Cummins’ Interdependence

Hypothesis

Teaching Words To Students

Keith Pruitt, Ed.S.Words of Wisdom Educational Consulting

Doctoral Candidatewww.woweducationalconsulting.com

Are They Smarter Than A 5th Grader?

Just what is it like to be an ELL student and be without context, vocabulary…comprehension.

Perhaps this short video illustrates the frustration. But notice the way Pickler tries to use strategies to answer the questions.

Defining The Hypothesis

To the extent that instruction in Lx is effective in promoting proficiency in Lx, transfer of this proficiency to Ly

will occur provided there is adequate exposure to Ly (either in school or

environment) and adequate motivation to learn Ly.

--J. Cummins, 1981. “The Role of Primary Language Development in Promoting Educational Success for Language Minority Students.” In Schooling and Language Minority Students: A Theoretical Framework. P. 29

The PrinciplesCommon Underlying Proficiency

Cognitive and linguistic abilities

L1 background serves as the basis for schemata of L2

Using commonality of language, transfer of linguistic features and skills across languages

Friendship = amistad

What Do ELL Students Need?

The keys to effective reading instruction for ELLs include activating or building background knowledge, helping students use psychological strategies and linguistic cueing systems to construct meaning from English texts, choosing appropriate materials, and organizing curriculum around themes.

--David and Yvonne Freeman

Theoretical Reasons It Works Brain works to tap prior knowledge

(Anderson)“What do I already know about rocks?”“In my language we call this…”This strongly supports the success of

bilingual education, but is it practical? New York City has 175 different languages. We must rely on transference.

English Word

What I KnowAbout Word

Is This In My

Language?

Background Transfer Chart

CLOCK

CUP

FORK

English Word

What I KnowAbout Word

Is This In My

Language?

Tell Time 时钟  

Drink coffee

杯子 

Eat 叉 ;耙 

Background Transfer Chart

CLOCK

CUP

FORK

English Word

What I KnowAbout Word

Is This In My

Language?

Time reloj

Coca copa

Food tenedor

Background Transfer Chart

CLOCK

CUP

FORK

Knowledge is based upon schema created in permanent memory. (Piaget, Anderson)

What happens in your mind when I say…DOGSTATUEMAN

The Work of J R Anderson

SensoryMemory

WorkingMemory

Discards

OR

PermanentMemory Files

Anderson, J.R. (1995). Learning and memory: An integrated approach. New York: John

Wiley & Sons

Learn new vocabulary by creating schema that connects with what is already known. (Beck, McKeown, Kucan and Marzano)

What words come to your mind as you look at this picture? Turn and Talk

How About Now?

What Schema Do You Have For This Picture?

Can you transfer your learning?

Can you adopt new schemes for this if I give you information?

How Can We Use Cummin’s Theory?

Transfer of concept. If student knows concept in native language, it will be easier to transfer it to English.

Teacher = Maestro

Backpack = Mochila

Hat = Sombrero

Now Let’s Look At Harder Concepts

Find a partner: Discuss how you would go about explaining to students the following concepts:

LIBERTYPhotosynthesisCell

Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson

Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Is This Liberty?

Is This A Dilemma?

Cell Sale

Sail

WareWhere

Wear

They’re

There

Their

Creating New Schema

Virtual Learning (Marzano)

Visit www.woweducationalconsulting.com

For a list of virtual tour sites.

Creating New Schema

Read Alouds (Linda Hoyt, Freemans)

Preview, View, Review

Method presented by Freemans of pre-teaching read aloud text---

Build Vocabulary and Background Knowledge Distribute copies of the Modeled Reading Text Organizer. Ask children to share what they know about bumblebees. Explain that a colony means a group of the same kind of animals living together. Tell children that a bumblebee colony is made up of a queen, the workers, and the drones. Then point to the picture on the organizer and tell children that it shows the inside of a bumblebee queen’s nest. Next say the words bumblebee queen, egg, honey pot, and larvae, and have children say the words with you.

Preview Using Story Mapping

Build schema with Visual AnchorVisual Transference

Creating New Schema

Teaching By Theme (Freemans)

My Family Suitcase

My Family

Mi Familia

أسرتي

--Dr. Stephen White

Using Word Maps Helps Students Integrate New Words

So work becomes

Works

Worker

Worked

Working

Will Work

Labor

Job

Employment

Exert

Lazy

A Word Tree Starts with Base Word

EATATE Will Eat

A Graphic Way of Showing Tense

Past

Present

Future

Creating New Schema Using Spanish CognatesHundreds of words in Spanish and

English have common roots in Latin. Many of the these words are the same except for one letter. These serve as good basis of conversation.

Turn and Talk: Tell me what the English word is for these Spanish cognates.

Spanish Cognates Ocurrir Reptil Ciclo Paciente Invitar Cooperar Educacion Sociedad Presente

The Bottom Line ELL students need

vocabulary We can leverage

their prior knowledge to create new learning

New Schema can help create new concepts

Words of WisdomEducational Consulting

Keith Pruitt

www.educationalconsulting.comwww.myspace.com/wowedu