Alternative Education Programs for English Learners

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Alternative Education Programs for English
Learners

• Chapter 6 of Improving Education for English
  Learners Research-Based Approaches,
• By Kathryn Lindhom-Leary and Fred Genesee

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Dual Language Approaches

• Definition
• Alternative language, literacy and academic
  instruction
• Use of two language to educate language minority
  students
• and language-majority students in a two-way
  immersion model

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Three Primary Models

• Transitional Bilingual
• Developmental Bilingual
• Two-Way Immersion

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Topics Developed

• Rationale for advantages of Dual Language
  Approaches (DLA)
• Primary Characteristics of DLAs
• Existing Research on DLA
• Research to guide effectiveness, implementation,
  and learner needs in DLAs
• Based primarily on empirical (evidence based)
  research

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Rationale and Advantages of DLA

• Globalization
• Linguistic cultural competence play key roles
  in affording students the tools they need to take
  advantage of the opportunities of globalization
• Competitive edge in the global marketplace.

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Rationale and Advantages of DLA

• Neurocognitive Advantages
• Advanced levels of bilingual competences are
  associated with cognitive advantages in
  executive control process or ability to
• focus attention when potentially conflicting
  information
• select relevant over irrelevant information
• switch strategies when situation not forthcoming

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Rationale and Advantages of DLA

• Home Language Advantages
• ELs with advance levels of competence in certain
  aspects of the home language demonstrate superior
  achievement in English literacy compared with ELs
  with lower competency in home language abilities

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Rationale and Advantages of DLA

• Schooling Cultural Competence
• DLAs provide many conditions that are essential
  for the reduction of prejudice and discrimination
• DLAs provide communication skills cultural
  awareness to facilitate intergroup contact
  appreciation
• Miss attributions (behaviors of respect different
  from main-stream America) are less likely to
  happen

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Program Characteristics

• Chart p. 328
• With a partner Think, write, pair share
• Find two similarities and one difference
• Share with partner
• How does this impact our work?

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Program Characteristics

• Transitional Bilingual Program
• Early Exit Bilingual Education
• Content subjects in home language with English
  Language Development (ELD)
• Once sufficiently proficient, move to English
  mainstream program
• Purpose
• To ensure mastery of grade level academics
• To facilitate speed up English acquisition

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Program Characteristics

• Developmental Bilingual Program
• Late Exit Bilingual Education
• Maintenance Bilingual Education
• One-way program, only minority students working
  to maintain home language, or full proficiency in
  home language
• Purpose
• Promote high levels of academic achievement in
  all curricular areas and full proficiency in both
  home language English for academic purposes
• If master grade level curriculum in home
  language, usually decrease achievement gap
  often outperform EOs.

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Program Characteristics

• Two-Way Immersion Program
• Two-way Bilingual Education
• Dual Language Immersion
• Provides education opportunities for all students
  to become bilingual
• Provides integrated language academic
  instruction for native speakers of English
  native speakers of another language
• Purpose
• High academic achievement
• 1st 2nd language proficiency
• Cross cultural understanding

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Student Achievement Program Outcomes

• Oral Proficiency
• Content Area Achievement
• Literacy Development
• Academic Achievement
• Identity Attitude

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Proficiency Terms

• Monolinguals development of one language
  (English Only students, EO)
• Simultaneous Bilinguals develop two languages,
  same as monolingual, resulting in some mixing or
  code switching
• Second language learners, or successive
  bilinguals acquired one language before
  schooling, second language later
• Oral proficiency CRITICAL for general education
  and academic success of English learners

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Research shows..

• For L1 L2 development of ELs
• Second language learning is a challenging
  lengthy process
• Second language learning results in only
  partially learned English exhibiting
  substantial errors in primary language
• Two-way program students lag behind EOs in
  primary normally catch up by 5th grade

Oral Proficiency
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Research shows..

• For L1 L2 development of ELs
• With increase oral proficiency in English, ELs
• Use more English and therefore learn even more
  oral English
• Interact more frequently with EOs therefore
  learn more English
• Use more complex language-learning strategies,
  particularly integrating with others will
  monitor their own learning
• Display wider variety of language skills,
  including academic use of language, higher order
  question definitional skills

Oral Proficiency
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Research shows

• For length of time to become proficient
• A minimum of 2-5 years for advanced proficiency
  in oral English, regardless of program type.
• Bilingual program students learned English faster
  than those in EO programs
• Little research on native language proficiency

Oral Proficiency
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Research shows

• Evaluation study of Proposition 227
• Overall rate of reclassification rate has
  increased in past decade, with 8.9 years as
  average for language proficiency
• Current probability of an EL being redesignated
  to FEP status after 10 years in CA is less than
  40
• 75 of all ELs are NOT reclassified as proficient
  after 5 years of schooling
• Two-way immersion programs are more
  optomistic-32 proficient by 5th, 52 by 6th, 72
  by 7th

Oral Proficiency
Limited study
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Research shows

• For Level of Proficiency
• Improvement from beginning to middle levels of
  language proficiency is relatively rapid, but
  progress from middle to upper levels is slower

Oral Proficiency
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Example Strategies for Oral Interaction of Content

• Two strategies that increase the opportunity for
  EL students to practice their oral language in
  relation to content are
• Think, pair, share
• Choral response
• Now think of three strategies that you have found
  to be effective in increasing the oral language
  development within classroom instruction. Be
  prepared to share

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Summary

• For Oral Language Development
• there is a scarcity of empirical research on
  this topic.
• It is clear that oral English proficiency of an
  academic nature correlates positively with
  English reading achievement, and oral Spanish
  proficiency is associated with Spanish reading
  achievement.
• however, theses gaps . means that there is
  little empirical research on which to plan
  appropriate instruction in oral language
  development for English learners.
• Lindholm-Leary Genesee, 2010

Oral Proficiency
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Research shows

• For Literacy Bilingual Development
• similar finding for ELs EOs
• Both influenced by
• oral proficiency
• phonological ability
• metacognitive skills linked to reading

Literacy Development
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Research shows

• For ALL students to learn to read English
• Minimum oral proficiency necessary
• With oral proficiency, achieve greater success in
  reading
• Oral proficiency most important in later stages
  of reading acquisition
• Diversity depth of vocabulary knowledge
• Understanding story structure strategies for
  constructing meaning from text

Literacy Development
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Research shows

• English literacy is more complex for ELs
• Due to cross-linguistic influences
• Examples
• Phonological awareness, and then word-decoding,
  correlate significantly positively for EOs. ELs
  struggle more with these in early stages of
  language acquisition
• Successful ELs see literacy strategies as similar
  in both languages will employ effective
  metacognitve strategies to comprehend text.
• Less successful ELs see reading in 1st 2nd
  language as separate abilities, or confusion, not
  seeing or accessing the common strategies

Literacy Development
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Research shows

• For reading writing development in dual
  language programs
• In Two-way immersion, ELs made good progress in
  both languages developed high-level reading
  writing skills
• Meeting or exceeding grade level norms
• Narrowing the achievement gap (by grade 5)
• Achieving same grade level of writing scores in
  6th for both English Spanish (writing had more
  mechanical errors)

Literacy Development
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Summary

• For Literacy Development
• Studies indicate that, given effective programs,
  ELs can acquire reading writing skills in
  English that are virtually comparable to those of
  EO students, and at the same time, they acquire
  strong reading writing skills in Spanish.
• Lindholm-Leary Genesee, 2010

Literacy Development
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Research shows

• A benefit of bilingual education over English
  Only instruction
• ELs may achieve higher than ELs in EO mainstream
  classes
• ELs with extended programs outperform ELs with
  short-term bilingual instruction

Academic Achievement
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Research shows

• More English instruction does not lead to higher
  achievement in English
• Bilingual education as resulting in higher
  English achievement
• Increased amount of exposure to English has not
  resulted in increased achievement for ELs
• In 50/50 vs. 90/10 bilingual programs, ELs in
  50/50 (more English) did not achieve higher
  levels in English, but rather
• Both programs developed high levels of oral
  proficiency
• 50/50 achieved higher in early grades, while
  90/10 were comparable in later grades p.351

Academic Achievement
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Research shows

• Student achievement in dual language programs
• ELs on norm referenced tests, in late elementary
  grades scored significantly higher than ELs in
  general in the state, and on par with EOs in EO
  classrooms
• ELs in dual programs appear more likely to close
  achievement gap by late elementary or middle
  school than EL peers in mainstream classes
  p.352

Academic Achievement
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Research shows

• DLAs provide communication skills cultural
  awareness to facilitate intergroup contact
  appreciation
• Enrollment in two-way programs, compared with
  mainstream English-only classrooms, was also
  associated with greater participation in
  intergenerational family relationships, more
  positive attitudes toward bilingualism and more
  acceptance toward students who differed in
  language background or physical appearance.
• Lindholm-Leary and Genesee p. 353

Identity Attitude
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In Conclusion .

• Several Authors suggest that there is no one best
  model that will serve all English Learners at all
  times. Rather, they point out the importance of
  providing services for English learners that
  consider the community context, needs of students
  to be served, and the resources that are
  available for implementing the program.
• Lindholm-Leary and Genesee p. 349

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Final Reflection for Our Work

• How do we take this information and apply it in
  our role of providing district assistance?
• Take 2 minutes to write down one or more ideas.
  Be prepared to share.