Transcript Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Foregrounding Oral
Communication
Simultaneous First and Second Oral
Development
Bilingual children develop:
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
Teachers should:
Draw on student’s background knowledge
Be aware of potential conflicts with
student’s previous schooling or home
experiences
Model unfamiliar oral language responses
Allow for adequate wait time
Scaffold instruction
Strive for continuity between home &
school
Developing Oral Communication in
Sequential Language Acquisition
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
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
Research demonstrates:
How language is used as social action
How teacher’s oral interactions with her
students need to be monitored
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
Teachers need to teach beginning second
language learners how daily social
interactions are affected by:
frame
participation structure
positioning
paralinguistic elements
Classroom Language Learning
Teachers should:
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
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
Input hypothesis
Interactional hypothesis
Krashen: comprehensible input = (i+1); Credits
the learner’s subconscious processes
Long: active communicative efforts to understand
and be understood
Output hypothesis
Swain: attempts at output allow learners to test
hypotheses about L2 and progressively produce
more accurate, coherent, conventionalized
language
Second Language Acquisition Research
Classroom-Based Research on Oral
Communication Development
Feedback: consider quantity, complexity,
timing, learner understanding of its present
or future need
Second Language Acquisition Research
Input Theories
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
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
Second Language Acquisition Research
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
Planned Oral Communication
Incorporate monologic communication –
reading aloud, speeches, rehearsals;
communication for a purpose
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
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
Genre Is Greater Than Its Parts
Encourage learners to observe/collect
information about L2 community and
formulate questions about the
culture/language use through:
consciousness raising
problem posing
Identity and Agency Building
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
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
Identity and Agency Building
Teacher’s Feedback
Respectfully scaffold student’s oral
communication with:
modeling
restatement
clarification
questioning
Identity and Agency Building
Shifting between fluency & accuracy
Know the students strengths to move
from:
Silent participation with comprehension
Production of chunks of oral language
Complex oral exchanges and presentations
Identity and Agency Building
Shifting between fluency & accuracy
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
Shifting between fluency & accuracy
Ice-breakers allows students to use
an oral routine or expression with
their classmates under low-risk
conditions. Use them:
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
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
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
Basic TESOL standards:
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.