Xueyan Han asks how to combine language and literature.
Dick Tebbits answers: These are interesting tasks (Literary tasks) in their
own right but they also have a purpose in language practice, vocabulary
recycling and the unconscious
recycling of structures and phrases from the original text.
The 'new direction' in language teaching is to make the tasks purposeful.
People do not learn language in isolation but they do learn it in context, as
they use it for various purposes. The focus now in the USA is on a methodology
called SIOP: Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, developed by Deborah
Short and Jana Echeverria. This methodology incorporates CALLA (Uhl and
Chamot) and Sheltered Instruction in a more structured format.
There are steps that are incorporated in this methodology which provide the
teacher with the correct framework to use in guiding the students through
language learning via tasks; in all subjects. The reason that this is becoming
the
focus is that teaching conversational language is appropriate in the
beginning stages of language acquisition but is not the means to an end.
Students who
can converse (BICS) still have difficulty in meeting the academic language
demands of content area classes. While BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication
Skills) take 1-3 years to develop, CALPS (Cognitive Academic Language
Proficiency Skills) take 3-5 years (Krashen). Students cannot afford to let
their
academic learning just sit and wait while they learn a language. SIOP
demonstrates that students can acquire language quicker and with a more in-depth
ability to use that language by being placed in situations in which the language
becomes useful; for instance, if students are working in cooperative groups in a
social studies/history class, they are being forced to use social discourse to
interact with others in the group; to use academic language to complete the
tasks; and reading/writing to also complete the assignments.
You can read more about the SIOP protocol at the following sites:
http://www.siopinstitute.net/research.shtml
www.ode.state.or.us/.../elarts/reading/
literacy/summerinstitute/presentres/stopplanning-hernandez.ppt
SIOP: Making Content Comprehensible for ELLs by Judie Haynes
http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/using_siop_model_08621.php.php
Janet Kaback
Newark, NJ
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