Transcript Chapter 6

Chapter 6
Foregrounding Oral
Communication
Simultaneous First and Second Oral
Development
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Bilingual children develop:
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Flexibility with metalinguistic concepts
Early understanding of cultural norms
An understanding of signification systems
(body language, prosody, gestural cues)
Simultaneous First and Second Oral
Development
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Teachers should:
 Draw on student’s background knowledge
 Be aware of potential conflicts with
student’s previous schooling or home
experiences
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Model unfamiliar oral language responses
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Allow for adequate wait time
Scaffold instruction
Strive for continuity between home &
school
Developing Oral Communication in
Sequential Language Acquisition
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Early language development with literacy as a
goal involves oral practices based on
meaningful uses of printed material:
 Question and answering routines
 Sharing time with books
 Storytelling
 Illustrating stories and sharing them
 Creating games
 Reciting poems/singing
 Dramatization
Developing Oral Communication in
Sequential Language Acquisition
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Practices with print prepares students to think
and use language for learning
Engagement in relevant and sustained oral
practices is necessary in the classroom
Be aware of interference from the first
language, but realize that not all student will
progress through the normal developmental
pattern at the same pace.
Language as a Resource
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Research demonstrates:
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How language is used as social action
How teacher’s oral interactions with her
students need to be monitored
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Distribution of turns, student
recognition,sanctioning of behaviors
How both the physical settings and the
speakers’ backgrounds and influences have
bearing on oral interactions
Language as a Resource
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Teachers need to teach beginning second
language learners how daily social
interactions are affected by:
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frame
 participation structure
 positioning
 paralinguistic elements
Classroom Language Learning
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Teachers should:
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Examine with their students the ways
people communicate with each other and
discuss the underlying values and
attitudes.
Help students recognize which language to
use in different social situations and offer
them alternatives for different audiences.
Subtractive Bilingualism
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Subtractive Bilingualism includes educational
practices where:
 Children are often expected to give up
their L1 in favor of their L2
 L1 is not viewed as an asset, lack of L2
viewed as a deficit
 Transfer benefits of L1
L2 not
recognized
Second Language Acquisition Research
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Input hypothesis
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Interactional hypothesis
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Krashen: comprehensible input = (i+1); Credits
the learner’s subconscious processes
Long: active communicative efforts to understand
and be understood
Output hypothesis
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Swain: attempts at output allow learners to test
hypotheses about L2 and progressively produce
more accurate, coherent, conventionalized
language
Second Language Acquisition Research
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Classroom-Based Research on Oral
Communication Development
 Feedback: consider quantity, complexity,
timing, learner understanding of its present
or future need
Second Language Acquisition Research
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Input Theories
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Learnability theories - examine what
kinds of learning in classroom settings best
facilitate acquisition. They identify stages
in learner development and types of tasks
and interactions
Processability theory – learner can only
be taught a structure when he can manage
its processing demands
Second Language Acquisition Research
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Output Theories
 There are varied preferences in learning
styles that help students process, store and
retrieve information. Learning styles are
affected by:
affective levels
 modes of processing information
 types of cognition
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Second Language Acquisition Research
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Output Theories
 Teachers should:
 Offer a variety of activities geared
towards different learning styles and
multiple intelligences
 Teach learning strategies
(Chamot/O’Malley)
Fluency and Proficiency vs. Identity and
Agency
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Planned Oral Communication
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Incorporate monologic communication –
reading aloud, speeches, rehearsals;
communication for a purpose
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Students focus on organization, cohesion,
performance
Promote interaction where the cognitive
processes used in the classroom setting
will be comparable to the natural setting
Fluency Building: Error Correction
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Only correct features that can be reasonably
managed at the learner’s level of proficiency
Tailor error correction to the learner
(checklists)
Remember that the development of an
internalized grammar system does not follow
a linear path
Identity and Agency Building
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Genre Is Greater Than Its Parts
 Encourage learners to observe/collect
information about L2 community and
formulate questions about the
culture/language use through:
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consciousness raising
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problem posing
Identity and Agency Building
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Genre Is Greater Than Its Parts
 To help students gain the “big picture”,
assign projects which:
 involve students affectively
 promote cognitive activities such as
problem solving
 relate to subject matter in other
classes
Identity and Agency Building
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Teacher’s Feedback
 Teacher talk includes modifications
teachers use to be comprehended by their
students:
repetition of instructions
 speaking at a slower rate
 pausing
 changing pronunciation
 modifying vocabulary, grammar or
discourse
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Identity and Agency Building
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Teacher’s Feedback
 Respectfully scaffold student’s oral
communication with:
 modeling
 restatement
 clarification
 questioning
Identity and Agency Building
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Shifting between fluency & accuracy
Know the students strengths to move
from:
Silent participation with comprehension
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Production of chunks of oral language
Complex oral exchanges and presentations
Identity and Agency Building
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Shifting between fluency & accuracy
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To build confidence in fluency, lessons
need to foreground activities for
negotiating meaning and shift to
foregrounding accuracy by focusing on
forms of expression.
Identity and Agency Building
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Shifting between fluency & accuracy
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Ice-breakers allows students to use
an oral routine or expression with
their classmates under low-risk
conditions. Use them:
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To get to know each other
To review previous material
To preview new material
To introduce new material inductively
or deductively
Differences Between Second and Foreign
Language Learners
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Social and Academic Consequences of
Sounding Like the “Other”
 Challenges of second language learners:
 Lack of social acceptance due to an
L1 that is stigmatized by the
mainstream
 Alienation from their culturally distinct
heritage group
Differences Between Second and Foreign
Language Learners
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Discontinuities in Schooling
 Limited communication between schools results in
lack of continuity in learning (“repeat beginners”)
Heritage language learners sometimes:
 have little formal study in their L1
 must strive for academic success by adopting
cultural practices at odds with their
home/community environment
 have been in programs where memorization is
stressed, rather than application and performance
Going Beyond the National Standards
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Basic TESOL standards:
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presentational
 interpersonal
 interpretive
Critical Language Awareness – build up the
learner’s awareness of the significant role
language plays in social/school life.
 Build connections between classwork and
the wider social/political world.