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There is some systematicity in second language acquisition. For example, language learners generally learn concrete and contextually relevant language before more complex and abstract language. Educator and SLA researcher Jim Cummins uses the term Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) to describe the language required for specific interpersonal contexts, such as personal greetings or ordering lunch in the cafeteria.
There is also a significant degree of variability in second language acquisition, due to the many cognitive, psychological, and sociocultural factors mentioned elsewhere on this website, as well as the student’s Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) in his or her first language (Cummins, 1979). Cognitive academic language includes content-specific terminology, as well as the ability to understand and use abstract language free from visual cues or context. Since language learners are able to draw on previous knowledge of both content and language from their first language, students with a higher level of CALP in their L1 tend to learn a second language more easily. The linguistic interdependence principle (represented by the dual iceberg model below) states that while many of the surface structures of languages are different, there is an overlap, a Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP) that allows the positive transfer of content and knowledge in the first language to the L2.
An English learner may be able to understand a history or science lesson without understanding every word used in the lesson, provided that he or she already has an understanding of the concepts and the CALP in his or her first language. When language is interpreted in coordination with visual input (drawings, photos, gestures), it is often easier to understand because the EL can draw on his or her prior understanding of the visual input to facilitate comprehension when oral English alone may be insufficient. Lectures, unillustrated written texts, and other decontextualized language often provide no visual cues to aid with comprehension.
Teachers and administrators working with cultural and linguistic minority students can read and learn more about additional psychological factors that may influence these students in their learning. A student’s language ego – positive or negative identification with a certain language, such as English – will affect his or her desire to learn that language (Schumann, 1986). For example, if a student moves to the United States unwillingly, he or she may associate the English language with the other negative consequences of the move, such as leaving friends and family behind. Likewise, if a student feels that his or her own social or cultural identity is threatened by interactions with the people and/or curriculum in school, he or she is unlikely to feel invested in learning English.
Student investment and motivation are complex and challenging issues facing schools today. They are also key factors schools address when they pledge to support the achievement of all students. School staff can acknowledge their role in fostering student motivation by rejecting the assumption that motivation is intrinsic in a student and emerges naturally from his or her innate personality. Instead, they examine the host of extrinsic factors that may promote or detract from academic motivation. In other words, what are the driving forces that will lead a student to strive for school success?
English learners may be driven by one or several motivating factors to learn English and achieve in school. Some students are driven by a reward or incentive they will receive on successful completion of a specific goal. This may be a tangible, immediate reward (like a sticker or time on the computer) or it may be related to the attainment of personal goals, such as a high school diploma or an expansion of career opportunities. Other students wish to learn English in order to effectively integrate themselves into their new culture and community. Even further, some students are driven to learn the target language because of a desire to blend in and identify completely with the culture associated with that language. This type of assimilative motivation can be characteristic of students who are introduced at a young age to the target language and culture and grow up identifying more closely with the dominant culture and language than the culture and language of their home and family.
When schools effectively address psychological factors on learning such as motivation, they often explore the relationship between the dominant school culture and the student’s home culture for potential areas of conflict. Some conflicts may be the result of simple miscommunication, while others are more systematic and deeply ingrained in the beliefs and values informing curricula, school policies, and interactions with students and their families. It is important for educators, administrators, and the school community to be sensitive to these areas of potential conflict in order to provide effective instruction and promote the achievement of all students. Since school success depends on culturally-based standards of language use and interaction, educators (particularly EL teachers) should incorporate instruction of these pragmatic forms into their lessons, being careful not to belittle or threaten the students' home cultures.
When exploring the effects of language and culture on student learning and achievement, teachers and administrators sometimes play the role of ethnographers, or cultural field researchers. While being sensitive to cultural mores, teachers can find out about their students' communities by interacting with families, asking socially appropriate questions, testing their own cultural assumptions, and getting involved in community events (Heath, 1983). Through this kind of inquiry and investigation, teachers may gain insight into the linguistic, cognitive, and interaction styles in which their students have been raised at home as well as identify potential areas of conflict or misunderstanding in the classroom.
It is also helpful for cultural and linguistic majority students to understand that there are a spectrum of cognitive and communication styles valued in school and that they perceive themselves as contributing members to the group (Cohen, 1994). When a school's values, interaction styles, and instructional objectives conflict with what a student is taught at home, a number of situations can arise, ranging from difficulty understanding the curriculum to confrontational or disrespectful attitudes towards teachers or other members of school community. Educational researchers and sociologists have pointed out that cultural minority students (particularly those who are NOT recent immigrants) sometimes adopt a stance of resistance in school as a protective mechanism (Ogbu, 1987; Villegas, 1988; Darder, 1991).
When a student believes that his/her home culture is threatened or maligned, there are at least two potentially negative outcomes. First, the student may reject his/her own family traditions and values and internalize this sense of inferiority. An example of this is when a student refuses to speak the language of his/her family in favor of English only, thereby alienating him or herself at home. Alternatively, the student may reject these messages and form a resistant and/or defiant attitude in school, exemplified by a disinterest in school assignments, an apparently self-defeating outlook or resolve to fail, a pattern of cutting classes or even, ultimately, dropping out of school. In these cases, the refusal to achieve in school is not an act of ignorance, but rather of resistance (Darder, 1991).
If we accept curriculum and school policies at face value without considering the cultural perspectives inherent in all educational decisions, we help perpetuate a system that results in the success of some students over others. Schools committed to promoting the achievement of all students develop thoughtful and specific school improvement plans to address these cultural perspectives and their potential effects on the overall school experience for students of diverse backgrounds.
For more information, please visit Culturally Responsive Teaching.
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