Second Language Acquisitionand Teacher Preparation

for Teachers ofEnglish Language Learners

Mikel Cole, MEdDepartment of Teaching and Learning

Language, Literacy, and Culture

• ELLs are the fastest-growing population in US schools (McKeon, 2005)

• Not only is the ELL population increasing, it is dispersing.

• Currently, about 60% of US classrooms contain ELLs (American Federation of Teachers, 2008)

• Consequently, every prospective teacher needs to know aboutteaching ELLs

What Teachers Need to Know about Language

TODAY’S PRESENTATION

I. Theoretical OverviewII.Wong-Fillmore and Snow

III.Additional Thoughts

Language Acquisition and Language Learning• Chomsky and Language Acquisition– Innatist view– Language development

follows genetic cues– Input cannot explain

complexity of young children’s language production

Language Acquisition and Language Learning• Stephen Krashen – Agrees with Chomsky

acquisition fundamental in L1 and L2

– ‘Comprehensible input’ keyto acquisition

– ‘Learning’ distinct from ‘acquisition’

– Affective filter

Interaction of L1 and L2• Jim Cummins and SLA– Common Underlying

Proficiency Hypothesis– Basic interpersonal

communication skills (BICS), typically 3-5 years

– Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency(CALP), typically 7-10 years

Sociocultural Theory and SLA

• ‘Mediation’ (Vygotsky, 1978;Lantolf and Thorne, 2007)

• Voice, identity and agency(Bakhtin, 1973; Pierce, 1995)

Critical and Emanicipatory SLA

• ‘Conscientization’(Freire, 1987)

• ‘Critical Language Awareness ’(Fairclough, 1999)

• Language of power(Delpit, 1995)

Part Two:

Wong-Fillmore and Snow (2000)" What every teacher needs to know about

language"

Wong-Fillmore and Snow (2000)• Essential oral language knowledge 1) What are the basic units of language?2) What’s regular and what isn’t,

and how do forms relate to each other?3) How is the lexicon acquired and stored?4) Are vernacular dialects different from “bad English”, and if so,

how?5) What is academic English?6) Why has English acquisition by non-English speaking children

not been more successful?

Wong-Fillmore and Snow (2000)• Essential written language knowledge 1)Why is English spelling so difficult?2)Why do students have trouble structuring

narrative and expository text?3)How should one judge the quality and

correctness of a piece of writing?4)What makes a sentence or a text easy or

difficult to understand?

Wong-Fillmore and Snow (2000)• Ideal training for all teachers would include:1) Language and Linguistics2) Language and Cultural Diversity3) Sociolinguistics for Educators in a Linguistically Diverse

Society4) Language Development5) Second Language Learning and Teaching6) The Language of Academic Discourse7) Text Analysis and Language Understanding in Educational

Settings

Part Three: Closing Thoughts• Some additional things teachers should

consider:1) Students are human beings– Hopes, dreams, agency

2) What you believe is as important as what you know– Beliefs and attitudes more resistant to change

than knowledge