Using Spanish in a Literacy Level ESOL Class

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Question:

I'll be teaching a literacy level ESL class for all Spanish-speakers. Since my Spanish is communicative, I'm wondering how much I should use it in class. Are my students better served if I give them explanations and translations in Spanish or if I keep it all in English as I would in other ESL classes? If they are not literate (or very low literate) in Spanish, should I work with them first reading and writing in Spanish before working on literacy skills in English? (Kathryn Quinn http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/englishlanguage/2006/000517.html)

Responses:

  • Visit the Center for Applied Linguistics' site for Adult Education. You can start by going to their digests where you'll find a lot of ideas on how to approach your instruction. http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests.html (Rosie Maum, Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville, KY)
  • A number of years ago Maryann Cunningham Florez wrote an article about her own classes and how she and her students set the parameters for use of the native language. Great article! MaryAnn, where can we get a copy of this? (Barbara Tondre)
  • Barbara, in answer to your question about an article by MaryAnn Cunningham Florez that includes a discussion on parameters for use of the native language in class--CAELA is developing an online resource collection on "Working with Literacy-Level Adult English Language Learners", where we will gather, link, and annotate documents related to this topic. The collection should be online and announced here before the end of August. Thanks for the suggestion for one of the documents to include. (Lynda Terrill, Adult English language discussion list moderator,lterrill@cal.org)
  • A great resource on this topic is Heide Wrigley's What Works Study which has been discussed in NCSALL's Focus on Basics: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=189%20 Her study found that 'judicious use of the L1' had a significant effect Judicious use of the native language made a difference on measures of reading and oral language skills... Her other findings take on meaning in light of the L1 finding: that positive outcomes were observed for students whose teachers made a connection to the real-world, and in classrooms where there is a healthy balance of practice/variety. Together, I think her findings prompt teachers to ask, What can students be learning to do in their L1 in my classroom? How much are they practicing in the L2, and how is L1 use supporting effective practice of new skills? I don't know if a more extensive report of the What Works study has been published - does anyone know? I've been sending my graduate students to FOB. (Maricel Santos)
  • A 37 page summary of this report can be found at http://www.nrdc.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_54.pdf It is entitled Effective Instruction for Adult ESL Literacy Students: Findings from the What Works Study. It is written by Larry Condelli, a Managing Director at the American Institutes for Research who directed this project. There is a larger document, the full final report, of over 200 pages which can be obtained by contacting Larry at LCondelli@air.org. (Nancy R. Faux,ESOL Specialist,Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center,Virginia Commonwealth University,Richmond, VA, nfaux@vcu.edu, http://www.valrc.org, 1-800-237-0178)
  • I recommend you consider two things:
    • First, your question boils down to, "Should I use students' existing knowledge to help them learn new things?" The answer is of course, yes. When we teach someone multiplication for example, we rely on his understanding of addition in order to proceed. We would never think that prohibiting any discussion of addition while teaching multiplication would be productive. When learning an L2, judicious translations will help people learn. On the other hand, injudicious translations will impede it.
    • Second, I think we can get way too committed to an "English-only-this-is-an-immersion-classroom" approach. In varying degrees, our students are already in an English-immersion environment during the other 22 hours per day that they are not sitting in our classrooms. If such L2 immersion were the path to L2 mastery, why do we have waiting lists for ESOL classes? (Kearney Lykins, ESL Teacher, Virginia Beach, VA)
  • If they are not literate in Spanish, it should be advantageous for them to acquire some Spanish literacy before they start learning English. Once they start learning English, it is preferable that they are immersed in English as much as possible. However, they will still rely on their second language to try to understand some concepts. The more literate they are on their L1,the easier it will be for them to understand L2. If a person doesn’t know what a verb is in their native language, it will be much harder to learn understand what a verb is in a second language. If you provide most explanations in English, but allow them to work in groups and rely on each other for help, they will use each other to explain concepts that they cannot understand from you. (Andres)
  • I think it is important to remember that the students' L1 is used to help them make sense of the new language, or, as Kearney said in her previous email, they are using their prior knowledge to acquire new knowledge. Using their native language to discuss with classmates what they are learning about the L2 can facilitate and/or accelerate their understanding of English (I have found this happening especially in beginning and low intermediate classes where students were introduced to a new grammar concept, an idiom, etc.). I have also taught mostly multilingual and multicultural ESL classes. In those settings, I would ask my more advanced Spanish students (who had been discussing the concept in Spanish with other Spanish speakers) to work with those learners who are single speakers of another language. It worked well, because while one student would get a chance to hear an explanation of the grammar/idiom again (in English, and this time from the perspective of another learner), the other had the opportunity to use English by explaining what he/she had just learned. I think it's important to remember that adult learners learn best when we allow them to take ownership of their own learning, and if the L1 facilitates that, it should be encouraged. This concept is at the foundation of adult learning principles (such as Knowles, Mezirow, Auerbach, etc.) which claim that because adults have a wealth of life experiences, experience should be the foundation of instruction. In addition, teachers should serve as facilitators rather than functioning as conveyors of knowledge and planners of instruction. I don't think we are taking anything away from our students by allowing them to use their L1. (Rosie Maum)
  • At Glendale College, CA we have been working with adult literacy classes designed specifically for Spanish speakers for several years. All literacy classes use a cooperative learning approach (Slavin, 1995). My class is specifically designed with brain-compatible learning (Sylwester,1995; Jensen, 1998; Wolfe, 2001) in addition to cooperative learning. The instructor speaks Spanish in all of the Spanish speaking classes. My class has an aide who is bilingual. I do not speak Spanish in class except for a couple of corny phrases such as Usa la cabeza es un regalo de dios. The aide addresses points of confusion to various groups or the whole class and will sometimes give a mini-lesson in Spanish. There are certain caveats that the aide has to be aware of: make the learned-helpless do their own work and don’t become a dictionary or a translator. At first there is a certain amount of work banking but soon they use a reader: Easy Stories Plus or Very Easy True Stories. They speak, listen to each other and write 14 hours a week in English. Most rarely speak or use English outside of class. The students who are illiterate in Spanish need a little practice on how to learn. They tend to think everything is rote memory rather than noticing patterns and are under the illusion that all they need to do is copy everything. In cooperative groups they can be somewhat less embarrassed and more open to taking risks. Perhaps The Best for our children: Critical perspectives on literacy for Latino students (2001) could open a cultural window for you. (Kirk Olgin, Glendale College)

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