I SPEAK SPANISH COMO POQUITO

Caitlin Panke, M.S., CCC-SLP

TIPS FOR MONOLINGUAL SLPS WHO PROVIDE INTERVENTION TO

BILINGUAL CHILDREN

Making the case for bilingual interventionThordardottir et al. 1997

Kindergarten-aged student whose family was from Iceland Significant language delays were identified in preschool

A recommendation had been made that intervention be provided solely in English however this approach had limited communication between the child and his immediate and extended family members.

A bilingual approach to therapy was recommended for the purposes of this study for several reasons: The parents did not speak English well enough to serve as adequate English

language models Therapy in the child’s native language only would not be best practice as the child

would need English for school and social settings. This child needs intervention that will best prepare him to communicate in his

bilingual world! Bilingual intervention would allow the child to demonstrate all of his knowledge in

all of his languages Acceptance and encouragement of the child’s native language fosters overall

language learning.

Bilingual Intervention Clinical StudyThordardottir et al. 1997

But what if I don’t speak Icelandic/ Spanish/ Nepali/ Hmong/etc.?

Use an interpreter in the child’s home language if at all possible Involve a cultural broker (e.g. parent, grandparent, etc.) in your therapy session if an

interpreter is not available. A cultural broker is someone who offers important knowledge regarding an unfamiliar culture such as knowledge of the language, customs and what is considered appropriate. If a cultural broker is assisting speech and language therapy pre-planning for therapy sessions will be useful to ensure adequate time for the broker to share cultural information and the speech language pathologist to share information on supporting speech and language development.

If neither an interpreter or a cultural broker is available to assist with therapy a Speech Language Pathologist should:

Encourage the child’s use of their home language by showing interest in the language.Provide home language materials to the family that can be used to reinforce language goals. If materials are not available in the home language, use an interpreter to explain current

therapy targets so that the family can work on the same areas in the home language if they are able.

Determining present level in English

Successful bilingual intervention requires accurate base-line of skills in English and goals that support overall language growth to help the student function in their bilingual world.

There are many sources of information that can be used to determine a child’s current level of English proficiency.

We’ll discuss the spectrum of English proficiency according to 6 levels.

Here’s one way to look at Second-Language Acquisition:

Pre-production: This is also called "the silent period," when the student takes in the new language but does not speak it. This period often lasts six weeks or longer, depending on the individual.

Early production: The individual begins to speak using short words and sentences, but the emphasis is still on listening and absorbing the new language. There will be many errors in the early production stage.

Speech Emergent: Speech becomes more frequent, words and sentences are longer, but the individual still relies heavily on context clues and familiar topics. Vocabulary continues to increase and errors begin to decrease, especially in common or repeated interactions.

Beginning Fluency: Speech is fairly fluent in social situations with minimal errors. New contexts and academic language are challenging and the individual will struggle to express themselves due to gaps in vocabulary and appropriate phrases.

Intermediate Fluency: Communicating in the second language is fluent, especially in social language situations. The individual is able to speak almost fluently in new situations or in academic areas, but there will be gaps in vocabulary knowledge and some unknown expressions. There are very few errors, and the individual is able to demonstrate higher order thinking skills in the second language such as offering an opinion or analyzing a problem.

Advanced Fluency: The individual communicates fluently in all contexts and can maneuver successfully in new contexts and when exposed to new academic information. At this stage, the individual may still have an accent and use idiomatic expressions incorrectly at times, but the individual is essentially fluent and comfortable communicating in the second language.

Robertson, K. & Ford, K. (2008). Language Acquisition: An Overview. Retrieved from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/26751/#recommendations

Another way to look at Proficiency In my district, we assess English proficiency

using the ACCESS (Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State) test.

ACCESS scores correspond to 6 levels of English Proficiency:

1: Entering 2: Beginning 3: Developing 4: Expanding 5: Bridging 6: Reaching

Word-Class Instructional design and assessment (WIDA) Can-Do Descriptors

ACCESS scores range from 1.0 to 6.0. While the first number gives you a general idea of a student’s English proficiency, the second number will tell you where the student falls on the spectrum of abilities within each English proficiency level.

WIDA has developed a list of Can-Do Descriptors divided into various grade ranges to help describe what students at varying levels of proficiency can do.

Within each grade range, the Can-Do Descriptors are further divided into Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing

WIDA Can-Do Descriptors are a great resource when determining what a student needs to work on in order to increase their English proficiency.

We know that students with language delay will need increased exposure and instruction to master the components and use of language. This also means that English Language Learners with language delay will need increased exposure and instruction in English in order to acquire their second language.

WIDA Can-Do DescriptorsPreschool through Kindergarten

  Level 1Entering

Level 2Beginning

Level 3Developing

Level 4Expanding

Level 5Bridging

Level 6Reaching

Listening

Speaking

Protected by copyright, please see descriptor at www.wida.us

Language Activities that will benefit students at all proficiencies Teach vocabulary using cognates

This technique is best used with a student who speaks two related languages. 30-40% of words in Spanish have a related word in English however other languages such as Chinese and Hmong will have few or no cognates in English.¹

Make sure to point out false cognates as well so students don’t forget to double-check. Examples: The Spanish word embarazada sounds like the English word embarrassed however its real

definition is pregnant. El colegio in Spanish sounds like college but actually refers to high school.

For more information on teaching vocabulary using cognates check out: http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/background/cognates/

¹ Using Cognates to Develop Comprehension in English. (2007). Retrieved February 3, 2014 from www.colorincolorado.org/educators/background/cognates

Language Activities that will benefit students at all proficiencies

Root

Meaning

Origin

English Examples

Spanish Examples

Aud Hear Latin AuditoriumAudition

AuditorioAudición

Astir

Star Greek

AstrologyAstronaut

AstrologíaAstronauta

Bio Life Greek

BiographyBiology

BiografíaBiología

Dict Speak, tell

Latin DictateDictator

DictarDictador

Mit, mis

Send Latin MissionTransmit

MisiónTransmitir

Ped Foot Latin PedalPedestal

PedalPedestal

Phon

Sound Greek

PhonemeMicrophone

FonemaMicrófono

port carry Latin Transportportable

TransportarPortatil

Teaching Root Words

Cognate activities connect nicely to teaching root words. Understanding of roots and affixes connects to the Common Core State Standards:

Common Core State Standards English Language Arts

Kindergarten: Use the most frequently occurring inflections and affixes (e.g. –ed, -s, re-, un-, pre-, -ful and –less) as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word

1st Grade: Identify frequently occurring root words and their inflectional forms

2nd Grade: Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root

Using Cognates to Develop Comprehension in English. (2007). Source: www.colorincolorado.org/educators/background/cognates

Language Activities that will benefit students at all proficiencies

Pre-Teach Vocabulary for Specific Occasions Prepare students for an upcoming field trip by

direct teaching vocabulary for the occasion. Students are asked to complete many academic tasks

around field trip activities such as orally telling about their trip or using the experience as a writing prompt.

Use this opportunity as a way to tie in some dynamic assessment. First measure the student’s baseline knowledge of the vocabulary words you have chosen

Keep track if the student names an item in their other language and use whatever resources you have available to you (interpreter, parent, Google translate for single word translations) to determine if they labeled the item correctly.

Weekly progress monitor the amount of words the student correctly labels as you teach lessons around these words.

Language Activities that will benefit students at all proficiencies

Teach content-area academic vocabulary For younger children this may involve basic concepts and categories such as: colors,

body parts, clothes, seasons, days of the week, feelings, transportation, descriptions (adjectives), professions, etc. This website provides songs, music videos and worksheets to teach content-

area vocabulary for students who speak Spanish: http://www.rockalingua.com/

Bilingual Sesame Street Song to teach Body Parts: http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx?VideoID=51673&CategoryID=435As students get older, academic vocabulary will become more specific. It will be important to help students define key words such as identify, infer, compare and contrast, justify, outline, summarize, interpret, analyze, etc. http://www.flocabulary.com/test-taking-vocabulary/Flocabulary has a variety of songs and activities to teach vocabulary identified by the Common Core State Standards.It is also important to teach context (where and how the student may hear the word and how the student may use the word). For example, you might define compare and contrast as a process in which you look at two things and discuss how they are the same and how they are different. To provide context, you might add that the student may see this on their history test when they could be asked to compare and contrast the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.

Language Activities that will benefit students at all proficiencies

Teach vocabulary using a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts. Even if it is not possible to get a copy of a book that you will be

reading in the student’s native language, the student would still benefit from access to key vocabulary words from the text in their native language.

When dealing with bilingual materials, non-fiction texts may have more cognates (between similar languages) than fiction texts

Get creative! Bilingual materials may pop-up where you least expect. If your school participates in the REAP Farm to School Snack program chances are that you get Snack bites e-mailed to you weekly in both English and Spanish. Snack bites offer excellent non-fiction information regarding a variety of topics around farming and food storage such as plant propagation and winter storage crops. The text is translated from English to Spanish so it should be easy to pick out some key words to focus on with your Spanish-speaking students.

If you are worried about your pronunciation when dealing with Spanish vocabulary, remember that Google translate will say the word for you. Simply type in an English word to be translated to Spanish, then click on the speaker icon on the right side under the Spanish word. Using this pronunciation tool will ensure that we are offering the best language model for our students. This tool is best used for single words.

Bilingual English-Spanish intervention Resources Bilingual English-Spanish book list spanning a

variety of topics http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/detailListBooks.asp?

idBookLists=102 English-Spanish Non-Fiction Mini-Books http://www.amazon.com/Bilingual-Nonfiction-Mini-Books-

Easy-Fluency/dp/0439705444/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y English-Spanish Vocabulary-Building (Including

cognates!) Mini-Books http://www.amazon.com/Vocabulary-Building-Bilingual-Mini-

Books-Dictionaries-Spanish-English/dp/0439538076/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_z/185-4213938-1258014

Take Home MessageBilingual Intervention Clinical Study

Thordardottir et al. 1997

“The goal for a bilingual child is not to learn the language of

therapy but to learn language.”

Thordardottir, E. (2006, August 15). Language Intervention from a Bilingual Mindset. The ASHA Leader

Caitlin Panke, CCC-SLP