All Children Reading - Transition.pdf - MTB-MLE Network

TransitionAgatha van GinkelSIL International-Africa Area

The purpose of thissession is to helpyou to determine if,when and howstudents shouldtransition to L2.90% of child do notknow the L2 whenthey come to school

TRANSITION MODELS

Transition and TransferTransition• involves an approach tolanguage education whereteaching shifts or switchesfrom using the L1 to the L2as a medium of instruction.Transfer• Is a cognitive process wherewhat is known in the L1 canbe transferred to the L2.• Known to unknown

Transition modelsL1Primary schoolSecondarySchoolL2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4Immersiontransitionalearly exittransitionallate exitadditive

What is the best model for yourcountry?When you look at research consider the context:• Is the L2 spoken outside the school setting?• Are the teachers trained as languageteachers?• Are the teachers themselves bilingual?• What resources were used?• How much time a week/day was given tolearning L2?

Transition model from NigeriaSix Year Yoruba medium project:• MOI first 6 years was Yoruba.• English taught as subject by specialist teachers.• Control schools had 3 years of Yoruba as MOI• Students who had 6 years of MTE performedbetter in English, and in other content subjects.• Conclusion: grade 4 was too early for thetransition to occur.(Bamgbose (1984, 2000, 2004a, b; Elugbe, 1996; Fafunwa, 1990)

Transition model from BotswanaTransition took place at grade 5 (Setswana toEnglish)• The students were not able to cope with thelinguistic requirements of the system at thatpoint.• By the end of grade 4 learners had exposureto 800 words in English, but they needed 7000to cope with the grade 5 curriculum.

Transition model from Ethiopia• Policy: MOI is L1 in years 1-4.• Years 5-8 the region can decide.• Different transition models in Ethiopia.– Early exit model– Late exit model

Transition model from EthiopiaComparison of models, who scored best onaverage after 8 years of education?1. children who had 8 years of MT2. children who had 5 or 6 years of MT3. children who had 4 years of MT(Heugh, Benson, Bogale, Yohannes, 2007)

Transition models for Africa• Early exit models do not facilitate thenecessary knowledge transfer to the L2.• Late exit models: transfer may be possible invery well-resourced circumstances after 6years of MTE, when accompanied by verygood teaching of the L2 as a subject.• In less well-resourced circumstancessuccessful transfer is more likely after 8 yearsof MTE.

Do children learn English well whenthe L1 is used a MOI?Cameroon, Kom L1 based bilingual programme(Walter and Trammell 2010)

Transitional and additive modelsLEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE

BICS and CALPBasic InterpersonalCommunication Skills• language skills needed insocial situations.(Playground fluency)Cognitive Academic LanguageProficiency• Language skills needed tounderstand the subject areacontent material. This levelof language learning isessential for students tosucceed in school.

Language learning vs reading• Language learning is a different activity thanreading in the new language.• They should not be confused.

Language learning and ReadingLanguage learning• Learning the vocabulary,grammar and use of a newlanguage (pragmatics).• Involves receptive skills:listening and reading.• Involves productive skills:writing and speaking.Reading in L2• Understanding a text in theL2.• Understand at least 95% ofthe words in the text.• A learner might not be ableto express his or hercomprehension in the L2,but they can express it inthe L1.

How much vocabulary does one needin order to read?• Between 3000-5000 words to be able to readauthentic text (Nation and Waring 1997,Meara, 1995)– Newspapers– Novels– Schoolbooks

Pattern of language development• Silent period• Producing formulas (ready made chunks)• More creative utterance (from simple to morecomplex structures)• Acquisition of L2 grammar happens in stages.

Theprocess:Continue learning both languages assubjects and using both for learningthrough primary schoolUse L1 and L2 as LOIBridge to written L2Continue building L1 and oral L2Use L1 as LOI; begin introducing L2 academic termsIntroduce oral L2Introduce written L1Continue building oral L1Use L1 as LOI; Build small children’s oral L1

TEACHING READING IN THE L2

L2 and reading• Reading is about understanding.• Knowing the language is a pre-requisite to beable to read (comprehend) in the L2.• First learn the language THEN you learn toread in the language.

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Five important componentsTransfer of reading ability from L1 to L2 means that: Phonemic awareness2. Alphabetic principle (transfer: a few new ones andones that are different)3. Fluency (transfer: but some new word recognitionstrategies?)4. Comprehension: Understand what is read (woops,big one, do the children understand the words inthe story?)5. Vocabulary (Did they learn L2 orally first?)

What needs to be learnt?• Script of the new languageLanguageEnglishAmharicArabicScriptAll human beings are bornfree

What needs to be learnt?Connection between the symbols and sounds.– TRANSFER: Symbols that have the same sounds.• b, m, n– What symbols have same and different sounds?• Letter a (Kiswahili) in L1 1 sound; in English many sounds:cat, ball, nation– What symbols have different sounds?• L1 g (Dutch) and L2 g (English)– What symbols are new?• Ng’, ā

What needs to be learnt?• New word recognition skills that go well withthe L2– Sounding out of words– Recognising parts of words– Recognising whole words

WHAT NEXT?

Know your context• Understand the language policy.– What is the policy?– How is it implemented?– Understand people’s attitudes towards the L1 andthe L2?– What is people’s understanding about how tolearn a language? Do you need to re-educatethem?

Materials Analysis• Analyse existing L2 materials.– Are the materials language teaching materials?– Is the L2 first introduced orally?– Do the materials help the learners to acquireAcademic Language? Does they help to gainsufficient vocabulary to understand the teacherand course books when the transition takes place?– Is there a specific focus on reading in the L2?– Do the materials take the L1 into account?

Work towards• Learners have sufficient knowledge(vocabulary, grammar and pragmatics) of thelanguage before they are transitioned.• For English about 3000 words (AcademicLanguage)• Ensure that learners have developedstrategies for independent language learning.• Reading: Ensure that learners can understandwhat they read.

Technical expertise-Tools• Story books: Little hands books from PRAESA(http://www.littlehandstrust.com/books.html)• International digital children library(http://www.worldreader.org/books.php)• MLE networks (http://www.mlenetwork.org)• PrimerPro © Software (http://www.sil.org)helps you with determining teaching order oflessons, checking controlled vocabularystories.

PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER

What model?L1Primary schoolSecondarySchoolL2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4Immersiontransitionalearly exittransitionallate exitadditive

L1 based multilingual education• Children understand the teacher from the firstday of school.• They have a good understanding of thecontent of what they read.• They can interact with the teacher.• They enjoy school• They have (much) higher learning outcomes.• They learn the L2 better…..

What if you do not choose the bestmodel for your context?You will have to expect• lower education results.• higher cost to educate a child.• many non readers.• greater amount of people who cannotcontribute to the knowledge industry.

Choose your model and look at:• Attitude of stakeholders• Teacher training (in-service and pre-service)• The language skills of your teachers.• The literacy skills of your teachers (L1 and L2)

Based on your model look at:• Place of teachers in school (do they speak thesame language as the children)• Course books for teaching reading in L1• Course books for teaching the L2• Course books for learning to read in L2• Lots of reading books in L1 and L2

Is it possible…• For a child to learn an L2 really well whenhe/she receives education in the L1 and learnthe L2 as subject?Yes

Is it possible…For an African child in rural area to comprehenda story as well as a child in Europe?YES, when first taught in the L1 as mostchildren in Europe are.

Is it possible….• YES• YES• YES• Questions?Contact: agatha_van_ginkel@sil.org