© British Council, 2013. All rights reserved. Language Awareness in the Primary Classroom An ELIS WSA-EC course, under licence from British Council Session.

© British Council, 2013. All rights reserved.

Language Awareness in the Primary Classroom

An ELIS WSA-EC course,under licence from British Council

Session one.


Course aims

• To enable teachers to understand key concepts in subject literacy.

• To guide teachers in identifying language-specific demands of Science, Mathematics and Social Studies in EL-Medium Classrooms at Primary level

• To equip Primary teachers with approaches and strategies to support students with subject-specific language required for understanding subject content, taking into consideration language-specific requirement of each subject


Language Awareness in the Primary Classroom

Why are we here?

What is the purpose of this course?


Subject Literacy

Subject Literacy is an acknowledgment that different subjects

• ask different questions of texts• require different kinds of background

knowledge to understand • Use different subject specific vocabulary,

grammatical structures and functional language


Course overview

• Session 1: background and application (learn concepts and examples)

• Session 2: focus on language awareness (develop your language awareness)

• Session 3: integrating and language and content (apply your knowledge when planning lessons)


Session aims

Session 1 aims to:• Clarify key terms and theory surrounding subject

literacy• Examine some models of subject literacy• Consider whether language is the key barrier to

learning success• Examine some ways that language support can

be brought into the subject lesson


Concept Check

Consider these statements:

“Monarch caterpillars sure vary a lot in how well they grow.”

Monarch caterpillar growth exhibits a significant amount of variation.

Reflect upon the differences: Vocabulary, Syntactic structure, Parts

of Speech, Sentence Subject, Modifiers.


Why are you here?

“It’s not just that you should teach LITERACY; the bigger issue is that you are teaching LITERACY; whether you like it or not. The only question is: how well are you doing it? This means at some point in every lesson, you will be modeling how to _____, _____, ______, or ________.”

-David Didau “The Secret of Literacy: Making the Implicit Explicit”



Why are we here?

“It’s not just that you should teach LITERACY; the bigger issue is that you are teaching LITERACY; whether you like it or not. The only question is: how well are you doing it? This means at some point in every lesson, you will be modeling how to read, write, speak, or listen.”

-David Didau “The Secret of Literacy: Making the Implicit Explicit”


What does this mean?

BICS CL CALP


Jigsaw Reading


Dr. Jim Cummins

http://edugains.ca/newsite/ell/index.html


BICS stands for:Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills, and the language to do relationship building and maintaining on a day to day level.

BICS


CL is Classroom language. This is what teachers use to discipline, control and set up tasks, and the functions students need to share their thinking.

CALP is Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency. The ability to talk, and understand in a ‘disciplinary specific’ way.

CL and CALP


BICS to CALP


(B) High cognitive demand BUT low linguistic

challenge

(C) High cognitive demand AND

high linguisticchallenge

(A) Low cognitive demand AND

low linguistic challenge

(D) Low cognitive demand BUT

high linguisticchallenge

Cummins (1979)


Language Awareness

Reading Writing Listening Speaking

Grammar, Vocabulary, Functional Language

Where do we need to provide language support?


Features on Language in Mathematics

• Complexity of working with words used in mathematics that have other meanings.• Homophones • Technical terms : specific / precise to mathematics• Spatial terminology• Performance verbs• Procedural Vocabulary • Lexical density• Specialist syntax to express logical relationships• Mathematical symbols : symbols have their own discourse• Word Problems as a text type – semantic structuring of questions – multiple clauses -

identifying the task embedded in the text• Use of conditionals• Zero Conditional - Use of being and having verbs - use of the present tense• Informative technical language with no storyline• Use of infinitives• Modal verbs of prediction and recommendation• Future tense• Comparative Structures


Swee Eng loves caterpillars. She found a pair of caterpillars in her back yard. She called her two caterpillars Tim and Tom. Her caterpillars are very hungry and they each eat 2 leaves every day. How many leaves will her caterpillars eat in one week?


Identifying Language Concerns

What mathematics language support would children need to be

successful with this word problem?


Language Awareness

Reading Writing Listening Speaking

Grammar, Vocabulary, Functional Language

Where do we need to provide language support?

The Mathematics Register

Without language fluency in mathematics, students are restricted in

the ways that they can develop or redefine their mathematical

understandings. (Meaney 2005)

Mathematics Register = analytical, descriptive and problem solving language

Mathematics Register = the ability to listen , question, discuss, read and record in the discourse of mathematics.

Reading Writing

Listening Speaking


Review Time

Why are we here? What is the purpose of this course?

How can you represent the key concepts of the course through illustration and new

names?

BICS > CALP

© British Council, 2013. All rights reserved. Language Awareness in the Primary Classroom An ELIS WSA-EC course, under licence from British Council Session.

Documents

subject british council

subject lesson british

british council session

lessons british council

bicsclcalp british council

subjectspecific language

jim cummins british

language support