SpanishImmersionMaterialsandtheSecondaryClassroomEcologyCorinneS.Mathieu

UniversityofMinnesota

BackgroundandResearchQuestions

Methodology

SecondaryImmersionPrograms&MaterialsUse-SecondarySpanishimmersionprogramsareacontinuationofelementaryduallanguageandimmersionprogramsinwhichstudentslearnsubjectmattercontentthroughasecondlanguage.

-Findingandutilizingappropriatematerialsisanuniquechallengefortheseprogramssincematerialsmustpresentcomplexacademiccontentatanappropriatelinguisticlevel.

-Immersionteachersfrequentlycitethelackofeasilyaccessible,publishedmaterialsasanimpedimentintheirinstruction(Fortune,Tedick&Walker,2008;Cammarata&Tedick,2012),andteachersspendconsiderabletimeandenergyadapting,translatingorcreatingoriginalmaterials(Lyster,2007).

ResearchQuestionsWhatrolesdomaterialsplayintheecologyofasecondarySpanishimmersionclassroom?

a. Whatrolesdomaterialsplayinthecontentinstruction?

b. Whatrolesdomaterialsplayinthetargetlanguageinstruction?

c. Whatrolesdomaterialsplayinlanguageuse?

ClassroomEcologyAnecologicalapproachtoclassroom-basedresearchviewstheclassroomasanunpredictableecosystemofinteractionsthroughwhichacomplexsocialsystememerges(vanLier,2004).

-10-dayseventh-gradeSpanishsocialstudiesunitfocusedonasurveyofAfrica(geography,history,culture)

-Classroomobservationsandfieldnotes,audio-recordingsofallclassroomdiscourse,materialsusedduringtheunit,andtwosemi-structuredinterviewswiththeteacher

-Thematicdataanalysiscodingforeachsub-questionaswellasrelationshipsamongecologicalresources

DiscussionandImplications

SecondLanguageEducation

Results

MaterialsandContentInstruction

Hierarchyofmaterialsintermsofimportancetocontentinstruction

Althoughtheteacherdidnotexplicitlyviewthetextbookasthecontentcurriculum,hispedagogicalchoicesanddiscoursepositionedthetextbookasthecurriculumasrealityoftheunit.Whileguidingthestudentsthroughthreechapterssequentially,theteacherprovidedthemwithpacketsofreadingcomprehensionquestions,mostofwhichweredisplayquestions.

Theweightofthetextbookasastructure ofthecourseinteractedwiththeprocess ofdisplaycomprehensionquestionstoformaone-correct-answer instructionalparadigm.Thisparadigmprovedtobeanevenmorepowerfulstructure thatformedrelationshipswithmanyprocesses intheclass

MaterialsandLanguageInstructionLanguageinstructioninthisclasswasalmostentirelyconcentratedoncontent-specificvocabularyratherthanlinguisticstructures,whichseemsrelatedtotheone-correct-answerparadigm.Studentsandtheteacherfocusedvocabularyinstructiononwordsthatwerenecessarytoanswerthedisplayreadingcomprehensionquestions

Extractfromobservationalfieldnotes:

“Thelanguageinstructionduringthissegmentisnearlyentirelyvocabulary.Studentsaskaboutanumberofwordsinthetext,suchasganado [cattle],(whichtheteacherexplainsandthentranslates),abundante [abundant],precipitación [precipitation],occidental[western],desertificación [desertification](whichisdefinedinthebook).Studentsdousesomevocabularyfromthetextintheirspeech,butthisappearstobeonlytoanswerthecontentquestion”(Fieldnotes,11/29/16).

Textbookascurriculum

Displayreadingcomprehension

questions

One-correct-answerparadigm

MaterialsandLanguageInstruction,cont.

SyntacticandTense/AspectAnalysisoftextbook

• First15sentencesoftwosectionsofthetextbook.ThefirstdescribesthegeographyofnorthernAfricaandthesecondoutlinesthehistoryofAncientEgypt.

- Thisanalysisshowsthatthismaterialdidnotprovidenaturalopportunitiesforsyntacticordiscourse-levellanguageinstructionandtheinputprovidedbythetextbookisnotalwaysascomplexasmightbeexpected.

MaterialsandLanguageUse

-Whenworkingwiththetextbook orassociatedhandouts,asinthefollowingwhole-classreadingexcerpt,studentsoverwhelminglyperformedcommunicativelanguagefunctions.(ExcerptwasoriginallyinSpanish.)

Classroomecology

Participants:teacher,students

Processes:routines,

wholeclassreading

Structures:curriculum,ideologies

Artifacts:materials,Smartboard

Turn Languagefunction

2 Clarifyingguidelines

4 Seekinginformation

6 Expressingconfusion

8 Recountinginformation(academic)

10 Searching foranswer/askingforhelp

- Thetextbookascurriculumandone-correct-answerinstructionalparadigm functionedasstructures intheclassroomecologythatcommunicatedtostudentsthattheirtaskwastofindandreportacorrectanswerratherthanutilizehigherorderacademicthinking.

- Theecologicalconsequencesofthesestructures includedalmostnointentionallanguageinstructionbeyondvocabularyandastuntedrangeofstudentdiscoursefunctions,bothofwhichcouldhaveimplicationsforstudentlanguagedevelopmentand,lateracademicachievement.

- Giventherolesthesesecondarymaterialsplayedintheclassroomecology,futureimmersionmaterialsshouldbedesignedtointentionallyintegratecontentandlanguagewhilepromotingacademicstudentdiscourse.

- Language-focusedmodifications,dialogicactivitiesandreferentialquestions

- Immersionteachereducationneedstoincludetrainingonanalyzingmaterials’affordancesandstrategiesformaterialsmodification.

References:Cammarata,L.,&Tedick,D.J.(2012).Balancingcontentandlanguageininstruction:Theexperienceofimmersionteachers.TheModernLanguageJournal,96(2),251–269.http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2012.01330.x

Fortune,T.W.,Tedick,D.J.,&Walker,C.(2008).Integratedlanguageandcontentteaching:Insightsfromtheimmersionclassroom.InT.W.Fortune&D.J.Tedick,(Eds.)Pathwaystomultilingualism:Evolvingperspectivesonimmersioneducation (pp.71–96).Clevedon,UK:MultilingualMatters.

Lyster,R.(2007).Learningandteachinglanguagesthroughcontent:Acounterbalancedapproach.Philadelphia:Benjamins.

vanLier,L.(2004).Theecologyandsemioticsoflanguagelearning:Asocioculturalperspective.Norwell,MA:KluwerAcademicPublishers.

Textbookà studyguideandfinalexamComprehensionquestionsbasedontextbookreading

PowerPointasreviewPowerPointasmodel

ShortinformationalvideosComprehensionquestionsbasedonintroductoryreadingsandvideos

PowerPointasguideHandoutsforsupplementalactivities

1 Teacher:

Thefirstquestion andthesecondquestionJonahjustreadtheanswers.SohowgreatthatwehaveJonahhere.

2 FS1: Dowehavetowriteincompletesentences?

3 Teacher:

Completesentences.Iwroteitintheinstructions.((studentsworking))

4 FS2: Whatistrasladaron? ((fromquestion#2))

5 Teacher:

Tomove. Trasladaristomoveasafamily.

6 MS1: Idon’tunderstandnumberone.

7 Teacher:

It’stheparagraphthatJonahjustread.Wheredidtheylive? Whatisunaaldea?

8 MS?: FromEgypt9 Teach

er:Inasmallvillage.Yes,asmallcity,a.Asmallvillage.From..

10 FS?: Whereisit?((referring towheretheinformationisinthetext))

-Studentperformedmoreacademiclanguagefunctions duringactivitiesrelatedtothePowerPoint orancillarymaterials unrelatedtothetextbook.(ExcerptoriginallyinSpanish.)

DiscussionpromptedbyEssentialQuestiononPowerPoint:Whoshouldbenefitfromacountry’sresources?

Turn Languagefunction

1 Expressingopinion,providingjustification

3 Expressing ahypotheticalsituation

5 Expressing anopinion

1 MS1: Ithinkthatumlikeeveryoneshould havelinkaminimumofresources,butuhumsomepeopleshould,if[he]haslikeagoodjob,[they]shouldhavemoreresourcesbecausetheyaregoingtoitthat

2 Teacher: Becauseitisanincentive towork?

3 MS1: Yes. Anditismoreum,butlike,ifyouarelikeinbetween(saidinEnglish) two-

4 Teacher: Inbetween5 MS1: Inbetweentwojobsuhitis

likewelfare,andtheyshouldhavetheresourcesiftheyneed,butonlyiftheyneed

6 Teacher: Okay,good.

Geography AncientEgyptSentencetype(totalinstances)SimpleSentence 9 11Appositive 2 1Relativeclause 1 1Coordinatingconjunction 2(y,pero) 2(y,o)Compoundcomplexsentence

1 0

Verbtense(totalinstances)Presenttense 16 1Imperfecttense/aspect 0 4Preteritetense/aspect 0 13