The Nuts and Bolts of Language Development for Dual

Language Learners and Others Pre-K through Grade 3

Presented by Sally Grimes, Ed.M.

October 14, 2013Seventh Annual Response to

Intervention Best Practices Institutewww.grimesreadinginstitute.com

Agenda for Parts 1 and 2

• Background Information: Language and Literacy…From Speech to Print

• ELL’s and Other Low-Level-Language-Learners

• Hands-on Activities and Ideas– Using Trade Books to Build Oral Language– An Oral Language Program– Dialogic Reading

Source: Hollis Scarborough, Ph.D.

ORAL LANGUAGEPlanting Seeds for the Foundation of Reading

Nancy Telian

Language Development For All Learners:

Dual Language Learners

Single Language Learners

From Speech to Print

Why Oral Language Matters…

Think, Pair, Share…Turn and Talk

ProfessionalWorking

ClassPoverty

-------------------------------------------------------------45 million

--------------------------------------26 million

------------13 million

Total words addressed to child by age 4

1.Oral LanguageSpeaking and Listening

2.Print KnowledgeConcepts of PrintAlphabet KnowledgeWriting

3.Phonological ProcessingActivities to Build Awareness of Sounds of Spoken Language

National Early Literacy Panel: What To Teach – What is Most Predictive?

1. Targeted – Direct – Explicit

2. Systematic – Sequential

3.One skill at a time or one set of inter-related skills

National Early Literacy Panel: The Most Effective Methods with ELL’s & Others Who Struggle With Language

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Hypothetical “Matthew Effect “ ~ The Rich Get Rich and The Poor Get Poorer

Average Progression

Poor Reader

Grades

Important Practices• It is important to remember to “draw out” (Latin:

educare) the “low level language learners” (L4’s) who may be hesitant to answer and/or volunteer information…risking being wrong.

• Often, the high verbal children “take over”.• Also, we know that, even in mono-lingual

classrooms there are multiple levels of abilities regarding listening, processing and formulating language ….so small homogeneous flexible grouping is critical.

Remember…Impoverished children, ELL’s, and children with

weak language need:• More instruction in vocabulary and English

phonemes & other things related to the story• Explicit teaching of certain ordinary concepts

and classic stories and poems• Special attention paid to “function words”

(e.g. prepositions, conjunctions) • Action, music, art, multi-sensory scaffolding• Repetition and Repetition and Repetition

This Means Changing EducationScreening and Progress Monitoring are a must for

the Strugglers…

If they aren’t “ready”, we have to help them GET ready! We Can’t “Just Wait”

• We need to go back to the point of breakdown…• We need to differentiate instruction…small “flex groups” and

ongoing Progress Monitoring• “Monitor and Adjust” (Madeline Hunter)• Pre-Teach, Teach, Re-Teach• I Do, We Do, You Do (MORE “WE DO’s” needed!)

Let’s Practice…The “30 Second Conversation”

What is it? Make a list of the “Low Level Language Learners” (L 4 kiddos)

The adults “adopt” two of these children a week and find 30 Seconds each day to take the child aside and elicit language about something interesting to the child. At first, there may be no language, eyes cast downward, mumbles…but, steadfastly, the adult waits, listens, lingers…and goes back the next day…and the next day…for a week. DEMONSTRATION

LET’S TRY IT IN PAIRS….Turn and Talk…WHAT HAPPENED?

Recasting

“She liky how she play ball.”

*Refine the grammar and pronunciation.She likes how he plays ball.

*Expand the meaning/vocabulary.She admires how well he plays basketball.

Barbara Gaiser

Recasting Practice

“Me talkee Spanish – English more hard.”

*Refine the pronunciation and grammar._______________________________________

*Expand the vocabulary and meaning._______________________________________

Ideas for Caregivers and Teachers • Show pictures of workers -have child talk about what the workers do.• Show pictures of buildings (P.O., church, etc.) and have child tell what

it is and what goes on there.• Find action pictures and have child discuss it.• Matching pictures and tell have child tell why they match• Have child describe objects: color, size, shape, and feel.• “Take Ten” minutes each day… in car or home to consistently work on

games of words and books…quality vs. quantity…a routine that is fun• Take child to story hour at the library routinely• Turn off the television!• Have child learn about American customs and activities

Hints to use at School and at Home…for Talking

Speak clearly…articulateSpeak SLOWLY…made it a “school rule”Be positiveUse few wordsUse well chosen words

Ask for feedbackRepeatedly use chosen vocabulary words (6-12 times) Reward use of chosen vocabulary words (class goal?)Extend their short sentences or phrasesWait - “Dead Air” is OKAY…even GOOD!Rephrase and RespondListen Hard…BE there with them

Story Grammar or Structure

• Help emphasize the “beginning, middle and end” of discourse (connected text…oral or written)

• Provide concrete objects to help scaffold this (see “Big Al” ideas)

• As the structure gets more involved with foreshadowing or flashbacks with older students, etc., help provide more scaffolds

• Explicitly show them what the structure is and have them use the props to explain it (note puppets etc. in “Big Al” ideas.)

Props

• Vocabulary Builder: ASK ME ABOUT…• Calendars• Picture Cards with and without words• Photographs, Nature Artifacts, Food• Objects of Interest • Puppets reflecting the Story for Retell (Big Al)• Story Maps for Story Retell• Graphic Organizers (Beginning, Middle, End)• Music, poetry, language play, movement

SHARING HAND

WHO

WHATWHEREWHEN

WHY

HOW

“The Describing Hierarchy” (Neuhaus.org) Let’s Practice A Lesson

• Name the Object and the Group It Is In (important)• Descriptor Words (color, size, shape, feel, use)• Action Words (what something does or did or will do)• Comparison Words (short, shorter, shortest)• Position Words (below, above, beneath, beside)• Use of “Sparkle Words”

Every Day Conversation…At a “Talking Table” or ANY where• Word Families (jump, jumps, jumped, jumping)• Morphological Families (unicycle, bicycle, tricycle)• Speak in Complete Sentences (Be a “Say the Whole Thing School”)• Use props and manipulatives…Remember “Muscle Memory”

( EXPANSION: Clap syllables, say beginning sounds, rhyme, connect to print, play with words, play with names …..Sharon, barron, larren, etc.)

Using Trade Books to Expand Oral Language: e.g. “Big Al”

Refer to Handout and …Let’s Practice!

1.The ability to understand language…Receptive language: listening and reading

2. The ability to use words to acquire & convey meaning…Expressive or productive language: speaking and writing

What is Vocabulary Development?

Important• It is important to remember that a major goal is to

lift up the “low level language learners” (L4’s) who may be hesitant to answer and volunteer information…risking being wrong.

• Often, the high verbal children “take over”.• The “pre-teach, teach, re-teach” method helps.• Also, we know that there are multiple levels of

abilities regarding listening, processing and formulating language in any classroom or group of same aged children, so “teaching down the middle” does not work.

Example of Tier Two words using CAPS FOR SALE

Once there was a peddler who sold caps. But he was not like an ordinary peddler carrying his wares on his back. He carried them on top of his head.

First he had on his own checked cap, then a bunch of gray caps, then a bunch of brown caps, then a bunch of blue caps and on the very top, a bunch of red caps.

Vocabulary Issues• The principle of good vocabulary instruction is that it is very

time consuming, so choose words with care. – (High frequency words that “stretch”)– Tier 2 Words per Isabel Beck (Bringing Words To Life)

Re s e a r c h : Te a c h e r ’s v o c a b u l a r y m a tt e r s , s o l e t ’s s t r e t c h !

Text Talk: Vocabulary Instruction Plan– Teacher puts the word in context– Child repeats the word– Teacher explains meaning– Child provides his/her own examples– Child says the word again

Children’s Work

• Predicting, based on cover, etc.• Pointing, to find words and pictures• Retelling story in their own words• Sorting words into categories• Write sentences, words, ideas from book• “Own” a word and find out about it and share

Teacher’s Work Pre-teach, teach, re-teach

Story line, setting, characters, problem, solutionVocabulary words

Do a KWL chart….Have a Listening/Language CenterStructure seating of children to enhance attentionComment on responses and “draw out” language

Pair off kids for “think, pair, share”Make it “okay” and even “good” to make mistakes

Susan Ebbers 2005 29

photographpolygraphmimeographphonographtelegraphparagraph

telegrammammogramhistogramanagramcryptogrammonogramelectrocardiogram

photographercartographergeographercryptographerautobiographerxylographerpaleographerbiographer

graphitegraphemegraphologistgraphicgraphically

grammar schoolgrammar booksrules of grammargrammaticalgrammaticallyungrammaticalungrammaticallygrammatology

graph

grammar

gram, graphto write, writtenGreek

gram

Susan Ebbers 2005 30

Latin: Some Common Roots

trans port abledis rupt ionpre script ionre tract orinter cept ionpro ject ilede struct ioncon duct ordis miss alsub vers ivee dict

to carryto breakto writeto pullto taketo throwto buildto leadto sendto turnto speak

Susan Ebbers 2005 31

20 Most Frequent Prefixes in School Texts

1. unable 2. review inedible (impotent, illegal, irresponsible)

distrust enlighten (empower) nonsense inside,

implant overcome

misguided submarine prefix interrupt forewarn

derail transfer supersonic semicircle antitrust

midterm underfed Analysis: White, Sowell, and Yanagihara 1989

Miscellaneous Ideas

• Track with finger with younger children and struggling readers to connect speech to print

• Build “word consciousness” by sending home a few carefully chosen words for home use and reward the use of them...”sparkle words”

• As children share ideas, teacher returns to story to connect that idea with the story.

• Weave in phonological & phonemic awareness

Story Grammar or Structure

• Help emphasize “beginning, middle and end” of printed and oral language

• Provide concrete objects to help scaffold this• As the structure gets more involved with

foreshadowing or flashbacks with older students, etc., help provide more scaffolds

• Explicitly show them what the structure is and have them use the props to explain it.

Big Al Activities….See Handout

Most English words are infrequent and teachers need to carefully select those that you take time to teach. (from word lists, books they are

reading, & from students themselves).

Build “word consciousness” by selecting a few carefully chosen words for home use and reward the use of them…Tier Two ”sparkle words”

(Isabel Beck – Bringing Words to Life)

For Example: Big Al Tier Two Words:

• Flopped Excuse• Captured Blame• BulgedWiggled• Disguise Shame• Steered Least• Gills Puffed

Vocabulary Issues for ELL Students

• Due to poor and interrupted schooling, ELL students may lack background knowledge as well as English vocabulary.

• ELL’s and English speaking students may have different concepts for the same label.

36

Susan Ebbers 2005 37

Cognates Connect English and Spanish through Latin Origins

Romance Languages (e.g., Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, etc.) share the same Latin roots

Morta: Roman goddess of death

Example: The Latin root for the word death is mort. The French spell it morte and the Spanish, muerte. In English, we have a whole network of related words: mortal, immortal, mortality, mortician, mortuary, postmortem, etc.

Ebbers, 2004

Comprehension: Research for ELL’sA Review:

• Too few studies to determine best way to facilitate comprehension in LM students.

• Only three empirical studies focused exclusively on comprehension and language-minority students. – Simplify text.

• Unlike L1 research, “strategy instruction” did not always help reading comprehension.

• We might learn more from studies that examine more than one literacy component at a time.

Academic Language• Teach academic language in the context of the content

• Work on the kinds of construction that figure in logical reasoning (such as, conditional sentences)

• Teach words that express logical relationships(if , because, therefore, however, unless, same, alike, different from, opposite of, whether, since, unless, almost, probably, exactly, not quite, always, never, etc.)

These are critical constructs that aid in understanding academic tasks because they link ideas…especially for “Low Level Language Learners” (L4’s)

Lily Wong Fillmore

Academic Language• Teach the meanings and uses of terms that express

relationships in time, space, quantity, direction, order, size, age, etc.

• Study the use of prepositions such as: above, over, from, to, near, until, toward, beside, etc.

• Adjectives/adverbial forms such as hardly, scarcely, rarely, next, last, older, younger, most, many, less, longer, least, higher and so on.

Lily Wong Fillmore

Vocabulary Issues

• There is a relatively small number of frequently appearing words and it is vital that students know them. Some have multiple meanings, like “bug”, “check” etc. Making a “octopus web” with the key word in center and varied meanings emanating outward is helpful and fun.

The Verbal Divide…VOCABULARY

43

Vocabulary: Issues/Strengths

• Words with multiple meanings can be a source of confusion; they tend to be high frequency words in English (e.g. “bug”, “stand”)

• Language-minority students who are literate in a first language that has many cognates with English

• (e.g., “magnifico”) 1/2 to 1/3 of words in a language are cognates (Susan Ebbers Vocabulogic lists cognates)

Let’s Practice Multiple Meanings(Polysemous)

• Check• Stand• Power• Even• Square

Dialogic Reading is a “dialog” about the narrative and images involved with reading to children.

• It helps children to: expand their responses and express their ideas

• It helps close the “opportunity gap”• It builds oral language, vocabulary knowledge

and listening comprehension…..all critical to the reading process

• It is also called, “Interactive Reading”

Vocabulary Building via Dialogic Reading

• At first, based on child’s level, ask child “vocabulary completion” questions ( “The dog had not eaten in a long time, so he was____”)

• Then, ask the “W’s” (Who, What, When, Where….and later Why and How)

• Then introduce new words. Expand responses by modeling and connecting to child’s life.

The Basic Tool: PEER

P – Prompt the child to talk about the book.E – Evaluate the response. E – Expand the response: re-phrase & add info.R – Repeat prompt to make sure the child has

learned from the expansion.

Do this on the 2nd reading on nearly every page and in different ways until the adult talks less and the child talks more.

Example: Adult and child looking at a book with fire engines

A: What is this (pointing)? (PROMPT)C: TruckA: That’s right; (EVALUATION)

it’s a fire truck (EXPANSION)A: Can you say “fire truck”? (REPETITION)

“PEER”NOW….PRACTICE WITH YOUR PEERS! (W/ photos?)NOW….TAKE IT TO A HIGHER LEVEL. (e.g. With older or

more “language-abled” children)

Dialogic Reading• Roles reverse: The child learns to be a story teller

– Adult reads less & listens more and gradually uses higher level prompts

– Adult moves from asking children to name objects to consider what’s happening and then relate it to child’s experiences

• Adults often need practice with the techniques ~ some are comfortable with it; some are not.

• Reading specialists and coaches help model and provide support for each technique.

• Adults need time to meet, reflect, and share questions about their ability …what’s working and what’s not. Learn from demos on Internet.

Dialogic Reading (Continued)

• Adults provide varied levels of scaffolding and concrete items and structure to help build involvement and understanding

• At first adults simply ask, “Tell me what is happening” (on a page the child knows) – e.g. “Yes, it is about a dog that is spotted and

frisky.” (“Frisky” is a Tier Two word.)

Pausing

• Pause: to give children time to process language

• Pause: to give children time to put their thoughts into words

• Most of us speak too fast

How To Prompt Children: “CROWD”

• Completion Prompts: You leave off the last word in a sentence and ask the child to fill in.– Found in rhyme books or those with repetitive

phrases– This helps provide children with information about

the structure of language that is critical to later reading

“CROWD” CONTINTUED

• Recall prompts: These are questions about what happened in a book that the child has already read. These help child understand story plot and sequences of events.

• Open-ended prompts: These focus on the pictures in books. They work best for books that have rich, detailed illustrations or books without words. For example, “Tell me what’s happening in this picture.”

“CROWD” CONTINUED

• Wh- prompts : these begin with “who, what, where, when” and move to “how” and “ why” They focus on the pictures in books for younger children and then become more abstract.

• Distancing prompts: These ask children to relate the pictures or words in the book to experiences outside the book. e.g. farm related book: “Remember when we went to the animal park. Which of these animals did we see?” (Child re-states concept and links info to his life.)

Teacher’s Work Pre-teach, teach, re-teach

Story line, setting, characters, problem, solutionVocabulary words

Do a KWL chartArrange the seating of children to enhance attentionComment on responses and “draw out” languagePose questions and comment on responsesPair off children for “think, pair, share” activitiesMake it “okay” and even good to make mistakes

Children’s Work

• Predicting, based on cover, etc.• Pointing, to find words and pictures• Retelling story in their own words• Sorting words into categories• Write sentences, words, ideas from book• “Own” a word and find out about it and share

Vocabulary Building via Dialogic Reading

• At first, based on child’s level, ask child “vocabulary completion” questions ( “The dog had not eaten in a long time, so he was____”)

• Then, ask the “W’s” (Who, What, When, Where….and later Why and How)

• Then introduce new words. Expand responses by modeling and connecting to child’s life.

Becoming A Nation of Readers

“Reading Aloud to children is known to be the single most important activity for building knowledge and skills they will eventually require to learn to read.” Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkinson (1985)

“Reading aloud also has potential to introduce children to the joy of reading, builds background knowledge, builds vocabulary, familiarizes children with text structure, concepts of print, and the distinctive characteristics of written language. Teale, 2003

Contact Info

Sally Grimes, Director The Grimes Reading Institute

978-546-2144Sallygrimes@comcast.net

www.grimesreadinginstitute.com

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!