Teaching ESL Students Margaret Aisicovich ESL Theory BICS
Teaching ESL Students Margaret Aisicovich
ESL Theory
BICS and CALP In 1979, Jim Cummins, a University of Toronto Professor and researcher developed a theory that stated that ESL students learn verbal language much quicker than context based read and written language. He named these two different areas of learning BICS and CALP: BIC: basic interpersonal communication skills CALP: cognitive academic language proficiency
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Understanding Cultural Differences in Student Behavior When we have ESL students in our classrooms, ensuring their success is more than differentiation and adaptation, although that is a large part of what we need to do. The students who are sitting in front of us - be it in elementary school, middle school or high school, all come with previous schooling experiences and a story to tell.
Influences *Familial influence *Intrapersonal interaction and the Canadian L 2 identity *Acculturation *Interpersonal interaction *Educational factors
Understanding our Students cont… When working with newly arrived ESL students, be aware that they may sometimes respond in unexpected ways to particular classroom situations or events due to cultural conditioning or different cultural values and beliefs. The following chart identifies possible cultural explanations for behaviors ESL students sometimes exhibit.
Perceived Behavior The student avoids eye contact. Possible Cultural Explanation Keeping the eyes downcast may be a way of showing respect. In some cultures, direct eye contact with a teacher is considered disrespectful and a challenge to the teacher’s authority. The student tends to smile when disagreeing with what is being said or when being reprimanded. The student shrinks from or responds poorly to seemingly inoffensive forms of physical contact or proximity. A smile may be a gesture of respect that children are taught to employ to avoid being offensive in difficult situations. There may be taboos on certain types of physical contact; e. g. , some Buddhists regard the head and shoulders as sacred and would consider it impolite to ruffle a child’s hair or give a reassuring pat on the shoulder. There also significant differences among cultures with respect to personal space. Some students may be unaccustomed to eating with anyone but members of their own family. The student refuses to eat with peers. The student does not participate actively in group work or collaborate readily with peers on cooperative assignments. The student displays uneasiness, expresses disapproval or even misbehaves in informal learning situations or situations involving open-ended learning processes; e. g. , exploration. Cooperative group work is never used by teachers in some cultures. Students may view sharing as giving away knowledge and may see no distinction between legitimate collaboration and cheating. In some cultures, schooling involves a strict formality. An informal classroom atmosphere may seem chaotic and undemanding and teachers with an informal approach may seem unprofessional. Such students may also be uncomfortable with process-oriented learning activities and prefer activities that yield more tangible and evident results. The student refuses to participate in extracurricular or various physical education activities; e. g. , swimming, skating, track and field. Extracurricular activities may not be considered part of learning or may even, along with some physical education activities, be contrary to a student’s religion or cultural outlook. Some students may also work during after-school hours. The student seems inattentive and does not display active learning behaviors. In some cultures, the learning process involves observing and doing or imitating rather than listening and absorbing; e. g. , note taking. Performance following instructions reveals that the student does not understand In some cultures, expressing a lack of understanding or asking for help from the teacher is the instruction, even though he or she exhibited active listening behaviors that considered impolite as these expressions are interpreted as suggestions that the teacher has not suggested understanding and refrained from asking for help or further been doing a good job of teaching. explanation. The student is unresponsive, uncooperative or even disrespectful in dealing with Separate schooling for boys and girls is the norm in some cultures and the expectations for teachers of the opposite gender. males and females are quite different. The idea that males and females should have the same opportunities for schooling and play roles comparable to educators runs contrary to some students’ cultural conditioning. The student appears reluctant to engage in debate, speculation, argument or In some cultures, it is considered inappropriate to openly challenge another’s point of view, other processes that involve directly challenging the views and ideas of others. especially the teacher’s. In some cases, there may be value attached to being prepared, knowledgeable and correct when one opens one’s mouth. The student exhibits discomfort or embarrassment at being singled out for The put oneself in the limelight for individual praise is not considered appropriate in some special attention or praise. cultures, where the group is considered more important than the individual. The student fails to observe the conventions of silent reading. Some students may be culturally predisposed to see reading as essentially an oral activity and will read aloud automatically. For others, reading aloud is associated with memorization.
U- Turn: This is a common phenomenon is EAL students’ writing. It can be seen when students go from writing with good grammar and spelling to suddenly making mistakes. This can be confusing for a teacher, however, this is a good sign. What it means is that they have shifted from translating and consciously structuring their writing to internalizing the language and using it with more atomicity. This is a significant turning point in second language acquisition.
Group Work Getting ESL students into group work is a great way to have them observe and participate verbally rather than on paper. It teaches them the skills of sharing ideas, listening to each other, and summarizing information.
Differentiation and Multiple Learning Styles Allowing ESL students a variety of ways to show their learning other than in written form will let you see how much they have absorbed. Often ESL students know the material from their previous educational context but do not have the vocabulary to show it. By letting them construct a model or a graphic depiction will help them to demonstrate their learning.
Analyzing Student Work
• Students Writing Samples:
Teaching proofreading:
Summarization
Reading response: Getting students to read a chapter of a novel at their grade level and then predicting the next part of the story indicates their grasp on the plot, their ability to verbalize what they have understood, and the ability to predict what might come next. In many countries, students learn by rote, and prediction and imagination are difficult for them to demonstrate as they are unused to doing this.
Common issues: 1. issues with has and have ie. He have a toy. 2. indicating plural vs. sing. To Have ie. They have many toy. 3. using both the, and a as articles ie. I bought a the chocolate.
4. leaving off the last letter of the word
5. creative spelling – how it sounds in their head
Practicing English through authentic conversations (Jeff Zwiers)
Teaching Strategies
This strategy is a group writing approach to story telling. Students write a sentence to start a story. The ball up the paper and throw it. A student who retrieves the balled up paper adds the next line to the story. This can go on for 4 or 5 turns. At the end there will be as many stories as students in the class. There are many things one can do with this including discussing tense, proof reading, and sentence structure.
Getting students to write a story together on the board is one way to build community as well as to get students to get immediate feedback on their writing. Most students get stuck in writing patterns (fossilize) and find it difficult to break them. Writing a story, sentence by sentence as a student dictates it, or getting them to write it, allows the class to participate in writing the story, and then editing it.
Allowing students to translate from their first language to English is a good starting place for them. From this, students can develop personal dictionaries for words they encounter often. Translation is a good bridge from a student’s first language (L 1) to English.
- Slides: 25