Planning for bilingual learners : an inclusive curriculum PDF
Preview Planning for bilingual learners : an inclusive curriculum
PLANNING FOR BILINGUAL LEARNERS an inclusive curriculum PLANNING FOR BILINGUAL LEARNERS an inclusive curriculum edited by Maggie Gravelle Trentham Books Stoke on Trent, UK and Sterling, USA Trentham Books Limited Westview House 22883 Quicksilver Drive 734 London Road Sterling Oakhill VA 20166-2012 Stoke on Trent USA Staffordshire England ST4 5NP © 2000 Maggie Gravelle All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. First published 2000 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library isbn 978 1 85856 717 4 Contents Chapter 1 Introduction• 1 Maggie Gravelle Chapter 2 Jamaica’s Find: using a story book to develop ideas about writing• 23 Elaine Sturman Chapter 3 Building confidence for a new arrival – and her teachers• 35 Richard Gifford Chapter 4 Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: Promoting first languages within the context of the Literacy Hour• 53 Maggie Gravelle Chapter 5 Bilingual Learners and Numeracy• 65 Zaitun Virani-Roper Chapter 6 Planning for Bilingual Learners Year 9 Geography: The EU and Italy• 79 Steve Cooke and Susan Pike Chapter 7 Planning for inclusion; learning at Key Stage 4• 99 Dympna MacGahern and Kwaku Boaten Chapter 8 Developing language-aware teaching in secondary schools• 125 Claire Edmunds Chapter 9 Conclusion • 159 Maggie Gravelle Bibliography • 169 Index• 171 v 1 Introduction Maggie Gravelle The literature about the practical aspects of teaching bilingual learners is mainly of two kinds. There are useful case studies illustrating the ways in which thoughtful and concerned practitioners have provided opportunities for bilingual learners to succeed in the mainstream. These often identify specific materials and approaches and, sometimes only by implication, display an understanding of the theory and principles informing the practice. I include in this category the general advice to be found in many texts about what to take into consideration when planning for bilingual learners – matters like making sure that their languages are known and respected, and ensuring that dual language texts are included in the book corner. Alternatively teachers can draw upon a range of literature discussing aspects of theory such as second language acquisition, the back- grounds and origins of different communities or their languages and the nature of bilingualism. Some, but relatively few, of these go on to draw out the practical implications of the theories they expound. Even fewer suggest a systematic framework which will assist teachers in planning effectively and regularly for the needs of bi- lingual learners in their own classrooms. And yet it is, in my experience, largely the latter on which teachers want assistance. Their main concerns are about the day-to-day inclusion of bilingual pupils with differing, but continuing, needs and abilities in their curriculum planning. When the specialist materials and packs have been exhausted, or when they do not seem appropriate, teachers show a genuine desire to make their teaching effective for all their pupils and to be given guidance in order to do so. 1 PLANNING FOR BILINGUAL LEARNERS Second language acquisition;some practical implications Theories of second language acquisition are not our direct concern here. Teachers want to know what the research can tell them about practice. What do they need to do? There is widespread agreement about the implications of our under- standing of the process of second language acquisition: • It is based on and impelled by a desire to communicate. Chil- dren, and indeed adults, learn another language because they need and want to communicate with the people who use that language. This means that in English-medium schools they want access to written and spoken English. They want to understand what their teachers, peers and others in the school and the wider society are saying. They want to communicate and make them- selves understood and to do so directly in face-to-face oral com- munication and through reading and writing. Accordingly it is of prime importance that bilingual learners are placed in communicative situations of this nature and given support in their attempts to interact. • They must be treated as communicators from the start. Even infants who have not yet become competent in their first lan- guage are considered to have a level of understanding and are constantly placed in interactive situations. Communication is a matter not merely of words but of gesture, actions, facial expres- sion, tone of voice and above all of practical involvement. Early years educators place great emphasis on play as a means of both learning and developing language and part of the importance of this lies in the connection that is created in the child’s under- standing between what is being done and how it is articulated through language. Similarly, bilingual learners in the later years of school should be actively included in communicative contexts in the classroom and every effort should be made to make the context comprehensible to them and to understand their responses to it. • Emphasis should be on meaning rather than form. If children are to be treated as communicators then the emphasis must be on communication, on making meanings understood, rather than on ‘correctness’. It is of little help to the communicative process 2 INTRODUCTION if it is held up because of the misuse of plurals or the lack of subject/verb agreement, important though these may be in the later stages of language development. The only criterion is understanding. This means that certainly in the early stages of second language acquisition non-linguistic forms of communication must supple- ment and complement the linguistic ones. These can take the form of practical activities, pictures and video, outings, role-play and demonstration, as well as the extensive use of first language whenever possible. In later stages there will be greater reliance on alternative linguistic communication, for example re-phras- ing, expanding texts for clarification and illustration, using natural repetition and so on. • Language learning takes place with and through other learning. Bilingual children have an entitlement to education and a per- sonal need to continue to develop their conceptual understand- ing. Learning cannot be placed on hold while language catches up. This is partly because the time is not available. But it also accords with the principles of equality and entitlement which are an important part of our education system. Children’s develop - ment does not stand still and if education and the curriculum are worthwhile then they are worthwhile for bilingual as well as monolingual children. This places great responsibility on teachers to make the learning understandable to bilingual learners right from the start of their education. Once concepts are understood, the vehicle for developing the language skills is in place. There must also be a recognition that bilingual pupils enter schools at many stages in their educational careers. They may be new to English and to the National Curriculum but they are not new to the world. All children draw on a rich and varied range of experiences beyond the school gates. • It requires models of natural speech in a range of normal settings. The total communicative context of the school is only experienced through being part of that context. It cannot be simulated or sanitised through ‘situational’ language learning techniques. The range of uses of language can never be fully anticipated, nor artificially created. We also know that, useful as 3 PLANNING FOR BILINGUAL LEARNERS some practice and rehearsal may be, there can be no substitute for the ‘real thing’ – as long as it is adequately supported to make it comprehensible. Although there may occasionally be times when extra support is best given in a small group situation there can never be a good argument for regular or extended removal of bilingual learners from the regular classroom where normal language and learning activities are taking place. It is there that they will hear a range of models of English being used for all the purposes that are current in the classroom, and indeed in the playground and around the school. It is helpful if this range includes visitors to the school, the headteacher in assembly, visits to the local environment, role-play and other situations. All have potential for not only hearing models of different language use but also for talking and perhaps writing about them. • It is extended and developed through exposure to a range of environments and language models. None of us ever stops learning our language. We develop our skills through the range of new contexts for their use and through the diversity of lin- guistic experiences to which we are exposed. At times we learn explicitly through direct instruction or the development of our metalinguistic skills. More often the learning is implicit through reading a new work or being involved in a different discourse. All this enriches our language. So every context has the potential to become a language learning experience. Bilingual learners have the right to exposure to everything that is deemed desirable for monolingual learners. This includes reading. All children are likely to need support in understanding the range of styles in different genres. Informa- tion books are written and organised in ways which differ from narrative, lists, instruction manuals, diaries and so on. To make these explicit will help all learners to extend their range and understanding. • Learning a language is a creative process that involves making errors and formulating rules. Infants learning their first language do not do so solely, or even largely, through imitation. Nor is it a process of trial and error. We know that children develop an understanding of the rule system of the language and apply it 4
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