WORKING WITH MULTILINGUAL LEARNERS IN THE CONTENT CLASSROOM

WORKING WITH MULTILINGUAL LEARNERS IN THE CONTENT CLASSROOM, PART 4 Catherine Box, Ed. D. Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania cbox@upenn. edu

AGENDA -- Strategies for Working with ELs in the Content Classroom: Review of Differentiation Review of Academic Language -- Pragmatics in the Classroom + Defining Pragmatics -- Speech Acts -- Adjacency Pairs -- Preference Structure + Teaching Pragmatics in the Content Classroom

AIM FOR THE CHALLENGE ZONE! HIGH CHALLENGE (GIBBONS, 2009) Learning/engagement zone Frustration/anxiety zone (Zone of Proximal Development) HIGH SUPPORT Comfort zone LOW Boredom zone. SUPPORT LOW CHALLENGE

ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE-FOCUSED SUPPORT Each support is matched to the language learner’s proficiency level. Each support is respectful and engaging. Each support moves toward the same essential understanding.

TASK SUPPORT CHECKLIST (ADAPTED FROM PEREGOY & BOYLE, 2017) SCHEMA ACTIVATION üPrepare students for tasks by activating background knowledge. üProvide rich contextual information for tasks. üFrontload vocabulary words (how much so depends on the task). --e. g. Specialized words that can’t be figured out from context üFrontload certain grammar items (how much so depends on the task). --e. g. A complicated verb tense

DIFFERENTIATION OF INPUT/OUTPUT ü Provide multiple opportunities for students to process information in multiple ways (visuals, dramatization, review, questions, think-pair-shares) üUse abundancy and redundancy strategies when introducing key vocabulary. (repeat often, use in different contexts, write on board, highlight when using it, have students repeat it, give opportunities for students to use it). üProvide multimodal directions/explanations (modeling, gestures, write & say simultaneously). üAsk instruction-clarifying questions (e. g. what do we do first? ) before setting students on task. üEnsure participation of all students through providing sentence frames, allowing non-verbal contributions, and group task monitoring.

MATERIALS üEnhance input through bolding key vocabulary in materials. ü Provide word banks and glossaries for important terms. Provide brief explanations of grammar points as needed. ü Adapt texts by providing “less academic” alternative phrasing for “more academic” phrases (BUT don’t replace it, supplement it)

DIFFERENTIATING PRODUCT FOR ELS --in the design of the task itself --in the expectations for successful completion of the task

THE DESIGN OF THE TASK ITSELF * Ideally, an ENL teacher should help with this. Most ENL teachers have taken course on adapting assessments for multilingual learners. Without a nuanced understanding of it, task adaptation for ELs can result in differentiating for content, which is not good practice in ENL pedagogy. -- re-wording the task assignment for greater comprehensibility according to “proficiency level” ---------------------------------------------- reduction in amount of language required to complete task. -- allowing student to complete a portion of assignment. ---------------------------------------------

EXPECTATIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION 1. Revising rubric for ELs. 2. Providing opportunities for self- and peer-assessment. 3. Providing opportunities for engaging in the process of producing work (e. g. the writing process, ongoing assessment of a skill).

ACADEMIC LANGUAGE

ACADEMIC LANGUAGE… ü is less explicit than “everyday” language. ü evokes abstract concepts” (ex. “droughts, ” “famine, ” “the Dutch government, ” “algorithms”). ü contains specialized, subject-specific vocabulary. ü often has embedded clauses (i. e. longer sentences, with cause/effect, opinion/evidence ). ü uses nominalization (ex. “the legalization of drugs, the multiplication of two variables”). ü uses passive voice (e. g. “the war was caused by poverty”).

Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills vs. Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (Cummins, 1979)

ENGAGING WITH ACADEMIC LANGUAGE 1. Move Toward Complex Texts by asking top-down questions and building background information. 2. Model the Use Of Academic Language by re-voicing student contributions and replacing BICS with CALP. ex. Teacher: And what were your results? Student: Um, they stuck together. other. Teacher: Right! They stuck together, they attracted each 3. Talk Explicitly about Academic Language. Discuss styles typical to your academic subject (for instance, cause/effect is often an organizing principle in science; ”If/then” in geometry)

ENGAGING WITH ACADEMIC LANGUAGE, CONT’D. 4. Word Walls with specialized vocabulary words and their meanings. (NOTE: Multilingual word walls can be a variation of this). 5. Semantic Webs can help students organize information. Vocabulary can be reinforced here, too. 6. Cloze Texts can make salient grammatical forms or vocabulary words. 7. When introducing vocabulary, introduce collocations. ex. depression https: //www. thoughtco. com/what-is-collocation-words-1689865 https: //www. lextutor. ca/key/

PRAGMATICS What is pragmatics? How is it useful in the classroom?

COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE Vocabulary Grammar Language PRAGMATICS Pronunciation

PRAGMATICS Study of language as a tool of social interaction (Wierzbicka, 2003). --------The study of meaning in context (all that surround the language). Study of relative distance between speakers More gets communicated than what is said!

HAVING COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE means knowing more than grammar and vocabulary. It means knowing how to use language in socially appropriate ways. Hymes (1966)

WHY TEACH PRAGMATICS? Teaching pragmatics is not “frosting on the cake” (Beebe, 1995) -- native speakers are less forgiving of pragmatic error than any other kind. (Tannen, 1985) Assessing our students’ existing pragmatic knowledge and developing our students’ awareness of pragmatics is crucial to developing communicative competence.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? COLUMN A COLUMN B That car is red. I promise I’ll be there. I went to the store yesterday. I forgive you. She is going to get married! I’d like to invite you and your family over for dinner.

SPEECH ACTS Actions performed by words: by saying the words, you are doing the action. -- developed by the philosophers Austin (1962) and Searle (1969). -- Blum-Kulka (1997) argued that speech acts are basic unit of linguistic communication Greetings, requests, complaints, compliments, apologies, refusals… Can you provide any others?

DOING SPEECH ACTS: ROLE PLAYS Situation #1: You are meeting a friend for dinner. Traffic is heavy, and you are running 30 minutes late (your phone is dead, so you can’t text or call). What do you say to your friend when you get to your destination? Situation #2: You have scheduled a meeting with your professor in your grad program for a make-up quiz. You are running 30 minutes late (your phone is dead, so you can’t text or call). What do you say to your professor when you get to your destination? Situation #3: You have a job interview. Traffic is heavy, and you are running 30 minutes late (your phone is dead, so you can’t text or call). What do you say when you get to your destination?

ENGLISH APOLOGY SPEECH ACT SET Express apology (statement of remorse): “I’m sorry. ” Acknowledge responsibility: “I should have left earlier. ” Explain situation: “Traffic was horrible. ” Offer repair: “Coffee is on me/ I’ve got all afternoon. ” Promise forbearance: “I’ll be sure to leave earlier next time. ”

Mini-task: What happens here? Did the man apologize? https: //www. youtube. com/w atch? v=0_Qfil. Vb. Ad 4&list=R D 0_Qfil. Vb. Ad 4

WHY ARE SPEECH ACTS IMPORTANT FOR ELS? When spoken/written in English, they usually require politeness, deference, or indirectness. (cf other languages). They are an integral part of communicative competence. They often come as part of a speech act set, of which “native speakers” are not necessarily aware.

BEYOND SPEECH ACTS: ADJACENCY PAIRS Speech Acts don’t occur in a vacuum. “There is a relation between speech acts, and that conversation contains frequently occurring patterns, in pairs of utterances known as adjacency pairs. ” (Cutting, 2002)

ADJACENCY PAIRS Person A: Hi, How are you? Person B: ________ Greeting→Greeting Person A: What time is it? Person B: ___________ Question→Answer

MORE COMPLICATED ADJACENCY PAIRS Person A: Do you want to grab dinner tonight? Person B: ____________ Invitation ⇗acceptance ⇘refusal Person A: I’m really upset by what you said last night. Person B: _________________ Complaint ⇗apology ⇘disagreement

PREFERENCE ORGANIZATION (POMERANTZ, 1984) Certain speech acts could have more than one type of second part of an adjacency pair. The “preferred” response is the socioculturally “expected” response (NOTE: NOT about personal preference) examples: invitations prefer acceptance; proposals prefer agreements complaints prefer apologies

PREFERENCE ORGANIZATION, CONT’D. Preferred response: --comes immediately (no pauses) --not a lot of disfluency (no ‘well, ’ or ‘um, ’ or ‘uh’) --less words Dispreferred response: --uses more politeness strategies --has more hedges & pauses --has more explanations & accounts

EXAMPLE: SOCIAL STUDIES How can teachers focus on pragmatics here?

EXAMPLE: SCIENCE

EXAMPLE: ELA https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=FGLJIq 7 b. Giw Hamlet asks like he is mentally unstable to fool Polonius and others about his plan to murder Claudius. Hamlet interacts in a way that alarms Polonius. What kinds of things does he do? What would have been appropriate?

Use Sentence Frames that incorporate a strong language focus. Have the frame reflect real language in use, not idealized language. Two Sample Frames for Accountable Talk: So, I (just) want to add _________. (Well/Actually), I am not so sure that I agree with __________.

THANK YOU!! cbox@upenn. edu Penn GSE 3700 Walnut Street, #202 Philadelphia, PA 19104 #novanation