that summarized our course and expanded on some of the material from our lessons.  The discussion had much information and I have bookmarked it for future reference.  The issue is clear that ESL students are increasing across the country.  They are affected by the changes in the law with the No Child Left Behind Act.  Although the law is meant to address all students across the country, it is important to remember that ELL students are a very diverse group and that “one size does not fit all.” 

Dr. August repeated a recurring concept from the assigned readings and it is something I will not forget.  She emphasized that the students level of literacy in L1, including literacy skills, can be transferred to L2.  This means that there is much value in bilingual education for younger students and those who have not achieved many academic language skills in the native language.  Dr. August also stressed some recurring themes and mentioned practices that work.  Vocabulary development and activities that increase phonological awareness are very important.  Scaffolding was also given attention, and one practice she gave as an example is pre-teaching vocabulary before reading a text.  In this way, the students can be supported as they work to learn both content and academic language.  Also I found it noteworthy that Dr. August stressed that assessment is critical.  Teachers need to be constantly assessing and asking themselves “Does this work?  Why or why not?”  She suggests that teachers can gain skills to better support their students through professional development and having a theoretical background. She also said much research remains to be done in this area.

Dr. Genesee supports Dr. August’s ideas about professional development and stated that “teachers need repertoire for teaching ELL students” so they can tailor the response.  He also said that ELLs can come at any grade level and that teachers should be prepared for that.  There was some discussion about learning disabilities and Dr. Genesee said that it is very difficult to diagnose and should be done with care.  One of the primary ways to diagnose this is to test the student and see if the issue is also present in the L1 or only the L2.  Dr. Genesee reiterated that phonemic awareness, morphological awareness, vocabulary, and phonics are important.  This instruction should begin as early as kindergarten.  He emphasized that instruction should be explicit with a good degree of technical knowledge and correction of errors.  However, he did state that overcorrection can be discouraging to the students, so there is a fine line to be walked.

One thing Dr. Calderon said that struck me was that mainstream teachers should support the ESL efforts by techniques such as sheltered instruction.  I wonder how much training mainstream teachers receive across the country in supporting their ELL students and the ESL specialists who teach them. 

I appreciated the video clip of the kindergarten teacher in California.  His diverse ELL student population was assessed on an individual basis almost continually by their dedicated teacher.  I would like to think that this kind of individual attention and explicit instruction, as well as the assessment and adjustments made coming from this, is the model that can be implemented across the country.  Rather than treat students as one homogenous group, each student is given the personalized attention and assessment in order to make sure that “no child is left behind.”

ESL 502 Unit 11

Here is my Language Comparison Poster for unit 11.  I'm sorry it's late.  http://www.slideshare.net/tem209/language-comparison-presentation-12328285

Activity Topic 2

Activity 1: What would you do?

ABC News Video "What Would You Do?": http://abc.go.com/watch/what-would-you-do/SH5555951/VD5580302/what-would-you-do-813

I believe that the video was very enlightening about the vast difference of opinion in the US concerning immigration policies and current realities.  As an ESL teacher, I believe that I should advocate for my students in all areas where they may find difficulty in assimilating to life in the US.  As expected in the video, there were some people who agreed with the racist employee.  Not only did he refuse to serve them, but he insulted them.  It was good to see that of those who reacted, more people defended the immigrants than sided with the racist viewpoints.  However, I noticed that the majority of people did not react either way.  As someone who hopes to assist my ESL students in every way possible, I should remind myself that not speaking out against racist behavior in public should not be an option.  Those of us in the TESL profession know how difficult it is to learn a foreign language.  The attitudes expressed that people need to learn English in order to be in America most likely do not understand the reality of this.  These immigrants may be too busy trying to keep a roof over their heads and food on their table, and providing for their children, that they do not have the time or energy to learn English.  If I were brought into a debate or observed this kind of biased treatment, I would seek to educate the offending party by making this clear to them.

I saw a bumper sticker the other week in my neighborhood that said “Learn English or get the (expletive) out!”  This made me very sad that some people are so angry at those who are struggling to get by that I would like to use the insights I have gained through the study of linguistics and foreign languages to explain this to people.  I do not have personal experience interacting with administrators, students, and parents in the K-12 school system, but I feel from what I have read in our discussions that ESL instruction is frequently shortchanged in resources, budget, time, and accommodations.  I think that as an ESL teacher, there is no way to avoid struggling against these kinds of attitudes and policies.

Activity 2: Do you speak American?

Visit the PBS website to explore several topics in sociolinguistics. There you will find educational resources for both teachers and students. Briefly reflect (3-5 sentences) on how this information helps you as an educator.

Language and Society http://www.pbs.org/speak/words/sezwho/socialsetting/ 

Do you Speak American? Understanding African American English http://www.pbs.org/speak/education/curriculum/college/aae/#key 

Do you speak American? PBS overview of Sociolinguistics.http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/sociolinguistics/sociolinguistics/ 

African American English Vernacularhttp://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/AAVE/hooked/ 

Standard American English http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/standardamerican/ 

American Varieties of English http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/

Reading this reinforces the thought that everyone speaks with an accent.  There is no such thing as a language without accent.  The standard English in America is spoken with the Midwestern accent, frequently taught in schools and used among the educated, and most radio and television broadcast journalists and announcers.  However, I believe, as the articles point out, that people in everyday life use the non-standard forms that are used by the community to which they belong.  Therefore, as an educator, if I am teaching ESL in an area of the country that has a strong accent (compared to the standard or Midwestern accent), I should teach both pronunciations and dialects in order to best serve the students.

Activity Topic 1: Language Variation in the US

Visit the following websites related to accents of the US. As you explore, think about how these various accents differ and how they might be have been influenced in various regions. How might the IPA be used to capture these accents?

•  Click on the flags of the maps to hear the same statements read by people of various regions of the US. http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_maps/namerica.php

•  Here you can hear various samples of Accents from regions of the US.http://web.ku.edu/~idea/northamerica/usa/usa.htm

•  Can you guess where my accent is from? Play the game on the Language Trainers Website: http://www.languagetrainersgroup.com/accent-game.php

•  American Dialects http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/linguistics6e/pages/bcs-main.asp?v=chapter&s=09000&n=00010&i=99010.01&o=|00030|00060|00050|00010|&ns=0

According to O’Grady, accents refer only to pronunciation, unlike dialects, which are subsets of the same language (pp. 486-7).  Since English spelling is frequently not the guiding factor in pronunciation, people who are separated by geography, class, or other factors can diverge in the way they pronounce phonemes.  Playing the different accents on the Language Trainers game, I could tell that the speakers had different accents, and all the words were understandable, but I could not place the location in 80 percent of the samples.  Phonemes which are similar can shift regionally until that becomes the standard for that area, for example a long /o/ sound becomes a shorter /o/. 

When I try to determine accents, usually the first thing I concentrate on is the vowel pronunciation, because vowels seem to allow for the most variation within the pronunciation of the word.  I think that the IPA is very helpful when studying accents.  While audio recordings are also very useful, seeing the variation in print through the IPA helps the most when analyzing accents for patterns within a geographic area.  On the George Mason University website, I liked to compare the different accents by looking at the IPA while listening to the speaker.  It helped me notice the differences better.