What do teachers need to know about students who are learning to speak English?
Page 5: Contextual Supports
As we discussed above, it is important for teachers to know their students’ unique experiences, as well as to understand the basic tenets of second language acquisition, sheltered instruction, and culturally responsive teaching. Teachers can further meet their ELs’ learning needs by applying a model developed by Jim Cummins, a professor at the Centre for Educational Research on Languages and Literacies from the University of Toronto.
In the movie below, Janette Klingner talks about how this framework demonstrates a range of contextual supports for teaching ELs (time: 2:24).
Transcript: Contextual Supports for Teaching ELs
What we have are two continua. We have the x-axis on the left-hand side, context-embedded, and on the-right hand side context-reduced. When there’s a lot of context, there are visuals to help students understand the task that they are being asked to do. At the other end of the continuum, there’s very little context. Now, on the y-axis, we also have a continuum. At the top, we have cognitively undemanding, so that would be an easier type of task that doesn’t require a lot of higher-level thinking. At the bottom of the y-axis is cognitively demanding.
What I think is important for teachers to think about is what they can do to both provide more context for students to help with their learning and what they can do to take a difficult task that requires higher-level thinking skills and make it less cognitively demanding for students. If you think about what’s most difficult for students, that would be the tasks that are in the lower right-hand quadrant of the framework; in other words, tasks that are context-reduced and cognitively demanding. We want teachers to be able to shift those further to the left on the continuum so that they end up in the lower left-hand quadrant, still perhaps cognitively demanding but with a lot more context that enables students to be more successful with the task.
A misconception is that English language learners who are not yet fully proficient in English can only do cognitively undemanding tasks. Even students who are at beginning levels of English proficiency are very capable of doing more cognitively demanding tasks. It’s a mistake to think that we have to hold students back or keep them from doing tasks like that until they have higher levels of English proficiency. We just need to provide them with the context and support to do that.
The movie emphasizes the idea of contextually supporting students. Typically, as students grow older and progress through the grade levels, the context in which academic tasks is presented is reduced. For example, as students advance in grade levels, they are expected to obtain new information from reading a textbook with fewer visual supports like pictures and diagrams. Students are required to gain new knowledge from classroom lectures and note-taking as opposed to learning with multiple modalities (e.g., pictures, graphs, charts, graphic organizers, word walls, gestures). Likewise, as students get older, the information they are expected to learn becomes more cognitively demanding.
Activity
Based on Cummins’ framework, do you think the lesson taught in the Challenge is cognitively demanding or undemanding? Is context embedded or reduced? Explain your answers.
The Challenge video is included below to refer to if needed.
This graphic illustrates a range of activities based on the extent to which they are cognitively demanding and the amount of context they provide. The illustration is divided into four quadrants by vertical and horizontal lines through its middle, each end terminating in an arrowhead. The top of the graphic is labeled “Cognitively Undemanding,” while the bottom reads “Cognitively Demanding.” The left side of the graphic is labeled “Context Embedded” and the right side “Context Reduced.” Each quadrant contains examples of that type of activity. The “Cognitively Undemanding/Context Embedded” quadrant contains “Engaging in conversation.” “Participating in art class,” and “Playing sports in PE.” The “Cognitively Demanding/Context Embedded” quadrant is illustrated with “Conducting science experiments,” “Reading a textbook with graphics,” and “Using math manipulatives.” The “Cognitively Undemanding/Context Reduced” quadrant contains the examples “Talking on the phone,” “Writing a list,” and “Estimating the number of candies in a jar.” Finally, the “Cognitively Demanding/Context Reduced” quadrant is illustrated with “Reading textbook without graphics,” “Working complex computations,” and “Taking standardized tests.”
(time: 4:00)
Transcript: Challenge
Narrator: In this simulation, you’ve recently moved with your family to a new place, and you are attending a new elementary school. Pay attention to the lesson and be prepared to write down five things the teacher talked about.
Teacher: Speaking in Portuguese.
Narrator: Now it’s time to write down five things your teacher talked about. Be sure to include at least one of the many safety tips. How many of the five items were you able to list? What made this lesson difficult to understand? The simulation represented an experience that could happen to a student who does not speak the language of the classroom.
Here’s Your Challenge:
What do teachers need to know about students who are learning to speak English?
What are some general instructional practices that can be beneficial to students who are learning to speak English?
What should teachers consider when testing students who are learning to speak English?
Though the lesson in the Challenge is a cognitively demanding one—that is, the teacher introduces difficult content requiring higher-order thinking skills—her students are forced to rely on language to understand their teacher and what she expects them to do. Note that few meaningful clues are given. The teacher refers to a small poster on the chalkboard and to the household items she will use in her demonstration, but the lesson lacks significant contextual clues and is therefore presented in a contextually reduced way. Because the EL students have to rely on language alone, the lesson is more challenging for them than their peers. It is likely that they do not fully comprehend the lesson and will be unable to participate fully in future discussions pertaining to it. By contrast, if the teacher were to present the lesson by providing additional supports (e.g., demonstration, graphics, cue cards), she would help her EL students better understand the content they are required to learn.
