Espy's+thoughts

The main purpose of the National Literacy Panel was to contribute to the construction of a knowledge base on the development of literacy in language-minority students by conducting a comprehensive review of the research on this topic and generating from this review answers to the specific research questions posed in the report. What I found interesting was the many factors indicated by the panel as influencing second-language literacy development. Some of the key factors I have personally dealt with in the past are first-language oral proficiency and literacy, and socio-cultural variables. The literacy development of all students is complex. Monolingual students have factors that contribute to their development as well, such as socioeconomic status, cognitive abilities, parental support, etc. However, when you have all of these factors and you add to that learning in a new language the tasks become greater. From my experience, I have seen how important first-language oral proficiency and literacy are in the development of second-language acquisition. I have seen how successful students can be at acquiring a second-language when they have a good solid base of literacy knowledge in their first language. I was a bit surprised in Catherine Snow’s article when she points out that “the classic definition of transfer, derived from the traditions of behaviorist psychology and contrastive analysis (Lado, 1964), suggests that strongly developed first-language habits are hardest to overcome in a second language- in other words, transfer is considered to be mostly negative in its impact.” This topic, she points out, has had little research. I have also seen how not having first-language oral proficiency and literacy can lead to the opposite of bilingualism, if their is such a thing. I remember a sweet little girl with a big smile named Heidi who seemed eager to please. She was in my partner teacher’s kindergarten class. I only worked with her for math in small groups for about 20 minutes a day. Most of the time I was giving direct instruction and sometimes I did most of the talking. Sometimes at the beginning of the year the students tend to be shy, so I didn’t notice anything different about Heidi. It took me a couple of weeks to figure out that this girl had NO language. She was five years old and the youngest of three children. So her mom, who only spoke Spanish, thought she was speaking English and her teacher, who only spoke English, thought she was speaking Spanish. Since I could speak both languages, my partner teacher asked me if I would do her literacy assessments. After trying to talk to her for almost 45 minutes in English and Spanish and not being able to understand any of her mumbling and utterances, I told my partner teacher we had serious issues. It was like listening to a two year old speaking “jibberish” and nodding her head or pointing to things as if she understood. Only no one could understand her. We immediately spoke to mom and asked her what language does Heidi speak at home? Mom said English. We asked if she spoke any Spanish what so ever that she could understand. Mom said firmly, “No, Heidi only speaks English.” Then we decided to ask her sisters what Heidi spoke. They both looked puzzled and said they didn’t know because they could never understand her. Her mom was very shocked. All this time she thought Heidi was fluent in English. Somehow Heidi never took full grasp of either language. It wasn’t even “Spanglish,” it was just “jibberish.” I still wonder how they communicated all those years! We were finally able to get Heidi properly assessed by the Speech and Language Therapist and designed a specific learning plan for her. She is still behind in her oral proficiency and literacy, but is working hard. August and Shanahan point out another important factor in the acquisition of a second-language, which I find very important, and that is the influence of the sociocultural context. They point out that for many language-minority students, the important contextual issues include poverty, attendance in underfunded schools, low social status, familial stress, and incompatibility between home and school environments. They also point out that the developing literacy in a second language depends to a great extent on the amount and quality of the schooling that is provided to language-minority students, including what is taught, the instructional methods and routines, the intensity and thoroughness of instruction, how well and appropriately learning is monitored, how coordinated it is, and the level of teacher preparation. I’m sure we all agree with these concerns and I strongly feel that all teachers should be adequately prepared to teach the specific needs of their students. As Snow points out, differentiation in instruction according to individual learner needs accounts for a larger proportion of the variance in reading outcomes for students learning to read in a second than a first language. In my experience, as a kindergarten teacher for 12 years, I have seen that the more school readiness children posses when entering school the greater their chances at learning the literacy skills whether they are English language learners or monolingual students. So, I was happy to see Snows section on “Whole Chunks of Development,” where she states that prevention has become a slogan for good literacy, and it is widely acknowledged that prevention is most effective if begun during the preschool period. I wish there was some way we could make it affordable for parents to send their children to preschool two years before they enter kindergarten. As it is, the headstart programs around my school have waiting lists and the requirements are quite stringent. I’ve known some parents to lie on the applications to qualify for the programs. However, the future of that notion seems grim with the budget crisis facing the state and nation today. That is where I think parent workshops become a useful tool to educate parents as the true first teachers in their children’s lives.