Supporting Multilingual Students Across the Curriculum
Workshop: Elgin Community College
Friday, November 1, 2024
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Supporting Multilingual Students��
Overview
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Supporting Multilingual Students��
Materials: Google Folder
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Facilitator
Dr. Jenny Staben
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Introductions
Name
Courses You Teach
One thing you hope to learn today
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Taking a Walk (as an L2 Writer)
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Writing Task
Write for four (4) minutes on the following topic:
Elgin Community College should raise the pay rate for adjunct faculty.
In writing your answer, please follow these new rules for writing:
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Discussion
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Thinking About Diversity
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Five Marias
Maria Isabel Hernandez
Maria Dolores Rodriguez
Maria Rosa Gonzalez
Maria de Lourdes Cardona
Maria Ramona Mendez
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Maria Isabel Hernandez
is a student originally from Puerto Rico, but she’s been here in the United States since sixth grade and her spoken English sounds like a native speaker’s. This is her first semester at the college. She loves to read, but she doesn’t feel really comfortable writing in English. She thinks that she “cannot do it.” In her country in her first language, she didn’t consider herself to be a good writer. She believes that you have to be born a good writer—and she wasn’t.
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Maria Dolores Rodriguez
is an international student, here on a student visa. Like Maria Isabel, this is her first semester at the college; however, she was a university student for three years in Mexico City before coming here to perfect her English. She feels comfortable writing academic essays in Spanish, and this comfort transfers over to her English writing. However, she knows she needs help with grammar and idiomatic language in her writing and speaking.
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Maria Rosa Gonzalez
is a student who recently passed her upper-level developmental reading/writing course with a B. She graduated from a local high school, after coming here from her native Honduras three years ago. She got good grades in high school—especially in her bilingual classes—and she’s eager to get a college degree and to study for a profession. At home and with her friends, she usually speaks Spanish. Some of the errors in her writing and speaking look like the errors some native speakers make—past tense consistency problems, missing “s” problems, etc.
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Maria de Lourdes Cardona
is a student who recently passed a developmental reading/writing course (specifically for ELLs) with an A. She was a teacher in her country, Colombia, and has been here in the United States for two years. She studied English in Colombia, but never used it until she came to Illinois. She studied in an Intensive English Program before completing the developmental course. She wants desperately to write and speak well—to be able to express herself as well in English as she does in her native language.
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Maria Ramona Mendez
is a student currently enrolled in an upper-level developmental reading/writing course while she takes her first college-level classes. She’s in her mid-twenties. When she was in Mexico, she liked school very much and wanted to go on to college. However, her family needed her help, and she stopped attending after graduating from ninth grade.
After coming to the U.S, Maria took the GED in Spanish, took some adult education ESL courses and most recently passed a lower developmental reading/writing course with a C. Maria feels this is her “second chance” to get the education she needs. She is interested in the college’s nursing program or in doing something with computers, but right now her biggest problem is writing English. She often tells her teacher that she “just doesn’t know enough words.”
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Small Group Discussion
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What’s the lesson here?
*I borrowed this phrase from the scholar, Lisa Delpit.
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How do these groups compare?�From: Ferris, D. (2009) Teaching College Writing to Diverse Student Populations. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press: 22 [Figure 1.3].
Characteristic | International | Late-Arriving Immigrant | Early-Arriving Immigrant |
Literate in L1 | Yes | Maybe | Maybe |
Primary Cultural Identification | L1 | Mostly L1 | L2 |
Knowledge of L2 Culture | No | Some | Yes |
L2 Literacy Experience | Limited | Limited | Extensive (but not always effective) |
Socioeconomic Status | Upper-middle-class to wealthy | Working class | Working to middle class |
Motivation to Learn English | For instrumental purposes | For integrative & survival purposes | Like monolingual English speakers |
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Eye Learners vs. Ear Learners��From: Ferris, D. (2009) Teaching College Writing to Diverse Student Populations. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press: 30 [Figure 2.2].
Type of Learner | Definition | Student Audience |
Eye | Primary route to English learning was through formal classroom language study | International Some late-arriving resident students |
Ear | Primary route to English acquisition was through naturalistic exposure to language | Other late-arriving residents Early-arriving residents |
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Writing Across Borders
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Writing Across Borders
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Classroom Strategies
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Supporting Multilingual Students
Some Core Principles
Difference, not deficit – “resource” model
Don’t confuse developing language skills or lack of academic experience with intelligence or potential.
Academic English is no one’s native language and academic culture is no one’s native culture.
“All faculty can and should assist multilingual students in improving their academic English proficiency and their knowledge of ‘how to’ be a scholar” (Hafernik & Wiant 4).
Inclusive classroom strategies and practices help ALL students.
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Academic Culture(s)
“Whose responsibility is it to help students understand the workings of the academy, adjust to it, and become full participating members? The answer is ‘Everyone’s.’ Each of us can ease the transition for students by simply making what we take for granted explicit for students” (Hafernik & Wiant 37).
College/University Culture
Disciplinary Culture
Classroom Culture
No one universal academic culture or literacy- always embedded in specific contexts
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Academic Culture(s)
Supporting Students’ Transition Into U.S. Academic Culture (Shapiro, Farrelly & Tomas 17-27)
Help students make connections/comparisons between what they already know and what they’re trying to learn
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Some Helpful Insights from Second Language Acquisition
Everyday language and academic language are very different.
Multilingual students do not become “native” English speakers. A few courses will not perfect students’ English.
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Some More Helpful Insights from Second Language Acquisition
Acquisition versus Learning: What’s the difference?
Teachers (“experts”) may need to “learn” (or re-learn) what they’ve already acquired: grammar rules, genre conventions, disciplinary ways of thinking/knowing
Three Important Classroom Practices that Promote Academic Language/Literacy Acquisition (and Learning)*
Scaffolding
Interaction
Noticing
*Shapiro et al
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Some Ways I Support Multilingual Students in my Writing Classes through Scaffolding/ Noticing
Provide models of product*
Model the process*
Provide templates*
Create clear (written)criteria and expectations*
Break a complex/difficult assignment up into stages or parts*
Backward Design*
*These strategies help all students!
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Some Ways I Support Multilingual Students in my Writing Classes through Interaction
Here’s a list of Active Learning strategies I use in my English 121 class:
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Scaffolding
Lectures:
Class Discussions:
Course Readings:
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Interaction
Lectures:
Class Discussions:
Course Readings
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Noticing
Lectures:
Class Discussions:
Course Readings:
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Universal Design
These strategies
help ALL students
not just
multilingual students!!!
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Questions
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Works Cited:
Ferris, Dana. Teaching College Writing to Diverse Student Populations. The University of Michigan Press, 2009.
Hafernik, Johnnie Johnson and Fredel M. Wiant. Integrating Multilingual Students into College Classrooms- Practical Advice for Faculty. Channel View Publications, 2012.
Shapiro, Shawna, Raichle Farrelly and Zuzana Tomas. Fostering International Student Success in Higher Education. TESOL Press, 2014. Print.
Writing Across Borders. Dir. Wayne Robertson. Oregon State University, 2005. DVD.
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