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Theory, Promise, Practice Cummins
BICS and CALP refer to a distinction introduced by
Cummins (1979) between basic interpersonal communicative skills and cognitive
academic language proficiency. The distinction was intended to draw attention to
the very different time periods typically required by immigrant children to
acquire conversational fluency in their second language as compared to
grade-appropriate academic proficiency in that language.
Conversational fluency is often acquired to a functional level within
about two years of initial exposure to the second language whereas at least five
years is usually required to catch up to native speakers in academic aspects of
the second language (Collier, 1987; Klesmer, 1994; Cummins, 1981a).
Focus
on message. What
Stephen Krashen (1993) aptly termed "the power of reading" is very
evident in research findings that have accumulated during the past 15 or so
years. Research in both first and
second language learning contexts has shown that development of reading and
academic language proficiency (e.g. vocabulary knowledge) are strongly related
to the amount of target language reading carried out by learners. Postlethwaite
and Ross (1992), for example, in a large-scale international evaluation of
reading achievement in 32 systems of education showed that the amount of time
students reported they spent in voluntary reading activities was amongst the
strongest predictors (#2) of a school’s overall reading performance. The first
ranked indicator was the school’s perception of the degree of parent
cooperation. The significance of
reading frequency in promoting reading development is also evident from the high
rankings of variables such as Amount
of reading materials in the school (#8), Having a classroom library (#11),
and Frequency of borrowing books from a library (#12). With respect
to teaching methods, a focus on Comprehension instruction was ranked #9
and Emphasis on literature was ranked #17, both considerably higher
than whether or not the school engaged
in explicit Phonics teaching (#41).
If
extensive reading is as effective as the research indicates, why is it
not used more in second language teaching? Two obvious reasons can be
suggested: first, it is not easy to find reading selections that are
linguistically accessible to learners and at the same time of interest and
cognitively appropriate. A variety of research (e.g. Laufer, 1992) has suggested
that 95% lexical coverage in a text is necessary for L2 learners to attain an
adequate level of comprehension. Thus, there are significant textual limits to
the extent to which words can be inferred from context.The second reason is that stopping to look up
unknown words in a conventional dictionary is a slow and frustrating process
that seriously interrupts the flow of meaning.
Collaborative relations of power, on the other hand,
operate on the assumption that power is not a fixed pre-determined quantity but
rather can be generated in interpersonal and inter-group relations,
thereby becoming "additive" rather than "subtractive." In
other words, participants in the relationship are empowered through their
collaboration such that each is more affirmed in her or his identity and has a
greater sense of efficacy to effect change in her or his life or social
situation. Thus, power is created in the relationship and shared among
participants. In educational
contexts, cooperative learning activities and sister class networks constitute
documented examples of the academic and personal benefits that accrue when
coercive relations of power shift to collaborative relations of power (e.g.
DeVillar & Faltis, 1990; Cummins & Sayers, 1995).
Theory underlying bilingual education
(a)
continued development of both languages enhances children's educational
and cognitive development ;
(b)
literacy-related abilities are interdependent across languages such that
knowledge and skills acquired in one language are potentially available in the
other (Cummins, 1996; Verhoeven, 1991);
(c)
while conversational abilities may be acquired fairly rapidly in a second
language, upwards of five years are usually required for second language
learners to attain grade norms in academically-related aspects of the second
language (Collier, 1987; Cummins, 1981b).
Together, these principles suggest that reinforcing
children's conceptual base in their first language throughout elementary school
(and beyond) will provide a foundation for long-term growth in English academic
skills. The theory also suggests
that we should not expect bilingual children to approach grade norms in English
academic skills before the later grades of elementary school.
Corson's Analysis of the English Language Lexicon. .
Corson (1993, 1995) has pointed out that the academic language of texts in
English depends heavily on Graeco-Latin words whereas everyday conversation
relies more on an Anglo-Saxon-based lexicon: "most of the specialist and
high status terminology of English is Graeco-Latin in origin, and most of its
more everyday terminology is Anglo-Saxon in origin" (1993, p. 13). He cites
data that suggests that approximately 60% of all of the words in written English
text are of Graeco-Latin origin. These words tend to be three or four syllables
long whereas the everyday high frequency words of the Anglo-Saxon lexicon tend
to be one or two syllables in length.
Cognitive - instruction
should be cognitively challenging and require students to use higher-order
thinking abilities rather than the low-level memorization and application skills
that are tapped by typical worksheets or drill-and-practice computer programs;
Academic - academic content (science, math, social studies, art
etc.) should be integrated with language instruction so that students acquire
the specific language of these academic registers.
Language - the
development of critical language awareness should be fostered throughout the
program by encouraging students to compare and contrast their languages (e.g.
phonics conventions, grammar, cognates, etc.) and by providing students with
extensive opportunities to carry out projects investigating their own and their
community's language use, practices, and assumptions (e.g. in relation to the
status of different varieties).
In
short, instruction within a strong bilingual program should provide a Focus
on Message, a Focus on Language, and a Focus on Use in both
languages (Cummins, in press). We
know our program is effective, and developing CALP, if we can say with
confidence that our students are generating new knowledge, creating literature
and art, and acting on social realities that affect their lives.
These are the kinds of (quadrant B) instructional activities that the
conversational/academic language distinction is intended to foster.
Promise,
Research and Theoretical Foundations of e-Lective
Language Learning
The
design of e-Lective Language Learning is based on the following premises:
1.
Virtually all applied linguists agree that access to sufficient
comprehensible input in the target language is a necessary condition for
language acquisition; most would also assign some role to (a) a focus on formal
features of the target language, (b) development of effective learning
strategies, and (c) actual use of the target language.
2.
Formal second language teaching is relatively unsuccessful for a
significant number of learners primarily as a result of impoverished input in
the target language, both with respect to quality and quantity.
3.
Target language text has the potential to provide a virtually
inexhaustible supply of authentic comprehensible input for language learning if
rapid access to meaning could be ensured.
4.
Current CD-ROM technology can supply the necessary supports or
“scaffolds” to make a wide range of target language text comprehensible to
learners and to build learners' language awareness, thereby fuelling the
language learning process.
Practice
INSTRUCTION
FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
A.
FOCUS ON MESSAGE
Making
Input Comprehensible
Developing Critical Literacy
B.
FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
Awareness
of Language Forms and Uses
role
that teachers should play in making texts work as input for language learning:
·
Provide the support learners need to make sense of the
text;
·
Call attention to the way language is used in the text;
·
Discuss with learners the meaning and interpretation of
sentences and phrases within the text;
·
Point out that words in one text may have been
encountered or used in other places;
·
Help learners discover the grammatical cues that indicate
relationships such as cause and effect, antecedence and consequence, comparison
and contrast, and so on.
In
short, teachers help written texts become usable input not only by helping
children make sense of the text but by drawing their attention, focusing it, in
fact, on how language is used in the materials they read.
Done consistently enough, the learners themselves will soon come to
notice the way language is used in the materials they read.
When they do that everything they read will be input for learning.
Critical Analysis of Language Forms and Uses
C.
FOCUS ON USE
Using
Language to:
Generate New Knowledge
Create Literature and Art
Act on Social Realities
Descriptive Phase.
In this phase the focus of interaction is on the information contained in
the text. Typical questions at this level might be: Where, when, how, did it
happen? Who did it? Why? These are
the type of questions for which answers can be found in the text itself
Personal Interpretive Phase.
After the basic information in the text has been discussed, students are
encouraged to relate it to their own experiences and feelings.
Questions that might be asked by the teacher at this phase are: Have you
ever seen (felt, experienced) something like this? Have you ever wanted
something similar? How did what you
read make you feel? Did you like it? Did it make you happy? Frighten you? What
about your family?
Critical Analysis Phase.
After children have compared and contrasted what is presented in the text
with their personal experiences, they are ready to engage in a more abstract
process of critically analyzing the issues or problems that are raised in the
text. This process involves drawing
inferences and exploring what generalizations can be made.
Appropriate questions might be: Is it valid? Always? When? Does it
benefit everyone alike? Are there any alternatives to this situation?
Would people of different cultures (classes, genders) have acted
differently? How? Why?
Creative Action Phase.
This is a stage of translating the results of the previous phases into
concrete action. The dialogue is
oriented towards discovering what changes individuals can make to improve their
lives or resolve the problem that has been presented.
Let us suppose that students have been researching (in the local
newspaper, in periodicals such as National Geographic problems relating
to environmental pollution. After
relating the issues to their own experience, critically analyzing causes and
possible solutions, they might decide to write letters to congressional
representatives, highlight the issue in their class/school newsletter in order
to sensitize other students, write and circulate a petition in the neighborhood,
write and perform a play that analyzes the issue, etc.
Once again, this phase can be seen as extending the process of
comprehension insofar as when we act to transform aspects of our social
realities we gain a deeper understanding of those realities.
Within Ada’s framework, the process of making input
comprehensible is an active constructive process that can be facilitated or
inhibited by those we are interacting with (or by characteristics of texts we
are reading). The framework expresses the point that we cannot understand
messages without acting on them either internally (through thinking about them)
or externally by acting on them in the “real” world. The personal interpretive and critical analysis phases
represent internalized action on texts or messages.
While this internalized action can be carried out by individuals, the
process will usually be enhanced when the action is collaboratively constructed
in the context of social interaction.
Educators who aspire to challenge the operation of
coercive relations of power in the school system must attempt to create
conditions of collaborative empowerment. In
other words, they must attempt to organize their interactions with students in
such a way that power is generated and shared through those interactions.
This involves becoming aware of, and actively working to change, the ways
in which particular educational structures limit the opportunities that
culturally-diverse students might have for educational and social advancement. It also involves attempting to orchestrate their interactions
with culturally-diverse students in such a way that students' options for
identity formation and critical inquiry are expanded rather than constricted.
For Latino/Latina students promotion of critical biliteracy is a
necessary part of this empowerment process since, in the absence of critical
biliteracy, students are unable to read either the word or the world in their
two cultures.
.
In the first place, as Stephen Krashen (1993) has repeatedly emphasized,
extensive reading is crucial for academic development since academic language is
found primarily in written text. If bilingual students are not reading
extensively, they are not getting access to the language of academic success.
Opportunities for collaborative learning and talk about text are also relevant
in helping students internalize and more fully comprehend the academic language
they find in their extensive reading of text.
Writing
is also crucial because when bilingual students write about issues that matter
to them they not only consolidate aspects of the academic language they have
been reading, they also express their identities through language and
(hopefully) receive feedback from teachers and others that will affirm and
further develop their expression of self.
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