Introduction to Second Language

Learning and Teaching:

A Professional Development Unit for Category 1

Module1

Agenda

8:30-8:45- Goals8:45-9:00- Who in the audience is like me?Module 1: Key Factors Affecting Second Language

Acquisition 9:00-10:00 Analytical Framework10:00-10:15 Break10:15-12:00 Other Theories of Second Language

Acquisition 12:00-12:45 Lunch12:45-2:15 PM Module 2 The Interrelationship of

Language and Culture- total time

Who is qualified to teach LEP students?

DESE required a reexamination of the skills and knowledge needed to teach ELLs

Category 1 Intro. to Second Language Learning and TeachingCategory 2: Sheltering Content InstructionCategory 3: Assessment of Speaking and ListeningCategory 4: Teaching Reading and Writing to LEP Students

Foundational knowledge for this category:

• Key factors affecting second language acquisition.

• Implications of these factors on classroom organization and instruction.

• Implications of cultural differences for classroom organization and instruction.

• Organization, content, and performance levels in the English Language Proficiency Benchmarks and Outcomes for English Language Learners.

Category 1 ObjectivesSecond Language Acquisition

• Identify some key factors affecting second language acquisition.

• Understand a graphic display that represents the process of second language acquisition.

Category 1 Objectives: Culture

• Become familiar with some basic concepts of culture.

• Develop a basic understanding of the interrelationship of language and culture.

• Explore the concept of sociolinguistic competence and its impact on learning and behavior of ELLs.

• This professional development unit requires approximately 12 hours to deliver. It is organized into two topics and five modules, ideally delivered in two six-hour sessions.

Second Language Acquisition and Cultural Differences Overview

2 modules:Module 1:

Key Factors Affecting Second Language Acquisition

ELLs face the challenge of having to learn at the same

time both the English language and academic content

Module 2:

The Interrelationship of Language and Culture

Educators need to develop a basic knowledge base to

effectively interact and instruct a rapidly growing culturally

and linguistically diverse student population.

Activity 1: Find Someone Who

• Use the handout to ask other participants whether they meet the criteria in each box.

• If they can answer yes to one of the statements, have them write their name.

Find Someone Who…Has lived in another country

Is in his/her first three years of teaching

Knows the meaning of the phrase “Tempus fugit”

Has an unusual talent

Has been on television

Knows the meaning of the phrase, “Amanhã vai ser outro dia”

Has met someone famous

Knows the meaning of the phrase, “Más vale tarde que nunca”

Is shorter than you

Has tried an unusual food

Debrief of Reading

In small groups, identify 5 to 6 major points that relate to the question: – How do we distinguish between a language

difference and a learning disability?

– Write your points on chart paper.

Module 1Key Factors Affecting Second

Language Acquisition

Activity 2:

Autobiography of a SecondLanguage Learner

Dates Language Circumstances Outcome(s)- Factors Affecting Outcomes (Activity3)

Greek, Italian, and Portuguese

Lived near Greek, Italian and Portuguese neighbors

Picked up social phrases, culture and beliefs

Wanted to know more about cultures and language. Listened to Portuguese music and ate their food.

12-17 French jr. high high school Memorized phrases

Requirement for school

17-30’s

Portugues, spanish

Worked in restaurant

phrases, culture and beliefs

Motivated by friendships

Birth-age712

p. 9

Activity 3: Identifying Factors that Influence Second Language

Acquisition

• What factors influence your acquisition of the language?

– Which factors supported your learning of a new language?

– Which factors hindered your learning of a new language?

p. 9

Analytical Framework: Classrooms as SitesActivity 4a.

Situational Factors

Language

Input

Individual Characteristics

Language Processing

Variable Language

Output

p. 10

Discussion of the Analytical FrameworkActivity 4b:

You will be discussing one of these questions in your small group1. Identify various situational factors and explain how these

situational factors can influence the kind and amount of second language input in a classroom.

2. Think about individual characteristics of a student or students and how these can influence the kind and amount of second language input they receive in a classroom.

3. Identify various situational factors and explain how these can influence the kind and amount of second language output by students in a classroom.

4.Think about individual characteristics of a student or students and how these can influence the kind and amount of their second language output in a classroom.

p. 11

Situational Factors

Factors that influence both the nature of the linguistic input and strategies of the learner.

Examples include: classroom

environment, cafeteria & doctor’s office. Communication task: explaining, asking,

requesting

Language Input

Linguistic input includes the language of input (e.g. L1 or L2)

Communication tasks: academic

discussion, vocabulary, abstract concepts, longer sentence structures and the amount of input.

Situation + input = learning environment

Language Processing

The second language learner uses cognitive and linguistic strategies to internalize new knowledge in L2.

Production strategies are the means by which the learner utilizes his or her L1 and existing L2 knowledge

The second language learner relies on their L1 when they lack resources in their L2

Variable Language Output

Language Production differs for all students.

The learner is still trying to figure out what rules govern the use of alternate forms.

This type of variability seems to be most common among beginning learners, and may be entirely absent among the more advanced.

Individual Reflective Writing Activity 5:

Think about the following:

Reflect upon the referrals you receive of ELLs who are struggling in the classroom.

-What situational and

p. 12

Second Language AcquisitionTheory

Jim Cummins

BICS CALP

Social Language Academic Language

BICS = Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills

– Playground Language– Not related to academic achievement– Attained after 1-2 years in host country

CALP = Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency

– Language proficiency needed to function in decontextualized, academic settings

– CALP in L1 and L2 may overlap, despite differences in “surface features “ of each language

– Attained between five to seven years in host country

BICS and CALP in the Classroom

BICS CALPMorning Message Cause and effect in Social Studies

Stages of Oral Language Acquisition

• Pre-Production– Cannot produce in English– Can understand more than can say– Can actively listen for short periods– Can respond non-verbally

• Early Production– Can produce individual words and phrases– Can answer closed questions– Can name, label, list, categorize

Speech Emergence

– Can produce simple complete sentences

– Can participate in small group activities

– Can answer open-ended questions – why, how, etc.

– Begins to use English more freely

Intermediate Fluency

– Can create extended discourse

– Can participate in reading and writing activities

– May appear orally fluent, but experience difficulties in academics and literacy

– Can do most classroom tasks if supported and scaffold

Observing the Stage of Second Language Acquisition

Stage of Language Acquisition and

Rationale

Possible Classroom Strategies

Student #1

Student #2

Student #3

Comprehensible Input Krashen

• Comprehensible Input is “meaningful language” that can be understood from context

• To facilitate language acquisition, input should contain structures a little “beyond” what they are able to understand (i+1)

Acquisition versus Learning

• Stephen Krashen, from the University of Southern California, separated notions of acquisition and learning– Children orally acquire their first

language in natural, communicative, supportive settings without explicit instruction. (Acquired Competence – AC)

– Children then go to school and learn the grammatical rules, vocabulary, and structures of language. (Learned Competence – LC)

Acquisition versus Learning

• Krashen (1983) believes that the result of learning, learned competence (LC), functions as a monitor or editor. Acquired competence (AC) is responsible for our fluent production of sentences, LC makes correction on these sentences either before or after their production.

• For second language learners, a balance of acquisition and learning in a supportive environment is conducive to language development.

Affective Filter

• Stephen Krashen hypothesizes that there is an imaginary wall that is placed between  a learner and language input. This is called the Affective Filter. If the filter is on, the learner is blocking out input and output. No language can be received or produced

Affective Filter

• Krashen indicates that anxiety, self-esteem, and motivation are the three major variables that have an impact on the Affective Filter. The filter turns on when anxiety is high, self-esteem is low, or motivation is low.

• Think-Pair-Share– Turn to a neighbor and share teacher and

students behaviors and instructional activities that keep the affective filter turned off…

Module 2The Interrelationship of Language

and Culture

What is Culture?Module 2 Activity 6:

Write your own personal definition of culture

The Interrelationship of Language and Culture

Through the study of other languages, students gainknowledge and understanding of the cultures that use the language. In fact, students can not truly master the language until they have also mastered thecultural context in which the language occurs.

Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century, 1999.

p. 14

What is Culture?

Culture is whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members.

(Goodenough, 1957)

For the purpose of educators, culture is defined as a social group’s design for surviving in and adapting to its environment.

(Bullivant, 1993)

What is Culture?

We use the term human culture, in its broadest sense, not only to include rules, practices, actions, and characteristics of entire cultures or societies, but also the thoughts, feelings, actions and characteristics of individual human beings.

(Levinson & Malone, 1980)

What is Culture?

The ever changing values, traditions, social and political relationships, and worldview created and shared by a group of people bound together by a combination of factors (which can include a common history, geographic location, language, social class, and or religion), and how these are transformed by those who share them.

(Nieto 2002)

Principles of CultureActivity 7:

• Culture can be defined in many ways. There are no universally accepted definitions of culture.

• Differentiating between cultural and personal variables is not always easy.

• Culture is portable and is transmitted from generation to generation.

p. 16

Activity 8: Participant Reflection: Language

“Classroom behavior, which is also culturally based, is guided by rules and norms established by convention, which means they are implicitly taught, tacitly agreed upon, and cooperatively maintained.”

Cazden & Mehan (1992) in Dilworth, p. 26.

p. 17

Culture, and BehaviorQuotation by Cazden & Mehan

Activity 8a: 1. What are the rules and norms that guide classroom

behavior in your school? What do your students need to know in order to function in a way that is considered appropriate?

2. How were the rules taught and by whom?

3. How were they agreed upon?

4. How are they cooperatively maintained?

5. Are these rules universal within U.S. culture or schools?

6. Have you noticed variations? Give examples.

p. 17-18

Activity 8b: Quotation by Dilworth

Thus, if the children understand and learn the appropriate expected behaviors for different classroom contexts (for example, a lesson in taking a test, individual or group activities, or recess), communication and interaction between the teacher and students should increase.

Dilworth, M. E. (1992). p. 26.

p. 18

How does this quote relate to our question, “How do we distinguish between a language difference and a learning disability?”

Activity 8c: Quotation by Dilworth Reflection

1. Think about personal experiences in which you had to understand and learn the appropriate expected behaviors for different classroom contexts as you navigated through your own educational experience.

2. What difficulties did you experience and what helped them negotiate the changes in expectations?

p. 18

Write your reflection.

Share with a partner next to you.

Activity 8c: Quotation by Dilworth Reflection (cont.)

• What are the different classroom contexts that your ESL students experience during a typical day?

• How may the expected behaviors between difference classroom context?

• How may these changes in expected norms from one classroom to another impact the behavior of ESL students?

• What are three things a newcomer should know in order to function successfully in your school?

• Would their parents or grandparents come up with the same three things? Would their children or students identify the same three things?

p. 19

Activity 9a: Communication Styles and Rules:

Reflect on the following scenario: Plans for the Weekend Think about the rules of communication that are at play:

• What is going on here?

• Summarize each participant’s point of view

• What cultural differences in communication rules might be at play here?

p. 20

Activity 9b: Art of Crossing Cultures (C. Sorti, 1990)

Think about the “Plans for the Weekend” scenario as you reflect on the process that individuals may experience when communication breaks down.

A. Process leading to communication breakdown:

B. Process to prevent communication breakdown, after we experience the first three steps:

Activity 9b: Art of Crossing Cultures

A. Process leading to communication breakdown:

First We expect others to be like-us but not everyone is like us.

Second Because we are different, a cultural incident can occur.

Third When a misunderstanding or incident occurs, it causes a reaction (anger, fears, frustration, annoyance, etc.)

Fourth We withdraw. p. 21

Activity 9b: Art of Crossing Cultures

B. Process to prevent communication breakdown, after we experience the first three steps:

Fourth Instead of withdrawing we need to become aware of our reactions.

Fifth Once we are aware of our reactions, we can then reflect on why we are reacting the way we do.

Sixth As we identify the cause of the way we feel our reactions tends to subside.

Seventh This will permit us to observe the situation and to explore other perspectives.

Eighth Gathering information, can help us gain a different perspective, which can lead us to develop culturally appropriate expectations.

p. 21

Culture as an Iceberg

Activity 10: Developing Sociolinguistic Competence

1. Write about yourself and your family and not about your experiences with other cultures unless they directly involve a family member.

2. What were the rules of communication you were taught to use? Who taught you and how? write down the explicit and

3. Write down the implicit situational communication rules you were taught to use in the setting you selected:

p. 22-23

Activity 11: Language, Culture, and the Classroom- handout

• Read questions in the checklist. – How does the checklist inform our question,

“How do you distinguish between a language difference and a learning disability?”

• Read scenario at the bottom of the page.-Discuss what may be some of the changes you could do to this lesson plan to address issues 1,4,5, and 6.

Handout from Trainer

Activity 12: Wrap-up/Think About It

Culture is partly created from its language. Certain cultural events, such as rituals, storytelling, folktales, and greetings, are deeply intertwined in language. A shift to using a new language will signify a shift in culture.

Language production is not only a psychological event but a process deeply embedded in culture.

p. 24

Talking Points

• Communication is more than speaking, listening, and comprehending.

• To successfully communicate we must understand the rules of communication and apply them.

• It is not whether one pattern of communication is right or wrong. What we need to consider is that all patterns of communication “evolve to express and satisfy particular cultural patterns and needs.”

Activity 13: Assignment

• Choice 1: Listen to a Learner: Interview a Student or Students

• For Next Time: – Bring interview of the student. – Bring related data or documents. – Be prepared to share the student in small “mock” team meeting

about the student.

– Read chapter 4 of the text.

p. 25-28