Talk Around Text for English Language Learners
		   ELAC Conference, May, 2007—Joyce Purdy 

A. English Language Learners (ELLs)
•	The face of Canadian classrooms is changing with high rates of immigration.
•	There is an achievement gap between native English speakers and ELLs.
“What we aren’t seeing improve is the situation facing children who have the academic ability but do poorly in school because of their English proficiency.”  (Jim Gurnett, 2007)
Reading results in the United States show that there is an achievement gap between students of diverse backgrounds and mainstream students. As a group, students of diverse backgrounds have fallen four years behind their mainstream peers in reading achievement by the time they reach grade 12. 
•	ELLs come with different levels of language proficiency and literacy skills, but teachers are responsible for the literacy learning of all children in the classroom.
•	What is literacy? 
“Literacy is seen not as a set of independent skills associated with reading and writing, but the application of particular skills for specific purposes in specific contexts.” (Langer, 1987)

“Students need to learn now more than ever before ways of thinking analytically and critically about relationships among discourses, information, social practices and meaning-making...” (Knobel, 1999)

B. Challenges ELLs face:
•	Definition of literacy has changed 
•	Home language and culture may be unintentionally devalued at school; ELLs may feel subordinated to the mainstream culture
•	ELLs may have different ways of interacting; home discourse is different than the discourse of school
•	Emphasis on lower level skills (focus on grammar and conventions)
•	ELLs take 2 years to acquire basic communication skills (BICS) but 5 years to acquire the academic language of school (CALP)
•	Lack of literacy development leads to negative attitudes toward school—creates a vicious circle

C. What does the research say?
•	ELLs benefit from a social environment where they have a desire to communicate and be understood in authentic ways, and where they are given opportunities to interact with proficient speakers of English.
             (Cummins, 2001; Fassler, 1998; Genessee, 1994; Olmedo, 2003)
•	Vygotsky’s social constructivist theory acknowledges that social, cultural and historical factors come into play and that learning is a socially situated activity.
•	Talk in the classroom is important in influencing educational achievement; talk is an essential and often overlooked aspect of learning. (Cazden, 2001).

D. My Study and Findings
•	Guided Reading: How do ELLs use oral language to shape and extend their construction of meaning while participating in reading activities in the primary classroom?
•	How can teachers help ELLs participate meaningfully during guided reading?

1.	Vocabulary
Vocabulary knowledge is strongly related to reading proficiency and many studies show that vocabulary development is essential for the reading success of ELLs. Some considerations:
•	limit new words to 7 or fewer
•	select words carefully for usefulness
•	ELLs need lots of exposure to new words
•	use words in more than one way
•	relate new word to known words, group related words together (semantic maps)—build depth and breadth of word meaning; 
•	design activities so that learners manipulate and analyze word meaning, write and spell the target word many times, 
•	teach children strategies for inferring the meaning of unknown words 

2.	Activate Background Knowledge
Background knowledge is one of the most important factors influencing students’ ability to comprehend a text; particularly important for ELLs because they may not have the requisite background knowledge for understanding a specific text.
•	For mainstream students, you may be activating background knowledge, for ELLs, you may be building their knowledge.
•	Encourage ELLs to identify when they are unsure, to question others, and to find ways to fill in the gaps as they read.

3.	Other helpful teaching strategies:
•	provide text specific information
•	explain important and unimportant text segments
•	instruct in comprehension strategies 
•	use of graphic organizers
•	development of a shared language to talk about books 
•	presentation of ideas in both verbal and written form

4.	Time for Talk
ELLs benefit from extended discourse around texts; that is they need to be given opportunities to elaborate responses, engage in natural conversations with one another and work collaboratively
•	Negotiation of meaning; collaborative talk
•	Children learning language cannot do it alone, they need the collaborative help of interested conversational partners.
•	When ELLs are given opportunities to talk and sort out their understandings, not only are they learning language, they are connecting with the text in richer, deeper ways.

5.	Funds of Knowledge
•	Students bring intellectual, cultural, and linguistic resources to the classroom. Be aware of each child as a member of a cultural group, and members of a wider community. Use this knowledge as basis for instruction; knowledge base of children’s families is respected and valued.
•	Examples: What literacy practices are valued? What traditions are observed? What subjects does the family enjoy discussing together?