(The Dimensions Of Language Proficiency) Respond To Two Of Your Peers ( Make The Two Responds Short)

The difference between conversational fluency, discrete language skills and academic language proficiency as defined by Cummins is simple.  As per Cummins (2007) conversational fluency is exactly that conversational English they have picked up on from daily interactions ex.” on the playground, in the lunch room, on the school bus, at parties, playing sports and talking on the telephone”.  When it comes to discrete language skills, ELL’s have an understanding of letters and how we make new words by changing the ending (-es, -ly –ing), but may not know when to or how to use properly.  And lastly academic language deals with listening speaking reading and writing the English language (Honigsfeld & Cohen 2015).  They all build on one another to form the complete understanding a student will need when being competitive in the work force / college level.

As an instructor it is important to know where our students fail, because it is important to know what our students understand and where they are.  It is an educator’s job to teach on a level of understanding and when they don’t problems arise when an educator thinks a child is proficient in a language when they can demonstrate good social English.  One negative implication for ELL students when teachers mix up their understanding of conversational language with academic language proficiency is test scores could be poor.  A student may be able to speak clear, but may not be able to read and understand the same language, and their grades will reflect disconnect of the two language proficiencies.

An activity that could be used in class for the conversational fluency is a game called It’s Your Turn: Teach a Class.  In this activity pair of students is given a grammar word, vocabulary or culture point and they will teach the class.  What I love about this activity, they have to work together and this will help both students get an even better understanding.  As the teacher observes they also get to ask questions to make sure content is given for full understanding.  I feel this will help with the conversational fluency students, because they will have to speak the content to the class and this may help them get a better understanding of a lesson. When people have to explain things to others it helps for more understanding, so the conversation skills they have obtained will get them through the lesson but also help moving to the next level of CALP (cognitive academic language proficiency). www.fluentu.com/english/educator/blog/speaking-activities-for-esl-students/

An activity for the discrete language skills that will help building the skill is Bippity Boppity Bumble Bee.  With this activity, it gets everyone involved from beginning to end, it helps with noticing syllables within words.  It will teach them how to break words up even if it is unfamiliar words they encounter for the first time. The teacher will gather the children in a circle and the teacher starts the game: “Bippity Boppity Bumnle Bee will you say your name for me?” The child responds “Timothy”: teacher responds Let’s all say it and the class says the name out loud clapping for each syllable.  Teacher: Let’s all whisper it. Now they whisper the name still clapping out the syllables.  Teacher and class say “Bippity Boppity Bumble Bee thank ypu for saying your name for me!” As mentioned this game will help with syllables that will eventually lead into vowels or consonants.  The first concept is learning the parts of words. www.earlychildhoodteacher.org/…/5-quick-easy-and-fun-phonemic-awareness-activit.

An activity for the academic language proficiency would be have them put together a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting the book vs. the movie to Alice in Wonderland.  At this level ELL’s are using their listening, reading, speaking and writing skills.  We will read the book as a class and then watch the movie as a group.  Afterwards they will be handed Venn Diagrams and we will discuss as a class some similarities and some differences of each and things that neither really touched on.  Some students will see and recall things others missed and vice versa.  This will influence all levels reading (and reading as a group will help increase pronunciation), listening (watching the movie and reading the book), speaking (as we discuss as a group) and writing when placing information in the diagram. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-strategies-teaching-academic-language-todd-finley

Reference

Honigsfeld, A & Cohan, A. (2015). Serving English language learners. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education.

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-strategies-teaching-academic-language-todd-finley

www.earlychildhoodteacher.org/…/5-quick-easy-and-fun-phonemic-awareness-activit.

www.fluentu.com/english/educator/blog/speaking-activities-for-esl-students/

2.Michael Tate  2/2/2017 1:51:27 PM

According to Dr. Cummins and our text book “The concept of conversational fluency refers to “the ability to carry on a conversation in familiar face-to-face situations” (Cummins & Man, 2007, p. 799)” (Honigsfeld & Cohan, 2015) “Academic language proficiency refers to “the extent to which an individual has access to and command of the oral and written academic registers of schooling” (p. 800), in which register refers to the variety of language used in the context of school.” (Honigsfeld & Cohan, 2015) “Discrete language skills. Discrete language skills are not directly connected to other language skills.           For example, students can learn the names of the letters of the alphabet or can read words written in English but might not know the meaning of what they read.” (Honigsfeld & Cohan, 2015) As a teacher we must understand the differences because we never want to assume that because a student is able to speak the language without an accent or if they seem to speak fluently that we mistake that with academic language proficiency. This could hurt a student who may be able to speak it really well but can pick out words or even know when to properly use them. “In other words, students may develop conversational skills and might even have a strong command of grammatical structures (such as using the past tense morpheme), yet they do not do well with academic English skills, such as writing an essay or doing an oral presentation in class. Thus, all three types of language skills will need to be developed using appropriate methodologies.” (Honigsfeld & Cohan, 2015) “Rhythm and Rhyme To improve student fluency within sentences, try doing chants and rhymes as a class. Depending on the age of your students, you may want to go with anything from nursery rhymes to popular poetry or lyrics to current hits. Give each student a copy of the rhyme you will be using. Then stand in front of the class and read the rhyme for them. The next time through, your class should read along with you. Don’t modify your speed or intonation to aid your students. The goal in this activity is for them to keep up with you as you read. This will help them mimic your pace and intonation as you read aloud, which in turn will help them with their fluency when they speak. You can also do this with prose.”  (taken from, http://busyteacher.org/15921-improve-student-fluency-5-classroom-activities.html ) This would be great at helping them in their fluency. Something that you could do for a discrete language skills is to give “all of the directions orally in English, thus causing students to use their listening ability to understand the assignment. In this course, students might discuss their readings, thus employing speaking and listening skills and certain associated skills, such as pronunciation, syntax, and social usage.” (taken from,  http://www.ericdigests.org/2002-2/esl.htm ) For a learning activity for academic language proficiency I would try the following. After identifying critical vocabulary in, say, a persuasive essay unit — convince, reason, counter-argument, etc. — we will pre-teach approximately 20 words, first by reviewing pronunciation, and then by having students . . . Act out the words in a skit. Identify a physical gesture for the word (“opinion” might mean pointing to one’s head). Write definitions of terms using their own words — in English or in their home language. Create a “word chart” that we will also replicate on the wall. During the unit, students will periodically note when those words are used, and add new ones that they believe are important enough to recognize and remember. (taken from,   https://www.edutopia.org/blog/english-language-learners-academic-language-larry-ferlazzo ) References, Honigsfeld, A & Cohan, A. (2015). Serving English language learners. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education http://busyteacher.org/15921-improve-student-fluency-5-classroom-activities.html http://www.ericdigests.org/2002-2/esl.htm https://www.edutopia.org/blog/english-language-learners-academic-language-larry-ferlazzo