Progression of learning a language

Progression of learning a language

3rd November, 2015
 

Adelle explores the natural progression of learning a new language

Update: the French student I am tutoring in English has his test this Saturday! I haven’t been able to see him face to face in the past two weeks, but regular phone calls and sending writing samples has kept up communication and he has improved so much! We have moved on from structures and now focus on specific vocabulary and grammar in his writing. He continues to use the structures I offered him and his writing now comes a lot more fluently. I am proud of what he has achieved and wish him all the best for this weekend!

When learning or teaching a new language to students, referring to the natural progression of language learning is a “can’t go wrong” structure. Coincidentally, the four key skills of the literacy curriculum are the same as the natural progression of learning a language. We focus on all four when teaching in schools.

Each language skill has a different set or coinciding set of sub-skills taught to master the main skills.

The natural progression is as follows;

• Listening
• Speaking
• Reading
• Writing

It makes sense!

The importance to communicate and understand aurally and orally before text skills is of great concern to any human.

I have been lucky enough to do some travel and have visited France frequently. I have connections with various teachers of primary school aged students and due to the common bi or tri-lingual skills of the majority of Europeans; they have been faced with some challenges. One in particular had a student who didn’t know a word of French. I asked her how she taught that student. Body language and voice was her response. Before pushing this student to meet the demands of a curriculum she had to first ensure he could understand direction and develop his communication. Through constant use of and exposure to the French language, as well as her using gestures and body language, her student had progressed so much in four months that he was level with her French national students. She nurtured his development of the language and put the curriculum aside until he was ready or she felt she could challenge him further. Indicating things, using actions and relying on body language was vital.

This inspired me. Children have the ability to learn so much and be influenced so quickly. They are brilliant beings who can absorb so much and I feel it’s so important to remember this. We as teachers have the responsibility to know our students and what level they are at. This French teacher knew her student and helped him in what he needed before conceding to pressure from the designed curriculum. Prioritising is a part of the profession most definitely.

There is quite a long video from 1983 by the BBC. It explains various techniques when learning and teaching languages. It is really interesting and I’d encourage viewing it if you have a spare hour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utDs2tI14IQ

A key thing to remember, listening is a developed skill and through exposure listening will progress to speaking. Babies listen before they speak, crawl before they learn to walk. Having patience and giving opportunities for language students to progress on that natural scale is significant.

My upcoming entries will be coming from France when I have the opportunity to observe some different French classrooms. I am also learning French and will see how quickly my own language learning skills will advance being immersed in the language.

Just as doctors make the worst patients, they say teachers make the worst students. However, our profession is one that is constantly updated, changing and we need to have a growth mindset that enables us to adapt and change with it. We are always learning.

- Adelle

Accommodating for English Language Learners

Accommodating for English Language Learners

13th October, 2015
 

Adelle explores the diversity in the classroom when students who are learning English as an additional language are involved.

Recently I have begun tutoring an adult, older than myself, in English. He is French and needs to sit the IELTS exam to be sponsored and therefore, extend his visa to remain in Australia.

On the initial session with him, he told me he mainly needs help with writing and listening. After discussing a topic for 10 minutes, I was confident that he understood what he had to do and he was able to discuss his ideas well, so I assumed his writing should reflect this.

I was very quickly surprised by the struggles he had in doing this.

The concept of writing for an audience flustered him and he was not sure where to begin.

This got me thinking, wouldn’t this be true of a child as well?

Discussing ideas and speaking is a very different concept than writing. Whether it is formal or informal writing, putting your words onto a page can quickly make you doubt yourself as a student, and your abilities in the language you speak.

I don’t know how many of you have attempted to learn or have successfully learnt another language, but more often than not you will find your own strength whether it be listening, writing, reading or speaking. Can you imagine only speaking English, moving to a new school in a foreign country and having instruction in the native language? Then be expected to participate in all four areas (reading, writing, speaking & listening) of the literacy curriculum and then be assessed on that?

What a daunting prospect!

A focus on oral language acquisition has been dominant when implementing strategies to help these students, however the need for focus on the other areas and giving explicit instruction is integral in them gaining confidence in all areas of English. However the need to not look at their work as critically as other students is just as important.

I read an article just last week on a new concept called “generous reading”. Ultimately it’s an assessment strategy to use with ELL’s and it involves viewing the student’s work as;

"Writing, that is, as legitimate text, with the assumption that it does make sense, carries its own internal logic, is justifiably studied as any other text, literary or expository”.

This strategy is used for students who are not yet ready for critical review of the grammar, cohesion and spelling in their work. It instead focuses on questions for the teacher to think about when reading the child’s work and gaining knowledge

of how the child is influenced, their viewpoints and what they have learnt due to mimicking etc.

The angle I took with my student was to initially work on the structure and give him some sentence starters and sentence patterns to remember. I used the ‘generous reading’ strategy initially with my student’s work, only looking for structure and if his ideas were being expressed as he wanted them to be.

We focussed on persuasive writing and developed structures together that included an introduction, outline or points and summary. I used topics that he was interested in so he could build confidence in his ability to create a cohesive piece.

Just adding some simple sentence starters; Firstly. Secondly, Therefore, Whereas, For example, Lastly, or the phrase; On the other hand, his writing improved dramatically.

Further along, I will focus on his grammar, spelling and punctuation once he has accomplished confidence in expressing his ideas in an organised way for a writing task.

I believe giving children an initial structure to follow is a starting point that can be further expanded after developing knowledge and confidence in the language. Using generous reading as an assessment technique not only enables teachers to build stronger relationships with students by learning who they are and where their writing skills are derived from. It also turns the focus away from grammar and writing concepts and instead focuses on the child perspectives and if they are able to express their thoughts on paper. Although grammar, punctuation and spelling is important, it is not the priority when beginning to express your thoughts on a page.

The article “Generous Reading: Seeing Students Through Their Writing” - Lucy K. Spence, can be found here http://www.jstor.org/stable/25656174

Check it out; I would love to read your thoughts.

- Adelle