WK3 Assignment rough draft

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School

Walden University *

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Course

6708

Subject

Linguistics

Date

Dec 6, 2023

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by dernst1964

1 WK3 Assignment rough draft approx 2-3 pages Part 1: Student Language Background: Valuable Data for Linguistically Accessible Instruction Students come to school with a variety of language experiences based on language exposure in the home. Differences in dialect, home language, and exposure to written text can impact students’ academic success. EL students have the added difficulty of navigating between their native language and the academic language required at school. Most EL students use their native language outside of school and quickly develop conversational fluency in their second language. Often they have difficulty in reading and writing in their second language because they have not acquired sufficient academic vocabulary in the target language. As educators, we need to recognize the first language strengths that EL students bring to the classroom and use evidence-based instructional practices to support our culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Lilya is a seven-year-old Ukrainian student who has recently arrived in the United States. She is fluent in both Ukrainian and Russian and has some English language skills. The family only speaks Ukrainian at home. Her social life revolves around church activities, and she receives Ukrainian language instruction through her church once a week. Education is important to her family, but her parents feel that their involvement is intrusive and disrespectful. Lilya was performing well academically in the Ukraine and continues to perform well in math, but is presently struggling in reading and writing. She receives 45 minutes of small group instruction from an ELL specialist daily in addition to her regular classes. Lilya has a strong foundation in her native language and some English language proficiency, which is a valuable resource to introducing and adding both conversational academic vocabulary (Halbach, 2012; Brooks & Karathanos, 2009). Additionally, the continued reading and writing instruction in Ukrainian will

2 WK3 Assignment rough draft approx 2-3 pages further support her English language acquisition by providing opportunities to code-switch to demonstrate her knowledge in all subject areas. This additional language instruction, in conjunction with small group instruction from the ELL specialist, will provide Lilya with the tools needed to compare language structures and access content schema and knowledge. Established L1 literacy skills transfer to L2 literacy acquisition and improve student L2 proficiency (Guo, 2018). Since her family speaks only Ukrainian at home, as Lilya’s English language proficiency increases, she could be a translator for her family, thus building her exposure to both languages and promoting bi-literacy. Literacy learning is a multi-component process that requires cognitive and linguistic knowledge. The cognitive processes of ELs are even more tasked as they embark on learning English language skills, word decoding, and conversational and academic vocabulary acquisition. Based on Lilya’s profile, I would provide a variety of evidence-based instructional strategies to support her English language learning. The first instructional strategy that I would implement is the use of visual aids in both languages. Visuals such as illustrations, anchor charts, graphic organizers, and sentence frames scaffold academic vocabulary and allow students a reference between the native language and the target language. Labeled illustrations, pictures, or other text graphics will enable students to access prior knowledge and relate it through L1 or L2 language. Anchor charts and graphic organizers in both languages provide students with opportunities to connect their native language to the target language while demonstrating their understanding and prior knowledge of the content. Additionally providing visual aids through technology via interactive whiteboard lessons or through student used computer platform aids in student language learning and offers interactive engagement in learning. These scaffolds can support language learning in all content areas by providing students access to information that

3 WK3 Assignment rough draft approx 2-3 pages promotes engagement in classroom discourse and encourages ELs to communicate their ideas and understanding in the classroom (Ryoo & Bedell, 2017). Purposefully providing these supports and using a gradual release of responsibility as students become more proficient reduces the student’s cognitive load allows EL students to focus on content learning while supporting English language acquisition (Halwani, 2017; Minaabad, 2017). A second strategy that I would implement is cooperative learning groups. Cooperative learning groups maximize learning experiences through peer collaboration, where the success of the group is based on all students’ contributions (Lange, Costly, Han, 2016). These learning groups can be heterogeneously or homogenously created depending on the needs of the students or the desired learning outcomes. Since literacy is multifaceted and includes reading, writing, speaking and listening, cooperative learning groups provide opportunities for ELs to become language users rather than just learners of the target language. Since Lilya is shy and has difficulty making new friends, I would provide her with a classroom buddy to ease her transition in the new learning environment. This classroom buddy would initially be a part of the Lilya’s assigned collaborative group. Carefully scaffolded collaborative groups, like Kagan structures, provide ELs an opportunity to share their knowledge and expand their language use and acquisition in a safe environment and can have favorable effects on morale, motivation, and self- image (Pham, 2017). Language learning is a social construct whereby oral language develops before academic or written language. Yusuf, Jusoh, and Yusuf (2019), Zarifi and Taghavi (2016), and Bilen and Tavil (2015) emphasize the use of cooperative groups to provide the student social interactions necessary to develop vocabulary, grammar usage, and writing skills through peer support.

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