Chapter 1

Learning about the Language Learner

English Learners: Demographic Trends

Teachers in the United States are increasingly expected to educate students whose native languages are not English Who come from all cultural backgrounds that vary

from mainstream American culture

Research has documented the effectiveness of long-term primary-language education.

Thus, English-language development (ELD) classrooms that require modified instruction in English are increasingly important

English Learners: Demographic Trends

In the U.S., 47 million people (18%) speak a language other than English at home. Almost 23 million reporting that they do not speak English well.

California has the largest population percentage of non-English-language speakers with 12.4 million which is 39.5% of the state’s population.

Los Angeles Unified School District leads all other school districts in the nation both in the number of English-learners (299,232), number of languages (56), and percent of total enrollment (40%)

English Learners: Demographic Trends

The population demographics indicate that all states need to provide services for English learners, with the need greatest in California.

More and more teachers use ELD strategies and methods in order to serve as intercultural and interlinguistic educators.

They can reach out to learners from a variety of backgrounds and offer effective learning experiences

Psychological Factors That Influence

Instruction Psychological and sociocultural factors play

important roles in a learner’s acquiring and using a second language.

Teachers who are aware of these individual and group factors are able to adapt instruction to meet the individual needs of the learners

Psychological factors are divided into three categories: background factors, social-emotional factors, and cognitive factors.

The Learner’s Background

Naming and Forms of Address: Teachers who make the extra effort to

pronounce students’ names accurately communicate a sense of caring.

Work with student privately to practice his/her name.

Don’t change a student’s name, apply a nickname, or use an “English” version of a student’s name without first checking with a member of the student’s family

First-Language Proficiency

Research has shown that proficiency in the first language (L1) helps students to achieve in school.

In order to learn a student’s strengths in the first language, educators should test students’ L1 proficiency using measures such as the Bilingual Syntax Measure (BSM)

This can bring knowledge about the student’s linguistic and academic abilities and can help the teacher in second-language acquisition content instruction.

Acceptance of the first language and use of the first language to support instruction promotes a low-anxiety environment for students, which promotes learning.

Psychological Factors: Socio-Emotional

Self-esteem Schools that honor the primary languages and cultures of students

and help students to develop bilingualism foster strong identities.

Motivation Instrumental: the need to acquire a second language to read and

obtain a job and Integrative: the desire to become a member of the culture of the second-language group.

Anxiety level Cause learners to feel defensive and can block effective learning,

educators should strive to make the classroom friendly and increases peer work, small group work, games, and increase student-to-student communication

Attitudes of the learner Attitudes toward self, toward language, toward English-speaking

people and toward the teacher and classroom affect students. If they feel inferior because of their accent or language status, they may develop negative feelings towards English.

Psychological Factors: Cognitive

Language learners are people who are active processors of information.

Students learn in many different ways using a variety of strategies and styles.

Teacher who are aware of the individual student’s learning and cognitive style can use the most effective teaching strategies

Cognitive Style

A cognitive style refers to consistent and rather enduring tendencies or preferences within an individual. Visual vs. Verbal Holistic vs. Analytic

Schools seem to expect and reward the Verbal and Analytical students.

Many aspects of cognitive style have been demonstrated to show cultural differences.

Learning Style

Learning style: these are the preferences students have for thinking, relating to others

There are six different learning styles:

1.Competitive2.Cooperati

ve3.Dependent

4. Independent5. Participant6. Avoidant

Learning Strategies

Learning strategies are strategies that learners adopt to help them in the acquisition process.

Second-language-acquisition research divides individual learner strategies into two types: communication and learning.

Communication strategies are employed for transmitting an idea when the learner cannot produce linguistic forms

Learning strategies relate to the individual’s processing, storage, and retrieval of language concepts

Sociocultural Factors that Influence

Instruction As students learn a second language, their success is

dependent on such extralinguistic factors as, ( they are learning a whole new culture as well as a new language)

the pattern of acculturation for their community

The status of their primary language in relation to English

Their own speech community’s view of the English language and the English-speaking community

The dialect of English they are hearing and learning and its relationship to standard English

The compatibility between the home culture and the cultural patterns and organization of school.

Did any of you that were EL, face incompatibility between your home culture and school?

Family Acculturation and Use of the First and Second

Languages Acculturation is the process of adapting to a new culture.

English learners in the U.S., the the mere fact of living here, learn a second culture as well as a second language

How acculturation proceeds, depends on factors beyond language itself-it is usually a familywide phenomenon

A family’s use of their native language and second language is influenced by the relative status of the primary language in the eyes of the dominant culture.

In modern U.S. culture, the social value and prestige of speaking a second language varies with socioeconomic position

Family Acculturation and Use of the First and Second

Languages Many middle-class parents believe that learning a

second language benefits their children personally and socially and will later benefit them professionally.

However the languages that parents wish their children to study are often not those spoken by recently arrived immigrants.

This suggests that a certain bias exists in being bilingual-that being competent in a “foreign language” is valuable, whereas knowing an immigrant language is a burden to overcome.

Did any of you believe in this “bias?”

Did any of your parents want you to learn a second language?

Institutional Support for the Primary Language

Educators may view a student’s ability to speak a home language other an English as an advantage or as a liability toward school success

Some social theorists see the culture of the school as maintaining the poor in a permanent underclass and as legitimizing inequality.

They believe schooling is used to affirm class boundaries through tracking, testing, curriculum design, pedagogy, disciplinary policies, and the limited role of the student.

Institutional Support for the Primary Language

Ways to increase support: Feature the primary language(s) of students on

bulletin boards throughout the school and within the classroom

Showcase primary-language skills in written and oral reports

Involve primary-language speakers as guests, volunteers, and instructional assistants.

Why should you care as a school

psychologist? You will most likely be assessing and

interacting English language learners and interacting with their parents who may or may not know English.

As the U.S. becomes increasingly diverse, it is essential that school psychologists become aware of cultural differences and stressors unique to various groups, without neglecting within-group differences.