PERSPECTIVES ON STUDENT LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT &
IMMERSION
(Excerpts from Language and Children: Making the
Match
Helena Curtain and Carol Pesola, Longman Press, 1994)
A. PRINCIPLES [Conversion to reflect LEP situation
in basic subjects.]
1.
Communication motivates all language use. [Related to this is
the conceptualization that students' learning reflects, in essence, what
they bring to school with them. A logical rationale follows:
Schools and educators should allow for maximum interaction between
educational goals, content, techniques and personalities, and the learning
sets and experiences which students represent.
2. Oral
language is used naturally in a classroom. [Accepting student
as co-equals in the teaching/leaning process implies that we use their
experiences in myriad ways to help them achieve meaningful achievements
with the contexts, skills and content of learning.]
3. Language
is a tool of instruction [DWG: not the sole means
of communicating knowledge. This requires educators to spend time
learning about the cognitive and individual perspectives of particular
students in the classroom which is represented by millions of stored
memories, any one of which is potentially available for meaningful
connections in the new language.]
4. Subject
content is taught in the target language. [But, teachers must
recognize the particular language form in/by which particular content is
based and conveyed. Beyond the conceptualization of learners' strategies
and knowledge is the ability of conceptualization and creation of
situations for the perspective of student development of the content that
we teach, within a context of meaningful use of the language.]
5. The sequence of grammar follows the
elementary language arts curriculum or is dictated by communication
needs. [The specific language to receive attention
in the classroom reflects the communication needs on the particular
concepts being taught.]
6. Error
correction is minimal. [Spend more time attending to students'
messages than the specific by which they are transmitted. Use sound
techniques for focussing on the appropriate context for correct language
use rather than just the correct answer or correct response.]
7. Use of
native and target languages are kept separate.
8. Reading
material begins with previously mastered oral language. [Use
students' indications of readiness for content material to read. Use
analysis of content found in reading to develop student skill in analyzing
and using information.]
9. Literary
skills developed in the home language transfer to reading in
English. [Allow for recognition of content language before
asking students to respond specifically to language oriented
questions.]
10. Culture
is an integral component of language teaching. [See above
conceptualization concerning what students bring to school that reflects
knowledge, skills, attitudes, morals and other influences from their
cultural backgrounds no two of which are alike even in the same ethnic
group.]
11. Second
language atmosphere permeates the classroom
and the school. [Labeling items to be learned, and using the
particular words in developing new concepts will aid the transfer of them
from curriculum to child.]
B. STRATEGIES
1. Make
regular use of context clues (gestures, facial expressions and body
language; of concrete referents, such as props, realia, manipulative, and
visuals.) [Analyze your content regarding its extension of
human competence, as the child goes from one learning situation to another
both in your own classroom and throughout the school day, month,
term.]
2. Provide
hands-on experiences for students, accompanied by oral and written
language. [Not overburdened with language
surrounding the material much less the language of the material,
itself.]
3. Use
modified language when necessary to make the target language
[and the content] more comprehensible. [Cited:
controlled, standardized vocabulary, controlled sentence length and
complexity, moderate speech rate (not artificially slow), restatements,
expansions, and repetitions. See, also, six stages, and variations and
extensions of the context.]
4. Accelerate
student communication by teaching functional chunk of
language. [Use functional chunks of content as the basis for
focussing on language structure and vocabulary. Use new vocabulary in
context and vary the context to reinforce single concepts before moving on
to many others on the list.]
5. Monitor
student comprehension through interactive means.
6. Use the
language experience approach to reading for content.
IMPLICATIONS
1. When one
is trying to communicate, attention diverted to language form and
vocabulary can interfere with students' hesitancy to speak.
[Use of negative vs positive examples of the rule in the expository
approach can confuse the LEP child.]
2. Greater
competence can be developed as learners are allowed to experiment with
their incipient abilities, exploring a wide range of domains of language
use and relationships among students' communications on similar
topics. [Use any language pattern under control of students -
from their own communication - as the basis for exploring other knowledge
or perspectives that may be readily available.]
3. It is
within the context of mistakes that a person learning a new language often
discovers and internalizes the proper modes of behavior. [Many
mistakes in the content based classroom will result from lack of control
of specific (also, general) language needed to make an adequate response.
Give the answer, or another time and vary the context for greater
understanding.
4. Teachers
could select concepts which can serve as the basis of language deriving
language from meaningful, natural episodes of life. [Extending
language practice to meaningful experiences, however valuable, puts this
aspect of the language situation behind the basis of interaction which is
the basis of the language to be learned in the first place. Language
proceeds from unique, meaningful personal experiences.]
5. Since
learners come in to class with a full set of language patterns in L1, and
millions of personal referents, any of which can be triggered by an
appropriate reference, image, symbol, etc., we must find ways to develop
equally complex sets of L2 patterns connected to the same unique base of
experiences - without going through translations of images from one
language to the other.
6. In the
final analysis, teachers must become masters of the medium of language
(the patterns and contexts of communication) in order to focus students'
attention on meaning and not on grammatical, syntactical or lexical
symbols, paradigms or rules. Language control, then, comes from human
beings being in control of familiar, and gradually, new behavior patterns
of human beings in daily life and natural communication situations.
The benefits of this approach are summarized as follows:
Teachers and learners would share together in the learning process as
co-equals within a natural context whereby both individuals learn about
each other as unique personalities willing to facilitate each others'
tasks and sharing in mutual successes.
See, also, ESOL Rationales
Also, visit the FLES page
See, also, Methodology page
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