ESL and Mother Tongue ESL and Mother Tongue: the way forward Jackie Holderness reports on the recent Rome conference As Eithne Gallagher, ESL special<strong>is</strong>t at Marymount <strong>International</strong> School, Rome and Chairperson of the ESL/MT Committee, said in her opening remarks, “M<strong>is</strong>conceptions abound about ESL and Mother Tongue <strong>is</strong>sues” but progress has been made. Maurice Carder, ESL and MT Head at Vienna <strong>International</strong> School, pointed out that 22 years have passed since the first ECIS ESL committee was founded. Five years ago, it decided to change its name to ESL and Mother Tongue Committee as it recogn<strong>is</strong>ed the duty international educators have to promote the learning of students’ mother tongues. Some international schools now provide comprehensive MT programmes and offer ESL as an integral subject, so that every child, regardless of their language background, may enjoy equal rights to the curriculum. Eithne observed that, “There are too many people making dec<strong>is</strong>ions about ESL and mother tongue <strong>is</strong>sues who are not informed or are m<strong>is</strong>informed.” She stressed that ESL as a subject has to be taken seriously by the dec<strong>is</strong>ion makers, while acknowledging that admin<strong>is</strong>trator involvement in the ESL/MT conferences <strong>is</strong> increasing. For example: 2000,Vienna: 0 admin<strong>is</strong>trators; 2002, Leysin: 1; <strong>2005</strong>, Rome: 20. While the number of admin<strong>is</strong>trators present has been growing, so has the number of participants. At th<strong>is</strong> Rome conference, there were 480 delegates, from 38 countries. The organ<strong>is</strong>ation of the conference was superbly managed and the delegates enjoyed excellent accommodation, refreshments and social programme. The ESL/MT committee (Eithne Gallagher, Maurice Carder, Lyndi Reeaden, Pat Mertin, Kim Oppenheim, John Deighan, with Jeanne-Marie Bigginshaw in the early stages) deserve to be warmly congratulated. What the delegates will remember most, however, <strong>is</strong> the professional stimulus of meeting with like-minded colleagues, in the company of the very finest names in the field of ESL. The line-up of internationally-renowned guest speakers was impressive. It <strong>is</strong> not possible to do any of them justice in a short article but their papers may be viewed on the conference website: www.marymountrome.org/ec<strong>is</strong>. The following brief summaries may at least give some idea of the ideas they wanted to share with the international schools community. Dr Stephen Krashen, author of over 300 papers and books, <strong>is</strong> best known for h<strong>is</strong> work in establ<strong>is</strong>hing a general theory of second language acqu<strong>is</strong>ition and as the inventor of sheltered subject matter teaching. Dr Krashen started each day’s proceedings with one hour of relaxed but high-powered delivery. Dr Krashen’s lectures were not only deeply informed and stimulating but also very entertaining. For example, he started off by apolog<strong>is</strong>ing that, until recently, he had always assumed that PowerPoint was a martial art form. It <strong>is</strong> difficult to summar<strong>is</strong>e the depth and breadth of h<strong>is</strong> contributions but three key messages, supported by countless research studies, emerged: 1) Reading at a level which matches the student’s language level <strong>is</strong> the most effective, low-r<strong>is</strong>k and pleasurable way to learn a language. The nature of the reading matter <strong>is</strong> less significant than the need for it to be SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) and to be accessible to the reader. Comics are perfect for ESL learners because the content <strong>is</strong> contextual<strong>is</strong>ed and can be understood more easily as a result. 2) Language learning, where the student focuses on form and correctness, <strong>is</strong> unnatural and does not improve students’ language skills. The brain ‘does grammar poorly’. Another feature of language learning, forced output (“Repeat after me…” “Tell the class…” etc) <strong>is</strong> unhelpful because it can provoke such anxiety in the student. Dr Krashen pointed out that we monitor our lingu<strong>is</strong>tic output with an affective filter. If that <strong>is</strong> blocked by anxiety, we won’t learn at all. It <strong>is</strong> important to real<strong>is</strong>e that language learning <strong>is</strong> significantly different from language acqu<strong>is</strong>ition. 3) Language acqu<strong>is</strong>ition, which happens almost automatically when input <strong>is</strong> comprehensible, <strong>is</strong> both pleasurable and effective. Dr Steven Sternfeld, who has developed Applied Lingu<strong>is</strong>tics and ESL/EFL courses at all levels from pre-K though university, gave some powerful examples of the way drama and story can support understanding. He and Dr Krashen acted out two stories in Italian, which not only taught us all some Italian, but also illuminated for everyone present the importance of relevance and interest for the ESL student. Focusing purely on the language and its forms <strong>is</strong> not enough to motivate the student. Students need to learn some content with and through the medium of the target language (ie Engl<strong>is</strong>h). Dr Jim Cummins has conducted seminal research which has focused upon the social and educational barriers that limit academic success for culturally diverse students. Dr Cummins examined the pedagogies which most support developing bilinguals. He stressed the importance of MT instruction. The length of education in L1 has been shown to be the strongest predictor of school achievement (Thomas and Collier: 2000). He also challenged the Communicative Language Teaching approach because, while it encourages BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills) it does not adequately develop what Dr Cummins has termed CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency). The development of Academic Expert<strong>is</strong>e requires the follow- 18<strong>Spring</strong> <strong>is</strong> <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2005</strong>
<strong>is</strong> <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2005</strong> <strong>Spring</strong> ESL and Mother Tongue 19
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