Spring 2021, Volume 14, Issue 1
Features:
Improving Online Instruction WIDA 2020 Standards Framework Links to Practice: SSTESOL 2020 Our 1st Virtual Conference: Resounding Success A new "Perspectives" section
Sunshine State TESOLL Journal
FLORIDA
Editor Tony Erben, Ph.D. University of Tampa Assistant-Editor Keya Mukherjee, Ph.D. Saint Leo University Copy-Editor Cristiane Vicentini University of Miami Editorial Review Board Laura Ballard, Ph.D. Florida State University Maria R. Coady, Ph.D. University of Florida Ester de Jong, Ph.D. University of Florida Katya Goussakova, Ph.D. Seminole State College Xuan Jiang, Ph.D. St. Thomas University Jennifer Killam Broward College Michelle Kroskey University of Central Florida John I. Liontas, Ph.D. University of South Florida Terri Mossgrove WIDA Sergei Paromchik, Ph.D. Hillsborough County Public Schools Robyn Percy-Socha, Ph.D. Full Sail University Cheryl A. Shamon, Ph.D. Saint Leo University Lindsay Vecchio,Ph.D. Alachua Public Schools Caroline Webb Broward College
Florida Sunshine State TESOL Journal Spring, 2021
Manuscript Guidelines The manuscript should appeal to the instructional, administrative, or research interests of educators at various levels, such as adult education, K-12 issues, or teacher education issues. • The manuscript should be substantive and present new ideas or new applications of information related to current trends in the field. • The manuscript should be well written, clearly organized, and carefully proofed. • A complete reference list should be supplied at the end of the manuscript, and the entire manuscript should be formatted according to guidelines in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Ed. (2001) or later. • Manuscripts should generally be no longer than 15-20 double-spaced pages. • An abstract of 150 words or less should accompany each manuscript. • A biographical statement of 50 words or less should be included for each author. Information should include current job or title, institution, degrees held, professional experience, and any other relevant information. • Please include a cover letter with the name, postal and e-mail address, and phone number of the first author (or other contact person) clearly noted. • Manuscripts must be submitted in electronic format as an e-mail attachment. Manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word). Camera-ready figures and tables are requested. • Manuscripts are accepted throughout the year and sent out for review. Reviews may take up to three months. Revisions are usually expected within one month (30 days) after receiving the initial review. Book Review Guidelines • Materials reviewed must have been published within the last three years. • Reviews should be a maximum of three pages. (double spaced). • Each review must provide complete bibliographic information, a description of the book/material, the audience for whom it is designed and how well it accomplishes its purpose. • A cover letter should provide the author's name, email address, telephone number and a brief (25 word) bibliographic statement. • Reviews should be sent as an email attachment.
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Manuscripts Manuscripts may be submitted via the Sunshine State TESOL www site: https://sunshinestatetesol. wildapricot.org/page-1075471 or send to Tony Erben at terben@ut.edu Manuscript Reviewer Interested in being a manuscript reviewer? Please contact Keya Mukherjee at keya.mukherjee@saintleo.edu and detail your area(s) of expertise, a brief bibliography, and if relevant, select publications from the past five years. Advertising Interested in advertising? Submit an inquiry through the Sunshine State TESOL www site or email Keya Mukherjee at keya.mukherjee@saintleo.edu Affiliation Florida Sunshine State TESOL Association is an affiliate of TESOL International Association. Sunshine State TESOL 4801 Riverside Dr. Yankeetown, FL, 34496
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About Sunshine State TESOL Journal The Sunshine State TESOL Journal is a refereed journal published annually by the Sunshine State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. The main purpose of the Journal is to provide a forum for TESOL professionals to share ideas and research on second language teaching and learning. The Journal welcomes submissions of manuscripts based on research projects, classroom practices, conference presentations, and other professional activities of substance and interest to the general membership. A double-blind review process is used in which submitted manuscripts are distributed by the editor to two-three reviewers with expertise in the areas addressed in each manuscript. Written comments by reviewers and a recommendation on acceptance are returned to the editor, who then communicates the comments and decision on acceptance to the authors.
Editor's Commentary It always fills my professional heart with pride to read how vibrant our ESOL professional community is here in Florida. In 2019, SSTESOL established an actual SSTESOL Press and our first publication is a 45 Year anniversary overview of ESOL-based research, practice and advocacy in Florida. We had a successful launch of this foundational book at our 2020 annual conference. We had a very successful SSTESOL Conference in November 2020 and some of the presentations are in this issue's "Links to Practice" section. In 2020, we hosted our very first virtual conference. We were gratified knowing that our members appreciated the smooth organization of this first-ever virtual SSTESOL conference. Thank goodness for Zoom! In this Spring 2021 issue of the SSTESOL Journal we have a new section called "Perspectives". Each issue, members can share their thoughts on any topic with our SSTESOL community. In this issue, we have some reflections from three preservice teachers who attended for the very first time a professional conference - our conference! One other "Perspectives" submission shares tips on how to win a travel grant. While the last is how a teacher made a difference in an ELL's life. We celebrated at our 2020 conference the fact that it has been 30 years since the Consent Decree was signed in Florida. Dr. Ester de Jong shares her thoughts in The Florida Consent Decree: From Equity to Equality – and Back Again? regarding how far we have come and how far we still need to go to improve the delivery of English services to ELLs in Florida. She provides some recommendations we should all follow. We also have an article from WIDA (Lynn Shafer Wilner and Margo Gottlieb) providing an exploration of the Key Components of the WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework, 2020 edition. Erben, Cappucci and Vicentini provide readers a very practical framework and overview of technologies to enhance online engagement, while Rebecca Arndt provides tips on using corpus-based tools to enhance online learning. Our SSTESOL members want to read about your research, your practice and/or your work in ESOL! If you have never submitted to a journal, we invite new research, manuscripts that describe classroom practice or thought pieces on advocacy or theory in ESOL. If you are a K-12 ESOL teacher, you probably do things in your classroom that other ESOL teachers across Florida would love to read about or see. Did I write "see"? Since the SSTESOL Journal is an e-publication, you can also send in annotated videos of your classroom practice! The videos don't have to be long. They can describe an activity that works well for you when working with pre-production ELLs, with Elementary ELLs or with adults. If you are unsure, send me an email and let me help you. In this Spring 2021 issue of the SSTESOL Journal we have an array of articles and reviews. I hope you enjoy them. BTW, we had an acceptance rate of 80%. this time. Lastly, let me thank our SSTESOL board members for their unwavering support as well as my co-editor Keya Mukherjee from Saint Leo University and the rest of the editorial board who give up their time to make this journal a worthy professional platform. Sincerely, Tony Erben, Ph.D. SSTESOL Editor, 2017-2018 Past President 2020-2021 Vice President
President's Corner Theme: Professional Learning Opportunities SSTESOL Members and Friends, Thank you for being a member of the Sunshine State TESOL of Florida. It is amazing to see the resilience of members who, in spite of the challenges posed by the COVID 19, continue to love their profession and the English learners we serve from K-12 to higher education levels. In one way or another, SSTESOL of Florida has served as the link between you and the world of TESOL in Florida and nationwide. In this issue of the SSTESOL Journal, I’d like to focus my message on professional learning, one of SSTESOL’s strategic areas. It is amazing to reflect on where we have been, but more excitedly about SSTESOL’s path moving forward. 2020 has been a year of challenges, yet we refused to be overcome by the effects of the unknown. As an organization, I am immensely proud of how we worked together to offer the first ever 2020 SSTESOL virtual conference without sacrificing the high-quality professional development we provide our members: 160 sessions, 25 exhibitors, and for the first time, our donors and sponsors supported SSTESOL’s scholarships, awards, and recognition programs. In 2021, we are continuing our strong commitment to deliver our very best by implementing SSTESOL’s 2021 Strategic Aims. We have launched several projects such as Rethink and Reimagine SSTESOL 2021, Quarterly Chat with SSTESOL Chapter presidents, constructed a Professional Learning Plan, and delivered the first Advocacy Educational Training Series while learning more creative ways to enhance our communication with members and potential members. Through Zoom, we lifted each other’s spirits and continue to explore possibilities. Plan ahead, and look out for more information on the 2021 SSTESOL First Hybrid Annual Conference on October 28-30, 2021 in Westshore Grand Hotel in Tampa, Florida. In addition, the latest standing committee to organize and to implement a series of professional learning opportunities is the Professional Learning Committee (PLC). Their organizational meeting on March 20, 2021 resulted in offering a first webinar which will be held on April 24, 2021 with emphasis on best practices in ESOL Adult Education. Please mark your calendar and join us in learning more from our local SSTESOL experts in their own fields. Please congratulate the new SSTESOL PLC members: Pamela Jo Wilson (Palm Beach TESOL),Zeynep Erdil-Moody (BART), Raydel Hernandez (Miami-Dade TESOL), Amany Habib (Chair, ECTESOL), and Arlene Costello (SSTESOL President/Advisor). Finally, let’s stay the course and continue our collective efforts in keeping SSTESOL a strong professional organization for teachers of English as a second. language, a new language, an additional language, or a foreign language in Florida and beyond. Salamat at Mabuhay! Sincerely, Arlene Costello Ph.D. SSTESOL President, 2019-2021
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Florida Sunshine State TESOL Journal Contents (contin.) Contents
President’s Corner 4 Editor’s Commentary 5 Opening Address Ester J. de Jong The Florida Consent Decree: From Equity to Equality – and Back Again? 12 Pedagogy Rebeca Arndt Bringing Corpus-Based Tools to Your Face-To-Face or Online Classroom 18 Tony Erben, Ashlee The Pandemic, School Lockdowns, and How Current Technologies Cappucci, Cris Vicentini Can Be Utilized to Serve ELL Online Learning 26 Research Devon Cadwell Bazata Non-Native English Students’ Change in Listening, Structure, and Reading Scores After a Six-week Period of Instruction in an Intensive-English Program 38 Assessment Lynn Shafer Willner Unlocking Content-Driven Language Learning through the Key Margo Gottlieb Language Uses and Language Expectations 44 SSTESOL's Chapters At Work Bay Area TESOL Professional Development: Thriving Virtually: Valued Voices From K-12 ESOL Educators 52 Broward TESOL Professional Development Roundtable: Persevering through the 54 Pandemic Advocacy in Action Arlene Costello, Andrea Concluding Thoughts of our Experience in 2020 First-Ever TESOL Lypka, Carla Huck International Virtual Advocacy and Policy Summit 56 Perspectives Lorissa Gotsch My First Professional Conference 63 Brooke Bergin My Take-Aways As a Pre-Service Pre-Education Major Attending My First Conference 64 Isabella Haight Conference Reflection 63 Paul Malevitz In the Life of a Teacher 66 Huseyin Uysal Getting From Point A To Point B: Practical Tips For Seeking Conference 68 Travel Grants Links to Practice Abigail Fuller Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher: Beginning with your Cultural Autobiography 73 Belinda Reyes Dual Language Effectiveness to Narrow Achievement Gaps: A Quantitative Correlational Study 74 Lucy Belomoina Developing ESL Students’ Essay Writing Skills in Writing Workshops Robin Halsey Classes 75 Martha Voorhees Phenomenal Tips for Classroom Teachers with Entering EL Students 76 Joyce Tardáguila Harth Establishing Rapport with Language Learners in the Online Classroom 77 Rachel McGee Nidza Marichal “I know they understand”: Teacher Knowledge and Rural Secondary English Learners 78 Teresa Lucas, Ryan Pontier, Rethinking ESOL Endorsement Courses: Preparing Citizens and Renata Pavanelli Pereira Advocates 79 Mary Quijano Perfecting Vocabulary and Pronunciation to Score Well on the TOEFL Speaking Sections 80 Adrianna Vianna, Erika New Beginnings II 81 Peterson Jody Nolf Supporting Content Area teachers with ESOL Strategies 82 Georgina Rivera-Singletary Case Study of Three Teachers’ Perspectives on Supporting ELLs 83 Keya Mukherjee, Cheryl with Learning Disabilities Shamon, Laura Dolatowski, Rossana Martinez, Eloy Rohrman SSTESOL Presidential Initiative 84 Call for Nominations 88
Florida Sunshine State TESOL Journal Contents Contents
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YOU ARE INVITED TO PROFESSIONALLY RENEW In 2020, we had our 1st ever Virtual Conference In 2021, we are building on our successes and going HYBRID
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For more information on submission guidelines, click here.
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Background In the 1980s, Florida’s public schools saw increased enrollment of students speaking languages other than English. The state reported 53,799 English language learners in FY 1988-1989 and twice that number in FY 1990-1991 (110,060) (Perez-Bustillo, 1996). Today, the Florida Department of Education reports 265,000 ELLs on the Office of English Language Acquisition website, http://www.fldoe.org/academics/ eng-language-learners/. For those working with immigrant communities and schools, it was clear that the needs of ELLs were not being met. Community organizations reported automatic below-grade level placement, lack of ensuring ELLs were in school, as well as inappropriate placement in special education classes (Perez-Bustillo, 1996; Rodriguez, 2011; Wilson-Patton, 2000). Perez-Bustillo describes how a Haitian parent advocate, Reine Leroy, commented that “no one in Miami public schools actually knew how many Haitian students there were in the system.” (p. 96). Leroy engaged in a door-to-door campaign to come up with a count. In the absence of statewide standards for identification, placement, and services for ELLs, districts demonstrated a wide range of responses to the increasing number of ELLs in their schools. Some were somewhat adequate, many were not. After multiple attempts to work with individual districts, a group of community organizations came together and, with the legal firm META (Multicultural, Education, and Training Advocates, Inc.), filed a lawsuit against the Florida State Department of Education for violating the civil rights of ELLs in the state. In the end, the case did not go to court but was settled in the form of a consent decree in 1990. The Florida Consent Decree or the META Consent Decree has guided policy and practice in Florida since then. The Florida Consent decree has six sections (see http://www.fldoe.org/academics/eng -language-learners/consent-decree.stml for full text): I. identification and placement; II. Equal access to Appropriate Programming; III. Equal Access to Appropriate Categorical and Other Programming for English Language learners; IV. Personnel; V. Monitoring; and VI. Outcome Measures. The Decree did not grant any new rights to ELLs, but merely re-iterated and confirmed existing civil rights and rights granted to ELLs based on previous federal and state court cases and legislation. In other words, much of the Decree confirmed what many other states had already put in place. One section was different, however, and that was the requirement that all teachers be prepared if they worked with ELLs (Section IV. Personnel). In 1990, Florida became one of the first in the United States to recognize the need to prepare mainstream teachers as well as specialist teachers in order to provide equitably access to instruction. The Consent Decree outlines 15 semester hours in English to Speakers of other languages (ESOL) in five areas: Methods of teaching English to speakers of other languages, ESOL Curriculum and Materials, Cross-cultural Communication and understanding, applied linguistics, and testing and evaluation of ESOL. Interestingly, the expectations differed depending on school level and teachers’ subject matter. All elementary teachers, secondary English language arts, and reading teachers were expected to complete the full set of five courses, the equivalent of 300 professional development hours. Other secondary content teachers (math, science, social studies) only were required to complete 60 hours or one three-credit course. The consent decree stipulated that teachers working with ELLs needed to begin to take one of these five courses towards receiving an ESOL endorsement. In 2003, the Florida Consent Decree was amended to include preservice as well as in-service teachers with the same expectations regarding the number of hours/credits required. For example, students completing an initial elementary teacher preparation programs were required to graduate with elementary certification and an ESOL endorsement reflecting the five courses. The amendment also included a requirement for school counselors, school psychologists, and administrators to take at least one course (60 hours) as part of their preparation program. For the full version of the amended Decree, see https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7582/urlt /0064484-stipulation.pdf. In short, the Florida Consent Decree aimed to ensure ELLs’ equal access to curricular and extra-curricular programs taught by qualified teachers regardless of their (im)migration status. It re-affirmed language minoritized students’ and parents’ rights related to education in the state and a commentary on the negative impact of the lack of accommodations for ELLs in the state. As the Supreme Court noted in Lau v. Nichols (1974), “There is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers, and curriculum; for students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education.”(Lau v. Nichols, 1974, p. 569) From Consent to Implementation: Equality The implementation of the Florida Consent Decree was next on the agenda. As one can imagine, changing district policies, programming, and rolling out effective professional development for thousands of teachers in the state was a challenging task (Rodriguez, 2011; Wilson-Patton, 2000). As the Florida Department of Education developed policies and guiding documents, an emphasis on inclusion emerged, i.e., the placement of ELLs in mainstream classrooms was promoted as the preferred option for ELLs. Clustering, i.e., the grouping of ELLs for instructional purposes and separate programming, was discouraged as it was seen as potentially discriminatory. Over time, the Florida Department of Education exerted “careful scrutiny of all instructional programs involving the separation of English language learners from mainstream settings (Harper, Platt, & Mendoza, 2003, p.111). Though district personnel’s attitudes regarding separate programming versus inclusion varied widely (Harper, Platt, & Mendoza, 2003), mainstreaming ELLs was the officially sanctioned option. Rodriguez (2011) also reports that five out of the seven regions she surveyed reported mainstream programs as the preferred instructional model. The preparation of mainstream teachers thus became even more important to avoid the reoccurrence of inequitable practices for ELLs in Florida. As Rodriguez notes, avoiding renewed inequities was challenging due to the fact that “training timelines for teachers vary and it is highly likely that ELLs will be placed in classrooms with teachers who may not have yet completed their ESOL training requirement. Many ELLs will spend years with teachers who deliver mainstream instruction to the entire class without using ESOL strategies that, quite frankly, they have yet to learn” (p.121). Reinforced by the messaging from the Florida Department of Education, working with ELLs began to be framed as knowing a set of strategies (ESOL as pedagogy), something that mainstream teachers could easily add to their toolkit of strategies. Although this “ESL is just good teaching” approach has been critiqued for being insufficient to meet the unique cultural and linguistic needs of ELLs (de Jong & Harper, 2005), it still dominates mainstream classroom realities for ELLs. After the passage of No Child Behind (NCLB) Act in 2001, ELL mainstreaming was further reinforced through the accountability regimes that accompanied NCLB (Harper, Platt, Naranjo & Boynton, 2007). Under NCLB, ELLs became an identifiable subgroup that required reporting by states, district, and schools. Standardized testing and the interventions that were developed in response to patterns of under-achievement further brought ELLs and their services into the mainstream (Harper, de Jong, & Platt, 2008). Many ESL teachers found themselves doing administrative work, professional development for their mainstream colleagues, and/or were turned into intervention-oriented reading teachers and saw diminishing services targeted specifically at their ELLs (Harper, Platt, & Mendoza, 2003; Harper & de Jong, 2009). A similar trend toward inclusion as found in K-12 settings can be observed in initial teacher preparation programs and the mandate that all teacher candidates graduate with an ESOL endorsement. The five stand-alone courses (15 credit hours) had to be included into a standard teacher preparation program. Incorporating 15 credits became a challenge, especially after the number of undergraduate hours for a bachelor’s degree was reduced from 128 to 120 credit hours. A solution to this dilemma developed at Florida Atlantic University (an ESOL Infusion Model) was approved and ultimately became the norm across the state (Pelaez, 2008). Instead of offering five stand-alone ESOL courses, the ESOL Infused Model allows for meeting the standards for ESOL endorsement through a two-course model with ELL-related content infused in different courses throughout a teacher preparation program (de Jong, Dwyer, & Wilson-Patton, 2020). Similar to the K-12 context, the general education course content comes first and challenges with implementation of ESOL infusion have been reported across the state (e.g., de Jong, Naranjo, Li, and Ouzia, 2018; de Jong & Naranjo, 2019). Still, it should be noted that requiring two stand-alone ESOL course as part of a mainstream teacher preparation program, is a provision that goes well beyond what many other states have for mainstream teacher preparation. When considering K-12 and higher education practices in response to the Florida Consent Decree since 1990 and 2003 respectively, it becomes clear that the Decree’s original intent and emphasis on equity (i.e., differentiated practices in response to ELL needs) have turned into an emphasis on equality, i.e., equal access to the same programs that non-ELLs have access to. The inclusion policy led to ELLs being placed in the same classrooms as their fluent English peers. The accompanying “just good teaching” classroom practices failed to ensure that inclusion also meant inclusive (i.e., equitable) learning environments (Coady, Harper, & de Jong, 2016). Similarly, infusion efforts moved ESOL specialist expertise into general education teacher preparation coursework. Although research is limited, studies suggest that the depth of infusion and the focus of infused content is highly course- and instructor-dependent. Studies also suggest that the infusion may be more focused on cultural diversity in general and on making content comprehensible (de Jong & Naranjo, 2019; Nutta, Mukharjee, & Strebel, 2012), a finding that has been noted for in-service as well (Simmons, 2008). At the same time, limited success has been reported in enhancing teacher candidates’ knowledge about ELLs and in changing their beliefs about and attitudes towards ELLs, especially in the context of rich ELL-focused practicum experiences (de Jong, forthcoming). However, practices informed by holistic understandings of the lived experiences of ELLs and bilingualism and second language development are largely absent (de Jong, Harper, & Coady, 2013; Dwyer & O’Gorman-Fazzolari, in press). In other words, what made targeted ELL programming and ESL specialist preparation uniquely suited to provide access to equitable learning environments has largely been replaced with access to undifferentiated services designed for fluent native English speakers. The lack of improvement for ELLs on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests (NAEP) and/or Florida’s standardized test scores over the past two decades are but one indicator of the concerning impact that this equalizing trend has had on ELLs in the state (Coady, Li & Lopez, 2018; de Jong, Dwyer, & Wilson-Patton, 2020; de Jong, forthcoming). A Road Back to Equity Looking ahead, the question for Florida is how we can find a way toward equitable and inclusive practices for ELLs. As linguistic and cultural diversity in the Florida K-12 schools continues to grow, it is imperative that we do so. Florida’s students are predominantly African American, Hispanic, Asian, or report two races (62.6% of PK-12 population; http://www.fldoe.org/accountability/data-sys/edu-info -accountability-services/pk-12-public -school-data-pubs-reports/students.stml) and over 25% speak languages other than English at home (https://statisticalatlas.com/state/Florida/ Languages). This means that ELL-specific expertise must be at the table and given a voice at all policy levels. Research shows that ESL expert knowledge matters for coherence of programming, coordination of services, as well as for teachers’ instructional decision-making and classroom practices (Horwitz, Uro, Price-Baugh, Simon, Uzzell, Lewis, & Casserly, 2009). Systems-wide approaches that use this expertise to inform policy and practice positively affect ELL achievement (López & Ibanez, 2019). Despite having a framework through the Florida Consent Decree, much is still needed when it comes to implementation. Below are four goals and supporting action steps to lead the way toward more equitably practices for ELLs. 1. Encourage access to quality bilingual education programs Research has clearly shown the positive impact of bilingual education programs in the United States and around the world. Florida’s schools are a prime context for the implementation of these programs. According to the Florida Association for Bilingual Education, Florida had more than 100 bilingual education programs located in 12 school districts in 2018 (Broward, Collier, Duval, Hamilton, Hendry, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Miami Dade, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota, Seminole; https://bilingualeducationfl.org/). This action requires a pro-active stance from the Florida Department of Education, incentives for school districts to begin the process of planning for a dual language program, as well as the provision of bilingual teacher certification and assessments in languages other than English. 2. Ensure that ELLs receive differentiated instruction that responds to their linguistic and cultural needs Emerging studies in mainstream classrooms suggests that ELLs are not receiving the kind of scaffolding and access to content that they need and deserve. As more and more ELLs find themselves in such settings, it is imperative to develop mechanisms that provide feedback to teachers and administrators to address this situation. This action requires that supervisors and coaches have the ELL-specific experiences and expertise to work effectively with mainstream teachers in providing specific feedback not only on content as well as linguistic scaffolding in the classroom. Observation and supervision tools need to reflect these practices, so that ELLs’ needs are made explicit rather than subsumed. An example of such a tool is the modification of the Danielson Framework, developed by Maria Coady and her team at the University of Florida (https://education.ufl.edu/stellar/files/ 2018/05/ELL-modified-Danielson-Rubric -2018-Coady-et-al.pdf) 3. Examine and Develop Resources for Infusion Practices in Higher Education Despite its implementation for close to two decades, little is known about the ESOL infusion process, infusion practices in initial teacher preparation, the ultimate impact on graduates’ practice for ELLs across different contexts. Moreover, more is needed on understanding the kind of induction support that beginning teachers who graduated from an ESOL-Infused teacher preparation need for working with ELLs. This action requires a state-wide effort at documenting success stories, challenges, and solutions in teacher preparation. It also asks for more longitudinal studies that follow graduates into their beginning teaching years and collaboration with district-based professional development and induction support personnel. 4. Create an Enhanced ESOL (Micro) Credential for Secondary Content Teachers The Florida Consent Decree requires the most extensive preparation from teachers who would be considered “solely responsible” for English language teachers, i.e., elementary, reading, and English language arts teachers. As the field of ESOL has evolved, the notion of disciplinary content language and the importance of academic language development has received more prominence.The Florida content standards reflect this emphasis on students’ ability to communicate within each subject area orally and through reading and writing complex text. The 60-hour survey course that touches briefly on questions of language, culture, curriculum, methods, and assessment is insufficient to support content teachers. This action requires incentives for secondary teachers to engage in additional professional development beyond the minimum required by the Florida Consent Decree. It would also require the development of subject-specific modules that would support math, science, and social studies teachers. Clearly, these four broad recommendations are not the only steps that must be undertaken nor are the suggested action steps the only ones to meet the four goals. Many more initiatives and better coordinated efforts are needed at both the local and state level and through community-school-university/college partnerships. References Coady, M. R., Harper, C.A., & de Jong. E.J., (2016).Aiming for equity: Preparing mainstream teachers for inclusion or inclusive classrooms?TESOL Quarterly, 50(2), 340-368. Coady, M. R., Li, S., & Lopez, M. (2018). Twenty-five years after the Florida ESOL Consent Decree: Does FL DOE’s preparing all teacher for English learners work?FATE Journal 3(1), 26-55. de Jong, E.J., Dwyer, E., & Wilson-Patton, M. (2020). Preparing all teachers: ESOL Infusion and (Un)intended Consequences. In:Erben, T. (Ed.) (2020).45 Years SSTESOL: A Chronicle of ESOL Advocacy, Research and Practice in Florida. (pp. 87-102). Yankeetown, FL: SSTESOL Press. de Jong, E.J. & Harper, C.A. (2005). Preparing mainstream teachers for English-language learners: Is being a good teacher good enough?Teacher Education Quarterly,32(2), 101-124. de Jong, E.J., & Naranjo, C. (2019). General Education Teacher Educators and English Language Learner Teacher Preparation: Infusion as Curricular Change.The New Educator,15(4), 331-354. de Jong, E.J., Harper, C.A., & Coady, M. (2013). Enhanced knowledge and skills for elementary mainstream teachers of English language learners.Theory into Practice, 52(2), 89-97. de Jong, E.J., Naranjo, C., Li, S., & Ouzia, A. (2018). Beyond compliance: ESL faculty’s perspectives on preparing general education faculty for ESL infusion.The Education Forum,82(2), 174-190. doi: 10.1080/00131725.2018.1420856 Dwyer, E., & O’Gorman-Fazzolari, C. (in press). Broken Promises? Implementing the Florida Consent Decree to Assist Emergent Bilingual Students in Mainstream Classes. In Harvey, L.; Ekembe, E.; and Dwyer, E. (Eds). Interface between ELT Policy and Practice: From Global to Local.Palgrave-MacMillan. Harper, C.A., & de Jong, E.J. (2009). English language teacher expertise: The elephant in the room.Language and Education, 23(2), 137-151. Harper, C.A., de Jong, E.J., & Platt, E. (2008). Marginalizing English as a second language teacher expertise: The exclusionary consequence ofNo Child Left Behind.Language Policy, 7, 267-284. Horwitz, A. R., Uro, G., Price-Baugh, R., Simon, C., Uzzell, R., Lewis, S., & Casserly, M. (2009).Succeeding with English language learners: Lessons learned from the Great City Schools. Washington, DC: The Council of the Great City Schools. Lau v. Nichols, 414 U.S. 563, 94 S. Ct. 786, 39 L. Ed. 2d 1 (1974). Nutta, J., Mokhtari, K., & Strebel, C. (2012).Preparing every teacher to reach ELs: A practical guide for teacher educators. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. Pelaez, G. (2008). Curricular integration in Higher Education: Florida leads the way. In: J. Govoni (Ed.),Perspectives on Teaching K-12 English Language Learners.(2ndEd) (pp. 1-16). Boston, MA: Pearson. Perez-Castillo, C. (1996). Rocking the cradle: A case study of linguistic minority educational rights in Florida. In: Walsh, C.E. (Ed),Education reform and social change: Multicultural voices, struggles, and visions.(pp. 71-82). Mahwah: NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Platt, E., Harper, C. A., & Mendoza, M.B. (2003). Dueling philosophies: Inclusion or separation for Florida’s English language learners?TESOL Quarterly, 37(1), 105‑133. Rodriguez, Maria de L. (2011).English language learners in Florida: A dissertation about a legal and policy study of Florida’s Multicultural Education Training and Advocacy (META) consent decree.Unpublished dissertation. Boca Raton, FL: Florida Atlantic University. Simmons, R.D., Jr. (2008).The efficacy of Florida’s approach to in-service English Speakers of Other Languages teacher training programs. Unpublished Dissertation. Tampa, FL: University of South Florida. Wilson-Patton, M. E. (2000).A legal study of the Florida ESOL Consent Decree: Form initiation through fifth year implementation. Unpublished Dissertation. Florida State University.
Opening Address The Florida Consent Decree: From Equity to Equality – and Back Again? Ester J. de Jong University of Florida Based on the Opening Address for the Inaugural Virtual Sunshine State TESOL Conference, November 13, 2020
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Introduction The first time I was exposed to the word "corpus" was in my Latin class in 8th grade. I remember the mixed feelings of shock and reassurance when exposed to the translation of "corpus" as "body" or "flesh." On the one hand, I was in dismay at the vivid image of "flesh." On the other hand, the translation made sense to me because a version of "corpus" was routinely used in my first language, which is a Romance language. In Romanian, my first language, the root of "corp," was used to refer to the "human body." Most often, the word "corp" (corpus in Latin) was associated with corpses of lifeless bodies (e.g., corp neȋnsufleţit), to a collection or a group of people (e.g., corp militar = military group, corp diplomatic = diplomatic group). Years later, my first exposure to the terms "corpus linguistics" made me instantly think of lifeless bodies. I felt an immediate rejection of the simple proposition of learning more about this field. I then realized that instinctually I gave the word corpus a negative connotation. The process of embracing "corpus linguistics" was not a smooth one. I had to slowly work on focusing on the meaning of "corpus" as a collection rather than corpus as a lifeless body. I was led to a field of linguistics filled with learning opportunities through a sinuous journey of self-work on the roots of my skepticism and biases. After undergoing a reflective process to analyze my assumptions, I began daring to explore corpus linguistics and learning more about corpus-based tools that can be used in the classroom. Purpose of this Paper This paper aims to assure teachers that corpus linguistics is an accessible field of linguistics and that corpus-based tools can have substantial instructional value. This paper intends to inform classroom practitioners (novice or experienced) teaching in either face-to-face or remote classrooms and working with English as a Second Language (ESL) learners and with English Native Speakers learners about two effective corpus-based tools using lexical frequency profiling (LFP). These two unique corpus-based tools can be successfully used to extract general, academic, and low-frequency vocabulary from any instructional text. Aside from the practical scope, this paper also offers technical background information about the development of two LFP web-based platforms: VocabProfilers (Cobb, 2016) available on (http://www.lextutor.ca/) and WordandPhrase (Davies, 2012) available on www.wordandphrase.info. Lexical Frequency Profiling (LFP) In the last decades, substantial vocabulary research has been conducted to find out how many words second language learners need to know to comprehend a reading text. While some researchers suggest that coverage of 95% (5 unknown words in 100 words) is sufficient for a written text to be comprehensible to second language learners (Laufer, 1989; Laufer & Ravenhorst-Kalovski, 2010), others recommend that 98% coverage (2 unknown words in 100) foster ideal reading comprehension (Hirsh & Nation, 1992; Nation, 2006). To this end, the 95% threshold is widely endorsed in denoting text comprehensibility by language learners. However, achieving 95% comprehensible input is not an easy task. For teachers to ensure that instructional texts are comprehensible enough for all students, they need to use support tools from their instructional toolbox. One particular tool that can be used in the classroom is lexical frequency profiling (LFP). This tool is particularly useful as it examines the coverage of different types of vocabulary across school texts and/or instructional materials. LFP provides information about the gap between the number of unknown words by the student and the ideal 95%-98% coverage (Hirsh & Nation, 1992; Laufer, 1989; Laufer & Ravenhorst-Kalovski, 2010; Nation, 2006) required to achieve text comprehension. LFP can be used in the classroom to conduct small-scale corpus-based research and gather information about the vocabulary that learners need to know for a specific task or discipline (Coxhead, Stevens & Tinkle, 2010). In a nutshell, LFP analyzes the vocabulary load (lexical sophistication) of any written input in exact percentages. For instance, the output retrieved from a text analysis using LFP can inform the classroom teacher that a text may contain 75% general vocabulary, 10 percent academic vocabulary, and 15% off-list words (low frequency, domain-specific words). This information can be useful for teachers in two ways. Firstly, it reveals the gap between the richness of the text and the ideal comprehensibility of the text. Secondly, it can guide the teacher towards the exact words that require instructional attention (academic and domain-specific words). Most importantly, following text LFP analysis, teachers can compile mini word lists categorized in frequency bands or according to already created specific lists (e.g., Academic Word List). Equipped with the output retrieved from lexically profiling text, the teacher does not have to use professional judgment to select words that need to be taught, rather have at his/her fingertips the power to generate corpus-based vocabulary lists or sub lists (general, academic, domain-specific) based on any written input. Vocabulary According to Nation (2001), vocabulary is divided into four categories: general, academic, technical, and low frequency. General vocabulary encompasses the first 2000 most frequency used function and content words in the English language (K1 words and K2 words). For instance, words such as "a", "the", "are", "may", "learner", "number", "school" belong to the category of general vocabulary. In the United States, most teachers would recognize the categorization of general vocabulary as Tier 1 words (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002). A famous general vocabulary list is the General Service List (GSL), designed by West (1953). This list contains 1964-word families, offering coverage of approximately 84% in the Cambridge English Corpus (CEC). The words contained in the GSL list were extracted from a relatively small corpus (2.5 million words), which created some space for critique amongst researchers and the design of updated versions such as the New General Service List 1.01 (Browne, Culligan & Phillips, 2013). However, to this day, the GSL is the most widely used general vocabulary list. Academic vocabulary or Tier 2 words (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002) is a type of vocabulary repeatedly encountered in academic texts and less frequently in non-academic texts. Words like "emphasis," "interact," "evidence" are classified as academic words. Perhaps the most famous academic vocabulary list is the Academic Word List (AWL), designed by Coxhead (2000). This list containing 570-word families and offering a lexical coverage of approximately 10% does not fall short of critique (Hyland & Tse, 2007). Lexical coverage denotes the proportion of known running words in a text by the reader (Nation, 2006). AWL was extracted from a 3,513,330 non GSL running word corpus (Coxhead's Academic Corpus) that was compiled from college-level texts from four different content areas: science, business, law, and arts. Technical words or Tier 3 words are generally lower frequency words associated with a specialized domain. In the definition provided by Chung and Nation (2004), "technical vocabulary is subject related, occurs in a specialist domain, and is part of a system of subject knowledge" (p. 252).For example, the word "mitosis" is a technical word encountered in the science content area. However, Greene & Coxhead (2015) highlights that some technical vocabulary may have a general meaning and a discipline-specific meaning or may have multiple meanings depending on the content area in which it is used (e.g., solution, factor). As the name implies, low-frequency vocabulary is the vocabulary encountered with less frequency across texts. Nation (2001) suggests that a sensible cut-off point for low-frequency vocabulary is situated around the 3,000-word frequency band. Beyond this point, low-frequency vocabulary stretches towards the 20,000-frequency band and above. For instance, the word "imbue," meaning "fill, soak, infuse, saturate," has a frequency of 21,437 in iWeb corpus (Davies, 2018), comprised of roughly 14 billion words available on https://www.englishcorpora.org/iweb/ and occurs only 187 times in the COCA. Schmitt & Schmitt (2014), however, introduced the concept of mid-frequency words, placed somewhere between the 3,000-9,000-frequency band. This contribution broadens the boundaries of frequency levels as proposed by Nation (2001). What is Corpus Linguistics? Corpus linguistics is the study of language texts gathered in large digital collections. Corpora (plural for corpus) are defined as "large, principled, and computer-readable collections of texts that allow analyses of patterns of language use across different contexts" (Szudarski, 2017, p.3). Generally, corpora are composed of written, spoken, or a combination of written and spoken language compiled in large sizes that often exceed 1 million words. For instance, while the Australian Corpus of English (ACE) contains 1 million words, the British National Corpus (BNC) contains 100 million words, and the Corpus of Contemporary American (COCA) encompasses 600 million running words compiled from 275,476 texts. COCA is the largest corpus of American English (Davies, 2008/2019) and grew in about two decades to 600 million words. COCA contains a balanced number of words from newspapers, magazines, fiction writings, academic journals, and spoken language. Although corpora consist of both written and spoken language (e.g., COCA, BNC), in terms of word composition, there can be general (BNC, COCA) or specialized corpora (e.g., The Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English or MICASE). Typically, words are counted as tokens or running words, which are individual language items. For instance, in the sentence "I like the sea more than I like the mountain," one can count the ten running words as ten tokens. In corpus linguistics research, though, words are counted either using types, lemmas, or word families.Types refer to individual language items that exclude repeated words. For example, in the previously mentioned sentence, "I like the ocean more than I like the mountain," there are seven types because "I," "the," and "like" are used twice throughout the sentence. A second word counting unit widely preferred by linguistics researchers is lemma, which "consists of a base word and its inflected forms that are all the same part of speech" (Nation & Webb, 2011, p.136.). The lemma for the verb "to confess" would be "confessed," "confesses," "confessing."Lastly, a word family includes all the inflections of a baseword, together with their transparent derivational affixes (Bauer and Nation,1993). To illustrate this, the word family of the word "change" would be" changeable, changed, changer, changers, changes, changing, unchangeable, unchangeably, unchanged, unchanging." In a nutshell, a word family encloses about 1.6 times more words than a lemma (Milton, 2009). What Are Corpora-Based Tools, And How Can A Teacher Use These Tools? Corpus-based tools are computer interfaces programmed to analyze authentic language-in-use, written and/or spoken, generally collected in corpus sizes that exceed a million words. These computer programs called concordancers enable users to profile and analyze digitalized texts, conduct lexical frequency profiling (LFP), extract word lists, keywords, and create close texts. These tools could be used in the classroom to profile any text's vocabulary richness and retrieve frequency-based lists that could guide lesson planning, instruction, and assessment. Conducting small-scale lexical frequency profiling can be a task accomplished by any classroom teacher. A classroom practitioner could extract a research-based general word list, academic word lists, or off-list/discipline-specific lists to be employed in designing vocabulary activities or in modifying text according to the needs of the learners. One freely available corpus-based tool is the application named VocabProfilers, accessed on Compleat Lexical Tutor v.8.3. (Cobb, 2016) at https://www.lextutor.ca/vp/. VocabProfilers is a web-adapted computer program after the offline versions Range developed by Laufer and Nation (1995), later improved by Heatley, Nation, & Coxhead (2002), and AntWordProfiler (Anthony, 2014). VocabProfilers analyzes the lexical complexity of language or the vocabulary load of a text using lexical frequency profiling (LFP) based on corpus-based frequency word family bands. LFP allows for the language in a text to be analyzed by sorting each word in distinctive word family frequency bands (not merely tokens) of 1,000 words or to word frequency lists. VocabProfilers offers for exploration four versions thus far. The first application available on VocabProfilers is VP-Kids v 1.1, better known as Lextutor Kids. This application profiles Text catered for lower elementary grades and is accessible on https://www.lextutor.ca/vp/kids/. This feature assesses the richness of children's texts by assigning each word into ten different frequency bands of about 250-word families of spoken English with a total of 2,500 words (Stemach & Williams, 1988). The second application on VocabProfilers, Web VP-Classic v.4, is designed for grades 4-8. This feature matches the words from the uploaded Text with the first and second 1,000 word families lists (K1 and K2), the Academic Word List (AWL) developed by Coxhead (2000), and Off-list words (words not encountered in K1, K2, nor AWL) if selecting the option AWL (https://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/). Additionally, if the MSVL option is selected, the text can be processed across K1, K2, the Middle School Vocabulary Lists (MSVL) designed by Coxhead and Greene (2015) and Off-lists. Regardless of the option chosen (AWL or MSVL), the output obtained after processing the Text is color-coded. For instance, K1 words are colored in blue, K2 words are green, the AWL words and MSWL words are yellow, and the Off-List words are red. The output page provides information such as the percentage of each category of words (K1, K2, AWL/MSVL, Off-List), the number of word families, types, and tokens within the Text, the percentage of function versus content words, and the percentage of Anglo-Saxon running words. It is worth mentioning that the K1 and K1 lists used on Web VP-Classic v.4 (Lextutor Classic) are the 1st stand and 2nd list from the General Service List (West, 1959). Moreover, one of the differences between the AWL list and the MSVL list is that the AWL list was compiled from university-level textbooks. At the same time, MSVL, a much newer contribution to vocabulary research, was developed using middle school level textbooks. Another difference between the AWL and MSVL (Coxhead 2000; Greene & Coxhead, 2015) is the size of the corpus employed for the design of these lists, with the latter being developed from a much more sizable corpus than the former. The third application available on VocabProfilers, and without a doubt the most extensive among the four, is Compleat Web VP v.2.1 or Lextutor Compleat. This feature profiles the vocabulary according to seven selections available. For example, vocabulary can be matched with BNC-COCA 1-25K lists (Nation, 2012) or with GSL/AWL lists via the Classic feature. Likewise, vocabulary can be matched with various word lists such as New Generation Service List (NGSL), New Academic Word List (NAWL), or the Test of English for International Communication List 1.1 (TOEIC). Furthermore, Complete WEB VP v 2.1 offers the possibility of lexical profiling across level 1 and level 2 words from the CEFR List, which is designed from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Another list available on Compleat Web VP v.2.1 is the Billuroğlu–Neufeld List (BNL) designed by Billuroğlu & Neufeld (2005). This list is a combination of GSL and AWL words, totaling over 2,700 word-families. A unique feature available on Complete Web VP v.2.1 is the possibility of conducting lexical profiling of language texts written in French across 25K of the most frequent lemmas in the French language courtesy of Lonsdale & le Bras (2009). The 25 K lemmas in French were extracted from a 23 million word database, equally divided among spoken and written language. The fourth option on VP is COCA Count Profiler v.1. This option allows for lexical profiling to be initiated based upon occurrences in the most frequent 100,000 words in the COCA (Davies, 2012). In 2012, COCA contained roughly 450 million words; in 2017, it increased to 560 million words and, in 2019, reached 600 million words. A language text is analyzed in two ways: sequentially, in the order that these words appear in the text, and orderly, from the most frequent to the least frequent words existing in COCA. The other freely available corpus-based tool discussed in this paper is WordandPhrase. This user-friendly website developed by Davies (2012) can be found on https://www.wordandphrase.info/. Based on the COCA (Davies, 2012), WordandPhrase allows lexical profiling of texts via the feature Analyze Text. This feature can examine the Text imported and pair each word with three frequency ranges based on COCA. Words in range one, color-coded in blue, consist of the first 500 most frequent lemmas in COCA, words in range two, color-coded in green are identified between 501 and 3, 000 lemmas in COCA, while range three words, color-coded in yellow, are beyond 3k frequency level from COCA. These three ranges can be helpful to classroom teachers already acquainted with three tiers framework implemented by Beck, McKeown & Kucan (2002), namely Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3, as these ranges are designed following a similar conceptual scheme. A slightly more advanced feature available on WordandPhrase is the Academic option (https://www.wordandphrase.info/academic/ analyzeText.asp) which allows for academic text analysis. Using the Academic feature, texts can be profiled against an academic corpus of 120 million words encountered in the Academic Vocabulary List (AVL) designed by Gardner and Davies (2014). Once a text is inserted, the language is grouped in Range 1 (the first 500 lemmas in AVL highlighted in yellow), Range 2 (501-3.000 lemmas in AVL highlighted in green), and discipline-specific lemmas found in COCA (highlighted in red). The Range 1 and Range 2 (green and yellow) words belonging to the AVL are composed of academic words encountered in nine academic subdomains: history, education, social studies, science, medicine, business, humanities, philosophy, and law. The discipline-specific words, color-coded in red, give information about content-specific or technical words pertaining to one of the nine academic subdomains mentioned above. A scroll-down bar allows the user to select an academic discipline and by clicking the word DISCIPLINE. This procedure enables the user to retrieve a domain-specific word list (from one of the nine disciplines). After selecting a discipline, the output that is outside of the chosen academic sub-domain changes colors in gray and blue. The gray and blue words are discipline-specific words not in the academic subdomain of interest of the user (underlined) or are low-frequency words, not necessarily academic, however, of educational value. As mentioned earlier, the Academic Vocabulary List (AVL) developed by Gardner & Davies (2014) is a list containing 3,000 lemmas, offering coverage of approximately 14% of academic texts in COCA as well as the BNC. A unique feature of the words included in the AVL list is that the linguistic items enclosed in this list are counted in lemma. It is suggested that a vocabulary list based on lemma is much more accessible to non-native speakers. ESL learners may only know the most frequent inflections of words that maintain their part of speech rather than knowing all inflections and derivations of a word that changes its part of speech (Milton, 2009). Similarly, the AVL list is composed of a large corpus containing more than 120 million words extracted from academic texts from nine disciplines, which increases its reliability. As 85 million words from this academic corpus are extracted from scholarly journal articles, this list renders itself as a dependable list for educational purposes for language learners. How to Use VocabProfilers and WordandPhrase in the Classroom VocabProfiler: Example Using VP Classic To illustrate how the option Web VP Classic v.4 can be used, it is required to access the platform Compleat Lexical Tutor v.8.3. (https://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/). Once the user accesses the webpage and decides what Text to analyze, the following procedure can be followed: 1.Insert the Text by typing it or pasting it into the large window entitled "Main Text." Example text retrieved from, Standard MS PS3.A: Definitions of Energy (National Research Council, 2012, p.123): Motion energy is properly called kinetic energy; it is proportional to the mass of the moving object and grows with the square of its speed. A system of objects may also contain stored (potential) energy, depending on their relative positions. For example, energy is stored—in gravitational interaction with Earth—when an object is raised, and energy is released when the object falls or is lowered. Energy is also stored in the electric fields between charged particles and the magnetic fields between magnets, and it changes when these objects are moved relative to one another. Stored energy is decreased in some chemical reactions and increased in others. The term "heat" as used in everyday language, refers both to thermal energy (the motion of atoms or molecules within a substance) and energy transfers by convection, conduction, and radiation (particularly infrared and light). In science, heat is used only for this second meaning; it refers to energy transferred when two objects or systems are at different temperatures. Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of particles of matter. The relationship between the temperature and the total energy of a system depends on the types, states, and amounts of matter present. 2.Select the AWL or MSVL Option 3.Press the yellow button on the lower right side of the screen named "Submit Window." 4.Interpret the output by color Looking at the output obtained (Table 1), 79.50% of the words in the text (the blue words) were from the first thousand (1K), 4.5% of the words in the text were from the second thousand (2K), 15.5% of the words (yellow words) were from the MSVL, and only .5% of the words (red words) were off list words (e.g., infrared). Aside from collecting statistical data about the vocabulary make up for the Text, the output can be examined in three ways: as tokens (running words), as types (non-repeated words), or word families (baseword plussuffixes and prefixes). Table 1: Results of Inserting a Text into Compleat Lexical Tutor v.8.3 In this brief tutorial, my focus was to explore the coverage for the science text; therefore, the focus was on the words above the 2K level (green, yellow, and red). Since the Text analyzed as a science text for middle school students, the Middle School Vocabulary Lists (MSVL) was then selected, and the output under the type (unrepeated words) category was examined. After scrolling down the page to identify the 2K, MSVL, and Off list for the type category, one could simply paste the type lists into a document and remove the number of reoccurrences to end up with a tiered vocabulary list (see Table 2). Table 2: Tiered Vocabulary List in MSVL VocabProfiler:Example Using Word and Phrase (Input/Analyze Texts) The procedure of analyzing Text with WordandPhrase is much like the process in LexTutor. After accessing the platform WordandPhrase (https://www.wordandphrase.info/), the user can select the Input/Analyze Texts and then choose Academic (if the Text under scrutiny is academic in nature). Next, the user can insert the text in the provided window and press "search." For training purposes, the same input retrieved from the Standard MS PS3.A: Definitions of Energy (National Research Council, 2012) was processed. As expected, the output was quite different from the output obtained on LexTutor, via Web VP Classic v.4 function. This difference in output is twofold. Firstly, at the core of text classification on the WordandPhrase platform is the AVL list, which differs considerably in comparison to the frequency lists as the core of LexTutor. For instance, the AVL was extracted from a corpus of 120 million academic words, whereas the MSVL was extracted from 18 million running words corpus from middle school textbooks (Greene, 2008). Secondly, the AVL is a lemma-based list, whereas the 2K or MSVL are word-family-based lists. As previously mentioned, the output obtained from WordandPhrase analysis is distinctive. Since the excerpt is extracted from science standards designed text for 6-8 graders, the Science (abbreviated Sci) option was selected from the drop-down menu. The output presented in Table 3 shows that 16% of the word in the Text are in the range 1 of the AVL (yellow words), 3% of the words are in the Range 2 of the AVL (green words), and 11% of the words are from the Science Discipline (red words). Table 3: WordandPhrase Analysis Suggestions for Output Use The word lists retrieved by processing texts can undoubtedly help the classroom teacher in his/her vocabulary instruction. For instance, the teacher can use Lextutor/VP Classic to extract vocabulary above the 2 K band for pre-teaching purposes. These words could be included in a word wall activity or vocabulary game that would enable students to engage with these words prior to introducing the instructional Text. After the word wall activity, the teachers could suggest students write specific words in their vocabulary notebooks. According to Folse (2020), although the value of maintaining a vocabulary notebook is unquestionable, "it is up to teachers to train students to keep a personal record of their new academic vocabulary and explain their benefits" (p. 56). A follow-up step could be asking students to silently read the words in the lists and highlight with yellow the words that they do not know. The next step can be asking students to silently read the word that is the hardest to pronounce for them and highlight it with green. Vocabulary research evidence underscores the importance of the mental repetition of a word (Folse, 2006). In other words, it is vital for a learner to repeatedly engage in a mental activity with words for learning to occur. After the students experiment mentally with the new vocabulary words, the teacher can explicitly teach the vocabulary and instruct students to add next to the words in their notebooks the words' translation in their first language, a synonym or a definition of the word, and a sentence containing the word in a context having a blank space where the word should be. For instance, for the word "thermal" a second language Romanian student would write in his/her vocabulary notebook next to the word "thermal" the translation "termal," a synonym for the word (e.g., heated) or a short definition (e.g., relating to heat) and an authentic cloze sentence (e.g., She suffered a thermal burn). Conclusion Classroom teachers are familiar with the instructional demands of ensuring their instructional written material is comprehensive enough to the students so they can learn the content. The challenge of ensuring that written Text is comprehensible to learners, particularly discipline dense in academic and content-specific vocabulary (e.g., science, math), is intensified by insufficient knowledge about what words students know from a given text and what words they do not know. Oftentimes, teachers use their judgment when selecting what words to teach without necessarily making corpus-informed decisions. To this end, this practitioner aimed article proposes an avenue for teachers to conduct small-scale corpus research, profile instructional texts, extract vocabulary lists from an authentic text that they are using daily. Furthermore, teachers may take away a few suggestions about how to employ the output word lists that they obtain from their lexical profiling analysis. Finally, this step-by-step introduction to practical corpus inquiry intends to empower classroom practitioners to bring to their classroom corpus-based tools and deliver effective research-based vocabulary instruction. References Anthony, L. (2015) Antprofiler [Computer software]. Retrieved from http://www.laurenceanthony.net/ software/antwordprofiler Bauer, L., & Nation, ISP (1993). Word families.International Journal of Lexicography, 6(4), 253–279. Beck, I. L., McKeown, M., & Kucan, L. (2002). Choosing Words to Teach. In Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Billuroğlu, A., & Neufeld, S. (2005). The Bare Necessities in Lexis: A new perspective on vocabulary profiling. Browne, C., Culligan, B., Phillips, J. (2013). The New General Service List: Celebrating 60 years of vocabulary learning.The Language Teacher, 7(34), 13-16. Retrieved from http://jalt-publications.org/tlt/issues/2013-07_37.4 Chung, T. M., & Nation, P. (2004). Identifying technical vocabulary. System, 32(2), 251-263. doi:10.1016/j.system.2003.11.008 Cobb, T. (2016). Compleat Lexical Tutor v.8. Available online at http://www.lextutor.ca/ Coxhead, A. (2000) A New Academic Word List. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2): 213-238. Coxhead, A., Liesje S., & Tinkle, J. (2010). Why might secondary science textbooks be difficult to read?New Zealand Studies in Applied Linguistics, 162,35–52. Davies, M. (2008). The corpus of contemporary American English. Provost, UT: Brigham Young University Davies, M. (2012). www.wordandphrase.info Davies, M. (2019). Corpus of Contemporary American English (1990–2019) available at https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/ January 2020 Folse, K. (2006). The effect of type of written exercise on L2 vocabulary retention. TESOL Quarterly, 40, 273–293. Folse, K. (2020).Academic Word ListsWhat Every Teacher Needs to Know. Michigan ELT. 978-0-472-12567-8 Gardner, D., & Davies, M. (2014). A New Academic Vocabulary List. Applied Linguistics, 35(3), 305-327. doi:10.1093/applin/amt015 Greene, J. (2008). Academic vocabulary and formulaic language in middle school content area textbooks (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Georgia State University, Atlanta Greene, J. W., & Coxhead, A. (2015).Academic vocabulary for middle school students: Research-based lists and strategies for key content areas. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes. Heatley, A., Nation, I. S. P., & Coxhead, A. (2002). Range [Computer software]. Retrieved from http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/paul-nation /nation.aspx Hirsh, D., & Nation, P. (1992). What vocabulary size is needed to read unsimplified texts for pleasure? Reading in a Foreign Language, 8(2) 689-96. Hyland, K., & Tse, P. (2007). Is there an "academic vocabulary"?TESOL Quarterly, 41(2), 235-253. DOI: 10.2307/40264352 Laufer, B. (1989). What percentage of lexis is essential for comprehension? In Lauren, C. and Nordman, M. (eds), From Humans Thinking to Thinking Machines. 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Available at www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/publications/ paul-nation/Information-on-the-BNC_COCA-word- family-lists.pdf.Google Scholar Nation, I. S. P., & Webb, S. (2011). Researching and analyzing vocabulary. Boston, MA: Heinle Cengage Learning. National Research Council. (2012).A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Committee on a Conceptual Framework for New K-12 Science Education Standards. Board on Science Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press Schmitt, N., & Schmitt, D. (2014). A reassessment of frequency and vocabulary size in L2 vocabulary teaching.Language Teaching, 47(4,) 484–503. DOI:10.1017/S0261444812000018 Szudarski, P. (2017).Corpus linguistics for vocabulary: A guide for research. Routledge West, M. (1953). A General Service List of English words. London, UK: Longman, Green & Co.
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Pedagogy Bringing Corpus-Based Tools to Your Face-To-Face or Online Classroom Rebeca Arndt Ph.D. Student @ University Central Florida ABSTRACT This paper aims to reassure classroom practitioners that corpus linguistics is an accessible field of linguistics and that corpus-based tools can have substantial instructional valuable. This paper intents to inform classroom practitioners (novice or experienced) teaching in either face-to-face or online classrooms about two effective corpus-based tools using lexical frequency profiling (LFP). These two unique, effective corpus-based tools can be successfully used to extract general, academic, and low-frequency vocabulary from any instructional text. Similarly, teachers are offered suggestions on what to do with the vocabulary obtained by lexical profiling. Aside from the practical scope, this paper also provides technical background information about the development of two freely available and widely used LFP web-based platforms.
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Introduction In May 2020, the American Institutes for Research conducted a national survey of public education’s response to COVID-19 (Garcia-Arena, 2020). The intent of the survey was to specifically investigate how COVID-19 affected English Language Learners. The survey was sent to 2500+ school districts. 753 school districts responded, representing a robust range of urban, rural, large, and small school districts across the United States. Questions in the survey sought the level of districts’ provision of interpreters for ELL families, ELL-specific distance resources, materials in Spanish, as well as support to teachers to meet one-on-one with their ELLs in order to provide targeted language support. Results indicated that while large urban districts with equally high percentages of ELL students provided strong support (75%-95%) to ELLs, support-levels tapered off significantly in rural districts with lower percentages of ELLs (54%-77%). Districts also varied greatly in their approaches to remote instruction: Few districts (34%) used physical materials (paper packets) as part of their distance learning strategy, whereas a higher number (46%) of districts conducted synchronous virtual classes. Given these statistics, it is highly probable that Florida’s 67 school districts reflect the same distribution and weightings of support given to ELLs, with Miami-Dade being Florida’s largest urban school district (19.1% ELL population in 2019/20) and Taylor being one of the smallest rural school districts (0.1% ELL population in 2019/20). On July 7th 2020, the Hillsborough County Public Schools superintendent reported to the school board the results of a district-wide survey indicating that: • A great majority of parents (68.23%) favored starting the fall school year by having their children attend traditional on-site (brick and mortar) schooling; • Some parents (24.51%) elected to have their children start the Fall 2021 school year through e-learning; and • Few parents (7.17%) favored the Hillsborough Virtual School. Similar percentage distributions were obtained in other school districts throughout Florida. In terms of ELL families, while slightly higher, the percentage electing to send their children to face-to-face school coincided with the overall percentage distributions of the general population. In February 2021, the Center for the Success of English Language Learners published a report on how English Language Learners have fared during the pandemic. Their collation of studies revealed: • Some of the school systems with the greatest number of enrolled EL students estimated that less than half of these students were logging on to online instruction in the spring of 2020 (Sugarman & Lazarín, 2020). • In Maryland, for example, nearly 45% of EL students failed ninth-grade math in the first grading period of the 2020–2021 school year, while only 8% of EL students had failed math in the same grading period in 2019–2020 (St. George, 2020). • Analysis of assessment data found evidence that remote learning has widened the gap between White students and students of color (Dorn et al., 2020). Despite the challenge of schooling EL students remotely, district personnel have reported that teachers of ELLs, ELLs, and their parents have used remote and hybrid learning as an opportunity to provide and advance learning in innovative ways. On February 25th 2021, in a roundtable online discussion organized by the Bay Area TESOL chapter of SSTESOL (see zoom rrecording; ibid. p.53), the ESOL supervisors of Hillsborough and Pinellas school districts were interviewed and both indicated that with appropriate supports in place, English Language Learners have been able to thrive virtually. What are these supports and how can teachers continue to grow such that their virtual teaching skills assist ELLs operating in remote, virtual and/or hybrid learning environments? Teachers as Bridge Builders Spring 2021 continues to offer challenges and opportunities to teachers and students alike. For example, many teachers across the state find themselves delivering instruction to their e-learning as well as their brick- and-mortar students synchronously. For us, six fundamental elements of education need to be considered. They are not mutually exclusive, though they do inform and frame each other. We weigh them here as a means to bridge the ontological divide experienced by ELLs in hybrid, remote, and online learning contexts. Specifically, we consider the types of technological considerations educators need to grapple with in order to ensure the academic but also social emotional growth of their English Language Learners. The 6 As: Availability, Access, Awareness, Application, Assistance, Affiliation Availability Availability involves considerations about the technology, accessible to ELL students, that educators can utilize to deliver instruction. Knowing the type of hardware or student internet access can help an educator determine the mode of instructional delivery through technology. What are other alternatives to gaining internet access without purchasing an internet service? Access to free WiFi is growing in public places. Establishments like Panera, Starbucks, and public libraries offer free access to the internet. Identifying the universal symbols for WiFi in public places can help with knowing what is available and serve as alternatives to paying for internet access (Figure 1). On the other hand, mobile hotspots can be used to obtain internet access as well. They are available through most cell phone services. When a user decides to use a mobile hotspot, cellular data is used, which may cost the users money unless they have a contract with a provider in which cellular data is limitless. Figure 1: Universal symbols for WiFi accessibility in public Handheld Devices There are many different handheld devices that can be utilized for instruction as well as student use. Districts tend to have bids with different companies to keep similar devices similar in each school. Because this is not always the case in large districts, it is important for the educator to determine what is available at their site, and to determine how to make learning accessible through that device. Popular devices in education can range from an iPAD to a Microsoft Surface tablet. Each device is different and educators should familiarize themselves with their respective functions in order to help ELLs know what is accessible for them. Apple (Figure 2) and Microsoft (Figure 3) offer valuable professional development trainings that help educators understand how to utilize the devices with their students. Figures 2 - 3: Becoming an Apple Educator and / or a Microsoft Educator Using Phones & Social Media Social media and smartphones offer a wide range of access for students. This can be an alternate way to utilize technology from home when computer devices are not available.Common Sense Education (2019) highlights that between 2015 and 2019, smartphone ownership by students ranging in age from 8-18 years increased from 8% to 28% depending on the age group. In 2019, approximately 88% of high-schoolers owned a phone. Among middle-schoolers, the number averaged 74% and among elementary students (8 years and older), the average was 33.5%. While not always perceived by teachers as an alternative to learning management systems or laptops, smartphone-enabled education can assist students to connect with learning partners and to engage with instructional content, thereby helping to decrease accessibility issues. Additionally, social media use has increased in the last decade and with it so has interactivity and inter-connectivity between social media users. Since companies such as Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat and Twitter are ubiquitous, wouldn’t it behoove educators to think of creative ways to incorporate these tools in order to minimize the isolating effects remote learning can have on students? Through the use of social media, educators and students have an opportunity to become global collaborators with other educators and students, to develop digital etiquette, and to informally practice communicative skills. These platforms help connect learning communities while simultaneously sparking students' interest in unique ways of contributing to learning. Access Access is about understanding how to use tools. Knowing that many ELLs live in households where there is limited comprehension of English, one of the first responsibilities of districts and educators alike is to make sure that both the English Language Learners and their caretakers can access any and all information needed to successfully navigate technical support platforms, apps and software, as well as web 2.0 tools. What technologies can facilitate communication and understanding and thus unlock access to education for ELLs and their families? Establishing lines of communication occurs in many ways in a school setting. Examples include: • A teacher talking and/or conferencing with a student during the day in the classroom; • A teacher sending notes home to parents or posting homework and other miscellaneous information on the school’s course management system; • The school administration distributing newsletters and/or displaying announcements in hardcopy format or online; or even • The myriad of personal and/or formal meetings, events, ceremonies, conferences and celebrations a school organizes in order to connect with its constituents. In all of these “happenings”, communication transpires in its written form or verbally. It can happen synchronously or asynchronously, and it always includes a “receiver” and a “giver” of information. For an ELL and low-proficient family, each of these scenarios can potentially become an occasion for communication breakdown. The following technology tools offer relief in avoiding communication breakdown while simultaneously assisting both schools (administration and teachers) and ELL communities (ELL students and parents) communicate and understand each other effectively[1]. Understanding Text DeepL offers free translation of whole documents in Word (.docx) format as well as PowerPoint presentations (.pptx). Current supported languages include English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. Translated Word documents and PowerPoint slides maintain the same formatting (footnotes, fonts, embedded images, etc.) in DeepL, which affords teachers and schools the possibility of translating all kinds of resources into the ELLs’ home language. Under normal circumstances, raising an ELL’s English proficiency is the key to unlocking content subject matter for an ELL; with DeepL, a teacher can instantaneously have worksheets, subject-matter texts, presentations, exams and instructions translated such that an ELL can better engage with the content and not be always impeded by low-proficiency skills. This is particularly important for newly arrived ELLs in high school, who often struggle with subject matter when it is delivered in English. Equally, a school can connect better with the families of ELLs by easily translating any matter of information into an ELL’s home language. Figure 4: DeepL Real-time Communication There are a number of free synchronous translator apps now available that can be easily downloaded to a person’s Android or iPhone. Each year, the functionality of such apps widens to include synchronous and asynchronous text and voice translations as well as image capture translations between a range of languages. Being available on an iPhone or Android makes for greater mobility and immediacy of translation when in any face-to-face situation. With this in mind, real-time communication between teachers and ELLs and/or their parents is no longer subject to breakdowns during parent-teacher events, conferences calls, classroom conversations and/or even car line pick up conversations. Figures 5 – 7: iTranslate Voice app, Google Translate app, Microsoft Translator app Messaging and Texting Educators engage in a myriad of communiqués with parents. This includes sending home reminders, highlighting homework, listing upcoming events, asking questions, etc. Of course such communiqués are often two-way and equally, parents send messages to teachers ranging from grade queries, clarifications, updates on their child’s progress, etc. For asynchronous interactions such as these, two apps are extremely useful. The first is Talking Points and the second is Remind. Both services enable a teacher and parent to text in their home language. For example, the author of a text writes in their first language and the recipient will receive the text/message in their nominated language. Of extreme use is that a teacher can write a communiqué in English to the families of his/her students, send it, and each ELL family will simultaneously receive the message in their home language, regardless of whether there are multiple languages spoken in ELLs’ homes. More importantly, Remind and Talking Points offer teachers the opportunity to build community and provide the families of ELLs access to the classroom teacher and school without the reticence behind communication efforts due to low proficiency in English. Figures 8 – 9: Remind and TalkingPoints Navigating Web Pages Lastly, what happens in the context where an ELL parent is directed to go to a webpage but the site is in English? What about if an ELL or a parent needs help in trying to read through instructions on a webpage in order to access a technology, create an online account, or simply read information posted by a teacher, school, or district? Figures 10 – 12: Translating Web Pages on Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Google Chrome Many web browsers now have extensions and/or built-in webpage translation functions. Microsoft Edge browser automatically translates websites into the language of a user’s choice; alternatively, a user can click on the “Translate Options” button to choose from up to 74 languages to translate a webpage into. Equally, Firefox and Google Chrome have similar features. Awareness Awareness is about the technologies educators are using that could enhance learning for ELLs. Even though teachers might have a plethora of technology tools they are aware of, knowing the intricacies of how each tool can be intentionally enhanced to meet the needs of English Language Learners is strategically important. It’s the start to successful differentiation when an educator can identify a resource that can be used for multiple purposes. This knowledge often requires a deep dive into exploring a digital platform or web 2.0 tool to begin the process that culminates in enhancing student learning. How does being aware of a technology tool help with delivery of ELL instruction? Using technology can be powerful when it is used to its full potential, and an awareness of everything afforded by a technology tool allows the educator to determine the best mode of delivery for instruction. A combination of tools (i.e.,meshing) can be utilized to create a final product. That is, the educator can develop resources with one type of web 2.0 tool and then, with another, translate the same materials for ELL students.For instance,Powerpoint slides can be made interactive and accessible when combined with the translation features enabled within Office 365 software and Pixabay to provide visual and linguistic stimuli to enhance comprehension. Presentation Tools Whether it is for a live presentation or a self-paced lesson, using embedded translation tools within PowerPoint and Keynote invariably assist ELLs in comprehending complex content. There are variations of these presentation tools such as Google Slides, Slidesgo, and Flippity, which all can be utilized in similar ways. Practical Example #1: Keynote. Translated material can help students feel connected to class content. In this regard, Keynote by Apple provides a range of slide decks with eye catching visuals in addition to translated text features for ELL students. For more information, click here. Practical Example #2: Google Slides. Google Slides, located in the Google Suite, consists of a unique presentation tool that can be used for collaborative purposes. It offers users the opportunity to input recorded audio and create slides that are interactive. For more information, click here (then click on the present button). Students can even utilize Google Slides to create their own virtual exchange within their own class or by collaborating with other peers from another class. Click here for an example. Lastly, Google Slides is a great tool to create interactive stories, click here (then click on the presenter button). Application Application is about how teachers utilize e-tools for instructional purposes, and how to incorporate these e-tools successfully. Teachers’ understanding of how technologies can enhance their practices enables them to better cater to the needs of diverse students and facilitate understanding, development, and expansion of language practices (Song et al., 2020;Tarbutton, 2018) How can learning be enhanced through technology for ELL students? Teachers can make use of technology to differentiate instruction for ELLs as well as to enhance the presentation of content in order to create further learning opportunities (Parris et al., 2016), since the use of learning platforms, web 2.0 tools, and mobile applications offers students a variety of environments in which they can interact with their teacher and their classmates. Current multimodal tools combine artificial intelligence with other high-tech functionalities, affording synchronous and/or asynchronous communication, live captions (in a variety of languages), among many other benefits. Table 1 provides a description of howtechnology tools and learning platformscanafford multimodal communication, interactivity, variety of instructional delivery, and enhanced learning opportunities for ELLs. Assistance Assistance consists ofongoing support provided to ELLs and their families to help them to use websites and instructional technology that will stimulate ELLs’ continuous learning. Teachers should establish partnerships with families and caretakers, opening communication with them and allowing them to participate in their children’s education(Tutwiler, 2017).School districts across Florida have created distance learning toolkits providing guidance on available resources and on the use of tools for remote learning (e.g.,Miami-Dade Toolkit,Hillsborough Toolkit). Moreover, there is a variety of websites and instructional tools that can be utilized by teachers, families, and caretakers to provide ELLs with w additional practice and more opportunities to interact with curricula material. What e-resources promote continuous learning opportunities for ELLs? The following websites and other web 2.0 tools can be suggested to students and their families. Alternatively, teachers can incorporate them into the curriculum to assist learners in their understanding of content and for their development of language proficiency. Subscription-based For young learners. PebbleGo contains content specifically designed for K-3 students. With this website, ELLs get access to a variety of content in English and Spanish (e.g., science, animals, biographies, social studies). Most articles include read-alouds with text highlighting for readers to follow along, as well as other media such as videos, timelines, or interactive activities (e.g., listening exercises). Subscription options offer districts with unlimited, simultaneous access to students, both at school and at home. Scholastic Learn at Home offers a variety of educational activities (e.g., picture book read-alouds, videos, interactive games, slideshows, etc.) for students aged 4-10. Content is self-paced and tailored by grade level (PreK-K, 1-2, and 3-5). Users can subscribe for a monthly fee, which can be cancelled at any time. For all ages. BrainPop ELL is a website which includes animated movies and other interactive features (e.g., flashcards, games, quizzes, etc.) that provide ELLs with listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills practice for beginner, intermediate, and more advanced levels of proficiency. The website offers different subscription options for school districts, individual teachers, and for families. In a similar manner, ESL Library offers lessons for academic and everyday English, a flashcard library with commonly used vocabulary and grammar, as well as various interactive exercises that can be assigned to students for additional practice. The website’s reporting feature allows teachers to view the completion status of assigned activities, the time students spent on tasks, and the results obtained by students in each activity. Teachers can also leave personalized feedback to students. There are different subscription options, with each teacher account enabling access to 100 students. Free-of-Charge For young learners. Epic contains a digital library for children ages 12 and under, offering more than 35,000 books/audiobooks, and learning videos that can be personalized to each student, according to their preferences and reading levels. Students can take quizzes to check their understanding and earn badges and rewards. Moreover, Epic content can be accessed either online or offline. For all ages. Khan Academy includes a library of lessons and practice exercises for math, English grammar, reading and language arts, science, history, computing, test preparation (e.g., SAT), as well as life skills (e.g., social and emotional learning, personal finance, growth mindset, etc.). Newsela is a reading platform that affords differentiated instruction via the assignment of reading content to students in lexile levels that reflect their reading proficiency. Newsela content is accessible both digitally and in print, which expands access to students without technology. One of the best features of this website is that it gets updated every day with 10 new texts, which keeps the content relevant and up-to-date. Newsela also contains case studies, white papers, webinars, and a blog that includes tips for instruction and describes new features added to the website. ReadWorks offers reading comprehension passages for K-12 students in a variety of lexile levels. Reading topics include STEM, poetry, social studies, literary fiction, arts, and holidays & events. The website allows students to access both digital and printed content, which facilitates access to all students. When accessing material online, students can listen along to audio versions, as well as highlight, annotate, and answer questions about the assigned texts. ReadWorks also gives teachers the option to track students’ progress and provide individual feedback. The website also includes guides for teachers and parents to best utilize the available resources. ReadWriteThink offers educators and families a variety of free lesson/unit plans, activities, games, and resources for professional development in printable or digital formats. The website includes content in arts, careers, community, science, math, social studies, among many others, which can be selected by grade level (K-12). Juxtaposed and complementary to the above tools is Rewordify. This tool enables a user to simplify any imported text based on lexile level. Rewordify offers the user to create and/or complete activities based on the imported text as well as a grammar function that allows users to deconstruct the text based on its grammatical parts. Affiliation Affiliation centers on the social dimension of learning. On the one hand, it is underpinned by the acknowledged importance of interaction between individuals and the role it plays in the facilitation of language acquisition (Gass, 1997; Swain, 2000). On the other hand, it weighs the importance of social-emotional (SE) growth as a metric in considerations about the health of social engagement between individuals (CASEL, 2020). If a language learner is emotionally closed to the people in his/her linguistic environment, then any benefits derived from dialogic engagement, collaboration, cooperation and/or mediation are minimal at best. What technologies can foster the social-emotional well-being of ELLs and how can technologies be used to minimize social distancing and increase emotional support? Since 1994, CASEL[2] has worked to establish high-quality social-emotional learning (SEL) in K-12 schools. Its work has led to the creation of the five core SEL competencies of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making,providing a framework educators can utilize to inform how they engage with students at a social-emotional level. Research (Durlak et al., 2015) has illustrated that social-emotional health can be nurtured and competencies in social-emotional aspects can be fostered using a variety of approaches in K-12 settings. These include: • Incorporating SEL in free-standing lessons; • Embedding SEL within instructional practices; • Integrating SEL into subject-area courses; • Promoting SEL at an institutional level. In 2020, technology has been pivotal in allowing K-12 schools to respond instructionally to the necessities of “going remote” due to COVID-19. Here, we repurpose CASEL’s core competencies and encapsulate how technologies can equally continue to support educators as they nurture and grow the social-emotional skills of their ELLs while working in online, hybrid and e-learning environments. Free-Standing Lessons Educators can take advantage of many stand-alone online lessons, webinars and student-oriented trainings within Nearpod. This online student-engagement platform merges dynamic media and formative assessment in order to create opportunities for collaborative interactions between students. Additionally, teachers are able to assign professional crafted videos that anchor an array of activities and game-based learning tasks. In terms of CASEL’s five core competencies, Nearpod provides free-standing lessons for all K-12 students that help both students and teachers acquire understanding and skills in each of the five SEL areas. Figure 13 (yellow) lists some of the SEL specific lessons contained within the Nearpod library. Instructional Practices Over a lifetime of teaching, educators develop an array of teaching strategies and practices that are used to augment any number of learning needs. Specific to our five core SEL competencies are the following: Self-Awareness.The ability to accurately recognize one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior. Classroom practices may include helping students label their emotions, or having students use an emotional planner to identify and verbalize feelings and/or act on positive emotional strengths. Recommended tools include (i) Plutchik’sWheel of Emotion, for students to get a better understanding of deeper emotions; and (ii) Flippity,in which a range of instructional templates can easily embed Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion to use with online learners (e.g.,random wheel spinner, flashcards, matching game, and manipulatives activities). Self-Management. The ability to successfully regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in different situations — effectively managing stress, controlling impulses, and motivating oneself. One easy technique that is often advocated consists of breathing exercises. In face-to-face settings, countless techniques can be utilized: lying down and breathing with a pebble on the chest, blowing into a paper fan, etc. For online students, a suggested website is https://www.calm.com/breathe, which is also available in Calm mobile applications for both Apple and Android devices. Have ELLs link to the site or mobile app at regular intervals during a lesson. Just as Figure 13: Highlighting Technologies that Foster SEL in Remote Learning Contexts one would have a brain break, so too can this site be used as an emotional regulator. Social-Awareness.The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures. This is particularly important for ELLs. In brick-and-mortar classrooms, engaging in culturally-responsive, trauma-informed, and restorative justice strategies helps ELLs build skills in social awareness. For online students, GoNoodle is one of many webtools in English and Spanish that provides cooperative games for educators to assign to ELLs. Relationship Skills.For newly arrived ELLs who undergo stages of cultural adaptation, particularly culture shock, this competency is of special importance to foster. Even for ELLs raised in the USA, being new to an online learning environment also brings with it a period of adjustment. CASEL (2020) defines this skill as “The ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups. The ability to communicate clearly, listen well, cooperate with others, resist inappropriate social pressure, negotiate conflict constructively, and seek and offer help when needed” (item 4 on CASEL’s SEL webpage). Several strategies for building relationship skills can be utilized with students, including storytelling, team-building activities, turn & talk activities, as well as learning circles/centers. Such strategies allow learners to think about, to practice healthy group interactions, and to negotiate cooperative dynamics. For online settings, three useful tools can mirror these same activities, described below: 1. WebQuests.These are online problem / project / inquiry-based activities that have a 5-step structure (introduction, task, process, evaluation, conclusion) supporting critical thinking through analyzing, creating, and evaluating. Although there are many design patterns to consider when creating a webquest, the most important is that the end-user (i.e., the ELL), is placed in a learning role that builds relationship skills. A number of sites offer teachers online templates to create their own webquests: Zunal, QuestGarden, Createwebquest, and Google Sites. 2. Google Slides. One technique to help students reflect on their choices and to negotiate circumstances and relationships is to use Google Slides to create interactive storybooks (i.e.,choose your own adventurestories, in which the reader controls the plot). This tool offers teachers a way to create an online interactive story that can be easily embedded into any classroom lesson (click here for an example). In order to make such a story, one needs to storyboard it out. The following are two examples of storyboard templates (#1 and #2). A number of educators have put the concept of interactive storybooks on Google Slides to good use. Sylvia Duckworth, a noted Google certified innovator and trainer as well as an Apple distinguished educator, shares many of her creations. Click here for a fillable interactive storybook. 3. TalkingPoints. It is important to take into consideration that low proficient ELLs do not always have the language skills to verbalize their emotions, especially as they traverse the ups and downs of living in and interacting with people in their adopted new homeland. In view of this, we suggest using TalkingPoints. This app provides a means for ELLs and their families to verbalize their emotions and feelings in their native language and be read in English by any recipient (i.e., a teacher, administrator, buddy, neighbor, school staff). As online learning can be an isolating and sometimes frustrating experience, offering ELLs the opportunity to express and explain how they feel using their own language is an important first step in growing skills in this area. Responsible Decision-Making. Handing over responsibility for learning helps students take ownership of their educational journeys while also fostering proactivity. Project-based Learning (PBL) provides opportunities for real-world, authentic experiences, which can empower learners and build their confidence. E-tools such as Flipgrid, Padlet, and Linoit furnish platforms for PBL, affording opportunities for students to share their projects as well as provide and receive feedback. Integrating SEL into Subject-Area Courses While there is a wide array of web 2.0 tools available as resources to educators, utilizing all of them can make it overwhelming for students and/or their families. With that in mind, consider meshing e-tools when creating the digital resources needed to fulfil the goals of instruction, or combining the different e-tools within a single platform. One platform that certainly respects the importance of SEL is Edmodo. In Edmodo, ELLs can share their work, and teachers can flip and/or gamify their instruction. Moreover, in its Discover section, Edmodo offers a range of best practice resources in SEL and ideas on how to integrate SEL into instruction to foster better positive online classroom climates. Edmodo also has a built-in Wellness Check Poll so that teachers can quickly gauge how their students are feeling. Equally, a Messenger function on Edmodo allows for private one-on-one synchronous communications. Lastly, within the platform’s communal blog feature, teachers can access ‘live’ SEL suggestions. A further two e-tools worth noting that can be meshed with Edmodo to help an ELL build relationships and develop good decision-making skills within an online classroom are Flippity and WriteReader. Flippity provides a range of activity templates to alternate student groupings and to make e-resources less static. On the other hand, WriteReader minimizes the isolating effects of writing activities by enabling students to share writing spaces. Institutional Initiatives At a school level, administrators need to be mindful of the types of supports extended to ELLs to underpin remote learning needs. Supports inculture (feeling safe and minimizing isolation), structure (transparent instructional processes and rules), communication (comprehensible information flow), proprietorship, (goal-setting and buy-in), collaboration (fostering interpersonal work and connectedness), celebration (building community and providing reinforcement), and feedback (being SMART[3]) can frame successful initiatives. As outlined above, Edmodo offers teachers and their ELLs a solid platform to promote SEL practices in the school while simultaneously enabling the above supports. Equally, as outlined above, Nearpod provides these same functions. Final Thoughts Technologies, as outlined, offer countless opportunities for educators to offer instructional and emotional support to students. However, these same technologies need to be used in measured and strategically intentional ways in order to maximize their benefits and minimize their challenges for ELLs. As bridge builders, teachers should be cognizant of the 6 As (i.e., availability, access, awareness, application, assistance, and affiliation) when deciding what strategies, instructional supports, and tools to utilize in their lessons in order to offer ELLs engaging and effective instruction in remote learning environments. [1] In this sense the aim is to be successful at transactional competence (the ability to get things done with the language), interactional competence (the ability to manage relationships and social interactions in the target language), and translingual competence (the ability to appropriately make use of a range of linguistic resources in a multilingual society). [2] Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning [3] SMART - Specific (simple, sensible, significant). Measurable (meaningful, motivating). Achievable (agreed, attainable). Relevant (reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based). Time bound (time-based, time limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive). References Collaborative for Social-Emotional Learning (CASEL) (2020).https://casel.org/ Common Sense Media (2019).https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/ default/files/uploads/research/2019_8-18-infographic _final-release.pdf Dominguez, M. (2017). “Se hace puentes al andar”: Decolonial teacher education as a needed bridge to culturally sustaining and revitalizing pedagogies. In D. H. Paris & Samy Alim (eds.).Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world.New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Dorn, E., Hancock, B., Sarakatsannis, J., & Viruleg, E. (2020). COVID-19 and learning loss — disparitiesg row and students need help. McKinsey & Company. Durlak, J.A., Domitrovich, C., Weissberg, R.P., & Gullotta, T.P.(Eds.),Handbook of social and emotional learning (SEL): Research and practice. (pp. 3-19). New York: The Guilford Press. Florida Department of Education Recommendations to Reopen Florida’s Schools and the Cares Act Plan (2020). Retrieved from http://fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/19861/urlt /FLDOEReopeningCARESAct.pdf 2020-21 Florida’s Optional Innovative Reopening Plan [Hillsborough County] (2020). Retrieved from http://fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7501/urlt/ Hillsborough-reopenPlan.pdf Garcia-Arena, P. & D’Souza St.(2020). Research Brief. Spotlight on English Learners. National Survey of Public Education’s Response to COVID-19. American Institutes for Research. https://www.air.org/sites/default/files/ COVID-Survey-Spotlight-on-English-Learners-FINAL- Oct-2020.pdf Gass, S. (1997).Input, interaction, and the second language learner. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Parris, H., Estrada, L., & Honigsfeld, A. (2016).ELL frontiers: Using technology to enhance instruction for English learners. Corwin Press. Song, K., Kim, S., & Zhao, Y. (2020). Manifesting multidimensional creativity in a technology‐mediated online TESOL practicum course.TESOL Journal,11(2), 1-17. St. George, D. (2020, December 4). Failing grades double and triple—some rising sixfold — amid pandemic learning.Washington Post. shorturl.at/qCEU5 Swain, M. (2000). The output hypothesis and beyond: Mediating acquisition through collaborative dialogue. In J. P. Lantolf (Ed.),Sociocultural theory and second language learning(pp. 97– 114). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Tarbutton, T. (2018). Leveraging 21st Century Learning & Technology to Create Caring Diverse Classroom Cultures.Multicultural Education,25(2), 4-6. Tutwiler, S. J. W. (2017).Teachers as collaborative partners: Working with diverse families and communities. Routledge.
Pedagogy The Pandemic, School Lockdowns, and How Current Technologies Can Be Utilized to Serve ELL Online Learning Tony Erben, Ashlee Cappucci, Cristiane Vicentini University of Tampa, Hillsborough County Public Schools, University of Miami ABSTRACT The month of March 2020 will undoubtedly be remembered by educators throughout the United States as the month school systems closed. Did schools really shut down, though? Indeed, schools may have closed in a physical, brick-and-mortar sense, but instruction continued. In fact, educators throughout Florida carried out, in little time and with no preparation, a mammoth effort to transfer all instruction online. This article unpacks the issues and types of technologies used and what technologies should be considered to make online instruction for ELLs successful.
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Introduction This study evaluated whether a relationship existed between six weeks of instruction and a change in the listening, structure, and reading scores of incoming non-native English students at an IEP at a large university in Florida. The paper-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was used as a measurement tool, and pre- and post-test scores from six different groups of incoming students over a period of one year were analyzed. Educational Testing Services (ETS) claims that the purpose of TOEFL is “to evaluate the English proficiency of people whose native language is not English” (Educational Testing Services Examinee Handbook, 2015, p. 2). Passing TOEFL scores are one of several admission requirements these adult students must meet in order to be admitted into undergraduate, graduate, and PhD programs in the United States and worldwide. The test is comprised of three sections of multiple choice questions: Listening, Structure, and Reading Comprehension and includes 140 questions. Although at least two studies have raised questions about the validity of multiple-choice tests as a predictor of foreign language proficiency (Dulay et al., 1982; Graham, 1987), the TOEFL PBT exam was used as a placement and assessment tool at this IEP in the pre- and post-tests, and the scores from the sample over a period of one year provided the basis for this study. This study did not evaluate the curriculum of the IEP or the relationship between course grades in each of the core courses (listening, structure, and reading) after six weeks of instruction within that IEP, but it did briefly explore the student learning outcomes listed on the Level 2A reading skill sheet in the context of the pre- post-test reading score results. This study did not evaluate student motivation levels, classroom attendance, skill acquisition, or student learning strategies within specific skill areas. This study did not evaluate the TOEFL as an assessment tool, and it did not examine any relationship between the native country or L1 of each participant and their pre- and post-test scores. The comparison of scores was valuable because it provided evidence that the change in listening, structure, reading, and overall TOEFL scores after a six-week period of English language instruction in an IEP program was significant overall,as well as in two of the three skill areas measured. The gains in scores for listening and structure were significant, however, there was a loss in reading. While these changes in scores may be the result of many factors, the knowledge of these changes could contribute to the review of IEP curriculum models as they relate to listening, structure, and reading. Purpose and Research Question The purpose of this study was to determine whether students in a university-level Intensive English Program made significant gains in listening, structure, reading, and overall TOEFL scores after six weeks of instruction. Research Question 1: Do non-native English-speaking adult learners who enter the Intensive English Program (IEP) at Level 2A (based on the IEP placement criteria), make the necessary gains within a six-week period of instruction to see a significant change in listening, structure, reading, and overall TOEFL scores? Research Hypothesis: There is a significant relationship between the pre- and post-test listening, structure, reading, and overall TOEFL scores for students in Level 2A after six weeks of instruction in the IEP. Null Hypothesis: The mean difference between the pre- and post-test scores is zero. Methods Study design This quasi-experimental quantitative research design analyzed the pre- and post-test listening, structure, reading, and overall TOEFL scores of six different groups of students before and after six weeks of English language instruction over a period of one year. Each group received the same length of instruction, was taught the same curriculum, and was given the same pre- and post-testing. Data were collected and evaluated for students who achieved a pre-test or placement score that fell in the range of 400-429 points on retired TOEFL PBT tests. The score of 400 was used by the IEP to place new incoming students into level 2A within the IEP. Next, the data were selected for students with both a pre- and post-test score. Students had to have taken all three sections of the test in order to be included in the study. The score was determined through the use of a TOEFL PBT conversion chart (Phillips, 2004) that assigns a converted score by section based on the number of questions answered correctly. The converted scores for Listening and Structure were between 31 and 68, and for Reading between 31 to 67 (ETS, 2010). As per the ETS protocol, the sum of the scaled scores was multiplied by 10 and divided by 3. The TOEFL PBT range of scores was 310 to 677, with a mean of 524 and standard deviation of 67 (ETS, 2010, p. 14). The data were divided by term and uploaded into one Excel file to determine statistical significance over the time period of one year from August 2011 through August 2012. Each semester at this university-based IEP consisted of two periods of six-weeks of instruction in Fall, Spring, and Summer with a one-week period of final examinations following each six-week period. The version of the TOEFL PBT administered at the IEP was based on tests that the publisher, ETS, had retired or no longer used, and were taken from two different sources,TOEFL Strategies (Hinkel, 2004) and Longman Preparation Course for the TOEFL Test, The Paper Test (Phillips, 2004). Participants The total number of students who participated in these six terms and placed into Level 2A was N=78. The total number who met the above criteria produced a sample size of N=31. One outlier for the Summer 2 term was eliminated. This student’s Reading score was an outlier from the other 30 samples and showed a -14.3% decrease between pre- and post-testing. Although students’ native language or L1 was not considered as a variable in this study, it is helpful to note that the participants were from a range of countries, including Japan (5), Taiwan (4), Korea (2), Venezuela (3), China (3), Colombia (1), Angola (1), Brazil (1), Bahrain (1), Pakistan (1), Turkey (2), Morocco (1), Spain (1), and Saudi Arabia (5). The L1s of the group were the native languages of these students’ home countries and included Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Mandarin, Portuguese, Arabic, Urdu, and Turkish. Data Analysis Levels of instruction at the IEP began with Level 1 Beginner (1B) and progressed to Level 1 Advanced (1A), 2B, 2A, 3B, 3A, 4B and 4A. In order for students to place into the low-intermediate Level 2A at this IEP, they had to achieve a placement score of 400. After six weeks of instruction, they had to achieve a score of 430 to move up to the intermediate level, Level 3B. The pre-test was a placement test taken before any instruction at the IEP program. The post-test was an exit test taken after six weeks of instruction. The students in this study were all new English language learners registered in the IEP and placed into the Level 2A from the Fall 1 term through Summer 2 term. Those who did not take both the pre- and post-tests were excluded from the study. The data for this study was provided to the curriculum chair of the IEP by a program assistant, and the curriculum chair reviewed the data before releasing it to the author of this study. The original data set was received by the author of this study from the IEP curriculum chair as a series of Excel spreadsheets and was transferred to a new Excel file with a worksheet for each term. Within each worksheet, the data were organized by pre- and post-test scores, and by the three individual categories (listening, structure, reading). Together, the IEP curriculum chair and author of this study reviewed the results in each worksheet, removed personally identifiable information, assigned a designation of term, and maintained the individual line number from the original data set in order to make the data anonymous while at the same time allowing its validity to be checked. Finally, the data from all terms were merged into one file, arranged by term and designated number. A one-tailed t-test with type 1 variance was performed in order to evaluate whether the change in pre- and post-test scores was statistically significant. A one-tailed t-test was used because we predicted that the scores would increase. The variance was Type 1 because it was a repeated measure with the variance between the two tests being equal or the same because the participant was the same. It is important to note that while the pre-test was technically different from the post-test, they were classified as the same level of TOEFL test, just different versions. A t-test was appropriate because there were two conditions and the goal was to compare the two conditions to see if the difference between them was significant. The conditions measured were pre- and post-test scores. The t-test was run with one array as the overall pre-test score, the other array as the overall post-test score. This same format was used for the pre- and post-test listening, structure, and reading scores. The “p,” or probability that the difference between the two sets of scores was or was not statistically significant, was set at p < .05. The df or degrees of freedom was calculated within the Excel T-test as N-1, with N= 30. Results A paired-samples t-test was conducted to evaluate whether the change in the pre- and post-test overall scores was statistically significant. The results indicated that the mean scores for the post-test overall TOEFL results were significantly greater than the mean scores for the pre-test TOEFL results with p= .00824, p= <.05, and showed a significant change in overall TOEFL scores after six weeks of instruction with an overall increase of 3% (Table 1). Table 1: Percentage of change in Listening, Structure, Reading, and Overall TOEFL scores after six weeks of IEP instruction. Paired-samples t-tests were conducted to evaluate whether the change in pre- and post-test listening, structure, and reading scores was significant. The t-test for the pre- and post-test listening scores yielded the result of p= .000000080647 with p= <.05, and showed a significant change in listening scores with an overall increase of 10%. The t-test for the pre- and post-test structure scores yielded the result of p= .043839 with p= <.05, and showed a significant change in structure scores with an overall increase of 4%. Finally, the t-test for the pre- and post-test reading scores yielded the result of p= .007217 with p= <.05, and showed a significant change in reading scores, however, the average overall change in reading scores decreased and was a negative 5% (Table 1). Discussion The increase in overall pre- post-test scores for the 30-student sample was significant when measured before and after a period of six-weeks of instruction in the IEP. Students also had an overall significant increase in their listening and structure scores, but a significant decrease in the skill area of reading. Research Question 1: Do non-native English-speaking adult learners who enter the Intensive English Program (IEP) at Level 2A (based on the IEP placement criteria), make the necessary gains within a six-week period of instruction to see a significant change in listening, structure, reading, and overall TOEFL scores? Answer: Yes. The data provided evidence to reject the null hypothesis and showed an increase in two of the three skill areas measured by the paper-based TOEFL. The overall score increase was 3%. Listening scores increased by an average of 10%, structure scores increased by an average of 4%, and reading scores decreased by 5%. The largest increase in the current study was in the listening scores. Staehr’s (2009) empirical study evaluated the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension in a group of upper intermediate learners and concluded that explicit instruction in vocabulary and an increase in a student’s vocabulary size were related to an increase in listening comprehension. The vocabulary size played a role in the degree to which students used top-down or bottom-up processes in listening. Low-level learners used bottom-up processing, while upper-level used top-down processing, also known as cognitive and metacognitive strategies. The study concluded that the closer learners got to the level of 5,000 words, the more substantial their gains in listening comprehension were. Smit (2009) explored listening comprehension in academic lectures and the effects that explicit instruction in the vocabulary of academic discourse markers had on the rate of change in listening comprehension. The participants in the experimental group received eight weeks of instruction in discourse markers and scored significantly higher in the post-test than the control group. The role of vocabulary as it relates to the role it plays in reading comprehension is also helpful to consider. The reading scores in the current study of low-intermediate learners showed a negative change. Beck et al. (1982) determined that reading comprehension improved as vocabulary knowledge increased. This relationship was also observed by Laufer (1992) in the study “How much lexis is necessary for reading comprehension?” While an increase in vocabulary may provide an explanation for the increase in listening comprehension scores, the type of vocabulary, or lack of it, might play a role in the explanation for the decrease in reading comprehension and be a topic for future research. Students placed into Level 2A at the IEP participated in the Reading 2A class as a core class. The student learning outcomes for this class included: Identify the main idea; Identify specific details; Summarize information; Skim and scan for information; Make inferences; Predict outcomes; Use the dictionary; Recognize word forms; Sustain reading comprehension in SSR settings; Paraphrase information; Outline information (Reading 2A Skill Sheet, 2013). Additionally, the IEP Skill Sheet for the reading class required that students were formally tested using a weekly vocabulary quiz, with vocabulary words chosen from weekly reading passages along with synonyms and antonyms of those words. Instructors were directed to use vocabulary from the assigned readings, but no specific directive on teaching high-frequency words in English, use of an Academic Word List, or a focus on academic signal words were included. This is an area within IEP curriculum that can be examined in future research. The topic of language loss or attrition is another explanation for the decline in reading scores. These low-intermediate level students may have prepared for the placement test (pre-test) with a focus on vocabulary, but after six weeks of instruction without that same emphasis, there may have been a loss of vocabulary that had been present at the start. In a study conducted by Des Brisay (1994), the time period of six months between tests was deemed “unreasonable,” and could include second language attrition. Hanson (1999, p. 151) hypothesized that “the more you know, the less you lose.” Kokhan (2012) suggested that this “more you know” theory related to high-proficiency in L2 learners, and that it provided protection from language loss and encouraged positive test outcomes (p. 295). While the current study examined the change in proficiency of low-intermediate students, not the high-proficiency group, future research might include an evaluation of the factors that contribute to L2 language loss in reading. The specific vocabulary skills and work with high-frequency vocabulary words including academic discourse markers and the ways in which these were addressed during the six-week instructional period could further explain why the scores for this skill area showed a loss (-5%) when measured in six different groups of students over the course of a year. Limitations The limitations of this study include attendance of student participants and sample size. During the six-week period of instruction between the pre- and post-tests, students in the current study were required to attend 20 hours of instruction per week. The scores for the study were not cross-referenced with attendance records, so there may be differences in students’ period of instruction if they missed days or weeks of instruction. The study required students to have taken both the pre- and post-tests on the one day that these tests were given, however, students who missed the post-test were not included in the final data set, which had an impact on the total sample size. Another limitation is the lack of an explanation for the difference between results from one term to the next over the period of a year (Table 2). The range of percent increase by term was 7.3% to 12.8% increase in listening scores, 1% to 11% increase in structure scores, and a range of percent decrease of -3.5% to -5.8% in reading. The rate of change for the overall score ranged from 1.8% to 6.0%. Table 2: Percent of change in Listening, Structure, Reading, and Overall TOEFL score in each six-week instructional period of one academic year. Conclusion The current gap in knowledge includes a lack of research on the relationship between the period of instruction in an IEP program and whether there is significant change in students’ listening, structure, reading, and overall TOEFL scores change after that period of instruction. The use of standardized language proficiency tests for placement into an IEP program is widespread, but the tests used can vary from one institution to another. Educational Testing Service claims that the TOEFL Institutional Testing Program (ITP) tests are relied upon by more than 2,500 institutionsin 50+ countries, with 800,000+ tests administered annually” (ETS Research, 2020). In the current study, the students were new to the program and most were reported by the program director to be new to the United States. Some students experienced culture shock after arriving; others had never been on their own before and required a period of time to adjust to being self-sufficient. Motivation levels, study skills, L1, and reasons for learning English are different from one student to the next, but they all contribute to the way the scores change from pre- to post-test and could all be included in future research. The results of this study demonstrated that six-weeks of instruction supported a significant positive change in study participants’ listening, structure, and overall TOEFL scores, but produced a decrease in reading scores in low-intermediate L2 learners. The significant findings of this study provide empirical evidence that contributes to the research on the period of instruction as it relates to language acquisition in listening, structure, and reading as measured by the TOEFL test. Declaration of Interests This is to acknowledge that there is no financial interest or benefit to the authors that has arisen from the direct applications of this research. References Beck, I. L., Perfetti, C.A., & McKeown, M.G. (1982). Effects of long-term vocabulary instruction on lexical access and reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74(4), 506-521. Des Brisay, M. (1994). Problems in developing an alternative to the TOEFL. Canada Journal, 12(1), 47-57. Dulay, H., Burt, M. & Krashen, S. (1982). Language Two. New York:York: Oxford University Press. Educational Testing Service. (2015). Examinee Handbook. Retrieved from https://www.ets.org/s/toeic/pdf/listening-reading- examinee-handbook.pdf Educational Testing Service. (2020). Research. Retrieved from https://www.ets.org/toefl_itp/research/ Graham, J. G. (1987). English language proficiency and the prediction ofacademic success. TESOL Quarterly, 21, 505-521. Hinkel, E. (2004).TOEFL Test Strategies with Practice Tests. Hauppauge, New York: Barron’s Educational Series. Kokhan, K. (2012) Investigating the possibility of using TOEFL scores for university ESL decision-making: Placement trends and effect of time lag. Language Testing 29(2) 291-308. Laufer, B. (1992). How much lexis is necessary for reading comprehension? Bejoint, H.& P. Arnaud (Eds.). Vocabulary and Applied Linguistics, 126-132. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Phillips, D. (2004). Longman Preparation Course for the TOEFL Test: The Paper Test. New York: Pearson Education. Smit, T. C. (2009). The academic lecture: learnto listen or listen to learn? Nawa: Journal of Language & Communication. 3(1), 1-18. Staehr, L.S. (2009). Vocabulary knowledge and advanced listening comprehension in English as a foreign language. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 31, 577-607.
Research Non-Native English Students’ Change in Listening, Structure, and Reading Scores After a Six-week Period of Instruction in an Intensive-English Program Devon Cadwell Bazata University of Central Florida ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine whether non-native English adult students newly admitted to a university-level Intensive English Program (IEP) in Florida made statistically significant gains in listening, structure, and reading scores after six weeks of instruction. The paper-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was used as a measurement tool, and pre- and post-test scores from a segment of the incoming student population at this IEP over a 12-month period were analyzed using a one-tailed t-test. While there was a statistically significant increase in overall scores, there were mixed results within the three skill areas of the listening, structure, and reading. There was a statistically significant increase in listening and structure scores after a six-week period of instruction, but a significant decrease in reading scores.
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Table 1: A Comparison Between the 2012 and 2020 ELD Standards Framework
Introduction The recently released WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework, 2020 Edition: Kindergarten-Grade 12 (WIDA, 2020), provides educators with an enhanced vision of language learning through content. This article provides a road map for exploring the Standards Framework by first emphasizing its continuity with the previous edition, examining how it has been updated, and then focusing on several of the components of the ELD Standards Framework – namely, Key Language Uses and Language Expectations. As primary entry points into (co)collaborative planning conversations between content and language teachers, we offer a rationale for these components and show their applicability to curriculum and instruction. What’s Been Maintained in the 2020 Edition? When you open the pages to the 2020 Edition, you may be surprised, first by its length and then by its format. However, since its inception,WIDA’s Can Do Philosophy, along with it Guiding Principles of Language Development (updated in2019) have served as the foundation for its four editions – released in 2004, 2007, 2012, and now 2020. Historically, WIDA has tailored its approach to language standards to highlight students’ unique cultural and linguistic experiences, interests, and potential (González et al., 2005). The Four Big Ideas introduced in the 2020 edition connect with ideas and concepts have been ever present in WIDA Standards: Equity of Opportunity and Access, Integration of Content and Language, Collaboration among Stakeholders, and a Functional Approach to Language Development. What’s Been Updated in the 2020 Edition? During your early encounters in the 2020 Edition, you may notice that WIDA shifts from the term English language learners (ELLs) to multilingual learners. We use “multilingual learners” as it is much more inclusive and embraces the richness of the students’ linguistic and cultural assets when engaging in learning. In particular, ‘multilingual’ recognizes how proficiency in the students’ home language(s) can foster proficiency in other languages, including English (Genesee et al., 2006;Aldana & Mayer, 2015). In essence, we accentuate the strengths of multilingual learners, not what they lack (May, 2014; Kibler & Valdés, 2016). The 2020 Edition responds to change in a broad range of educational policies and practices. It represents an update in federal legislative requirements (i.e., ESSA, 2015), the evolving rigor in academic content standards, the latest developments in scholarly literature (recounted in Shafer Willner et al., 2020), and a deepened commitment to equity and social justice. Table 1 provides a brief comparison between the 2012 and the 2020 Editions. What are the Components of WIDA ELD Standards Framework, 2020 Edition? The major components in the 2020 ELD Standards Framework, streamlined and clarified from the previous edition, are displayed in Figure 1 as a nested set of resources for content-driven language learning. We envision these components as user-friendly entry points for unpacking language in meaningful contexts that advance teaching and learning. Figure 1: The Four Components of WIDA ELD Standards Framework, 2020 Edition Starting with the Standards Statements, and with increasing specificity, these four components can serve to jumpstart conversations between content and language educators in designing curriculum and instruction. Here are several questions to begin those discussions: (1) Which content area will serve as the context for targeting language in curriculum and instruction? (2) For what purpose(s) will language be used? (3) What are students expected to do with language? (4) How might student language performances be gauged? Why are Key Language Uses Central to the Organization of the 2020 Edition? Besides the five Standards Statements, the Key Language Uses (Figure 2) are the most recognized component in the 2020 Edition. The idea of placing language within a sociocultural context (Gee, 2004) has always been part of the ELD Standards Framework, however, the 2020 Edition has a much stronger tie to linguistic theory. Informed by Systemic Functional Linguistic theory (Halliday & Mathiesson, 2014) and, more specifically, to a variant of genre theory popularized for use in K-12 schools (e.g., Brisk, 2014; Derewianka & Jones, 2016; Gibbons, 2015; Humphrey et al., 2012; Schleppegrell, 2013), we emphasize the use of language for specific purposes, audiences, and situations through the Key Language Uses. Put another way, we equate Key Language Uses with major genre families (Rose & Martin, 2012). Key Language Uses position multilingual learners not just as learners of language in comparison to a monolingual benchmark, but aslanguage users who adapt their use of language in ways that are appropriate to context (Cook, 2003).In other words, the language that students need to learn is more than a set of static structures or a single one-size-fits-all system of Standard English (Pennycook, 2010) but as a tool to make meaning for themselves and others. Figure 2: Key Language Uses Where Might Key Language Uses be Found in K-12 Instruction? The Key Language Uses offer clear and systematic ways of how language works in different contexts and settings. They were identified during an extensive review of current academic content standards (ELA/literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies), disciplinary practices, and the research literature (e.g., Brisk, 2014; de Oliveira et al., 2019). In this review, the WIDA Standards Team searched through academic content standards to identify genres and purposes for language use(Hyland, 2007). The presence of four broad genre families (Rose & Martin, 2012) emerged in all grade levels and content areas and has come to serve as the Key Language Uses: Narrate, Inform, Explain, and Argue, defined in Table 2. Table 2: Definitions of the 2020 Key Language Uses (p. 254)
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Assessment Unlocking Content-Driven Language Learning through the Key Language Uses and Language Expectations An Exploration of Key Components of the WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework, 2020 Edition Lynn Shafer Willner and Margo Gottlieb Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison ABSTRACT The WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework, 2020 Edition: Kindergarten-Grade 12 was released at the close of last year when the world was turned upside down by an unrelenting virus and anxious educators were scrambling to best address the inequities that plagued multilingual learners and their families. As conversations turn towards post-pandemic recovery, this article shares with you an overview of the 2020 ELD Standards Framework, distinguishing it from prior ones, and highlighting some of its major components. In this article, we focus on the grade 2-3 cluster and language for mathematics to exemplify how as partners, content and language educators might begin to unravel the ELD Standards Framework and apply it to curriculum and instruction.
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Even though they have distinct definitions, the four Key Language Uses are not “boxes” for language to fit in, as they can intersect, blend, and build on each other. For example, an argument may also contain narratives (anecdotes or stories), informational texts (which name, define, describe, compare or contrast something), and/or explanations (about the how or why of the concept being defended). You can learn more about each Key Language Use across the grades and disciplines in Section 4 of the 2020 Edition document: Resources—Key Language Uses: A Closer Look. This section provides detailed information the Key Language Uses play out across different grade-level clusters and years of schooling. It also touches upon both common and unique linguistic and organizational features for each Key Language Uses and how each Key Language Uses functions across content areas. Which Key Language Uses are Most Prominent? The Key Language Uses, presented by standard (or content area) and grade-level cluster- K, 1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-8, and 9-12, serve as the glue that binds academic content standards with the WIDA standard statements. The emphasis placed on these four Key Language Uses is not intended to restrict curriculum and instruction; rather it accentuates the most prominent genre families as an organizing principle for the ELD Standards Framework. All Key Language Uses are present across all grade levels and disciplines. The WIDA Standards Team’s analysis of academic content standards revealed that all Key Language Uses are present across the ELD standards statements, however, certain Key Language Uses are more prominent than others; we present this information in a series of distribution tables, such as the one in Table 3. Throughout the remaining sections of this article, we select examples from the grade 2-3 cluster. We do so as the majority of multilingual learners who qualify for language services in Florida are in the primary grades (C. Eplin, personal communication, March 26, 2021). In Grades 2-3 we see that the Key Language Uses Explain and Argue, depicted by the full circle, are most prominent when students are learning the Language for Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies while Inform and Argue are most prominent when students are engaging in the Language for Language Arts. The Language for Social and Instructional Purposes undergird the other standards statements and are always critical to content and language learning. Table 3. Key Language Uses Distribution Table Sample: Grades 2-3 (p. 85) Where are the Key Language Uses Found in the Language Expectations? The most prominent Key Language Uses in each grade-level cluster form the basis for the Language Expectations. Language Expectations, the third component of the 2020 WIDA ELD Standards Framework, represent goals for content-driven language learning for multilingual learners at alll evels of English language proficiency. Most similar to what you’ll find in academic content standards, Language Expectations have reference codes that reflect the high-priority language competencies for engaging in disciplinary learning. In the Figure 3 example, the reference code is ELD-MA.2-3.Explain. Expressive. You may notice how, in the Language Expectations, the four individual language domains (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are consolidated into two more inclusive modes of communication: interpretive and expressive: • The interpretive communication mode encompasses listening, reading, andviewing • The expressive communication mode encompasses speaking, writing, and representing
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Figure 3. Example Reference Code for a Language Expectation What Does the Language for Mathematics Look Like in a Grades 2-3 Unit of Learning? The close integration of content and language, displayed in the Language Expectations, invites collaboration between content and language educators as they share responsibility for teaching multilingual learners. Language development is its own field of expertise, just as each discipline is. As teachers dive deeper into standards-based planning and delivery of instruction, language specialists can help content teachers learn more about Language Functions and Language Features. Similarly, content teachers can help language specialists connect to content learning. The Language Expectations offer sets of interpretive and expressive Language Functions organized by Key Language Use and WIDA ELD Standard Statement. Language Functions [the bulleted items] are common patterns of language use that showcase particular ways students might use language to meet the purposes of schooling (p. 29). Table 4 shows an example of Language Expectations for Grades 2-3. Explain. The sets of Language Functions (within Language Expectations) are not meant to be exhaustive, but to identify a high-leverage, stable set of core language functions for each grade-level cluster. In other words, the Language Expectations provide a palette from which educators can select Language Functions to use recursively throughout a unit and across the school year. A general structure for learning goals at the unit level might be: In [content area], when learning [unit focus for content standards], multilingual learners will [Key Language Use] using [Language Expectation set(s)]. Table 4: WIDA Language Expectations for Grades 2-3 Explain The ELD Standards Framework positions initially “imperfect” social and instructional language development as an integral part of academic language development (Canagarajah, 1999). For example, as shown previously in Table 4, in grades 2-3 Mathematics, the Language Expectations for Standard 1 could be coupled with those for WIDA ELD Standard 2 (the Language for Mathematics). In this way, Language Expectations for Standard 1 (the Language for Social and Instructional Purposes) are positioned, not only to jumpstart content-driven language learning, but to weave throughout the unit. Students integrate social language with more technical language by connecting their own multilingual perspectives, understandings, experiences with learning experiences. (See Figure 4.) Figure 4: Relationships among the WIDA Standards Statements How are Language Expectations Broken Down? Multilingual learners need to identify, interpret, and use language features characteristic of disciplinary discourses and academic genres (Fang, 2020). Thus, the Language Expectations include a further mapping of the interpretive and expressive language functions and associated example resources students might use to meet the Language Expectations. (See excerpt in Table 5.) Table 5: Anatomy of a Language Expectation: ELD-MA.2-3. Explain. Expressive (p. 30) Grades 2-3 marks a transition year in multilingual learners’ language use in mathematics, as they move from the Key Language Use of Inform to Explain. In other words, students do more with language than defining, classify, describing or comparing a concept or entity; they need to give an account for how, or why, things work the way that they work. A general structure of a language objective at the lesson level might be: In [content area], when learning[ specific content standard(s)], multilingual learners will [Key Language Use] by [Language Function], using [Language Features], with appropriate scaffolding such as[ scaffolding provided]. Scaffolding is temporary assistance given by a teacher that helps a learner know how to do something so that learner will later be able to do a similar task alone (Gibbons, 2015, p. 16). Using the information from Table 5, a language objective for a 3rd grade mathematics lesson might look like: In mathematics, when learning how to use strategies based on place value to multiply, multilingual learners will explain bydescribing solution and steps used to solve problem with others, using connectors to order steps (first, next, then), and show causal relationships (because, so, then), with appropriate scaffolding such as graphic organizers and sentence starters. Final Thoughts The WIDA ELD Standards Framework, 2020 Edition, reinforces content-driven language instruction that supports both content and language educators. In it, we emphasize how to maximize multilingual learners’ engagement in learning. As students learn the language of school, they connect with home and community while their learning in home and community, helps inform their participation in school. As our multilingual learners expand their horizons and navigate the world, we envision that they will have the tools to communicate with others and to share ideas for real purposes in authentic contexts. The four Key Language Uses and Language Expectations offer educators common ground to collaborate in planning curriculum and instruction. By looking at what students are being asked to do with language to meet given expectations, pathways for learning become more clear-cut and educators will more readily see the interweaving of content and language. This integrated focus shared by content and language teachers will spur a more cohesive and relevant educational experience for multilingual learners. References Aldana, U., & Mayer, A. (2014). The international baccalaureate: A college-preparatory pathway for heritage language speakers and immigrant youth. In R. Callahan & P. Gándara (Eds.),The bilingual advantage: Language, literacy, and the labor market. Multilingual Matters. http://dx.doi.org/10.21832/9781783092437-012 Brisk, M. (2014).Engaging students in academic literacies: Genre-based pedagogies for K-5 classrooms.Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781317816164 Canagarajah, A. S. (1999). Interrogating the “native speaker fallacy”: Non-linguistic roots, non- pedagogical results. In G. Braine (Ed.),Non-native educators in English language teaching (pp. 77–92). L. Erlbaum Associates. Cook, V.J. (2003). Effects of the second language on the first.Multilingual Matters. De Oliveira, L. C., Jones, L., & Smith, S. L. (2019). Genre-based pedagogy as an approach to second language writing. In L. Alatriste & C. Crosby (Eds.), Second language writing across PK16 contexts: Intersections of teaching, learning, and development. University of Michigan Press. Derewianka, B., & Jones, P. (2016).Teaching language in context (2nd ed.). Oxford. Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, Pub. L. No. 114-95 § 114 Stat. 1177 (2015-2016). Fang, Z . (2020) . Toward a linguistically informed, responsive and embedded pedagogy in secondary literacy instruction.Journal of World Languages, 6(1–2), 70–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/21698252.2020.1720161 Gee, J. P. (2004).Situated Language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. London, UK: Routledge. Genesee, F., Lindholm-Leary, K., Christian, D., Saunders, W., & Saunders, B. (2006). Educating English language learners: A synthesis of research evidence. Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511499913 Gibbons, P. (2015).Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: Teaching English language learners in the mainstream classroom.Heinemann. González, N., Moll, L., & Amanti, C. (2005).Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households and classrooms.Lawrence Erlbaum. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781410613462 Grant,C.A.(2012).Cultivating flourishing lives: A robust social justice vision of education. American Education ResearchJournal, 49(5), 910–934. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0002831212447977 Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. (2014). Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar (4thEdition). Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203431269 Humphrey,S., Droga,L., & Feez,S. (2012). Grammar and meaning. Primary English Teaching Association Australia. Hyland, K. (2007). Genre pedagogy: Language, literacy and L2 writing instruction. Journal of Second Language Writing, 16(3), 148–164. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2007.07.005 Kibler, A., & Valdés, G. (2016). Conceptualizing language learners: Socioinstitutional mechanisms and their consequences. The Modern Languages Journal, 100(1), 97–116. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/modl.12310 Leont’ev, A. (1978). Activity, consciousness, and personality. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Martin, J. R., & Rose, D. (2007). Working with discourse: Meaning beyond the clause (2nd Ed.). Continuum. May, S. (2014). Disciplinary divides, knowledge construction, and the multilingual turn. In S. May (Ed.), The multilingual turn: Implications for SLA, TESOL and bilingual education (pp. 7–31). Routledge. Pennycook, A. (2010). Language as a local practice.Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203846223 Rose, D., & Martin, J. (2012). Learning to write, reading to learn: Genre, knowledge and pedagogy in the Sydney school. Equinox Publishing Ltd. Schleppegrell, M.(2013).The role of metalanguage in supporting academic language development.Language Learning, 63(1), 153–170. Shafer Willner,L., Gottlieb,M., Kray,F.M., Westerlund,R., Lundgren,C., Besser,S., Warren,E., Cammilleri,A., & Cranley,M.E.( 2020). Appendix F: Theoretical foundations of the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. In WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin– Madison. Vygotsky,L.(1978).Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvjf9vz4 WIDA.(2020). WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition: Kindergarten-Grade 12.WIDA, University of Wisconsin–Madison. https://wida.wisc.edu/teach/standards/eld WIDA. (2014). WIDA Guiding Principles. WIDA: University of Wisconsin-Madison. https://wida.wisc.edu/resources/guiding-principles- language-development WIDA. (2014). WIDA Can Do Philosophy. WIDA: University of Wisconsin-Madison. https://www.wida.us/get.aspx?id=3 WIDA. (2012). Amplification of the English Language Development Standards. Madison, WI: Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. WIDA. (2007). English language proficiency standards for English language learners in pre-kindergarten through Grade 12. Madison, WI: Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. WIDA (2004). English language proficiency standards, Kindergarten through grade 12. Madison, WI: Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Wright, L. & Musser, S. (2014). Operationalizing Key Uses of Academic Language for Test Development.Internal Report prepared for WIDA. Madison, WI: Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Portions of this article contain excerpts from the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition: Kindergarten-Grade 12 (WIDA, 2020), Wisconsin Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, on behalf of WIDA. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Chane Eplin, Bureau Chief for Student Achievement through Language Acquisition at the Florida Department of Education for his suggestions on the article topic and content. The authors would also like to acknowledge the valuable contributions of their colleagues on the WIDA ELD Standards Development Team who worked in collaboration to design the 2020 Edition. Team members are (in alphabetical order): Sharon Besser, Andrea Cammilleri, Margo Gottlieb, Fernanda Marinho Kray, Cynthia Lundgren, Lynn Shafer Willner, Elizabeth Warren, and Ruslana Westerlund. Elizabeth Cranley served as Project Sponsor. Yvonne Williams and Amy King of WCEPS contributed to the conversation around unit goals and lesson language objectives.
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IMPORTANT DATES: Registration Opens: 30th Apr. Presenter Proposal Due: 31st July Acceptance Answers: 31st Aug. Award Applications Due: 15th Sept. Presenter Registration Date: 30th Sept. Early Bird Deadline: 30th Sept. Online Registration Closes: 28th Oct. Rolling Hotel Reservations Advertising Exhibitors
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SSTESOL'S CHAPTERS AT WORK Bay Area TESOL PD Evening THRIVING VIRTUALLY: VALUED VOICES from K-12 ESOL EDUCATORS On Thursday evening, February 25, 2021, BART hostedd a panel discussion on Zoom with local K-12 ESOL Directors. Dr. Tony Erben at the University of Tampa & SSTESOL Vice-President served as moderator. The evening was an informative and inspiring evening of professional development and networking. Who: ESOL District Directors Elena Garcia (Hillsborough Public Schools) and Natasa Karac (Pinellas County Schools). What: Tampa Bay Area Regional TESOL professionals share experiences and success strategies in supporting English learners and their teachers in virtual environments Why: Professional development; networking, sharing emerging best practices in supporting English learners. 38 ESOl professionals attended the one hour zoom PD. Questions and topics covered included: i. We are now one year into the pandemic, since the initial school lockdowns back in March 2020 educators have had a roller-coaster ride adjusting to the new reality of instruction. From your perspective as District ESOL Supervisors, how have English Language Learners faired, educationally, emotionally? ii. In May 2020, the American Institutes for Research conducted a national survey of public education’s response to COVID-19. The intent of the survey was to specifically investigate how COVID-19 affected English Language Learners. The survey was sent to 2500+ school districts. 753 school districts responded, representing a robust range of urban, rural, large, and small school districts across the United States. Questions in the survey sought the level of districts’ provision of interpreters for ELL families, ELL-specific distance resources, materials in Spanish, as well as support to teachers to meet one-on-one with their ELLs in order to provide targeted language support. Results indicated that while large urban districts with equally high percentages of ELL students provided strong support (75%-95%) to ELLs, support-levels tapered off significantly in rural districts with lower percentages of ELLs (54%-77%). Districts also varied greatly in their approaches to remote instruction: Few districts (34%) used physical materials (paper packets) as part of their distance learning strategy, whereas a higher number (46%) of districts conducted synchronous virtual classes. Can you share with our viewers the type of things (instructional, organizationally) Hillsborough School district and Pinellas School District have done to help ELLs and their families? iii. Can you give us some statistics regarding the percentages of ELL families who decided to opt for online learning back in August? iv. Has this changed? Are more ELL families opting to send their children to schools for f2f instruction in 2021. If yes, why? If no, why? What are your thoughts. v. What would you say are the main take-aways that ESOL instructors in your districts have learned? Can you share some success stories? vi. Moving forward, and in consideration of "lessons learned", how have our ESOL educators grown? What would you say are the professional development needs of our ESOL instructors, ESOL resource teachers and ESOL paraprofessionals now? vii. Florida Education Commissioner Cochoran sent a letter to all districts about not requiring ELLs to come to school to do the access test, how are you working around this so that ultimately ELLs still get the appropriate services they need?
Bay Area TESOL (BART) serves TESOL educators and professionals in several counties around the Tampa Bay: Hillsboorough Pinellsa Pasco Manatee Sarasota Polk
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SSTESOL'S CHAPTERS AT WORK Broward TESOL PD Roundtable Persevering through the Pandemic The Broward TESOL chapter of SSTESOL held a virtual roundatble on March 13. Presentations provided participants with strategies to cope with multimodal instruction, trauma-informed teaching as well as mindfulness to improving online education. The presenters graciously agreed to share their materials with event attendees. The presenters gave engaging talks on: From Emergency Remote Teaching to Planned Online Instruction Jessica Downey, Miami University Trauma-Informed Teaching and Mindfulness Nicol Michelle Epple, St. Francis University Multimodal Instructional Tool for Diverse Learners Anne Fleming, MiraCosta College/Indiana University of Pennsylvania Broward TESOL thanks everyone for attending their virtual roundtable. You can support future professional development opportunities like this one by becoming a Broward TESOL member. Visit our webpage at www.browardtesol.org to learn more.
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The mission of Broward TESOL is to strengthen and improve instruction of English to speakers of other languages and promote effective intercultural communication and understanding. In support of its mission, Broward TESOL provides professional development, resources, and networking opportunities for educators, as well as leadership and advocacy on policy related issues. Broward County TESOL serves the Fort Lauderdale area.
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ADVOCACY IN ACTION SSTESOL supported an initiative to lobby the Florida Education Department to waive the requirement for English Language Learners to the ACCESS for ELLs test. The effort was successful! The letter the SALA Advisory Committee sent to the Florida Commissioner of Education, Richard Corcoran and his letter to all school districts are reproduced here.
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I (Arlene) consider the Annual TESOL Policy and Advocacy Summit as a conduit for motivating me as a leader in SSTESOL’s advocacy work in order to focus on issues of importance to English language learners, their families and our profession. Each time I attend, I learn valuable, new information that helps strengthen my advocacy efforts as SSTESOL President and Advocacy Liaison. In addition, the 2020 Summit was an opportunity to develop advocacy and leadership skills of SSTESOL members, especially Andrea and Carla, who were my mentees in the field of advocacy. We became a team that conceived the idea of SSTESOL’s Leadership and Mentorship Program. As new advocates, in order to prepare them for the Summit, I provided an orientation session and guidance of what to expect. As new advocates, I reminded them of their responsibilities to SSTESOL as affiliate’s representatives. We became an advocacy team in this Summit where we worked to influence other TESOL educators to join in advocacy work that are of importance to equity, diversity, multilingualism issues that impact PK12 education, adult education, and teacher preparation programs. Every day we held zoom meetings to write our reflections of the day’s sessions. We also shared our ongoing reflections on SSTESOL’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. The sessions ran until eight in the evening. On the final day of the summit, we summed up our work by asking, “What is next, and how do we proceed to disseminate our knowledge to our membership?” Our team’s recommendations and proposals will be submitted to the Board for a vote at its July meeting. Andrea, Carla and I are also thankful for the SSTESOL Board’s support which is critical in advancing our advocacy efforts for ELs, their families and our profession. Andrea wrote, “The 2020 TESOL Virtual Advocacy & Policy Summit guided me to critically reflect and understand that we are in a situation where changes and commitment are necessary to transform our reality. Attending this Summit for the first time made me more aware of what I am doing well in terms of advocacy in my classroom (e.g., telling students about their rights, supporting their learning through multilingual learning materials and resources; partnering with non-profit organizations and academic institutions in service-learning/digital service-learning projects, and publishing/presenting on ways to empower students and creating an equitable learning environment). This summit also provided action items in terms of serving as a resource for legislators about issues relevant to my adult learners and teachers and learning more about current legislative priorities. I come from a country that used to be a communist regime so interacting with legislators was never encouraged. I have many SSTESOL members who have experience in advocacy, and I will be collaborating with them on various issues. Advocacy becomes relevant when it is backed up by multiple voices from various stakeholders (e.g., administrators, students, parents, and teachers). I believe that it is my responsibility to develop expertise in advocacy in my field (adult education) and work context (nonprofit). I can develop this expertise through the TESOL Virtual Advocacy & Policy Summit and as a board member at SSTESOL.Finally, even though teachers have not received advocacy training they are experts in their field and can serve as the best advocates for their students. This Summit has helped to develop this critical awareness in me. I hope to be able to empower other stakeholders to engage in advocacy by engaging in more advocacy initiatives and informing others on how they can engage in advocacy. ” Carla used a recommended template in writing her reflections of the final day of the summit. She wrote, "I will encourage members to visit the TESOL Advocacy Action Center to contact their legislators and advocate on behalf of English learners, families and teachers. We need more voices to be heard in order to influence public policy and reform.I propose the following plan to engage in personal, professional, and political advocacy. In addition, I have included both the possible obstacles to meeting my advocacy goals: Actions:Present to local chapter members the highlights of TESOL's legislative priorities (see handout with 6 policy recommendations) Add link directing members to TESOL Advocacy Action Center to contact their legislators.Potential Obstacles:None. I will send it through swfltesol email. Actions:Include an advocacy component in our local chapter conference, either a training session or a booth for attendees to complete postcards / use Voters Voice app Political climate with anti- immigration and DACA stance may encourage more teachers to advocate for their students and families. Actions: I am going to create a presentation for my own work context for my colleagues in ESOL and Migrant Education, along with my students in the College of Education, using materials from both Roger Rosenthal's and Supreet Anand's slides. Rosenthal connected legal rights of ELs to district programs and policy; Anand has opportunity gap slides from OELA that further bolster awareness of the inequities that our ELs face due to language being viewed as a deficit. I also plan to reach out to more professors in the COE this fall and invite them to participate in advocacy training activities, such as an SSTESOL regional advocacy summit which we discussed in our group. As we learned from the presenters, advocacy starts in the classroom and then expands to advocating for our professional beliefs and values to inform policy. We need to be represented on government committees and panels.PotentialObstacles: Lack of local expertise in this area; lack of proposals submitted for this strand. Resources Needed: Recruit a faculty member and/or Arlene and Andrea to facilitate. Actions:Add an advocacy chair to our SWFL TESOL Board This person needs to be connected to SSTESOL and participate in the advocacy summit; not fear repercussions from school district employer.Potential Obstacles: Recruiting a member with the advocacy spirit and time to commit. Resources Needed: More TESOL professionals in this area, or ability to cultivate more professionals. Encourage members to participate in SSTESOL Virtual Conference. Actions:Help Arlene add a Day of Advocacy pre-conference session to conference 2021 perhaps! Consider bringing David Cutler down from TESOL to present. Invite a state representative who has supported bills that we support (e.g. native language assessment; DACA; REACH act)Potential Obstacles:Getting representation from members working for districts (will they release/reimburse for advocacy activities? Resources Needed: Time and speaker stipend/travel expenses. Overall, we (Andrea, Carla and I), and all of the participants concluded that this year’s first-ever Virtual Advocacy and Policy Summit was a very positive and motivating experience, with lots of advocacy work left to be done."
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ADVOCACY IN ACTION SSTESOL, under the guidance of Dr. Arlene Costello, Dr. Andrea Lypka and Carla Huck, has been helping members sharpen their knowledge of education issues and policies in order to become strong advocates for English Language Learners. From June 22-25, 2020, SSTESOL representatives engaged in TESOL International's Virtual Advocacy and Policy Summit and subsequently organized for SSTESOl members a Policy and Advocacy Training on December 12, 2020 and on January 9, 2021. Some of Dr. Arlene Costello, Dr. Andrea Lypka and Carla Huck's thoughts are captured here.
I am incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to attend the 2020 SSTESOL virtual conference recently;the experience was very valuable and a great time. I had never been to a formal conference before, much less a virtual one, and didn’t know what to expect. I was initially nervous about the structure of the conference and concerned about the online aspect of it, however I soon was relieved of my fears once I took part and joined in on the various presentations. The quality was very good and all of the presenters were knowledgable and prepared. Out of the 130 presentations offered, I chose 10 of them to go to, and they were on multiple different topics and strands. While I learned a lot from each of them, a couple presentations especially drew my attention and taught me pertinent skills that I’ll need as a future educator. My favorite of the entire conference was a presentation entitled “6 Steps To Making Complex Text Accessible to ELs”, presented by Allyson Caudill, John Cox, and Ashley Blackley of Ready, Set, Coteach. The presentation and presenters were so engaging and the topic applied directly to what I was learning in class and also to what I’d need to be able to do with ELL students in my own future classroom. As I am looking into staying in Florida to teach, this was a very useful subject for me to look into because of the large number of ELL students in Florida and the likely chance I will have ELLs as students in the classroom. I gained some insight into how ELLs learn best and what I could do to help them achieve that. One emphasized point of the presentation was that ELL students shouldn’t be shielded away from more complex features of language by having texts simplified for them, but rather texts should and can be amplified through a number of methods. This is said to be very beneficial for ELLs and makes them stronger readers with a larger vocabulary. The six steps that were explained in the presentation were easy to follow and explained very well, it was very easy to apply them directly to classroom practices. The presenters and attendees were all very excited to be at the conference and learning and sharing with each other. A few presenters split the attendees into Zoom breakout rooms and allowed them to discuss what they thought of something in the presentation or their own experiences with teaching or being ELLs. This was a really unique opportunity that I enjoyed because I met other educators who had experience and who shared perspectives that were new to me, and by doing so, broadened my horizons and helped me form connections to people who I otherwise wouldn’t have met. As a pre-service teacher, this conference covered a huge number of topics and was a great way to become more well-rounded and versed in my knowledge of ESOL education. I think that this is an incredible learning opportunity for any educator and would highly recommend it to other students like me. Presentations I attended: 1)Resources for Making Texts Accessible for Second Language Learners 2)Basic Strategies in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening for English Language Learners 3)6 Steps to Making Complex Text Accessible to ELs 4)The Importance of ESOL Students' Mental Health Awareness 5)Broward County TESOL Chapter Supporting the Social Emotional Needs of ELLs Through E-Learning 6)Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher: Beginning with Your Cultural Autobiography 7)Establishing Rapport with Language Learners in the Online Classroom 8)Cultural Projects in EFL classrooms 9)Modifying instruction so ELLs can access grade-level text in elementary classrooms 10)Developing ESL Students' Writing Skills in Writing Workshops
PERSPECTIVES My First Professional Conference Lorissa Gotsch University of Tampa, Pre-Service Elementary Education Major
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PERSPECTIVES My Take-Aways As a Pre-Service Pre-Education Major Attending My First Conference Brooke Bergrin University of Tampa, Pre-Service Elementary Education Major
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COVID-19 did not stop this year’s Sunshine State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (SSTESOL) Conference from taking place, though it did change its format. Held November 14th online, dozens of participants “virtually attended” the 2020 event which introduced educators – and students preparing to become the next generation’s – to a new learning experience. This year’s presenters spoke passionately about a medley of philosophical teaching approaches. While different from the next, the messages were alike in that each speaker had experiences deeply vested in the field of education. Attendees were able to listen and learn from these teachers that have had great influence and impact on the development of programs that have resulted in countless numbers of foreign language speaking students to successfully understand and communicate in the English language. Professional conferences like that of the SSTESOL are particularly advantageous to students pursuing careers in education. With a number of different approaches to working with an English Language Learner (ELL) having been presented, special interest was paid to how to effectively teach ELL’s remotely during this day and age of a worldwide pandemic challenge. With so much educational uncertainty in virtual learning, it is more important than ever to be prepared to move from physical classrooms to online classes. Events like the SSTESOL are also vital resources for teachers to learn from one another by sharing their practices and successes, and for students pursuing careers in education to best prepare themselves for a changing educational world. “The Importance of ESOL Students’ Mental Health Awareness” presented by Yuliya Williamson, demonstrated how challenges include emotional impact.Her presentation was one that focused on the necessity of recognizing that the state of a student’s mental health – especially that of an ELL – and how that can impact their learning. Williamson gave tips to help spot a student who might be having difficulties, drawing special attention to expressions of intense worries, feeling sad or withdrawn, severe mood swings, difficulty with relationships, and use of drugs and/or alcohol. She further explained the importance of intervening early, involving parents, meeting privately to discuss the issue, validating the student’s feelings, and encouraging positive behaviors. As a future educator, this session was especially moving to me because I believe that an educator’s top priority should always be to remain conscious of how students are feeling, and how to be best prepared to help provide them with the resources they need to ease any struggles they may have. Often an ELL student feels it is harder for them to succeed because of the initial language “barriers” they face, which is why we, as educators, must consider more than their strictly academic needs. With gratitude to organizations like that of the SSTESOL, whether held in conference centers or virtually, many beneficial methods of English language teaching and learning will be more easily shared, and more educators will have the ability to be in “attendance” to learn from them. Presentations that I attended: 1. Teaching and Learning in the Time of COVID: Addressing Instructional Needs of ELLs During Distance Learning 2. Applying language principles in the K-12 mainstream classroom 3. Alternative Placement Testing During COVID-19: Piloting the BESPI 4. The Importance of ESOL Students' Mental Health Awareness 5. Changing teacher beliefs via reflective tasks in pre-service teacher education 6. Reading strategies: notable differences for ELLs 7. Help Them Catch Up; Advocating for Dual Language Instructional Models 8. Linguistics for K-12 Application 9. Modifying instruction so ELLs can access grade-level text in elementary classrooms 10. Online Pedagogy - It's not just tech tools!"
PERSPECTIVES Conference Reflection Isabella Haight University of Tampa, Pre-Service Elementary Education Major
As a freshman at the University of Tampa, this was my first time attending the SSTESOL Conference. I did not know what to expect, and originally thought it would be just lecture after lecture for eight hours. However, the 2020 SSTESOL Conference far exceeded my expectations! I really enjoyed being able to choose which presentation I wanted to attend and the convenience of watching the conference from home. All ten of the presentations I attended were very engaging and insightful; so much so, that I wished I could have attended all the presentations. I was astounded by the wealth of information from all the lecturers at the conference, both national and international. I only thought there would be guest speakers from the United States, but I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the different views from the international speakers. My favorite lecture by far was “Six Steps to Making Complex Text Accessible to ELLs” by Allyson Caudill, John Cox, and Ashley Blackley. Their enthusiasm, eagerness, and passion were very contagious, creating an upbeat atmosphere! From this presentation, I learned that reading passages should not be simplified for ELLs but instead should be amplified. I always assumed that ELLs were given material based on their reading abilities and then gradually progressed to their appropriate grade levels. Caudill, Cox, and Blackley provided multiple strategies which allow ELLs to read at their appropriate grade level. This can be achieved through visuals of reading passages, explanation of unfamiliar words, or dissection of phrases like idioms. This was extremely helpful as my class was in the middle of modifying two reading passages for an LYB 2 ELL for Dr. Erben’s ESOL class. My second favorite lecture was “Teaching English in China: Program Insights and Job Research Sources" by Rui Wung, a UNF ESOL graduate student. After this lecture, I am extremely interested in applying for one of the programs in the future, especially since I was adopted from China. Before Wung’s presentation, I did not realize the extraordinary experience and opportunities teachers receive from teaching English to Chinese students. Even though these presentations were my favorites, I learned so much from all ten presentation that I attended! As a pre-service teacher, my main take-way is the importance of gaining information now so that I am better equipped when I eventually become a teacher. As a college student, it is easy to not appreciate or to avoid attending additional seminars, lectures, or other learning opportunities. However, through these opportunities, pre-service teachers can further their education and become better prepared in their classrooms. I highly recommend that all pre-service teachers take advantage of the opportunity to attend these annual conferences. The SSTESOL Conference is extremely beneficial for professional teachers as they can learn and incorporate new strategies in their classrooms. The 2020 SSTESOL Virtual Conference was truly an amazing experience that I highly recommend for all pre-service and professional teachers! I am anticipating the 2021 SSTESOL Conference which will be in my hometown—Tampa!!!
In September of 1983 I was teaching a second-level English as a Second Language class at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles. One of my students that semester was a sixteen-year-old boy named Jose who had arrived in the USA a year earlier and had just graduated ninth grade from one of our feeder schools, Foshay Junior High School that June. It was a large class that semester, but I remember that Jose was a serious, dedicated student who never missed his homework assignments. I was also able to see a marked improvement in his oral and written English throughout the semester. In January, 1984, the semester ended and Jose passed to the next-higher level ESL class. He was no longer a student of mine, but would often stop by my classroom to say “hi" and talk about the progress he was making. In January, 1985, during the final week of the semester, Jose stopped by my classroom as he frequently did. He told me, however, that he had come to say goodbye. In his hand I saw his “check-out” card where teachers give their final grades to a student who is leaving. I asked Jose whether his family was moving; he sadly answered that he was leaving school because his father needed his help with his job. Jose said that he was planning to go to night school to get his high-school diploma. He added that his check-out card was already completed and that he was on his way to the office to turn it in when he happened to pass my classroom and decided to come in and say goodbye to me. At that time, Jose was completing his first semester of eleventh grade. I thought it was a shame that he leave high school needing only three more semesters to graduate. I knew that as a night-school student he could only take half the classes a full-time student could, and that it would take at least twice as long to graduate. Add to that, Jose would be working full-time and would be tired after a full-day’s work. I made a bold move and asked Jose whether I could call his father and encourage him to allow his son to finish high school. Jose agreed and gave me his address and telephone number. We then walked together to the school office where I told Mrs. Thompson, the ESL student coordinator, that Jose was reconsidering dropping out and to disregard his “check-out” card. A happy Mrs. Thompson told Jose to keep the card and that she would proceed to schedule his classes for the spring, 1985 semester. On my way home from school that day, I decided that rather than call Jose’s father, I would write him a letter. A phone call might put him on the spot and cause friction between us. Upon arriving home, I sat down and wrote a letter in Spanish telling Jose’s father that in no way was I against a son helping his father, but suggested that Jose help him on weekends. I listed the benefits of completing high school and hoped that his father would respond positively. When I completed the letter, I ran to mail it at the corner collection box before the final 5:00 PM pickup. The following day at school, a disappointed Jose asked me why I hadn’t called his father as promised. I explained that I had decided to write his father a letter myself, because I thought it would be more effective, and that when he arrived home from school, my letter would be there waiting. The next day, a happy Jose told me that his father had received my letter and agreed to let him stay in school. We then went to the school office and told Mrs. Thompson that Jose would definitely be remaining in school. His “check-out” card was destroyed. In June, 1986, Jose walked down the aisle in his cap and gown and received his diploma from Manual Arts High School together with his classmates. As a graduation present, I paid for his cap and gown rental. Jose’s parents invited me to their apartment after the ceremony for his graduation party. Throughout the years, Jose and I have remained in touch. He found himself a good job with the Department of Water and Power, married a wonderful young lady named Carmen, and had a son named Aron. My wife, Zelde, and I have visited them from time to time as have they us. In June, 2013, Aron graduated from Rosemead High School. As a graduation gift, I paid for his cap and gown rental as I had done for his father twenty-seven years earlier. At Aron’s graduation party, I told the guests how honored I was to celebrate the high school graduation of two generations of the same family. Fast forward to today, 2021. I received a telephone call from Jose last week wishing me and my wife a happy holiday season. I tell people over and over again how I believe that being a teacher is one of the most rewarding professions in the world. Paul Malevitz is a teacher of English as a Second Language at Miami Beach Adult School and Miami Dade College.
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PERSPECTIVES In the Life of a Teacher Paul Malevitz Miami Beach Adult School & Miami Dade College
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Wasim is a graduate student at the University of Florida, taking classes and thinking of extending one of his final assignments as a research study. He has had some progress and needs some feedback to get more ideas at this stage of his writing. He found a conference to take place in Chicago, Illinois and wants to submit a proposal to see whether he can get accepted and present his work in progress. He is cautious and overthinks what would happen if his proposal got accepted. His concern is rooted in the financial portion of this idea. Travelling and staying in Chicago for three days is likely to be over his budget. Eventually he has submitted his proposal with the encouragement of his advisor. Now, he is sitting in a campus library, thinking of some ways to make his conference presentation happen. He heard that some of his peers minimized their expenses by carpooling and finding a conference roommate. Although Wasim found these strategies efficient, they still require him to allocate some of his budget, especially considering the registration fee, for the conference. Now, he is jotting down possible ways to overcome this financial barrier. What could he possibly do so that he would not be stuck in a financial mess on the way and present his paper? This piece is intended as a letter to the editor and addresses a wide range of audience: from teachers to graduate students like Wasim who seek for a travel grant. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to outline a system that will help the reader think of ways to get their conference travel funded. In the wake of the COVID-19 vaccination roll-outs, I am rather optimistic in anticipating that people will have more mobility soon and that many conferences will be held face-to-face again. In any case, I think this piece might be inspirational to teachers who yearn to participate in non-virtual conferences for their professional development, graduate students who look forward to intellectually stimulating conversations and disseminating their research, and professionals looking for networking opportunities. Conferences make me feel energized and productive; being in a different environment and teaching me how to work on my professional identity by stepping in new communities and meeting new people. Despite the preponderance of these advantages, travel expenses, registration fees and income levels can be influential factors on people’s decision to attend these events (Witt, Dartus & Sykes, 1992). At this point, travel grants might come in mighty handy. They help people defray the costs of their travel and conference registration. Interestingly, travel funding might even serve as the primary motivator in deciding on conference attendance (Oppermann, 1995). In the rest of this article, I will provide basic information about the process of travel grant applications and some venues to check, share practical tips about writing an efficient application, and lastly, talk about my strategies to efficiently use the secured travel grants. First, I identify multiple travel grants to apply for, and list their deadlines. I also consider whether I meet the criteria for them. Starting with the opportunities that I already know, I look at departmental funding and other possible grants at the university (e.g., office of research and graduate school). Depending on the regulations, each department has different requirements such as being a doctoral candidate or being the first presenter and might support only a particular types of presentations such as paper presentation rather than a poster. I often find it helpful to look at these requirements ahead of time and plan accordingly. As my department offers limited funding, I often look for external opportunities, as well. The second step is to check the opportunities outside the department. What are some possible venues to seek external funding? Some associations, societies and charities related to my research field offer travel grants. Some of them are Sunshine State TESOL of Florida, Arizona TESOL, Georgia TESOL, Ohio TESOL, Mid-America TESOL, Tennessee TESOL, Southern Conference on Language Teaching, Oregon TESOL, Washington, DC Area TESOL, New York State TESOL, California TESOL. Also, there are international opportunities provided by TESOL International Association, The Korea TESOL, The Bulgarian English Teachers’ Association, International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language in Poland, and International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language in Hungary. The application process for external travel grants is often similar to the department option although the content of some documents might differ. The process for applying for an external grant looks like the proposal submission that Wasim has already done to present at a conference, only with additional steps at the end. As seen in the Figure 1 below, Wasim starts the process by submitting an application package. Then, it is reviewed by the assigned committee, which is followed by the notification of their decision. Hoping that Wasim is offered the travel grant, he informs the committee about his decision as to accept or reject the offer. While departmental funding always comes in form of a reimbursement, external travel grants might be given as a check. The last step for Wasim is to submit his receipts, which is not required if the funding comes in the form of an award paid upfront and does not require him to present any receipts. Additionally, Wasim might be required to submit a write-up about his conference experience. Figure 1: Process for Applying for a Travel Grant Third, I see writing as the key determiner of a successful application for an external travel grant. As relatively different from the departmental funding option, these are competitive grants because applicants are from diverse institutions. The key is to look in multiple venues. Besides careful planning, writing skills are important to make an application stand out. An essay is often a required component of the application package. So, writing more than an average one might make an application significantly effective. To write this essay, I follow some strategies. Before I start writing, I check out the review criteria and then think of some ways to make my writing effective. More importantly, I put more thought on my objectives and look for ways to verbalize them clearly. To make my application more persuasive and attractive to the review board, I seek for strategies to maximize the benefit of the travel experience. One of them is to plan to attend another conference or give an invited talk at a nearby university. Also, I find researchers at a university close to the conference venue and email them to set up a meeting to discuss my research. Mentioning these activities that I added on my primary conference plan makes my application strong and impressive. Figure 2: Drafting in Multiple Steps So far, I have discussed the brainstorming process rather than focusing on the writing per se. For my essay, I follow a strategy of making multiple drafts and think that going through it with patience might make a big difference. I make sure that I understand the provided prompt. For example, Sunshine State TESOL of Florida’s prompt for the application cycle in 2020 was “In no more than 250 words, explain how attending the SSTESOL conference will enhance your professional development and allow you to better serve the ESOL population in your own context.” As seen in Figure 2 above, I start by scribbling and jotting down earlier thoughts with a focus on the content. Also, talking about the first thoughts and voice-recording oneself helps. In the second draft, I usually check to see whether I provided enough examples and demonstrated my enthusiasm. These grants might be provided based on merit, need, and demonstrated enthusiasm (MacDonald, 2016). Therefore, making the essay convincing enough by showing the financial need and genuine interest in the conference with evidence and examples would make an application strong (Kreibich, 2014). I also focus on the significance of my presentation topic and discuss why its potential outcomes matter. I think it is equally important to show that I know the theme and larger goals of the conference as well as the plenary speakers and discuss the alignment between the focus of the conference and my presentation. While revising the essay, a factor that I keep in mind is the audience. Who are in the grant committee? It might be composed of faculty members, practitioners, school administrators or graduate students. Adopting the philosophy “Less is more”, I try to make my essay brief, clearly written and to the point. As the last step, I proofread my essay. I often find it helpful to read it a few days after completing the revision. Basically, I read it out loud word by word and focus on the flow of ideas and language use. An alternative option might be to ask a mentor or a colleague to review it, which is not always plausible in the busy world of academia. As the last detail to check is the title. I often try to choose an intriguing and thought-provoking title. Alternatively, it can simply describe the main idea. In either case, clarity is the key. Understandably, Wasim might want to structure this essay in a such a way that he can use it for different travel grant applications. Although it is possible to use the essay multiple times, it is highly critical to avoid following a one-size-fits-all strategy. Using the larger body of the essay and crafting some parts based on the criteria of the travel grant in question might be a good solution and save Wasim some time and energy. I think he should give himself as much as two weeks. Through multiple drafts, he can make his application stand out. The fourth point is that not limiting oneself to the idea of receiving travel grants might help. In addition to receiving departmental and external travel grants, it might be possible to volunteer at conferences, serving at the registration desk or as a session chair. In return, some conferences offer registration fee waivers. For these opportunities, I found out that checking the conference website or social media frequently is an efficient strategy. Volunteer opportunities are not always advertised on their websites. So, I email the organizing committee when I cannot find the relevant information myself. Especially in international travels, it helps to consider combining multiple grants. Overall, it is usually a grueling process to put together a compelling application while it might be very rewarding to do some homework and receive grant dollars. A plethora of funding opportunities exist and need to be discovered. As deadlines are approaching quickly, Wasim can start by listing the deadlines and checking the requirements for the available opportunities. It is always possible to be creative and do internet searches for more travel grant opportunities. References Kreibich, C. (2014, October 27). The travel grant HOWTO. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@ckreibich/a-conference-travel -grants-howto-5298e90a19c5 MacDonald, A. (2016, June 13). How to write a student travel award application [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://wildlifesnpits.wordpress.com/2016/06/13/how -to-write-a-student-travel-award-application/ Oppermann, M. (1995). Professional conference attendees’ and non-attendees’ participation decision factors. In K.-S. Chon (Ed.),Proceedings of the 1995 STTE Annual Conference(pp. 25-37). St. Clair Shores, MI: Society of Travel and Tourism Educators. Witt, S. F., Sykes, A. M., & Dartus, M. (1995). Forecasting international conference attendance.Tourism Management,16(8), 559-570.
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PERSPECTIVES Getting From Point A To Point B: Practical Tips For Seeking Conference Travel Grants Huseyin Uysal Doctoral Candidate, University of Florida
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Our First-Ever Virtual Annual Conference held on 13th & 14th November, 2020 was a HUGE SUCCESS!
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16 Strands 10 Presentations in each Strand 160 Presentations 500+ Attendees THANK YOU!
Alphabet Publishing Walton Burns wlburns@alphabetpublishingbooks.com American College of Education Paulna Petit-Frere paulna.petit-frere@ace.edu Cambridge University Press Jim Goldstone jgoldstone@cambridge.org Chopping Budget Dion Lucas choppingbudget@gmail.com DRC/LAS Links Arlene Baez abaez@datarecognitioncorp.com English Learner Portal Kelly Reid info@englishlearnerportal.com ESL Library Tammy Wik tammy.wik@gmail.com Grand Canyon University Carolina Burdier Carolina.Burdier@gcu.edu Kendall Hunt Publishing Company Lynn Steines lsteines@kendallhunt.com Language Lizard LLC Diane Costa info@LanguageLizard.com Outspoken Literacy & LexAmi Sara Holbrook sara@saraholbrook.com Pearson ELT Malgorzata Jaros-White malgorzata.jaros-white@pearson.com Rosetta Stone & Lexia Learning Systems José Viana jviana@rosettastone.com Studica Inc. & Language Tree Online Kristie Laettner kristiel@studica.com Townsend Press Dolly DePagter ddepagter@yahoo.com U.S. DoS English Language Programs Andrew Shannon outreach@elprograms.org Vista Higher Learning Isabel Tran itran@vistahigherlearning.com IAP - Information Age Publishing, Inc. Cindy Reed Cindy@infoagepub.com Vocabulary Systems, Inc. Heidi Brumbaugh heidi@vocabsystems.com TESOL International Association Marsha Chan marsha@sunburstmedia.com
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LINKS TO PRACTICE Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher: Beginning with your Cultural Autobiography Abigail Fuller Ave Maria University 1) Presentation Overview Whether a teacher in training or an experienced educator, the presentation is for those who have never created a cultural autobiography. Attendees gain some research background and then begin to answer and discuss questions that assist them in creating a digital cultural autobiography. 2) Who is the primary beneficiary of the practical application of the presentation and what are the links to practice? What are the ‘take aways’ for teachers, and practical suggestions for instructors? Any school personnel – teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, etc. – would be the primary beneficiary of the creating a cultural autobiography. Becoming a culturally responsive teacher requires you to first take a look inward to identify how your own culture and beliefs influence how you view others and inform your decision-making. This cultural lens of a teacher, administrator, paraprofessional, etc. directly impacts how he/she interacts with and makes decisions related to students. Likewise, from students’ cultures emerge different ways of constructing knowledge, making sense of experiences, and learning (Gay, 2000). Wong (2008) points to the changing demographics in the United States and the need for teachers who can understand and relate to their students. Unless teachers are aware of students’ cultures and languages and use their backgrounds as springboards for learning, their achievement will be stifled (Wong, 2008). Given the growing diversity of the student population served in U.S. schools, teachers must acquire the best practices to successfully educate all students. Utilizing the background knowledge and experiences students take from their respective cultures and languages, teachers will not only foster meaningful learning opportunities for students but will promote equity and equality (Gay, 2002; Howard, 2001). Cho and DeCastro-Ambrosetti (2005) state, “In the United States, the number of school-aged students from diverse backgrounds is increasing, yet, according to research, the majority of teachers and those in teacher education programs continue to be predominantly Caucasian, middle class and English monolingual speakers” (p. 24). As a result, there is a cultural mismatch between students and teachers.The first step to becoming a culturally responsive teacher and overcoming the barriers of cultural mismatch and the achievement gap is to first become aware of your own cultural lens through reflection and discussion. Cho, G., & DeCastro-Ambrosetti, D. (2005). Is ignorance bliss? Pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward multicultural education.The High School Journal, 24-28. Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching.Journal of Teacher Education,53(2), 106-116. Wong, P. (2008).Transactions, transformation, and transcendence: multicultural service-learning experience of preservice teachers. Multicultural Education, 16(2), 31-36. Handout: click here.
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THANKS TO OUR 2020 SSTESOL CONFERENCE SPONSORS
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LINKS TO PRACTICE Developing ESL Students’ Essay Writing Skills in Writing Workshops Lucy Belomoina and Robin Halsey Illinois State University 1) Presentation Overview Oftentimes, English learners struggle to write essays, undoubtedly one of the most complex forms of writing. As teachers frequently do not have enough time in the classroom to address each student’s particular needs, writing workshops have proven to be an excellent facilitating tool for the development of ESL students’ essay writing skills. Writing workshops not only scaffold students’ writing development, but also help them to become independent writers. Our presentation offers key insights in how to effectively conduct engaging and constructive writing workshops that enhance students’ writing competence. 2) Who is the primary beneficiary of the practical application of the presentation and what are the links to practice? What are the ‘take aways’ for teachers, and practical suggestions for instructors? Teachers and English learners in K-12 environments would benefit from the practical application of this presentation. 1.An important first step in planning out writing workshops is to develop a series of workshops that are in alignment with the class curriculum. Depending on the age of students, the length of writing workshops can vary from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours. It is helpful to share the workshop sequence with students (and their parents, if applicable) before the series starts. It is effective to set up a routine and run workshops once a week or every other week (or more often, depending on time availability). 2.English learners need explicit instruction, modeling, careful guidance, anchor charts, independent work, and share time. Explicit instruction starts with a mini-lesson, during which the teacher goes over the structure of the type of essay (or a part of the essay) the students are learning to write. For example, if it is an introduction, it is useful to explain what ahookis, how much background information is needed, and how to write a thesis statement. This explicit instruction should be followed by an example of an introduction, and students should find in the model each element that was discussed earlier. 3.As soon as students are ready to write on their own, share an anchor chart of an introduction and of the sample introduction discussed. Allow students to write independently for 15 to 20 minutes, but let your students know that you are ready to help them with expressing their ideas in case they feel stuck. 4.Another important piece of the writing workshop is share time. Intentionally pair up students or put students into small groups so that they share their writing and exchange constructive feedback. Provide and model a peer-review structure, as English learners often engage in the peer-review process for the first time in a U.S. classroom.
LINKS TO PRACTICE Dual Language Effectiveness to Narrow Achievement Gaps: A Quantitative Correlational Study Belinda Reyes The School District of Osceola County 1) Presentation Overview The presentation includes recent research findings on the relationship between standardized assessments measuring language acquisition and academic performance. Research-based, practical steps for school districts to grow and strengthen Dual Language Programs are the core of the presentation, while strategies to transfer Dual Language Emergent Bilingual language acquisition and proficiency best practices to mainstream instruction supports the learning of Emergent Bilinguals in all settings. 2) Who is the primary beneficiary of the practical application of the presentation and what are the links to practice? What are the ‘take aways’ for teachers, and practical suggestions for instructors? School and District Leaders The take-aways include: ·Roadmap for district-wide Dual Language implementation ·Logistical, instructional support system, and summer enrichment guidance ·Instructional support system outlining collaboration between schools, district, and university partner ·Acceleration components to link transferable best practices from dual language to mainstream instruction
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LINKS TO PRACTICE Establishing Rapport with Language Learners in the Online Classroom Joyce Tardáguila Harth and Rachel McGee Southeastern University 1) Presentation Overview During this session, the presenters discussed the importance of building a strong rapport with the English Language Learners in our classrooms, and strategies educators can implement to facilitate the process of building rapport when teaching in the online environment. 2) Who is the primary beneficiary of the practical application of the presentation and what are the links to practice? What are the ‘take aways’ for teachers, and practical suggestions for instructors? Educators of English learners of all grade levels (K-Adult). Establishing a strong connection or rapport between students and teachers is crucial to the academic success of all students, especially English learners. Having that strong connection with the English learners in our classrooms is even more important now that many of us are teaching in the online environment.The following is a brief list of strategies that educators can utilize to establish rapport in the online environment: • Learn to pronounce the names of your students.If you don’t know how to pronounce a name, ask the student to help you and practice. • Get to know your students-Welcome their languages and cultures in the classroom by incorporating their experiences in your lessons; for example, ask how they would say a term you are teaching in their home language. • Incorporate their interests in the lessons when possible. • Interact individually with each student. • Send an email message to each student letting them know that you are glad to have them in class. • Praise something they have done well in class. • Involve the students in the planning of the learning environment; for example, I sometimes play soothing background music while teaching and I have the students help me select the music I play. I present two or three choices and they select what they would like to hear. This allows the students to feel like active stakeholders in the learning process and helps lower the affective filter.
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LINKS TO PRACTICE Phenomenal Tips for Classroom Teachers with Entering EL Students Martha Voorhees Collier County Public Schools 1) Presentation Overview My presentation is designed for classroom teachers who need strategies and more confidence in their language teaching ability. The focus of the presentation will be for classroom teachers who have “Entering” Language Acquisition students.I believe that the “Ideal Conversation” provides the opportunity to teach Entering EL students brief verbal and written responses where they can apply their knowledge towards meeting grade level standards. 2) Who is the primary beneficiary of the practical application of the presentation and what are the links to practice? What are the ‘take aways’ for teachers, and practical suggestions for instructors? This presentation will benefit K-12 content area teachers with Entering EL students who need to demonstrate their understanding of grade level standards At the end of the PowerPoint, I provide links to templates that teachers can copy and use for every day of the week as the students practice and learn the Ideal Conversation. I provide a document with what both the teacher and student needs to do. I have included a link with an explanation for what the student needs to do in Haitian Creole and Spanish. Handout: click here.
SSTESOL Journal Volume 14 Issue 1, Spring, 2021 p.78 p.2
SSTESOL Journal Volume 14 Issue 1, Spring, 2021 p.79 p.2
LINKS TO PRACTICE “I know they understand”: Teacher Knowledge and Rural Secondary English Learners Nidza Marichal University of Florida 1) Presentation Overview This presentation addresses rural teachers’ work with secondary ELs by unraveling what rural secondary teachers know and do to support ELs, and the role of place in instructional practice. I argue that instructional practices are predicated upon a bidirectional relationship between secondary teachers and ELs, and place plays a significant role.The unique interconnectedness of these dimensions: personal, place-based, relational, and professional knowledges constantly guided teachers’ professional work and informed the different approaches teachers appropriate to enact their instruction. A four-dimensional model of TK is presented.Findings from this study add to the limited literature on secondary teachers of ELs and rurality and illuminate the complexities of TK in EL secondary rural settings. 2) Who is the primary beneficiary of the practical application of the presentation and what are the links to practice? What are the ‘take aways’ for teachers, and practical suggestions for instructors? Teacher education programs should recognize that people and places matter and one-size-fits-all approaches do not lead to changes in secondary rural EL instructional practices. This study builds theory to drive practice and proposes a new model that demonstrates the unique interconnectedness of the personal, place-based, relational, and professional knowledge dimensions that constantly guided teachers’ professional work and informed the different approaches teachers appropriate to enact their instruction. Rural secondary teachers in this study drew upon their faith, bilingualism, and knowledge of rurality as they built bidirectional and authentic relationships with their secondary EL students. Relationships took precedence over instructional practices to facilitate student learning. and were prioritized over teaching skills and strategies. Findings from this study serve to raise consciousness about the educational preparation of secondary EL teachers for rural communities. The findings suggest that educators must leverage the prominent role Hispanic/bilingual teachers play in the lives of ELs and their families. While they are catalysts in building personal relationships of mutual trust or confianza with ELs and their families, Hispanic/bilingual educators have unique capacities in advancing the educational trajectories of their EL students (Flores & Claeys, 2019). The ever-increasing linguistically diverse demographic shifts particularly in rural settings, the critical shortage of well-prepared bilingual educators nationally, and the persistent academic achievement gap between native and non-native speakers of English require more granular preparation and place-based education for teachers of ELs. I suggest that educators in teacher preparation and PD programs must work towards narrowing the experiential mismatch of teachers and EL students, specifically in rural communities. Handout: click here
LINKS TO PRACTICE Rethinking ESOL Endorsement Courses: Preparing Citizens and Advocates Teresa Lucas, Ryan Pontier, Renata Pavanelli Pereira Florida International University 1) Presentation Overview The presentation shares course revisions in an infused ESOL endorsement program that, along with knowledge and skills related to teaching Emergent Bilinguals, emphasizes immigration history and policies, the power structures that dictate policies, engagement with advocacy organizations, and self-reflection on understanding of diversity and implicit bias. 2) Who is the primary beneficiary of the practical application of the presentation and what are the links to practice? What are the ‘take aways’ for teachers, and practical suggestions for instructors? The primary beneficiaries of the practical application of the presentation are teacher educators for ESOL endorsement programs, and the teacher candidates who participate in the programs. TESOL members take away a proposal for a philosophical foundation of undergraduate elementary education programs based on an Ethic of Care perspective, with the goal of preparing caring, responsive and competent professionals who value truth, and embody the qualities of compassion, trust, respect, and social responsibility.How these qualities are encouraged in the TESOL Issue I course is shown through detailed descriptions of the major assignments.The assignments include research on immigration history related to the students’ own family histories; observation and critique of classroom practices with Emergent Bilinguals; research on immigration and educational policies that affect Emergent Bilinguals and the power structures that dictate policies; and engagement with advocacy organizations.All the assignments include a component of self-reflection in which students consider their ability to see through the eyes of the “other”; accept diverse ways of thinking and behaving; and identify implicit biases they may hold.
LINKS TO PRACTICE New Beginnings Part II Adriana Vianna and Erika Petersen Global Open Door and D4U 1) Presentation Overview New Beginnings is a series of interactive graphic novels that teach abbreviations to Adult English Language Learners (ELLs). In New Beginnings Part II, the audience will join Linda, a nurse from Colombia, in her journey adapting to life in the United States. The aim of this graphic novel is to offer teachers an engaging lesson to teach abbreviations, promote reading, and support language development among adult ELLs. 2) Who is the primary beneficiary of the practical application of the presentation and what are the links to practice? What are the ‘take aways’ for teachers, and practical suggestions for instructors? The suitable audience for this course is working-age adult English Language Learners whose short term goal is to improve their basic English skills to comfortably communicate to English native speakers, and the long term goal is to attend high-level education classes such as college to advance in their professional career. The advantage of an interactive online graphic novel format for ESOL adult learners is that they can access the self-paced lessons in class with their teacher. Also, learners can review the material anytime and anywhere, where there is Internet service, from their computers as well as their mobile devices (i.e., smartphones, tablets, iPads). The free version of New Beginnings is available for general dissemination. Any person interested in using New Beginnings Part I and Part II can contact the authors to request a link to access the lesson.
SSTESOL Journal Volume 14 Issue 1, Spring, 2021 p.81 p.2
SSTESOL Journal Volume 14 Issue 1, Spring, 2021 p.80 p.2
LINKS TO PRACTICE Perfecting Vocabulary and Pronunciation to Score Well on the TOEFL Speaking Sections Mary Quijano Volunteers for Adult Literacy in Florida 1) Presentation Overview This presentation explains how ESOL students can better determine syllable stress, thus giving them a better way to ascertain a word’s pronunciation. With the speaking section(s) of the TOEFL also in mind, tricky words such as heteronyms, homophones, and words that include silent letters are also included. 2) Who is the primary beneficiary of the practical application of the presentation and what are the links to practice? What are the ‘take aways’ for teachers, and practical suggestions for instructors? Written for ESOL instructors to benefit their students, the primary beneficiary of the practical application of this presentation would be ELs. These links-to-practice indicate how much time must be invested by students to learn pronunciation to be understood as well as possible. Likewise, educators should aim to spend time on this domain of ESOL in every lesson along with the other three. The website links included on the PowerPoint slides give a list of some of the most important areas of pronunciation to consider. Teachers can use the websites given or use the terminology to search for additional websites for more practice. Students do not learn these concepts with just one discussion. Repetition will help students in remembering the many rules of English pronunciation they need to know to be clearly understood. Reviewing words with silent letters regularly will be extremely helpful to ELLs. One of the college’s adjunct professors who worked for the school district during the school year did not know that the “s” in debris was silent; I was shocked to hear his incorrect pronunciation/de-BREES/ when I was asked to sit in on his ESOL class when he was teaching. Similarly, much practice is needed for the final -ed and -s endings. These endings should be taught early in ELs’ studies; many of them ignore the endings or pronounce them based on the rules they know from their own native language. These habits are exceedingly difficult to break. Handouts can be found online upon searching the Internet.
LINKS TO PRACTICE Supporting Content Area teachers with ESOL Strategies Jody Nolf Palm Beach County Schools 1) Presentation Overview My session focuses on ESOL strategies specifically designed to facilitate language acquisition and engagement in secondary content areas. These strategies will help content area teachers and ESL teachers work together effectively in a collaborative setting. Most importantly, they are easy scaffolds to use and will work with all levels of learners. 2) Who is the primary beneficiary of the practical application of the presentation and what are the links to practice? What are the ‘take aways’ for teachers, and practical suggestions for instructors? Content area teachers and ESOL teachers will both benefit, especially if they work together in a collaborative or co-teaching model. This presentation focuses on ESOL strategies specifically designed to facilitate language acquisition and engagement in secondary content areas. The strategies specifically target language-building strategies in content-area classrooms, that focus on rigorous instruction through academic language. The strategies in this presentation help content area teachers work effectively to support the needs of their ELL students, whether they are in a collaborative setting or not, and whether they have additional support staff or not. The presentation includes not only strategies such as sentence-frames, alternative forms of assessment, and engaging activities, but it also includes scaffolds for each strategy so that all learners can benefit.TESOL members can use the planning template I created as a starting point for collaboration among all content-area teachers and all grade levels. Most importantly, these strategies also promote equity for all students by providing various, differentiated opportunities to master academic content.
SSTESOL Journal Volume 14 Issue 1, Spring, 2021 p.83 p.2
LINKS TO PRACTICE Case Study of Three Teachers’ Perspectives on Supporting ELLs with Learning Disabilities Georgina Rivera-Singletary, Keya Mukherjee, Cheryl Shamon Saint Leo University Laura Dolatowski, Rossana Martinez, Eloy Rohrman New River Elementary,Pasco County Schools, Lake Weir High School, Marion County Schools, Granado High School, Texas Education Agency 1) Presentation Overview Using a case study approach, 3 current public school educators with support from their university professors, discuss and provide stories and examples of effective strategies to advocate for, build relationships with, andprovide academic support for ELL students who may also be ESE. The teachers shared best practices that have proven successful in their educator practice. 2) Who is the primary beneficiary of the practical application of the presentation and what are the links to practice? What are the ‘take aways’ for teachers, and practical suggestions for instructors? The key takeaways are that advocacy, relationships, and specific academic support lead to success for ELL and ESE students and can be infused in daily teaching practices. The stories and examples used provide idea-building opportunities for practitioners and teachers in and out of the classroom who want to focus on collaborative approaches with educators, families, students, and service providers for the success of students in ELL/ESE inclusion classrooms. Strategies include ideas for use of collaboration, data use, networking and sharing of knowledge with others, building community classrooms that are welcoming of all students, and engaging and motivating teaching strategies for students such as scaffolding, chunking, educational games, and online interactive simulators are shared. The stories shared by the presenting teachers bring the strategies from theory to practice with explicit examples. Click here for ppt.
SSTESOL Journal Volume 14 Issue 1, Spring, 2021 p.82 p.2
Stay in touch with Sunshine State TESOL. Visit our website at: https://sunshinestatetesol.wildapricot.org/ Hotel Reservations at the Conference Hotel can be made below: https://book.passkey.com/gt/218064950?gtid=8e3f5050edaa0f0df5c5fe79a107e0b8
SSTESOL Journal Volume 14 Issue 1, Spring, 2021 p.85 p.2
SSTESOL Journal Volume 14 Issue 1, Spring, 2021 p.84 p.2
SSTESOL Presidential Initiative DID YOU KNOW? Here are some of the recent developments and resources for you and your ESOL Programs. Featured Resource: New! SSTESOL President’s Initiative: SSTESOL Book Club We are thrilled to launch a new professional resource called the SSTESOL Book Club (SBC) for English language educators, school leaders, and administrators. The SBC offers a collection of recommended reading list centered on techniques and strategies, public policy issues, innovative and best practices in the field, or humor and food for thought. Examples of recommended Summer Book List form your SSTESOL Board Members are: • García and Kleifgen, (2018). Educating Emergent Bilinguals: Policies, Programs, and Practices for English Language Learners. Kleyn and García (in The Handbook of TESOL in K-12, 1st edition by Luciana de Oliveira), 2019. • Translanguaging as an Act of Transformation: Restructuring Teaching and Learning for Emergent Bilingual Students You can find the Summer Book Club Reading List here. https://drive.google.com/…/1d9HxWllGFtAtei1jygeSWYhxv…/view… The American Psychological Association has resources for families about the changing role of today’s father. https://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/changing-father…
• If you were not able to attend the ESL Library webinar, ESL Library is offering SSTESOL members a two-month complimentary subscription until June 30, 2020. You still have time to claim this offer. If interested, please send your request with your email address to Dr. Arlene Costello at sstesol@gmail.com, and on the subject line please write ESL subscription. Funding Opportunities Charting a Course for Economic Mobility and Responsible Parenting The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Child Support Enforcement is accepting applications for its newest grant, Charting a Course for Economic Mobility and Responsible Parenting. Eligible applicants will develop interventions to educate teens and young adults about the financial, legal, and emotional responsibilities of parenthood. The target populations for the three-year projects are teens and young adults ages 13–25, including unmarried parents and those who have not yet started families. Applications must be submitted through grants.gov by June 29, 2020. https://ami.grantsolutions.gov/HHS-2020-ACF-OCSE-FD-1832… Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program The National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program seeks to encourage talented STEM majors and professionals to become K–12 STEM teachers. The current solicitation invites creative and innovative proposals from institutions that address the critical need for recruiting and preparing highly effective elementary and secondary science and mathematics teachers in high-need local educational agencies. Visit the program’s recently updated frequently asked questions (FAQs) page. Applications are due August 25, 2020. https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp… Remember, SSTESOL is here for you, and we will continue to help address challenges and obstacles that you encounter to meet the needs of diverse learners.
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Reminders
SSTESOL Journal Volume 14 Issue 1, Spring, 2021 p.87 p.2
Submission Deadline for the Fall 2021 Issue of SSTESOL Journal is November 30th, 2021
SSTESOL Journal Volume 14 Issue 1, Spring, 2021 p.89 p.2
ATTENTION
Call for Candidates and Nominations for the 2021 Sunshine State TESOL Members-at-Large Positions (three) July 1, 2021 – December 31, 2024 Qualifications for prospective candidates: strong professional background in language education and technology, active SSTESOL member, and TESOL or local Chapter member for at least two years, effective, collaborative, creative, and resourceful leader, active participant in TESOL groups or organizational projects/events within the past 3 years, display professional and ethical dispositions towards SSTESOL’s duties and responsibilities, experience on a governing board or in a leadership role within another educational institution, community organization, service organization, and/or business organization, commitment to serve SSTESOL for 3 years and attend all Board meetings, and live in Florida. The Nominations and Elections Committee will choose a slate of candidates that represents diverse TESOL professions and regions in Florida. The slate of candidates will balance board needs for addressing advocacy, professional learning, and organizational functions. Members at Large (Directors, effective January 2022): Chair and serve on membership development and outreach committee, standing and ad hoc committees; participate in advocacy, professional learning, and organizational activities related to the SSTESOL strategic planning process; take active role in planning, promoting, and conducting the annual conference; and contribute to work with general membership, conference registrants and other SSTESOL events. Takes pride in representing SSTESOL Board of Directors. Members-at-Large are expected to attend all Board meetings and are voting members of the Board. Nominations are due on April 30, 2021, but you may submit this online form (see link below) on or before April 30, 2021. Ballots will go out on May 15th and return by June 15th. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1K-9pbdhRWdk8Z7pDZb_pzIgyeJJy_QgCJvCuUxVPE2o/edit
A CALL FOR LEADERSHIP AND MEMBER INVOLVEMENT We would love to hear from you!Please send an email to SSTESOL President indicating your interest in becoming involved in one of these committees. Contact sstesol@gmail.com SSTESOL Standing and Ad-Hoc Committees 2020-2021 Awards and Recognition Programs Committee Li-Lee Tunceren, Chair; Members: Arlene Baez, Data Recognition Corporation; Jim Goldstone, Cambridge University Press; Jane Govoni, University of South Florida; Sherri Sacharow, Broward College; Taro Funches, Canton Public School District; and Renata Pavanelli, Broward College. Nominations and Elections Committee Arlene Costello, President, Co-Chair; Patricia Grant, former SSTESOL President, Co-Chair; Members: Firoza Rasul, Jennifer Killam, Maria Mercer and Jane Govoni Professional Learning Committee Amany Habib, Chair, Members: Pamela Jo Wilson, Palm Beach TESOL; Raydel Hernandez, Miami-Dade TESOL; and Zeynep Erdil-Moody, University of South Florida. Rethink and Reimagine SSTESOL 2021 Committee Arlene Costello, Chair; Members: Jennifer Killam, Broward College;Keya Mukherjee, SSTESOL Executive Board; Andrea Lypka, Board member; Li-Lee Tunceren, former president; Cynthia Schuemann, Historian; Jennifer Killam – President, Broward TESOL; and Shannon Solis, SSTESOL member and President, PBTESOL SSTESOL Journal & SSTESOL Press Editorial Board Tony Erben, Editor - University of Tampa; Keya Mukherjee, Assistant Editor - Saint Leo University; Cristiane Vicentini, Copy Editor - University of Miami. Editorial Review Board: Laura Ballard, Florida State University; Maria R. Coady, University of Florida; Ester de Jong, University of Florida; Katya Goussakova, Seminole State College; Jennifer Killam, Broward College; Michelle Kroskey, University of Central Florida; John I. Liontas, University of South Florida; Robyn Percy-Socha, Full Sail University; Cheryl A. Shamon, Saint Leo University; Caroline Webb, Broward College
SSTESOL Journal Volume 14 Issue 1, Spring, 2021 p.88 p.2
SSTESOL Journal Volume 14 Issue 1, Spring, 2021 p.90 p.2
NOTES
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SPRING 2021
SUNSHINE TESOL JOURNAL