Region 10 T/TA
Supporting English Language Learners

Transcript

Moderator: Christy Cox
May 14, 2008
1:00 pm CST

Operator:

Good afternoon and thank you for standing by. All lines will be in a listen-only mode until the question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star 1. Today's conference is being recorded. If anyone has any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Now I'll turn the meeting over to Ms. Christine Cox. You may begin.

Christine Cox:

Hi, this is (Christy) Cox here in Seattle, Washington. Welcome to the Region 10 conference call for May. We are discussing supporting English learning – English language learners. And I'm here today with my colleague, (John ). (John), do you want to say hi?

(John Borrero):

Hello everyone.

Christine Cox:

(John) is my colleague from Region 2 so he's over in New York. So today we're going to be introducing the – some concepts, some information, and especially some resources and tools around supporting English language learners. And the general goal of the call I'm hoping is awareness raising, not only around the topic but also around these tools and resources that we're going to highlight.

(John ):

One – for those people who want to follow along using their Power Point, we're going to move on to the agenda, the second – page 1. The agenda for today – our goal for today really is to bring the group from – to talk about English language, starting with the research and moving into practice which is often I'll in Head Start.

So what we really want to do is to clarify ways in which our work is informed by the academic research community, the community outside of our Head Start program.

So going through the bullets here – we want to start off with some (cameos) so we have some people from your region that are going to contribute some of what their experiences are and then we're going to go from there to frame that in Head Start, talk about some Head Start mandates that apply to some information received.

We're going to start with some – and then we're going to continue on from there, talk about some research that's relevant to this topic, then (Christy) and I want to stop and we want to take some questions and comments from the group.

This is going to be our opportunity to really check in with the group and see how everyone's doing, see if there're any points in which we may have lost a bunch of people and if there are any ways in which the group would like to help us clarify our discussion from there on.

And after that we'll go back and continue – the group will go back into listener mode and we'll talk about some best practices. So there we start to go into the practice mode.

From best practices, and hopefully at this time this is all very optimistic. We're hoping that after we get to best practices we do have time to go into systemic approach. We've got a very full agenda and we've got a lot to share with you so we're going to try and get through the whole thing.

But as we get towards the end we realize the chance of not getting into is higher. But so we'll get to systemic approach. We'll talk about how to take these lessons back with us and really apply them to the larger system. And then we'll share some resources with you and if we have time at the end, opening it up again for some questions and comments.

Christine Cox:

Great, thank you so much (John).

(John ):

Sure.

Christine Cox:

Let's go ahead and we are going to ask the conference coordinator if she will open up the lines just for questions, or for our cameo appearances. If we could hear from (Tammy McEnroe), (Kim Baumgart), (Jane Davies) and (Joan Youngquist) and on our Power Point slide we're on slide 2.

So these are the folks that are going to just take a couple of minutes and share some information about not only their programs but their interest in the topic of supporting English language learners.

Operator:

Okay, and if your name was called, please press star 1. Okay, (Jane Davies), your line is open.

(Jane Davies):

Hi, I'm (Jane Davies). I'm from Seattle and this is a very interesting topic for us because we have a very diverse program. Our model is early Head Start and Head Start with three sites and a home base program. We are in central and south Seattle and we partner with one child care center.

Most classes are half day. We serve 264 children and these are the percentages as far as break down in nationality or ethnicity. Twenty percent are African American, 28% are Latino, 20% are Vietnamese and 32% are other ethnicities with about 20% of that being East African.

Our home languages are 35% English, 28% Spanish, 16% Vietnamese, and 20% other – 21% other. We have a diverse staff and we hire people who are of the ethnicity of our children. Our centers tend to be a mixture which is very rich for our children to learn other ethnicities.

Our challenges are finding qualified staff that reflects the cultures of the children. Also many of our parents are not proficient in English nor are they proficient in their home language. Many parents have little time for ELL classes. It's hard for us to find bilingual books for staff and families especially like Somali books or (Mauro), Vietnamese are three that are problems for this.

But a highlight for us is that next fall, we're going to be using the National Head Start Family Literacy Center to do some training for our staff and families on (due) a language. So that's my presentation.

Christine Cox:

Thank you so much (Jane). I appreciate you sharing your challenges and also program information.

(Jane Davies):

You're welcome.

(Tammy McEnroe):

(Tammy McEnroe), your line is open.

(Tammy McEnroe):

Hi, this is (Tammy McEnroe) and I'm from eastern Oregon Head Start and we're located in northeast Oregon. We cover two counties. It's a rural area of Oregon. We serve 167 children. We have four centers with nine classrooms. And our model is center based with co-teachers so we have two teachers – two qualified teachers in each classroom who do both the education and the family services piece.

So we have a single point of contact for our families. They always have the teacher as their contact for all home visits. I would say the barrier that we come across is similar to what (Jane) said. It's finding qualified staff. We serve mainly Caucasian children. We have a high number, increasing number, of Hispanic children but it's like we try to put them in just one classroom so that we can have at least one teacher that can work with those ESL children.

And we don't really want to keep them in just one classroom. We'd like to spread them throughout all the classrooms and higher the staff or interpreter financially or finding a qualified person can become a burden.

And then also using, I would say, an interpreter the correct way. I think that more training in that area would be very helpful. So that's basically what our program is.

(Joan Youngquist):

(Joan Youngquist), your line is open.

(Joan Youngquist):

Thank you. This is (Joan Youngquist). I'm with Skagit Island Head Start. We have – provided Head Start and Early Head Start services to Padgett Island and San Juan counties in western Washington. I have to think of my directions there. We're north of Seattle, about 80 miles.

We have 83 Early Head Start and 348 preschool start enrollees. Sixty percent are Latino and 40%, though, speak Spanish as their primary language. We have other languages in the program, including the Misteco, Russian, Ukrainian and some Asian languages, but predominately it's English or Spanish.

We have been implementing a dual language or bilingual curriculum approach for the last four years in our centers that have a high population of Spanish speaking children, and found it very successful. The children, according to our assessments, have increased their literacy skills pretty dramatically.

By doing this approach, our challenges are training new staff to come on board to understand the dual language, bilingual curriculum approach, staff who do not have bilingual skills helping them to develop strategies to support that primary language, and finding qualified staff. That also is a challenge.

Christine Cox:

Great, thank you so much (Joan).

Operator:

Thank you. Ms. Cox, was there one more line you needed open.

Christine Cox:

I was hoping to hear from (Kim Baumgart).

Operator:

And if you could just please press star 1.

(John Borrero):

Maybe she couldn't make it today.

Christine Cox:

Yes. I can go ahead. I'd like to actually speak for (Kim) briefly. She sent me her information. She wanted to let you know she was – sent the information and she has a very rural program in the sense that she is in eastern Idaho. She has different – about 186 children and families that they're serving, about 11% Native American, 6% bi-racial, 6% African American, and 76% white.

And it's typical for – she said, about 100% of their first languages to be English. And so she's coming from a place where she's rarely dealing with the challenge of having a second language or – second language acquisition as a major challenge. However, they do have – occasionally have children come into their program and this is one of the ways that she – she's interested in this topic because she wants to keep on top of it just to make sure they have the skills that they need when they do have a student come in and that they do have Spanish speaking staff which is generally the language other then English that shows itself in their region.

So I would just like to thank everybody for sharing their cameos. I think it does a nice job of putting a face to the programs that are – and the different and diversity of challenges and opportunities that folks have in our region.

(John Borrero):

And I think it also shows, yes, it shows the diversity. It also shows that the variety of approaches, not all are going to be dif – not all are going to be the same, they're going to be different. There's going to be a wide range of how people respond to the needs of the English language learners.

And no one answer for any group. I think that's something that I'm hearing from each of these four scenarios.

Christine Cox:

Right.

(John Borrero):

Well if that's – I feel like I benefited from that. I'd like to take a moment then and really frame it and give it a head start so that we can start talking a little bit about research and tools. But that is the say that one of – it's not one of our goals today to really, you know, to give everyone the answer to every question that might come up or every scenario, how to respond to every scenario, really more to give the group some tools that hopefully will help them when they make decisions about how to respond to the scenarios that they encounter.

So I'm going to be on slide 3. And I'm going to do this very briefly actually and I'm thinking about time. And I just wanted to call your attention to a handout that you received that has the Head Start Readiness Act, School Readiness Act and the performance standards cited which will show you the basis for this.

And basically here's the bottom line for you. The bottom line is that Head Start supports our acknowledgement of children's home language and acknowledgment of a child's culture and encourages us to incorporate that into our view of the child and into our – into how we plan for the child's learning.

So that it really doesn't end up being an option for Head Start programs to try and have children just speak English. It really is encouraged by Head Start to have us respect where the child is coming from, to start where they are.

And that's a lot of what we get from reading the performance standards and the Act and how it comes together. And then the framework really gives us more of a sense of how to do that, the specifics of how to do that. I think – and I think that leads us nicely into our next slide which talks about research.

We've put together a list of several vocabulary terms, some of which have already been used in our cameos, which is great. But I thought I'd just go over a very few of them just in case there were some terms that are not familiar to people.

I want to acknowledge also that people come from a variety of experience so that if there are people on the call who haven't really had a lot of experience with these terms, I want them to also sort of be caught up to where we are.

So I thought I'd define a few terms. English language learner, which we'll use frequently basically means that –the English language learner is someone who speaks a language other then English who is in the process of learning English from your classroom setting.

Dual language – someone referred to dual language just now. Dual language is – it's also called emergent or it's also called two-way emergent or two-way bilingual. A dual language program is one where more then one language is taught simultaneously. So in this situation you might have – if it's English Spanish, if English and Spanish would be two dominant languages, you might have Spanish language instruction happening in the classroom as well as English language instruction.

These work really well in situations. And Joan mentioned it, where we might have parents who don't necessarily have strong skills it the home language so that although a child comes with another language, they may not be able to have full support of that language in just the home environment and bringing that out in the school environment really helps us acknowledge the steps that really brought them to our doors and helps them strengthen the communication with their family and their home culture.

Then the final term that I really want to acknowledge was home language, and that's very simply the language that they speak before they come to you, when they're first learning, their home environment. And the reason this is important, if we consider one of the basic elements of any sort of service model or social service model is meeting the client or the child where they are.

And so this – knowing the home language is really knowing where the child starts, where they – where we can start to really serve them. So we've included the resource in your handouts that has the definitions for all of these terms so that you can also look these up in the future and sort of strengthen your own knowledge.

So we want you to start off with these because these are going to come up today. I think that's good. (Christy).

Christine Cox:

Great, thanks so much (John). Okay, well we are going to start, flip over to slide 5. So and this is sort of a new type project for me which is using this idea about myths and misconceptions to help to illuminate some of the roles and research around second language acquisition, around bilingualism, and around language learning in general.

So we boiled it down and it took awhile. (John) and I boiled this down to these four myths or misconchep – misconceptions and I...

(John Borrero):

I like mishconception.

Christine Cox:

I know. Misconceptions and myths. I like that too. So we're going to take some time and I'm going to walk through each of these four and I'm going to try to highlight some of the research that either will shed some light on this myth or dispel some myths completely.

So let's start with number one. So it reads, "Young children learn a second language more easily and faster then adolescents and adults." And this is one of those pervasive myths I hear people, both in the field of education and outside of the field of education say this and truly believe it.

And I was talking with one of my colleagues here in Region 10 and this is her favorite myths, a misconception to talk about because she believed it so firmly for such a long time. But what research is showing us around age and second language acquisition is that the opposite tends to be true.

And that is when scientists put children and adults in a similar learning situation, for example, if you and your family move to Italy and you, as an adult, started attending school and living there and making Italian friends and associating with others who spoke Italian, you as an adult would learn much more quickly then a child who is in that same situation.

Why? So what's going on here? Well one of the biggest pieces, one of the advantages – cognitive advantages – that adults have that these young children lack is that you are already very strong and competent in your first language skills. You're oral language and your first language are completely developed, very mature, and that you're often literate in your first language, so you have that as a tool and resource to turn to that our preschool children do not have yet.

Also as an adult you have study skills, you have memory or mnemonic devices that you can use and all of these things add up to adults and older adolescents being actually able to speed their second language acquisition. So that's one – there's one myth hopefully at least shed some light on if not dispelled.

One of the pieces that I want to highlight before turning to number 2 is also just some general guidelines in terms of the length of time that it takes for oral proficiency to come online for second language learners and keeping this number in mind will be helpful I think in terms of having expectations that are realistic is that it can take up to three years for oral proficiency to come up to speed or to be at age level.

So that's up to three years of a child being in your programs. And then talking next not just about oral language proficiency, but about academic and literacy proficiency in a second language can take up to seven years.

So those are some guidelines and those are some upper limits on the guidelines but just keep those in mind as you're thinking about expectations for your – the children in your programs and for the families that you're working with. How did that do (John)?

(John Borrero):

No, that was great. You know, I think one of the reasons why we often think children learn faster is bec – there's – for several reasons. I think we watch them so much more closely and therefor – when we watch children develop language in such a remarkable process, we're watching them go from nothing, from babbling, so that any word that they develop seems so remarkable to us that it seems as if it happens so quickly to talk about how fast children develop language and how quickly they develop their first, you know, 100 words. But I think that contributes to why we have that perception.

Christine Cox:

Absolutely, and also along those same lines, is like why is this a pervasive and long lasting myth is that most of the time adults are not in a preschool like setting. Most of the time adults have really low context situations- like imagine you're high school foreign language class, for example, where you have a lot of skill and drill and low context. Or you're in a really complicated setting right off the bat, like a job setting, where you're being asked to use your second language.

So a lot of times those things add to that myth that it's harder as an adult, well in fact, maybe just the context is just a lot harder as an adult.

(John Borrero):

Right, and the way we conceptualize it for children makes it – idealizing the environment makes it an ideal environment for them to learn that much.

Christine Cox:

Right.

(John Borrero):

To do it well.

Christine Cox:

Right. Okay, let's go on to number 2. So number 2, the idea that immersion and if we think of immersion as being a sort of an English only or with only English language support or very minimal support in the second language. "Emersion in English speaking classrooms is the fastest way to learn."

Okay, so let's take a look at this as a myth or misconception. The common sense answer would be yes, of course, the more time that we have on task the faster that someone will acquire a language. Well in fact, it – research shows something different. Research shows us that children that are in dual language or bi-language programs become proficient at the same rate or a faster rate then children who are in English immersion or English only programs.

That there's no faster – just by having English only does not increase the rate. And not only that, that there is –this is the preach to the choir comment, but there are so many other benefits to dual language or bilingual programming: continued support in the home language, so you end up with a student or a person in our society that's a balance bilingual, having those first and second language skills and literacy skills, that the home ties are strengthened and maintained and that social emotional well being and identity is a priority in that it's honored.

One of the pieces that I wanted to talk about in relation to immersion, because immersion is a program strategy or a program decision is another program decision and that is when you have the option to use first language in classrooms. So, you have a Spanish speaker who works in the classroom or you have a Vietnamese grandparent volunteer or you have someone from the community that's coming in and reading to children in Somali, that you take a careful look at how best to use those native speakers in the classroom.

One practice that I think a lot of programs use is the simultaneous translation. For example, if you're reading a book in English, that is, you're a native English speaker is reading a book to a group of children and then you have perhaps your Spanish speaking staff person translating the book page-by-page as you go, this is not optimal for a number of reasons.

One of the reasons that this is not optimal is that children and adults will just tune out, and stop listening for the non-dominant language because if they know that the dominant language is coming up next then their attention falls when they're listening to the second language.

The second reason that this is not optimal, that we really want to provide children with sustained, language-rich experiences. We don't want to just be providing sound bites because those don't include the richness of language, the vocabulary, the grammar structure, the more complicated syntax that happens when we're talking in a sustained way versus in a sound-bit way or a translation mode.

And then finally the cognitive demands on children and translators for going back and forth quickly is very high. So I would just encourage you to think about your scheduling and thinking about sustained time and focus on home language and sustained time and focus on second language or English.

(John Borrero):

That makes sense to me. Having languages occur separately in the classroom really will encourage children to compartmentalize the knowledge of those languages. And it's not really consistent with how they experience those in the world.

Christine Cox:

Right.

(John Borrero):

Because we're really trying to prepare them for the world beyond their preschool experience and this is what we really want to encourage. We want to really model that for them.

Christine Cox:

Absolutely. Great, okay so here we go on to number 3. And this is a question that (John) and I both have had and have addressed in different situations and it's this idea that parents should really be encouraged, these are not English speaking parents but English as a Second Language parents, should be encouraged to use English at home.

So I would just go ahead and kind of as a rephrasing of that, instead I would say that parents and caregivers should be encouraged to use their home language as much and as often as possible with their children. So one of the reasons that I would encourage home language use over English language use is that first language loss is – can be a social emotional trauma for children.

First language loss breaks down family ties and in fact, first language loss actually leads to a decrease or a lack of success in academics and schooling. One thing that Head Start programs have is that they have this opportunity and they play this critical role in parent education and they can share the benefits of home language maintenance.

So I used to teach in a classroom where the majority of my students were learning English as a second or third language and a lot of times the families would come to me and they would just be lamenting, they'd say, "Miss Christy, we're so sorry. We're feeling bad because we don't speak English and not only do we not speak it but we don't read it very well either."

And one of the things that I always shared with them was to speak in the language that they know best and are most confident in and for parents that have low literacy rates I would regularly send home word lists or picture books for them so that they could use their home language just to narrate the situation or narrate the pictures.

One other – along with encouraging home language maintenance, I know that a lot of programs in our regions and in other regions go to good lengths, great lengths to partner with community agencies in providing parents with ESL courses and adult literacy opportunities. And I would encourage all of you to think about that and think about who your partnerships are and the kind of opportunities that you might already provide or could look to provide for parents.

English is the language of power. We live in the United States and these are the realities of our social times. But what we want to do is we want to make sure that we empower the children and families that we serve to speak both first and second languages, to walk in both worlds.

(John Borrero):

Yes, it's always been part of the Head Start philosophy from the very beginning to have parents walk alongside with us as we educate their children, not sort of be observers. We want them to be active participants and often that's going to mean, really how can they change home language and the home culture.

Christine Cox:

And finally this last piece, this idea that it's detrimental that there're detriments to children learning more then one language. I just wanted to dispel that right off the bat. There's more then enough information and research not only for preschoolers but also around infants and toddlers that early dual language exposure does not delay development in either language.

In fact, when we start looking at school age students and their skills and abilities, we find that children that have strong skills in both of their first and second languages, so that's maintaining their first language and growing their first language and supporting their second language, their English development, that these children tend to actually have cognitive advantages, that they test better in the domain of, especially, language.

And there's one small exception to that that I want to take note of, and it's going to lead us into the next point that I have. One small exception and that would be vocabulary size. So if you're looking at a bilingual child and you might be doing the PPVT or doing a test of vocabulary size, the vocabulary size of a bilingual child might be slightly smaller than of a monolingual child who's of the same age.

But if you combined the Spanish and English or the English and Somali, if you combine the two vocabularies, they will end up in the normal range. So it just – it makes sense. It takes a little bit more time because they're having to learn twice as many words as a monolingual child learns.

So that kind of leads us into this idea, so if we have this smaller vocabulary size, that could be misinterpreted. So we don't want our English language learners being over identified or under identified for that matter, for special education.

We want to make sure that as a staff and as a program that we're aware of second language development. For example, the vocabulary size difference. For example, concerns around code switching which might be mistaken as a disability. Code switching meaning this child might mix two languages together. Like, I went to mi casa, or (Yo fui a) my house. So that's actually common.

Code switching is a normal occurrence in bilingual individuals, in bilingual families, and in communities as well. So we want to make sure that as professionals, as education professionals that we are careful to neither over or under identify for language delays and that – for more information there're two resources that we've noted.

One is a Washington State OSPI document that is at the end of the Power Point, as well as a book called, "Dual Language Development and Disorders," which is also referenced at the end of the Power Point.

(John Borrero):

Wonderful. Maybe – I can't help but notice the time so I'm wondering if we should start looking towards some questions or comments from our group.

Christine Cox:

Absolutely.

(John Borrero):

At the same time check in. This'll be our way of hearing from people and hearing how we're doing and seeing whether or not there's a directive that we need to be looking at.

Christine Cox:

Great thanks. So (Stephanda) could you open up our lines for questions?

Operator:

Thank you. At this time if you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1. You will be announced prior to asking your question. To withdraw your question, press star 2. Once again, to ask your question, please press star 1. (John Waylan), you may ask your question.

(John Waylan):

Hi. This is (John) from Neighborhood House in Seattle.

Christine Cox:

Hi (John).

(John Waylan):

Hey, hi (Christy), hi (John). The - this is relating to a combination of the first and fourth myth to misconceptions. The way you stated number one that young children learn a second language more easily and faster then adolescents and adults – okay fair enough. What about – and then actually then the third or the fourth one is it's detrimental to have children learn more then one language. And you spoke very well about both of those.

My question is around concerning a dual language or dual language learning versus multiple language learning. Do you have any evidence or research that states that for young children, particularly in preschool and early education programs that multiple language exposure in, say, a classroom setting is harmful or less productive for the children?

You know, we've got a classroom that has, you know, Vietnamese, Latino, East African, which is multiple dialects. We have staff in all of our classrooms that speak multiple languages and some of the, like the Somali speaking staff with speak some English and some Somali with the children and then they also might hear Vietnamese from a third teacher. Do you have evidence that suggests this is a detrimental thing?

Christine Cox:

(John), do you want me to take that one?

(John Borrero):

Sure.

Christine Cox:

Okay well I would go ahead and I would reference the Dual Language Development and Disorders book by (Fred Genesee) and (Johanne Paradis) and (Martha Crago). I don't know if that's a book that's you're familiar with (John).

(John Borrero):

No not yet.

Christine Cox:

I would totally recommend it and just from my reading of it – I haven't studied the book but of having read it – is that I don't see anything there that talks about multiple language being a detriment. I have one comment that would be around making sure that there are strong language models within the classroom.

(John Waylan):

And define what you call strong language models.

Christine Cox:

So strong language models would be someone who is either a native or fluent in the language that you're hoping for children to be developing.

(John Waylan):

Oh, of course. Okay.

(John Borrero):

And to add to that I was – what I was going to offer that if you want to support more then one language in a classroom that you be sure to support each one fully if you want children to gain as full an understanding of them as possible.

I don't know of any research that said there was any detriment either. I wonder what your concerns specifically would be around having children – I know that what we might expect is that if – talk about young children and acquiring language, we might expect that if we're not – if we're assessing children's language development and we're not familiar with all the languages, that we might not be able to – we might not be aware of how well they're developing or how much language they're developing. It might be more difficult for assessment.

(John Waylan):

Right.

(John Borrero):

I can't think of another way in which there would be a detriment for the child in their development.

(John Waylan):

Okay, the point I brought – the reason I'm bringing this up is that my – it was similar – I actually bounced off that first message that my experience has been similar and actually I'm realizing that it's not so much that children learn faster and easier then adolescents and adults but that they are capable of picking up and being comfortable hearing multiple languages and identifying, you know, similar, you know meaning from a Spanish statement, an English statement, and possibly a Vietnamese if it's used within a context.

But there are some and I think (Aggie Coats) might be a name that's talked about and I only mention that because that might...

Christine Cox:

Oh, (John). Did I just get cut off? Hello?

Operator:

Okay, one moment.

Operator:

Okay, Mr. (Waylan), your line is open again.

(John Waylan):

Great. So anyway, it was – some people have been given the impression that hearing multiple languages, more then two even, becomes confusing. And I think it relates to what you were saying, Christine, about the cognitive stress, that the children don't have – the demand is higher to be coding between multiple languages like that.

And I thought – my impression is – or my understanding, it's been – the experience was a richer experience although you're not working on developing fully any single language other then English. That's our primary development but that using these other languages sort of enriches the situation for the children and gives them more of an understanding that, you know, multiple languages have similar meanings, et cetera. That was the basis of my comment.

Christine Cox:

Right, thanks (John). I hope we got to your question and thanks for the (Aggie Coats) comment.

Operator:

(Deborah Ashton), you may ask your question.

Christine Cox:

Hi (Deborah).

(Deborah Ashton):

...from Oregon from (Kid Co) Head Start. I was wanting to hear a little bit more about the early exposure to dual languages and the impact it has on dual performance. When you're talking about early lang – early dual language exposure, are you talking about like infancy and toddler or when a child isn't exposed to any English, say until like four years old, are their tests scores still going to be actually better then if they were exposed at an early age or – do you kind of understand what I'm saying or am I not making sense?

Christine Cox:

You're doing great (Deborah).

(Deborah Ashton):

Okay.

Christine Cox:

I was just wanting to make sure I heard your whole question. So thanks (Deborah). I am actually referring to research that suggests both, that – and that would be one of the terms we talked about simult – that was on your list and that's simultaneous acquisition and – what's the other one (John)? Simultaneous and...?

(John Borrero):

She's talking about – are you talking about dual immesion or?

Christine Cox:

Well I think she's talking about simultaneous acquisition versus sequential acquisition.

(John Borrero):

Sequential acquisition, okay.

Christine Cox:

So in thinking about that, the answer to your question I think simply is that it's in reference to both, that as long as – and this is the caveat –as long as there really is kind of a balanced bilingualism that there is a strong first and strong second language support and that both of those languages are being supported as equally as possible or as much as possible that the outcomes are positive for both types of second language acquisition.

(Deborah Ashton):

Yes, that makes sense. Okay thank you.

Operator:

Thank you. Once again to ask a question, please press star 1.

Christine Cox:

Okay, if there aren't any more at the time, I think we better move on.

(John Borrero):

Time is ticking away regardless.

Christine Cox:

Right, but actually (Deborah) and (John), thanks so much for stepping up. It's sometimes hard to press star 1 and get on line like that. So we appreciate you sharing your comments and questions.

(John Borrero):

And if there – and if people on the group have questions after this, you shouldn't feel as if this is the only opportunity to ask because you do have your TA team and (Christy's) contact information is on the Power Point as well as the call in email. You could always feel free to connect. Right (Christy)?

Christine Cox:

Absolutely, any time. All the time. I love this topic and I'm always happy to talk about it and share resources and training.

(John Borrero):

And she's very passionate about it. I'm going to move on to slide 7.

Christine Cox:

Great.

(John Borrero):

To sort of talk about practices. And to introduce some and to remind others of the (consult) that there is. We do have a sense – we do have guidelines on how language is acquired, sequential language is acquired and how children do acquire a second language.

And so we have – we have two resources that we're putting forward and one is the Head Start English language learner tool kit on slide 7 and the developmental continuum, the framework for the this instruction and assessment.

So from the first one – from the first reference which is available online through the ECLKC. We're giving four stages of second language development – home language, receptive, silent or non-verbal, telegraphic or formulaic speech and productive.

And this is – I see this as a continuum. It's a progression which is really nice for those of us who work in the classroom to use. You can take this knowledge and you can use it when you're conducting your assessments in the classroom.

And this is really sort of a general guideline for using. The home language is really what they start with. This is a starting point where we meet them when we first find them. When a child enters a classroom setting and discovers that the language that's being used is different from what their home language is, they often enter what's called a silent period where – and this is often where we have teachers present concerns about children in the classroom.

So and so's not speaking. I'm concerned because they're not very social or because they're not really utilizing their language. This is a normal part of second language development. Then they start to use language. As much as young children start to use language with some accuracy, with some needs for improvement and there'll be some blending. There'll be – if the second language is Spanish – English – for example and Spanish is the home language, you might see small sentences of two words – two word phrases with one word in English and one word in Spanish.

So this is an experimental period where they're really trying to get a sense of what's going on with the language, which leads to productive use which is really taking steps toward fluency. The resource that I want to call your attention to, it's one of your handouts. And this is the Second Language, Listening and Speaking Continuum.

We – (Christy) and I were looking over this resource and it was developed by – it was developed by (Bonnie Campbell Hill) and it's a wonderful resource for observations and one of the ways that I recommend it could be used, taking this into practice is that for those of you who are in a classroom, wherever you decide to make observations or record your observations for the classroom.

You could have this kind of resource with you and it could guide you in viewing your children and really getting a full sense of how their developing and how their language is developing. And what I really like about it is that how in addition to having bullets on what you should see, it really – it separates them down into listening, vocabulary, fluency, grammar and attitude.

So you can really pinpoint the areas for instruction. You can really talk about individualizing for your children and what changes might need to be made and what might need to be added into your activities to incorporate these changes.

Christine Cox:

Great, yes...

(John Borrero):

Back to you (Christy).

Christine Cox:

Yes, this is (Christy). I just wanted to talk about that just in terms of leading into slide number 8 and that we are in the section kind of the presentation of best practices.

And I think when we think of best practices, is a lot of times we're thinking of maybe more specific activities with children and I just go ahead and I want to just reiterate and just emphasize my strong feeling and belief that ongoing child assessment and knowing a lot about the development of second language and stages as well as what to expect and look for.

That in itself is in fact a best practice. So the more that we know about the topic the better that we can serve and plan for our children. So it may not be a specific activity that we would do with children but it is what is going to guide our choices for activities or guide the choices that we make when we make interactions or have interactions with children and families.

That's why it's in this section of best practices and I used the continuum such as the one (John) was referencing. I actually kept one for each of my second language learners in my classroom, so practically everyone had one. It was my assessment and my tool for all the kids that were learning English.

Okay slide 8. So actually (Jane Davies) from FAME, she had commented about the National Head Start Family Literacy Center coming to do some work with her program in second language learning or dual language acquisition and this resource that I want to share about meaningful language interaction comes from a document that they are distributing.

It comes from a training tool called, "Language is the Key." And I'm just going to pull out – these are the highlights I believe from that document. So within this meaningful language interaction slide, you see the top that says, "Language is the key. Talking and playing and talking, and books." And there's a little acronym in blue called – this says 'Follow the CAR.'

And so what this is trying to do, it's trying to actually give you concrete – you, meaning the adult or the caregiver – some concrete guidance in extending children's language, in creating more meaningful language interactions, in creating richer – we were talking about richness – rich interactions with children that are language based.

And this could be either when you're playing with a child or when you're using books. And another way of thinking about the 'talking and books' section would be the research around dialogic reading.

So if we Follow the CAR that means that we are following the child's lead. So if a child's playing with a little car, you would talk about the car. You might – in terms of the actual things that you would say is you might make a comment like 'the car has polka dots on it', and then wait five seconds for the child to respond.

You might ask a question like 'where's your car going' or 'what color is your car?' And then wait five seconds for the child to respond. Or if the child says something like 'vroom vroom', you might respond to that by adding a little bit more saying, "Wow, vroom, vroom, your car's going really fast." And then waiting again for the child to respond.

So this is extremely simple which is one of the reasons why I love it. It's based in research. It's based in the research that tells us that the more language exposure and the richness of language exposure that children have, regardless if it's their first language or their second language, that these techniques help them development, help vocabulary growth, help them understand and gain complex syntax.

And then I included (Laura Heulitt's) contact information there on this slide. So it's (Laura Heulitt) at the National Head Start Family Literacy Center. If this is of interest to you, you can get one of these books from that group for free but they're also available for training. So if that's something of interest to you that you think that you could use, please contact her. She's very open to coming to Region 10 and she's free, so. (John), any add ons on that one?

(John Borrero):

No, it's wonderful. I can only sing praises. I think they're a great agency.

Christine Cox:

Do you want to do the Spanish one just because you have such nice Spanish?

(John Borrero):

Do I want to read a few?

Christine Cox:

Yes.

(John Borrero):

(Spanish spoken). So in Spanish it's a little bit different which is actually kind of cool that they were able to say Follow the CAR in Spanish and still have the same – still have the acronym spell the word in Spanish for car. (Spanish spoken) the home language.

Christine Cox:

Thanks. That's beautiful. Okay so we're moving on to slide 9. Slide 9 is really just a show and tell. It's an area that I'm gaining interest in and that I feel like a little bit novel in terms of thinking about work with second language learners. I think that we think of puppetry as used for – as a general early childhood tool, but there's some research that's coming out that's more specifically around using puppets and supporting second language or English language learners that are coming in to our school system.

One, not only is the promotion of language there, the first or second language promotion, but also there's a social and emotional component that's really strong. In my friend (Vida Zuljevik), who actually used puppets in her kindergarten English and Russian dual language classroom and she used – her little doll's name was (Anna) and (Anna) was also learning English.

So she was an English language learner just like the students were and it really connected with kids. Kids loved her, made them feel welcome and that they were a part of the community right away.

And then also I'm not going to read through it, but I just wanted to highlight the instant puppetry activity that (Vida) used many times with lots of different ages of kids and then she attached an article that she's written on the Thinking Classrooms Web site and the Puppetry Tool Web site that she really loves. And she's open to further communication or comments. If you want to talk more about this with her, she'd welcome emails from you. (John)?

(John Borrero):

I like these resources as well. And I was just – I was looking over the article that we have from her. I think they're wonderful.

So the next thing will be best practices – ten things you can do. My goal in doing this, and I'll give you a little bit of a background in a ten second nut here is that I was a classroom training CDA trainer for ten years before coming here.

And so one of the things that I would at least try to develop in my work are these sort of quick sheets that teaches you because I know how this happens. We get these big curriculum guides and they're really beautifully packed and beautifully displayed and they're in, like –11 small binders on your shelf and the teacher have them on their shelves and never used them.

So in every workshop I try to develop some sort of resource such as this one – the Ten Things You Can Do list. And this is meant to really sort of have a place on a wall somewhere in a classroom, teachers can refer back to them and they can be reminders for us in our practice, and that's what this is.

And I won't read through them because you have them and you can read through them but they should be concepts that are familiar and these are concepts that came out today. And then additional ones that may be – that may speak to further practice such as designing a language rich classroom. So I'm hoping that these will be of help to people.

And that's a way to start the conversation once you leave here today, once you leave this call, to start this conversation with people back at your – the rest of your programs, how to move forward. (Christy).

Christine Cox:

Oh yes, ditto.

(John Borrero):

And I'm noting the time. I'm going to say it as 2:53, so I'm thinking here we're going to think out loud in front of the group and say that we've got about – we've got a few slides left to do and about seven minutes to do them in. So I'm wondering, maybe we want to still go through them all but we may not to go through them all in detail.

Christine Cox:

Right, so I think let's go ahead and highlight especially the systems documents so that people have that as a resource.

(John Borrero):

And then we may need people to read through the resources pages.

Christine Cox:

Yes, I think it'd be good to open it up for questions one more time before we head out.

(John Borrero):

Yes, I think that would be great too.

Christine Cox:

Okay. So when the resource – we're on slide 9 here – around that says system approach, and we just really want to acknowledge, this is like tier 2 training. This is a whole other phone call but for those folks that are at that tier 2 and thinking about their support of English language learners, that they have something to go to, that this is a document that was attached.

It is called, the Head Start English Language Learner Systems and Services Grid that was created by a colleague in Region 5. And it's just a way to get the conversation going and I just – I want to give a holler out to (Oly CAP) because Crescent (Bryerly) has been using this, and she would recommend that you start small and plan to use this tool over a long period of time not over a short period of time because if you have the document in front of you, you'll see it's kind of a two-sided document that comprehensively asks questions around all the systems that you might have in your program. So, a great tool, but I would say take it into chunks and really think of it as a long term planning tool not as a short term activity.

(John Borrero):

Right and I agree and I would encourage you to use it by first starting to look at the systems you have in place, the systems specific to your program and area that you want to focus on, and then look back at the grid. For example, if you're a our Head Start program and one of your – and one of the areas that you're really focusing on right now is services to pregnant women and bringing them into your programs and having them be involved in your programs, and that's where you want to apply your knowledge of English language.

Then you really – then that's the specific early Head Start system that you can focus on today and not look at the entire – you're not looking at every single element of this grid. You're going to look at parent involvement for example, so just with the specific needs that you have and to branch out from there is one bit of a the grid.

Christine Cox:

Great, thank you.

(John Borrero):

Then one other thing that I wanted to mention here, along the lines of taking this in and not feeling overwhelmed, is that I mentioned before that I was a CDA trainer and I want to point out that for those of you who – by show of hands how many people are in CDA?

I want to point out that a lot of the systems that we see, a lot of the approaches and a lot of the guidelines are a reflected – reflected as well in CDA so that we're not operating in a vacuum and not reinventing the wheel. We're adding spokes to a wheel that we already have so that this is – the CDA really guides us as well in supporting English language matters and give us very specific examples if you – for those of you who are familiar with CDA, if you look at CDA, you look at communication, you look at self, you look at cognitive, these three competency areas.

They really go into depth in talking about English language learners and how we should support them and magically the ways in which CDA recommends that we support the English language learners are consistent in which the ways in which Head Start recommends that we support them.

So you're not starting fresh and you're not having to reinvent. You're just using what we have and adding to it and making it – making our knowledge deeper.

Christine Cox:

Great. And intentional.

(John Borrero):

Intentional – I love that word.

Christine Cox:

So the last thing we're going to do – go ahead and we're going to flick though slides 12, 13 and 14. Slide 12, all those resources are Head Start resources that are available either on the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center Web site that is listed there or on the Head Start Info.org page. Those are all free to you. Those are all items that you can order or download instantly.

Page 13 – it's broken up into articles or papers. The two first ones are the myths articles – start out there. If you want a reading, both of those are great. They're short and sweet but they have a lot of info packed into them. The Bilingual Infant and Toddlers are for Early Head Start folks, Making a Difference is related more to Head Start age children.

And then if you're looking specifically for children's info about children with special needs or disabilities that fourth article around Evaluation Assessment and Early Childhood Special Ed is wonderful. It's a free document from OSPI here in Washington state. And then the book by (Fred Genessee, Paradis and Crago), Dual Language Development and Disorders, is a great recent research overview.

And then finally the last page just has a few other resources that are listed there for – that were mentioned in this article besides Colorin, Colorado which is a online reference and a great Web site for parents and teachers.

(John Borrero):

That's a wonderful Web site, yes. And it's completely bilingual – it's in English and Spanish, both of them.

Christine Cox:

Okay so we are – it looks to me like we have about a minute, but I'm going to invite people – we have the line for longer then 12:00, so I'm going to invite people to stay on if they have questions. So could we open the lines (Stephonda) for any additional questions?

Operator:

Sure, at this time, once again to ask a question, it is star 1. And again, you will be announced prior to asking your question. Once again, it is star 1 for your question. One moment for the first question. (Mary Gibson), you may ask your question.

(Holly Norton):

Actually this is (Holly). I work with the rural preschools in Alaska, and my question is when you have a classroom full of children, some of them – their dominant language is their native language and some of them their dominant language is English, but the classroom is promoting the learning of both languages.

Is it better to have one teacher that speaks only the native language and the other teacher that speaks only English or does it matter if they both speak both languages?

(John Borrero):

It doesn't matter.

Christine Cox:

I have a really quick response to that.

(John Borrero):

Okay go ahead.

Christine Cox:

This is (Christy). My quick response to that is that it doesn't matter so much about your teachers. I think the fact that you have two teachers that are bilingual is amazing and a wonderful asset. I might spend more time looking maybe at the way that you schedule your time during the day and think about, you know – making sure you have extended periods of time in English and extended periods of time in the native language.

(Holly Norton):

Okay, thank you.

Operator:

(Deborah Ashton), your line is open.

(Deborah Ashton):

Thank you. I don't have a question but I just want to thank you both. I appreciate the opportunity to get more information about this and looking forward to diving into it in our program. Thanks again.

(John Borrero):

That's awesome. Thanks so much for that.

Christine Cox:

Thanks so much for the feedback (Deborah). Give me a call if you want to talk about it more. I'm really open to supporting your efforts.

(Deborah Ashton):

You'll be hearing from me for sure.

Christine Cox:

Okay, take care.

(John Borrero):

I wish we had more time today to cover so much in one hour.

Christine Cox:

Yes. Thanks again guys.

(Deborah Ashton):

Thank you.

Operator:

(Tammy McEnroe), you may ask your question.

(Tammy McEnroe):

Hi (Christine). This is (Tammy).

Christine Cox:

Hey.

(Tammy McEnroe):

Hey, I was just trying to download the Making a Difference, a framework for supporting first and second language development in the preschool children piece in English and it's not available.

Christine Cox:

Okay.

(Tammy McEnroe):

Can you check that out for me and see?

Christine Cox:

Why don't I just go ahead and I will send it out. I have it as a pdf and I will just send it out to this –the mailing list so that you have it.

(Tammy McEnroe):

Perfect.

Operator:

(John Waylan), you may ask your question.

(John Waylan):

Hi, thanks. Actually I have two – one is referring to your Follow the CAR. And (John), when you were reading the Spanish language one, the second R was repeat again in the home language. Do I understand that correctly?

(John Borrero):

Yes, correct, yes.

(John Waylan):

So now – so the whole process that I – that you walked through, if I was doing that with say a Vietnamese speaking child, and I happen to know – I could – I happen to, you know, have some of that language, you know, the appropriate kind of structure.

Would I be asking those questions in English or would I be asking them in the home language, all three? You know, follow the lead, watch the kid, ask questions about what they're doing. Or would I – for my – my understanding was that I would put those questions in English for the child and then maybe the second repetition at the end might be in the home language. Is that appropriate or?

(John Borrero):

The home language. I would – I hear it the same for both. And I think if you have the knowledge of both of them that's wonderful as well. I think what it does is it gives us a system for managing it as well as we can, given that we know we have limited resources.

But if you're saying that you have the capabilities to do this in multiple languages, I think that's wonderful and you can utilize it.

Christine Cox:

Yes, I think – I agree with what (John's) saying and that is that this is a tool to use in whichever language you're focusing on at the time with the child. So if you were – you have a Vietnamese speaker that's working with Vietnamese children then you would use those steps or those suggestions or those strategies in Vietnamese.

(John Waylan):

Okay.

Christine Cox:

And the O in (otra vez) is like saying it again in the home language, is if you're speaking in a moment of – a Vietnamese immersion moment where you're speaking only Vietnamese, and the child says the word in English instead of Vietnamese, you would want to repeat it for the child in the home language or in whatever language you are actually working in at that time.

(John Waylan):

I see, okay. And then I just wanted to make a comment about somebody else's question about the bilingual classroom, is that (Sharon) Cronin here in Seattle teaches a class and one of the things that she was talking about a classroom model was it's a dual language program, and they actually scheduled specific portions of the day, you know, the morning circle would be in English. The afternoon circle would be in Spanish. And she would be somebody else with another resource to check out. (Sharon) Cronin, C-r-o-n-i-n.

Christine Cox:

Awesome, thank you.

(John Borrero):

Wonderful. Thank you.

(John Waylan):

And thank you both actually. This is really good.

Christine Cox:

Oh thanks (John). Thanks for attending.

(John Borrero):

I can't believe we got through the whole thing.

Christine Cox:

We did really good. Congratulations, John.

Operator:

(Holly Porter), you may ask your question.

(Holly Porter):

Hi Christine and hi John.

Christine Cox:

Hi Holly.

(Holly Porter):

I just wanted to hop on and say that Sharon Cronin wrote a book called, Soy Bilingüe, I am Bilingual but unfortunately it is not available anymore, but it is a great resource if you can find it.

Christine Cox:

Well thanks Holly.

(John Waylan):

Look at like a used bookstore.

(Holly Porter):

Yeah.

Also, that we're also using the systems grid on an ongoing basis to kind of check in and see what changes need to occur as we go along, because we're finding what is that we want to continue to sound on.

Christine Cox:

Great, yeah. How - you've been using that now for a couple of years, is that right?

(Holly Porter):

Yeah. You started with us on that summer committee that we started with, so, yeah.

Christine Cox:

It's a long term project, it's not a two week question and answer survey.

(Holly Porter):

Exactly.

(John Borrero):

You know, I just happened to go online to look up (unintelligible) by Cronin...

(John Borrero):

I just did a quick search on it and I found it at an online educational resource.

Christine Cox:

Okay. I think we could wrap it up, John.

(John Borrero):

Yes. Thank you everyone for attending.

Christine Cox:

Yeah. Thanks very much. An again, please, this is Christine, please email, please call. I'm very happy to not only discuss some of these things but I have come out to programs and done some on-site support or if we wanted to create a cluster to talk more about this or to do some training on this - my pleasure, I'd be more than happy and very interested in helping you further you efforts to supporting to English language learners.

(John Borrero):

Wonderful.

Christine Cox:

Thank you. Bye everybody.

(John Borrero):

Bye bye.

END

Posted on June 16, 2008.