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There are many issues confronting Long Term English Learners in California schools today. While there are many sides and aspects to their struggles, Academic Literacy is one area where educational institutions have the power to make a significant change in the lives of millions of students. And yet, the educational system has failed them for years and continues to do so. From 2003 to 2009 in California the gap between English Only and English Learner students scoring in proficient and advanced grew from 33.4 to 37.9. The group Californian's Together describes it as, "SYSTEM FAILURE! For the seventh straight year, the achievement gap between English Learners and English proficient children has widened." Missing from the rhetoric is an explanation of what is happening in schools that perpetuates and expands the gap. We’ll explore several factors that relate to Academic Literacy. Specifically, acquisition theory and second language learning, language types, the order in which skills are taught, native language literacy, the lack of curriculum, and some hope with emerging support. *1
Acquisition versus Learning The linguist James Paul Gee posits that we develop skill and understanding in any area (which he calls a 'discourse') through acquisition, learning or a combination of both of these two methods. Acquisition being the process whereby one subconsciously acquires abolition knowledge in a particular area or discourse. Everyone 'acquires' their first language and may acquire others if exposed at a young enough age. Learning, on the others hand, is a conscious process where one receives instruction in the traditional sense. English Learners, by nature of studying a foreign language, need instruction in phonology, morphology, formal - informal discourse, academic - social functions, vocabulary and syntax. *2
Three Language Tiers Language proficiency for everyone comes with a greater vocabulary and more difficult words of increasing complexity. Isabel Beck, in her book Bringing Words to Life, categorizes words as one of three tiers. In addition to the vocabulary, English Learners are also confronted with the common syntactical structures that surround specific words and the referential methods used to connect them. Expanding Beck's concept of word tiers the first tier consists of common words and basic structures used in everyday conversation such as chair, table, eat and cause effect structures using so and because. The second tier are words and structures used by mature language users across disciplines (or discourses according to Gee) like infer, comprehension, obstruction and cause-effect structures using "due to the fact that" and "as a consequence of". Other examples of tier 2 methods and structures are nominalization (changing a verb or adjective into a noun - infer to inference) and passive sentence construction without a subject (The subtract end may be substituted with the unknown variable - by whom is never mentioned, merely implied). Tier three words and structures are discipline (or discourse) specific words such as simile, piston, alliteration, personify and cause-effect structures like "The character's actions indicate ..." Secondary teachers are trained and focused on teaching content specific to their discipline. They teach Tier 3 language. They are not trained or focused on teaching the underlying language structures necessary for accessing their content. They don't teach Tier 2 language. This means EL students will spend most of their day in Tier 3 environments, with little, if any, exposure to general academic language critical to success across all disciplines. *3
The Order in which the Academics are Taught
Virtually every theory of cognitive development agrees that student develop the capacity for abstract thinking around puberty. While there are differences as to exactly what abilities children have at exactly what age, all agree that the capacity develops over time and expands dramatically around the middle school ages. For this reason we introduce simple concepts first and build up to more complex ones. The ability to acquire and learn abstract concepts is also dependent on tier 1 and tier 2language skills. Students must have reached a stage of cognitive development to be able to acquire and learn abstract concepts and they must have the language skills necessary for the communication of them. The average English Only student acquires and learns tier 1 and tier 2language at school and at home appropriate to his or her age and cognitive skills. The path is different for English Learners who acquire and learn tier 1 English at school later than their English Only peers. While English Only students are studying sequentially more difficult abstract concepts communicated by tier 2 and 3 language structures, English Learners are learning tier 1 English. Having finally learned enough tier 1 language to move on to tiers 2 and 3 language English Learners find themselves in a constant state of playing catch-up, but with no formal instruction in the missing content. Their class has moved on to more complex tier 2 and 3 language. Thus they are left to their own devices to figure out what they missed and to understand language for which they have a weak foundation. This helps explain why English learners are so far behind by 7th grade. In 2009 in our district 19% of 2nd grade English Learners are proficient or advanced in ELA. In 7thgrade the number has dropped to 5%. For English Only students the numbers are quite different. They increase from 46% of 2nd graders to 60% of 7th graders. *4
Tier 2 Knowledge and Cultural Background English Learners who have Academic Literacy in their own language find it much easier to obtain the same in English. For them, there are no new concepts to learn, merely the English equivalents. For most Long Term English Learners, however, the possibility for obtaining academic literacy in their native tongue is extremely unlikely as they have gone to school in the U.S. for most, if not all of their academic careers, and instruction hereis almost exclusively in English. The following profile illustrates a common Long Term English Learner. Parents have little education in their native language, so there is no possibility of gaining academic literacy from language spoken at home. The student enters kindergarten learning English. In three years the child has mastered conversation and can communicate socially like a native speaker, but is behind academically. The student's academic gap grows as school becomes more rigorous. By middle school the student is years behind. There is no middle school program for a student who's been here 6 years and speaks fluent conversational English. Instead, the student is placed in intervention classes. In contrast, a student coming from Mexico with a 7th grade education there is academically at grade level in all content areas, just not in English. This child is able to learn some 8th grade content, even in English, because the 7th grade foundation is in place. Unfortunately the former scenario (59% of ELs are Long Termers) predominates. *5
The Secondary Intervention Sentence Having nowhere else to put Long Term English Learners in secondary schools (Like an appropriately leveled English Language Development Class), they are traditionally placed in intervention classes and excluded from the mainstream. Intervention classes were intended to fill gaps in students' education while they continue in mainstream classes. Unfortunately EL students rarely return from intervention. Not only does the lack of proficiency in English (In my district 0% of all ELs in 10th and 11th grade in 2009) perpetuate, math is not much better. In 2009 in my district’s middle schools 62 ELs were in 8th grade. Only 3 took a course in Algebra I, which is the state mandated curriculum. Without grade level skills, ELs wind up being remediated through their entire secondary careers. Again, in my district, out of 158 ELs in 9th, 10th and 11th grade only 8 took Geometry or Algebra II, and only one took chemistry. *6
An Academic Language Curriculum and Conclusions Perhaps the biggest issue confronting Long Term English Learners is the curriculum. Or, more specifically, the lack of one created to meet their needs. While there is an abundance of texts throughout the world geared toward teaching English as a second language, they all presume academic literacy in the student's native language. The lack of curriculum makes it difficult to decide to teach Tier 2 academic language gaps. While the answer seems to be to create such a curriculum, this alone cannot makeup for the students in Elementary school who will continue to be left behind and secondary students who will require a year or more of such curriculum before being ready for the core secondary curriculum in English. Certainly a clearly defined academic language curriculum for English Learners at the middle and high schools levels is critical, there is also the need for English Language Development in the content specific classes. ELA, History, Science and Math teachers must include instruction in the language structures necessary to be fully literate in their disciplines. Since competence in these structures up to now has been assumed, the exact structures need to be defined and integrated into the text. Alternatively, a text of content specific structures could be created as a reference for teachers in each discipline. Teachers must also be shown the difference in process between making content accessible to English Learners and teaching discipline specific academic language. Recommendations • Clearly define the scope and sequence of a Tier 2 Academic Language curriculum for Intermediate and Advanced English Learners at grade level spans from 4th - 12th grade. • Clearly define the scope and sequence of Tier 3 Language Structures necessary for obtaining fluency in each content area at each grade level from 4th grade onward. • Train teachers in ELD as a separate content area with separate standards. Create a separate training for teachers of Long Term English Learners. • Train content teachers in Tier 3 Language Structure instruction. • Provide content instruction in the student's native language.
Emerging Support for Tier 2 Instruction Though no curriculum exists to address the specific needs of foundation level academic language deficient students, there has been work done in defining the scope such instruction must take. Avril Coxhead created the academic word list, which contains 570 foundation level Tier 2 academic word families. Numerous books and articles have been published discussing English Learners and Academic Language. ELD and Tier 3 Language Structure support curriculum for Long Term English Learners are being developed by at least one company, EL Achieve. *7
Sources 1. Californian's Together - http://www.californianstogether.org 2. James Paul Gee, "What is Literacy", Journal of Education, Volume 171, Number 1, 1989 3. Isabel Beck, Bringing Words to Life 4. California Department of Education Website: Star Test Results for 2009. http://star.cde.ca.gov/star2009/Index.asp 5. Californian's Together - Report "Reparable Harm: Fulfilling the Unkept Promise of Educational Opportunity for California’s Long Term English Learners" 6. Ibid 4 7. Academic Language Resources: ◦ Avril Coxhead, Academic Word List, http://www.academicvocabularyexercises.com/ ◦ Jeff Zwiers, Building Academic Language
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