english learners: creating language-rich instruction for english-language learners
TRANSCRIPT
English Learners: Creating Language-Rich Instruction for English-Language LearnersAuthor(s): Eurydice Bouchereau Bauer and Patrick C. ManyakSource: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Oct., 2008), pp. 176-178Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20203099 .
Accessed: 28/06/2014 18:53
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Wiley and International Reading Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to The Reading Teacher.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 78.24.223.18 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 18:53:51 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
ENGLISH LEARNERS
Creating Language-Rich Instruction
for English-Language Learners
Eurydice Bouchereau Bauer, Patrick C Manyak
In this particular column, we address the benefits
of language-rich classrooms for English-language
learners (ELL). Classrooms that are language-rich
provide the ideal environment for accelerating ELLs'
oral language and academic vocabulary develop ment. These classrooms recognize that language de
velopment, whether in a first or a second language, occurs in social contexts and through purposeful so
cial interactions. Ernst and Richard (1995) stated it in
this manner:
Children learn their first language by using language as a means to communicate with real people and in
real situations. The same applies for students who are
learning a second language (p. 326).
Just as speakers of a first language must engage
in frequent, meaning-centered interactions with
speakers of that language, so should ELLs. What we
describe in this column are ways to support ELLs'
language development broadly and literacy develop ment in particular. We organize the column in terms
of teacher approaches that create rich contexts for
the development of language skills and conversa
tional strategies.
Supporting the Development of Language Skills The central element of all instruction for ELLs should
be to make rich language comprehensible (Garcia,
2003,2008). Garcia explained that teachers should ac
company oral explanations and teacher read-alouds
with visuals, realia, gestures, and dramatization to il
lustrate key concepts and vocabulary. Teachers must
find ways to activate and build students' background
knowledge through the use of visuals, demonstra
tions, and graphic organizers. Teachers also should
move away from the old adage that oral language
precedes written language skills. That means that
ELLs should be encouraged to read at their appro
priate levels and have ample opportunities to hear
rich, visually stimulating stories read aloud. When
possible, hands-on experiences should precede the
reading of text. For example, after having second
graders keep logs of the week's weather, a teacher
reviewed the content of the weather unit by reading
aloud Weather by Seymour Simon. The teacher used
the illustrations in the book to generate talk among
the students around key concepts and vocabulary:
Teacher:
Student 1:
Student 2:
Teacher:
Student 3:
Student 1:
Teacher:
Student 2:
Teacher:
Students:
Teacher:
Students:
I heard someone say rain was coming
because of the clouds. What is another
word for rain?
Shower
Thunderstorm
Anything else?
Precipitation
Pouring
What does that mean if it is pouring?
It rains a lot.
What does it sound like?
[all made the sound of pouring rain
by patting their laps with their hands
quickly]
How is that different from a rain shower?
[made droplet sounds using the tip of
their fingers and changing the tempo]
The Reading Teacher, 62(2), pp. 176-178 ? 2008 International Reading Association
176 DOL10.1598/RT.62.2.10 ISSN: 0034-0561 print/1936-2714 online
This content downloaded from 78.24.223.18 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 18:53:51 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
As the students and teacher discussed the weath
er terms, the teacher wrote them on the board. It
is clear from the above example that students are
learning the concepts related to weather but are
also developing their English-language skills. During
instruction, teachers should avoid the use of idioms
and provide students with ample time to respond to
teacher questions. Of course, if we are to encourage oral language use, it is imperative that students are
given the opportunity to use the language resources
at their disposal. Ultimately, the classrooms must be
inviting places where language (home language and
school language) flourish and students are willing to
take the linguistic risks necessary for their language
development. It is within this environment that teach
ers have the best opportunity to observe and support students' reading.
Another way that teachers can support language
development is by visually presenting information
that highlights cognates (Williams, 2001). A common
error that teachers make is that they presume that
students will automatically make the connections
between cognates. One way that teachers can make
clear the role of cognates as a tool is to extend the
idea of a word wall. Typically, a word wall is found
in the lower grades and tends to focus on common
words that students encounter. In classrooms with
Spanish-speaking ELLs, teachers would select words
from the content being studied that share English/
Spanish cognates and highlight them on the word
wall. This approach would support students' lan
guage development and send a strong message re
garding the importance of the students' first language in the classroom. Whenever possible, teachers should
repeatedly bring students' attention to cognates dur
ing content lessons.
Conversational Strategies According to McCarty, Wallace, Lynch, and Benally
(1991), when students and teachers engage in mean
ingful interaction where "students' ideas are sought,
valued, and incorporated into the [curricular] con
tent" of the class, the students become verbal and
respond to questions (p. 53). Perez (1996) suggested that classrooms that support students' interaction
with peers and the teacher do make use of the collec
tive knowledge of the class, which enhances students'
language skills. These classrooms are inherently low
risk, build on what students bring to the classroom,
and create the space for the emergence of new ideas
based on students' interactions with one another.
Goldenberg's (1992) research offers insights into the role of instructional conversations in ELLs'
learning. In this type of classroom discourse, the
students and teachers interact with one another in
a give-and-take and joint meaning-making process that resembles a dinnertime discussion. Creating a
context in which ELLs discuss school materials and
sound natural in that discussion is not easy. For ex
ample, in the same classroom we highlighted earlier, a student who started school in August 2007 with no
English skills engaged her classmates in a discussion
that sounded like talk at the dinner table, but it also
highlighted her growing content knowledge.
Teacher: I found the neatest picture in this
book that I want to show you. [stu dents ignore the invite and take up their own conversation]
Student 1: How do the meteor...the weather peo
ple get the weather stuff?
New Student: Urn, the thermometer thing goes in
the air balloon and goes up and tells
the weather and goes up again and
then into the computer thing.
Student 1: Are you sure?
New Student: Yeah, I'm sure.
Student 3: It's not a regular thermometer, it's a
special one.
Student 4: Why they need the big balloon?
Teacher: Yeah, why do we need a big balloon?
New Student: You want the balloon bigger, you
know, it only gets a little of the sky wouldn't know a lot. You want it to go
in a lot of clouds.
Teacher: So the meteorologist wants to get in
formation from the different clouds
at different points in the atmosphere. Remember when we read about how
they got their information? So the
bigger the balloon the higher they can go.
Goldenberg and Patthey-Chavez (1995) found
that ELLs who participated in instructional conversa
tions talked more in class and were able to express
Creating Language-Rich Instruction for English-Language Learners 177
This content downloaded from 78.24.223.18 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 18:53:51 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
more. What makes this instruction different from
the Initiation-Response-Evalutation interaction pat terns (Mehan, 1979) often found in classrooms is
that during instructional conversations the focus is
on a theme(s), activating and building on important
schemata, direct teaching, promoting and support
ing more complex language, supporting statements
and propositions, fewer known answers to questions, teacher responsiveness to students' contribution,
connected discourse, challenging interactions, and
student-led interactions. It is believed that this ap
proach can be used with students with varying levels
of English-language proficiency. In fact, Saunders and
Goldenberg (1999) stated, "The effects of both litera
ture logs and instructional conversations on under
standing of a story's theme are more pronounced for
limited-English proficient students" (p. 295). This ap
proach is effective with students with limited English
proficiency when they are encouraged to write their
ideas in a literature response log before participat
ing in the conversation. Having rehearsed their ideas
in the log makes it easier for them to participate. Teachers who implement instructional conversations
need to ensure that students are able to discern and
discuss "their own experiences, the content of the lit
erary selection, and one or more major themes that
apply to the selection (e.g., sacrifice, perseverance,
commitment, justice, cultural identity) (p. 296). In
regard to promoting comprehension strategies, stu
dents are asked to "summarize what they have read,
and formulate and answer...questions about the read
ing material" (p. 297). The emphasis throughout the
interaction is on meaning making for real purposes. Martinez-Roldan and Lopez-Robertson (2000)
also found that open-ended literature discussions of
culturally relevant books with Spanish-English kin
dergarten bilingual students revealed their ability to
live through the experience of the text, make use of
illustrations and text, explore social issues, and make
connections to other texts (printed and oral) and life
experiences. Of particular interest is the students'
ability to explore social issues in their discussion
groups. These discussions revealed that students
were engaged in the texts read and were developing
a strong sense of the kind of meaning making that
should take place around text. As noted in this col
umn, it is important that ELLs' classrooms are rich in
language that is comprehensible. These suggestions will assist educators in providing language-rich class
rooms in order to enhance the literacy of ELLs.
References
Ernst, G., & Richard, K. (1995). Reading and writing pathways to conversation in the ESL classroom. The Reading Teacher,
48(4), 320-326.
Garc?a, G.E. (2003). The reading comprehension development and instruction of English language learners. In A.P. Sweet
& C.E. Snow (Eds.), Rethinking reading comprehension (pp.
30-50). New York: Guilford.
Garcia, G.E. (2008, May). Translating vocabulary research into
practice with English language learners. In K. Stahl (Chair),
Engaging learners in vocabulary learning: Practical, research
based approaches. Symposium conducted at the annual con
vention of the International Reading Association, Atlanta,
GA.
Goldenberg, C. (1992). Instructional conversations: Promoting
comprehension through discussion. The Reading Teacher,
46(4), 316-326.
Goldenberg, C., & Patthey-Chavez, G. (1995). Discourse processes
in instructional conversations: Interactions between teacher
and transition readers. Discourse Processes, 19(\), 57-74.
Martinez-Roldan, CM., & Lopez-Robertson, J.M. (2000). Initiating literature circles in a first-grade bilingual classroom. The
Reading Teacher, 53(4), 270-281.
McCarty, T.L., Wallace, S., Lynch, R.H., & Benally, A. (1991).
Classroom inquiry and Navajo learning styles: A call for as
sessment. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 22(\), 42-59.
doi:10.1525/aeq.l991.22.1.05xll72b
Mehan, H. (1979). Learning lessons: Social organization in the
classroom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Perez, B. (1996). Instructional conversations as opportunities for
English language acquisition for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Language Arts, 73(3), 173-181.
Saunders, W. & Goldenberg, C (1999). Effects of instructional con
versations and literature logs on limited-and fluent-English
proficient students' story comprehension and thematic under
standing. The Elementary School Journal, 99(4), 277-301.
Williams, J. (2001). Classroom conversations: Opportunities to
learn for ESL students in mainstream classrooms. The Reading
Teacher, 54(8), 750-757.
Bauer teaches at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, USA; e-mail ebbauer@uiuc.
edu. Manyak teaches at the University of Wyoming,
Laramie, USA; e-mail [email protected].
The department editors welcome reader comments. Patrick C. Manyak teaches at the University of Wyoming, Laramie, USA; e-mail [email protected]. Eurydice Bouchereau Bauer teaches at
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA; e-mail [email protected].
178 The Reading Teacher Vol. 62, No. 2 October 2008
This content downloaded from 78.24.223.18 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 18:53:51 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions