CEHD - Multicultural Education Programs

Language is our cultural tool—we use it to share experience
and so to collectively, jointly, make sense of it . . .
Language is therefore not just a means by which individuals
can formulate ideas and communicate them, it is also
a means for people to think and learn together.

Language Experience is a way to use the vocabulary of a student to improve their reading ability. A student dictates a story or an event to someone else. The student then reads his or her story back to the transcriber. Language experience enables low-ability readers to experience success through the use and extension of the vocabulary they already possess as well as through involvement with topics of their own interests. Usually the listening vocabulary of these students is larger than their reading or writing vocabularies. That is, students know and can use more words orally than they are able to read or write. Thus, language experience enables students to use their larger oral vocabularies to build upon their reading and writing vocabularies. Students are also likely to identify with their own writing or dictated ideas. The language experience approach provides a natural and functional way to foster the development of print concepts and introduce the initial reading process: building a sight vocabulary and learning to use word-identification strategies to figure out unknown words.

This approach is used with individual and with groups of initial readers. The typical language experience session has three distinct parts: discussion, dictation, and direction. The effectiveness of the language experience approach depends on the ability of the instructor to structure each of these components for maximum motivation and reinforcement.

Prior experience becomes a context for interpreting the
new experience . . . prior experiences serve as the contexts
within which the language being used is to be understood.

Lily Wong-Fillmore, “When Does Teacher Talk Work as Input?”

The K-W-L provides an organization for students to list (1) what they know (K) about a topic, (2) what they want (W) to learn about a topic, and (3) what they learned (L) about a topic. Group discussion help students generate ideas and foster interest in the subject. This strategy is simple but effective; it activates and builds on the prior and topical knowledge of the individual but also of the class as a whole. Students learn to see each other as sources of information. Language that would normally be beyond students’ comprehension is much more likely to be understood when students can bring their experiences and understandings as a basis for interpretation. Concrete experiences help make language comprehensible for ESL learners.

Semantic Map --- Samples

Semantic maps are diagrams that help students see the relationship among words. This strategy has been used effectively as a pre- and postreading technique, a prewriting activity, and a vocabulary development strategy. Because Semantic Mapping helps students see relationships between ideas and connect known information with new information, it is a valuable tool for developing the vocabulary and the conceptual understanding of students. Semantic mapping has proven useful before, during, and after reading. As a prereading strategy, though, it serves to activate prior knowledge when used as a springboard for discussion or to organize a lot of information.

Semantic Mapping is a way of collecting and organizing information. Often this is carried out initially as a brainstorm, with students recalling what they already know about a subject and the words and concepts they associate with the key word. Often these ideas will reflect very different categories and levels of generalization, so after the initial brainstorm, these random associations can be reorganized and classified by the teacher and students together.

Dialogue Journal --- Samples

Dialogue journals, interactive writing with the teacher, have been an important part of the Kennedy Park ESL class. Dialogue journals not only open new channels of communication, but they also provide natural contexts for language and literacy development. The dialogue journal gives adult literacy students an opportunity to use English in a supportive, non-threatening interaction with a proficient English speaker who has knowledge of life in the United States . Because the interaction is written, it allows learners to use reading and writing in purposeful ways and provides a natural, comfortable bridge to other kinds of writing.

The teacher writes to each student and learners spend in-class time writing back. Learners write as much as they choose on a wide range of topics and in a variety of genres and styles. The teacher writes back regularly, responding to questions and comments, introduction new topics, or asking questions. The teacher is primarily a participant in an ongoing, written conversation with the learner rather than as someone who corrects or comments on the quality of the learner’s writing. Topics for or types of writing may be specified to enhance the curriculum, and some correction may be given by the teacher, but the primary goal of the writing is communication.

There is no initial pressure for learners with limited literacy skills to write. They may begin the journal by using a few words. Learners may also dictate their entries to the teacher, an aide, or another learner who writes them down, writes a reply, and reads the reply aloud. The move to writing and reading letters, words, and longer texts can be made when learners are ready.

Because the teacher is attempting above all to communicate with the learner, the teacher’s writing is roughly tuned to learners’ language proficiency levels. In most cases, overt error correction is not done in the journals. This is one place where learners may write freely, without focusing primarily on form and correctness.

Books

Language is learned through reading; it is not simply a prerequisite for it. Given appropriate texts, learners develop their language skills in the course of reading itself, perhaps because the patterns of language are “open to notice” in written language in a way that they are not in spoken language. So the more fluently and widely that ESL students read, the more exposure to the second language they will gain. Second language learners are able to determine the meanings of quite large numbers of unfamiliar English structures if they are presented in the context of meaningful sentences.

There are many criteria for choosing books; for beginning readers books that have the following characteristics will be supportive of reading:

Repetitive language that becomes familiar to the learner so they can begin to join in.
A repetitive event that builds up into a cumulative story. Many stories include a repetitive structure of this sort, which decreases the comprehension load on ESL learners. Once they understand the event, they are able to transfer their understanding to each repetition.
Clear print and well-laid-out pages that are not too “busy.”
Authentic models of language that doesn’t seem contrived.
Content and language that, while it might not be immediately accessible, can be“bridged” for ESL readers.
Content that is of interest and that will be enjoyable to read.

Techniques used include: Shared Book, Word Masking, Pause and Predict, Shadow Reading, Story Map, Cloze, Text Reconstruction, True/False Questions, Picture and Sentence Matching, Children’s Literature, Creating Own Stories + Illustrations.

Shared Book:

Shared book can be a highly effective early reading activity. It involves using a Big Book in a group or whole-class activity. Shared book models how an experienced reader reads and how reading involves getting meaning from print. For shared book, introduce the book through a range of before-reading activities, and then read it aloud several times, encouraging students to join in as they remember or recognize words and phrases.

Word Masking:

Once a Big Book has been read several times, mask some of the words with small pieces of paper. Ask students to predict what the word is. Allow time to discuss alternate choices. Among the words masked, include not only content words, but also functional words, such as pronouns and conjunctions.

Pause and Predict:

As you are reading, stop at significant points and ask questions about the story. The goal here is to engage learners in the process of meaning making.

Shadow Reading :

Record yourself reading the text, and use this recording with small groups of students or individuals, who should listen and follow the text from their own copy. Ask students to read along with the tape. While reading aloud is not the same as “reading”, shadowing is nevertheless a valuable activity because it demonstrates how meaning is made through text, and how intonation, stress, and the patterns of spoken language are related to the words on the page.

Story Map:

A story map is a visual representation of the main features of a story. It can be drawn after a story is read, or it can involve an ongoing process of adding details as the story is progressing.

Cloze:

Traditional cloze exercises, the device of deleting words from a text, can be based on the text that has been read. When you make the deletions, you should keep at least the first and last sentences intact so t hat students have a context in which to read the text. Encourage students first to read the cloze straight through before they attempt to fill in the gaps. To provide extra support, you can give students a list of the words that have been left out. Traditionally cloze involves deleting every fifth, sixth, or seventh word, and it encourages readers to reference backward and forward in the text to work out what the missing words are likely to be. It therefore mirrors the kind of reading strategies used by proficient readers.

Picture and Sentence Matching:

Take about six illustrations with matching sentences from the book. Cut them up into separate pictures and sentences. Students match the pictures with the appropriate sentences.

Children’s Literature: Samples

The challenge for teachers is to find ways of giving learners access to well-written children’s literature and relevant informational texts. For students who are learning to read in their second language, books that have the following characteristics will be supportive to their needs.

Creating Own Stories + Illustrations: Samples

On a regular basis class time is devoted to students’ response to a topic or theme. Many of these stories are about the women themselves: as mothers, students, as people with a vast range of experiences. Once a theme is talked about in class, usually modeled through a story map, students then take part in telling their own tale. This story is not for them to write down, although some students prefer to begin this way. This is a chance to connect person-to-person, teacher-to-learner, to ask, to listen, and to record. The story is written using the student’s own words and semantics. This is then crafted into a story that becomes part of the student’s own binder of work. It is mostly a chance to talk and to tell, and for some students a chance to read back what they have chosen to reveal. Some of the stories and poems grow to be quite lengthy. Students show great pride in the output and outpouring and creation of their pieces. For those with limited English speaking skills an interpreter will help to mediate the process. Sometimes these stories take time to process and grow, to find a starting point. These stories provide a view to the woman’s world and serve as a wonderful connector both student to teacher and student to student.

Listening

Progress in listening provides a basis for the development of other language skills, and is involve in many language-learning activities.

Listening ability develop in both one-way and two-way contexts. There should be a balance of both in effective listening programs.
It is possible to listen in different ways (such as for specific information or for overall gist). Teaching and learning activities should reflect these purposes.
Learning to ask for clarification is integral to interactive listening.
Noticing the form of words, being able to discriminate sounds, and being able to recognize stress and intonation patterns are part of learning to listen accurately. Learners can focus on these aspects of listening in the context of meaning-oriented activities.
Listening ability develops when there is a real purpose for listening, and where the focus in on listening for meaning. Designing listening tasks in the context of understanding provides authentic situations for listening skills to be developed.
Model effective listening by clarifying and checking that you have understood what students are saying. Reflect this back to them, and build on their responses as an interested conversational partner. This above all else demonstrates the importance you place on active listening.

From Gibbons, P. (2002) Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning,
Heineman Portsmouth, NH

Techniques used include: Two-Way Listening, Describe and Draw, Interviews, Minimal Pair Exercises, Shadow Reading.

Two-Way Listening:

One of the most important things that ESL learners need to be able to do is ask for clarification when they don’t understand something. So model and practice phrases like these:

Excuse me, I’d like to ask something.

Can you say it again please?

I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Can you repeat that?

Any interactive problem-solving task is a context for practicing interactive listening, for in these situations it is very likely that students will need to work out communication difficulties and clarify ideas.

Describe and Draw:

This is a barrier game that can be done as a teacher-directed activity or between pairs of students. One person draws a picture or series of shapes on a piece of paper. The other students can’t see what is being drawn. At the same time, the artist gives instructions to a partner about what to do.

Interviews:

These can be based on members of the class, or students may carry out interviews in order to gain information about a class topic. In the process of the interview, the interviewer will need to focus clearly n the interviewee’s responses and perhaps ask further questions based upon the information that the interviewee is providing. This situation can provide an authentic and challenging listening task.

Minimal Pairs:

The focus is on differentiating between pairs of words that differ only in one sound. Give students a list of pairs of words (such as three, tree, bin, pin, cat, cup, thing, sing). They listen to the one of the two words being read and circle on their list the one they think they hear.

Shadow Reading :

Tape a short story, and give students a copy of one paragraph. They first listen to the story all the way through. Then play only the paragraph, stopping after each sentence to give students a chance to repeat it. They should try to copy your pronunciation, stress, intonation, and pace as closely as possible. When the whole of the paragraph has been rehearsed in this way, students “shadow” the tape by reading along with it, remembering to pay attention to the stress and intonation patterns. Students can process at their own pace.

University of Southern Maine