Show:
Literacy
Learning New Language
ELs and Theory
Culture and ELs
Academics
100

Field Tenor and Mode 

Field is the topic of the text

Tenor is the relationship between speaker and listener

Mode is the channel of communication

100

Problems with IRE 

p. 136 (Initiation Response Evaluation)

Review concerns about IRE

100

Bilingual education has many potential benefits

Kamenetz (2016) bilingual education has many potential benefits such as higher executive function (focus/attention span); a head start on perspective-taking and theory of mind (empathy); increased reading comprehension skills, metalinguistic awareness, and decoding; overall higher achievement and engagement in school; being more comfortable with diversity and integrating into a new culture more easily; and possible protection against cognitive decline (including dementia).

100

EL Positioning and Outsourcing 

The way content teachers interact with and position ELs greatly affects how native-English speakers will treat them. See Yoon (2008) for more information.

Outsourcing Article 

100

EL Small Group Work and Interference 

Students will not always know how to equitably work together in groups.

Interference Errors (p.211)

  • The rules in one language are applied incorrectly to another language
  • For example, Slavic and Asian languages do not use articles. Learners of these languages may have trouble understanding how to use articles.

That is why teachers need to know their student’s English proficiency and what students can do in L1 and L2 writing.

Positive Interference (p.210)

  • Learners use aspects on their first language to help them write in their new language
  • For ex. a learner who already learned how to write a summary in Russian can transfer the schema for writing summary in English
200

Mode Continuum 

P. 48 Gibbons 

Figure 3.1 Look at the differences in the way in which the language is used:

  • The vocabulary becomes more technical
  • Subject (field) is more specific
  • Tenor becomes more impersonal
  • Mode varies (more explicit; more like written language)
200

Comprehensible input and Comprehensible output and Output Hypothesis

See Gibbons (2009) p. 133-134

output hypothesis learners must produce comprehensible output in order for L2 learning to occur. Please see Lightbown and Spada (2013) p. 115 for this information.

200

Translated Materials

Using translated materials may be problematic as it assumes ELs are proficient enough in their native language to understand them. PSTs assumed ELs would be “proficient in reading academic content in their native languages and that Internet translation engines would be able to provide grammatical and syntactically recognizable sentences for ELLs” which may not be true (Chval & Pinnow, 2010, p. 8).

200

Culture and language are intertwined

ELs’ C1s should be included in content classrooms to positively position them. Only including American culture negatively positions ELs. Please see Yoon (2008) for more information.

200

Nominalization and nominal groups

Nominalization and nominal groups are important language resources for students to master (p.55).

a nominal group. Please see Gibbons (2009) pp. 54-56 for this information.

Nominalization and nominal groups are both important in order for ELs to comprehend academic texts and produce academic writing. Please see Gibbons (2009) pp. 50-54 for this information.


Nominalization and nominal groups allow for a focus on abstract ideas/concepts and the ability to densely pack sentences with information. It is important for ELs to master nominalization and nominal groups in order to successfully comprehend and produce academic writing, especially as this will be imperative in high school level work. Please see Gibbons (2009) pp. 50-55 for this information.

300

Literate Talk and Message Abundancy Gibbons 

Literacte Talk p. 141 Message Abundancy Gibbons p. 156

300

Display Question

see Gibbons, 2009, p. 136

300

Assumptions about ELs

ELs should be evaluated individually and teachers should not make assumptions based on country of origin. Please see Chval and Pinnow (2010) for more information.

300

Semantic Knowledge

Gibbons, 2009, p. 82).

300

Conditions for ongoing language development

 Some struggle is necessary. Please see Gibbons (2009) p. 134 for this information.

400

Communicative vs Form Focused Activities 

  • Communicative 
  • p.63 Gibbons
  • Primary focus is on using the language in order to complete a task
  • Language is used in meaningful context for authentic purposes

Form Focused 

  • p/64 Gibbons
  • Focus is on learning about language
  • Activity centers on the language itself
400

The structure of paragraphs

The structure of paragraphs is not consistent across cultures

400

The Innatist Perspective

Please see Lightbown and Spada (2013) pp. 20-22 for this information.

400

Older ELLs (p. 195) and issues that present special challenges:

  • More language to learn/content is much more complex
  • Secondary schools have fewer resources and shorter amount of time to teach literacy and
  • Inappropriate assessments, difficult for them to show what they know about content
  • Home environment is not ideal for schooling (may be undocumented, families experiencing financial struggles which can impact their learning)
400

Parent-Teacher Conferences and Factors 

See Trumbull et al. (2001) for why parent-teacher conferences are missed opportunities. 

 4 factors as influencing parental participation:Role expectations, sense of efficacy, invitation from school, and conflicting expectations of students (see pages 43-47).

Cross-cultural research suggests that there is no universally successful way to involve parents

500

Writing Process Steps 

Writing Process Steps (p.217)

  • Pre-writing (graphic organizers, researching a topic, for ELs- developing vocabulary, etc.)
  • Drafting (getting ideas on paper, write in their content journal)
  • Sharing and reviewing drafts (writers read their writing to themselves and to others, think about how it can be improved).
  • Revising (they try to include the ideas for improvement from their drafts, ELs need extra support)
  • Editing (when the content is done, writers go back to check for capitalization, punctuation, spelling, etc.). You can use editing checklists.
  • Publishing (Students read their work aloud, work posted in the classroom, etc.

Shared revision provides an opportunity to model and to teach tools and strategies for effective revision. (see Levine & McCloskey, 2013, pp. 219-220)

500

Metalanguage and Amplification vs Simplification

p. 62

Using language to talk about language with the purpose

  • To draw students’ attention to how certain aspects of language function
  • When we name something it is more likely to be noticed, recognized and used
  • Teaching about language is something all teachers should do so that teachers and students share a common language about language Amplification vs Simplification Gibbons  p. 156
500

The behaviorist Perspective

The behaviorist perspective can be beneficial to older learners, especially beginners.

The evidence presented in Lightbown and Spada (2013) and Searchinger (1995) does not support behaviorism as holding the most explanatory power for L1 acquisition of oral syntax. See Lightbown and Spada (2013) p. 19 for more information.

500

Literacy skills that transfer from students’ L1 (native language) to a student’s L2 (target language).

  •  (p.175)
  • Phonological knowledge
  • Topic knowledge
  • General background knowledge
  • Problem Solving strategies
  • Inferencing skills
500

Schema Theory

(p.84)


The schema theory suggests that the meaning does not reside in the words on the page but interacts with the reader’s in “the head” knowledge. 

We would be less able to predict the genre of the text or their content if we did not have the prior cultural knowledge or the schema because we map this knowledge into the text we read.


Two types of schemata:

  • Cultural
  • Cognitive

Schema (p.83) – drawing on personal and cultural experiences to make meaning.