Dual Language Immersion - PowerPoint Presentation

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Dual Language

Immersion

Nickajack Elementary School

Gregory Barfield, Ed.D.

Dual Language Immersion Program Specialist

Gregory.Barfield@cobbk12.org Slide3

Tonight’s Topics

How does language proficiency in DLI mirror language development in infants and young children and how does this relate to how long language proficiency takes to develop in DLI students?

Q&A on DLI Proficiency

What will DLI be like in middle school?

Q&A on Middle School DLI ModelSlide4

Let’s Review What DLI Looks Like

Two Teacher Model-Immersion teacher and English Partner teacher

50% of academic instruction (math, science, social studies, Spanish literacy) occurs in Spanish

English Language Arts (including reading and writing) and Content Area Reinforcement

occur

in English

Language learning and content learning are integrated. Students learn new content while learning a new language.

The Spanish classroom is a 100% immersion environment; no English is spoken except by students as they learn the target language. In late kindergarten, students transition into speaking Spanish only.Slide5

DLI

programs are the most effective types of

learning for

nurturing bilingual/biliterate

students.

The Cobb

Dual Language Immersion program helps students to develop linguistic competence in both languages at the same time (listening, speaking, reading, and writing

).Slide6

Studying in two languages allows students to transfer knowledge and skills acquired in one language to the other.  

Students feel

comfortable and successful in one language while

gradually

building the second language. Slide7

Fluency versus Proficiency

Is there a difference?Slide8

According to Wiki, language fluency is the degree to which one is fluent in a language. Someone is said to be fluent if they have a high level of 

language proficiency

, most typically in a 

foreign language

 or another learned language, and more narrowly to denote 

fluid

 language use, as opposed to slow, halting use. In this narrow sense, fluency is 

necessary

 but not 

sufficient

 for language proficiency: fluent language users (particularly uneducated native speakers) may have narrow vocabularies, limited discourse strategies, and inaccurate word use. They may be illiterate, as well. 

Native

 speakers are often incorrectly referred to as fluent.Slide9

Fluency is basically one's ability to be understood by both native and non-native listeners. A higher level would be 

bilingual

, which indicates one is capable of speaking in two languages, either having learned them simultaneously or one after the other.

In the sense of proficiency, "fluency" encompasses a number of related but separable skills:

Reading

: the ability to easily read and understand texts written in the language;

[2]

Writing

: the ability to formulate written texts in the language;

Speaking

: the ability to produce

understanding

of texts.

speech in the language and be understood by its speakers.

Listening comprehension

: the ability to follow and understand speech in the language;

Reading comprehension

: the level

of understanding the textsSlide10

DLI Students and Language Proficiency

In many ways, beginning DLI students are like infants and/or toddlers regarding language development. To understand this, let’s look at language development beginning with

from infancy through childhood. Slide11

AGE PERIOD

DEVELOPMENTAL ADVANCE

Prenatal

Functional maturation of

hearing

at about 5 months gestational age

Birth

Ability to

discriminate

sounds.

Transition to

breathing

.

Vocalization

begins.

Birth to 1 month

Reflexive stage

of phonetic development (cries, hiccups, belches)

2 to 3 months

Cooing

stage

4 to 5 months

Expansion

stage (Remodeling of vocal cords)

6 to 10 months

Babbling

stage. Vocalizations begin to reflect the ambient language.

11 to 18 months

Auditory discrimination

of speech is tuned to the ambient languageSlide12

AGE PERIOD

DEVELOPMENTAL ADVANCE

19 to 24 months

Possess

10 to 20 consonants

+ sufficient

phonetic ability

to learn

many new words.

25 to 36 months

Continued growth in phonetic inventory, along with

vocabulary and syntax.

Stuttering

is often first noticed at

about this age

3 to 4 years

Almost

all vowels

are mastered by this age, along with a number of consonants.

4 to 6 years

Closing in on phonemic mastery, with the

exception of fricative (noise) sounds

.

Teeth fall.

6 to 9 years

Phonemic mastery

typically

completed

, but

refinements

in speech production

continue

.

9+ years

Speech development

is

complete

, but developmental changes can be observed

(E.G., Voice change in adolescence)Slide13

Almost every human child succeeds in learning language.

We tend to take the process of language learning for granted, language seems like a

basic instinct

as simple as breathing or blinking.

In fact, it is the most complex ability the human brain will ever master.Slide14

Developmental course of language acquisition

Early

auditory development:

Beyond the basic level of auditory processing, infants appear to have a remarkable

capacity

to

record and store sequences of auditory events

.

Records input sounds

Replays them

Accustoms the ear to their patterns

Well

before learning

the actual

meanings

of these wordsSlide15

2

)

Early

articulation

Babbling

Cooing (Consonant/Vowel)

Drifts toward native language around the 1

st

birthdaySlide16

The forms of

early words often deviate

radically from the adult standard. Children tend to:

Drop unstressed syllables

, producing hippopotamus as

poma

.

Repeat consonants

, producing water as

wawa

.

Simplify and reduce consonant clusters

, producing tree as pee.

Slide17

3)

The first words

Based on three earlier developments:

Infant’s growing

ability to record

the sounds of words.

Ability to

control vocal productions

that occur in the late stages of babbling.

General

growth of the symbolic function

, as represented in play and imitation.

Slide18

THE PROBLEM IS-

So many simplifications occur at once that many words are difficult to recognize.

Slide19

4)

Word combinations

Child soon realizes the importance of combining

Predicates

(e.g. want, more, go)

Arguments

(e.g. cookie or Mommy)

Slide20

SPEECH

DEVELOPMENT (2-5 Years Old)

Begins to use

two word phrases

Initial emergence of past tenses

Begins to learn the social uses of

language

Begins to form subject–verb–object

sentences

Begins to tell narratives

Slide21

Child has to figure out how-

To join words together smoothly in production

Which words can meaningfully be combined with which

other words

This is also guided by earlier developments in comprehension.

Slide22

Language learning involves (1

):

Phonological development

Learn which sounds (phones) influence meaning.

These special phones are called phonemes and are the smallest meaningful sound changes in a language.

We are able to recognize all phonemes (around 200) and eventually our phonemic inventory narrows to match that of languages we are exposed to (45 sounds for English)

Semantic development

Learn to manipulate minimal units of meaning, called morphemes. Stems and affixes (prefix, suffix, infix) are two kinds of morphemes.

Slide23

Language learning involves (2):

Syntactic development

Learn the impact that the

ordering of meaningful elements

has on meaning. This is called

descriptive grammar

.

This is

NOT

what we

learn in school

, but rather

how people actually speak

. What we are taught in school is called prescriptive grammar.

Descriptive grammar

only

describes

the system of use;

prescriptive grammar imposes

(prescribes) a particular system

Pragmatic development

Learn the rules of use, including social rules, etc.

*

Meta-linguistic knowledge

This is linguistic knowledge about language: for instance, categorizing words a noun, verb, etc. This may not actually be necessary for language learning but is a common feature.

Slide24

Infants begin making sounds at birth. They cry, coo, and laugh…but in the first year they don’t really do much talking.

It could be argued that infants DO communicate with others but do not have language.Slide25

In fact, beginning DLI students can be like this when it comes to talking.

Students are exposed to a lot of language, mostly spoken, but some written.

They are given many opportunities to practice speaking Spanish by large group repetitions, songs, turn and talks with partner(s), and one-on-one practice with the teacher and/or para.

Some students, though, take longer to initiate conversation themselves. Some even go through what it is known as “the Silent Period.”Slide26

What Research Tells Us About Beginning DLI Students and Language Proficiency Development

Listening proficiency develops first followed by speaking.

Reading and writing proficiency take longer to reach higher proficiency levels.

It

may

take 1-3 years for

some

students to develop conversational language.

It

may

take 5-7 years for full academic language development.Slide27

Things to Think About

Native language development/acquisition in children takes a long time.

While dual language immersion is one of the best programs for students to develop language proficiency, it still takes a long time.Slide28

All DLI teachers will send home a Proficiency Report each spring to show his/her professional assessment of your child’s proficiency level in speaking, listening, reading, and writing.Slide29

Students progress from one proficiency level to the next in each skill (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) at different rates. Avoid comparing your student to other students. Slide30

Questions About Proficiency?Slide31

Middle School DLI

Middle school DLI will consist of two classes:

An advanced Spanish language class

and

A content class taught in Spanish

The content class will be decided in consultation with current middle school principals who would have DLI programs and middle school level assistant superintendentsSlide32

Questions About Middle School DLI?Slide33

Thank You for Inviting Me!