Bilingual Students—Deaf and Hearing-- Learn about Science: Using Visual Strategies, Technology and Culture
Jean F. Andrews, Mary Anne Gentry, Melissa DeLana and David Cocke
Lamar University
Contact Author
Dr. Jean F. Andrews
PO Box 10076
Dept of Communication Disorders & Deaf Education
Lamar University
Beaumont, TX 77710
409-880-1848
Submitted to: Language Learner, March 2006
Jean F. Andrews is a professor of Deaf Education in the Dept of Communication Disorders & Deaf Education at Lamar University, Beaumont, TX. Dr. Dr. Mary Anne Gentry is a professor of Deaf Education. Melissa DeLana is a doctoral student and instructor. Dr. David Cocke is a professor of Chemistry and holds the Gill Chair for Chemistry.
This paper was supported by two National Science Foundation Grants (NFS #043567 and NFS #533227) with Dr. Andrews and Dr. Cocke as Project Investigators.
Bilingual Students—Deaf and Hearing-- Learn about Science: Using Visual Strategies, Technology and Culture
Jean F. Andrews, Mary Anne Gentry, Melissa DeLana and David Cocke
Lamar University
“The Grand Canyon is the world’s premier example of soil erosion. See Figure 1.” How will bilingual students, lacking science vocabulary in English, visualize this concept as they read? The traditional process of labeling pictures and diagrams is rarely the effective choice. The creative mind must be stimulated. Visual imagery must be evoked. Conceptual hook-ups to real life experiences must be provided. True science teaching should support students on a quest to understand, enjoy, and ponder scientific concepts. Under two recent National Science Foundation projects, teachers are learning to do just that- enrich science learning experiences. These projects have provided preservice and inservice teachers the tools they need to fully engage their bilingual students during science instruction. Hands-on, minds-on, inquiry-based, visually supported activities that embed technology and cultural elements across the curriculum have been celebrated.
Six school sites are participating in Lamar University’s two year long professional development training designed teachers of deaf and hearing bilingual students in grades K-8. Science teachers from the Texas School for the Deaf, the Alabama School for the Deaf, the Louisiana School for the Deaf, the National Deaf Academy in Mt. Dora, Florida, Fletcher Elementary School in Beaumont, Texas and Ruben C. Rodriguez Elementary School in Edcouch, Texas have been collaborating to develop science teaching materials to increase bilingual children’s interest in and knowledge about science. These teachers come together twice a year to receive training in inquiry/ problem-based learning strategies (Abruscato, 2004) along with bilingual literacy strategies (Simms, Andrews & Smith, 2005; Cappellini, 2005) that fully support science teaching. When they arrive back at their respective campuses, they receive high-tech, low-cost equipment: multimedia stations, document cameras, computers, printers, LCD projectors, digital microscopes, desktop videoconferencing, digital cameras and digital camcorders. The combination of training, curriculum development, and technological resources ensures instructional effectiveness and improves teacher motivation for immediate implementation.
Using digital technologies to enhance native language instruction, teachers are able to make science concepts come alive. For the hearing bilingual children, this includes the use of Spanish, for the deaf bilinguals, American Sign Language (ASL). English then, is emphasized as a second language, with science concepts understood through dual language transfer. Teachers learn to incorporate visual techniques, enabling technologies and linguistic bridging strategies to support this dynamic process.
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2001) standards for rigorous assessment in science is sifting down into lower elementary grades sending some teachers of ELL (English Language Learners) classrooms into panic. Teachers under these NSF projects have no need to worry, however. Lamar University and The National Science Foundation are helping teachers understand that assessment is not just an end of the year event, as with state competency exams. Rather, effective assessment is an ongoing process, embedded into labs, field excursions, social exchange, and student projects. Assessment becomes the means, then, for ongoing evaluation of teaching and learning, rather than simply as an end to an instructional unit or single course.
Through current and previous NSF efforts researchers at Lamar University are entering science classrooms, talking to bilingual teachers, and providing them with professional development in science teaching, curriculum, and authentic assessment. These efforts have provided insights into instructional effectiveness for bilingual science classrooms. More specifically, observation of both the hearing and deaf groups have provided a wealth of understanding regarding the underlying mechanisms in learning English as a second language and how this extends into science learning. See Figure 2.
Bilingual Science Learners: Similarities and Differences
Many similarities exist between deaf and hearing bilingual students. Both groups of students enter the classroom with varied language abilities in both their first and second languages. For example, many (hearing) Spanish/English bilingual students possess weak Spanish skills. Likewise, many deaf ASL/English bilingual students have weak ASL skills. Additionally, they will all differ on their levels of second language competency. Consequently, they experience difficulty transferring their L1 schema to their L2 learning without teacher guidance. For example, they may mix the grammars of both of their languages when writing, a phenomenon referred to as cross-linguistic transfer. The bilingual students must be taught to utilize bilingual techniques, such as translations and codeswitching, to create a bridge that extends from their first language schema to second language content learning. The struggle to learn to read English academic texts, such as their science textbook, is extremely demanding. To further complicate the problem, teachers in bilingual classrooms may have insufficient linguistic skills and training to provide appropriate language modeling and/or assist in the language learning, science learning process. Hearing and deaf bilinguals alike have another great need. There is a lack of dual language materials, both Spanish/English and ASL/English.
While certain aspects are similar, others remain unique to each population. Clearly, hearing bilinguals have certain advantages deaf bilinguals do not have. They can learn to read and write their first language (Spanish) then transfer this knowledge of concepts. They can use cognates to bridge their literacy skills in English. Cognates are the thousands of words that sound almost the same in English and in Spanish and have the same root and meaning. The hearing Spanish/English bilingual student can tap into these words and use them to advance their knowledge of English and to improve their academic vocabulary in science. Additionally, hearing bilinguals are constantly bombarded by incidental social language input upon which they can build their academic English skills. These advantages are not outside of the experience of the deaf bilingual.
They are not bombarded with social language on the playground, in the halls, or even in their homes (Nover, Andrews, Everhart & Bradford, 2002). Deaf ASL/English bilinguals cannot take advantage of cognates. Additionally, challenges are imposed by the conflict in modality of their two languages; ASL does not have a written form.
Teachers of bilingual children, then, not only need training in science pedagogy, but also training that targets strategies for dual language development in order to be effective in the science classroom. The process of teaching language becomes a critical factor because without this knowledge science concepts may not be fully grasped. They must not undervalue the usefulness of first language support during instruction, even when the content may be expressed in English print. Furthermore, they must be trained in how to develop quality dual language materials for use in the science classroom.
Supporting Language and Culture
Understanding the underlying mechanisms needed to learn English as a second language is of primary importance, whether students are deaf or hearing. Investigating effective ways to teach these English language learners how to enjoy, think about, and learn science, was paramount to the project. To help teachers stimulate discussions that might move learners to this end, the Project promoted the use of Bloom’s taxonomy. To increase understanding on the part of teachers and students, the taxonomy was provided in English, Spanish, and ASL. To provide a conceptual hook-up for students, digital images of familiar locations were provide when teaching concepts, generating discussions, and for use during the authentic assessment process. To help organize the science and language pieces, Project specialists developed authoring software that combined pictures and text in all three languages (Foots, Reescano & Spencer, 2006).
Embedding culturally relevant information into the project was also deemed important for effective instruction since it increases student interest and motivation. For example, the teachers’ materials in Alabama, west Texas and central Texas showed different environments that their respective students could identify with. One science teacher in west Texas incorporated Mexican folktales in his teaching of science. Another teacher provided opportunities for deaf children to read about Deaf scientists and their contributions to science. Five such stories, provided by Dr. Harry Lang, were translated from English biographies to signed ASL and oral Spanish and provided to participants on CD-Rom (Lang & Meath-Lang, 1995). The same process was completed for biographies of Hispanic scientists.
Developing Problem-Based Learning Lesson Plans
A vital component of this Project included bringing together preservice and inservice teachers to develop a bank of conceptually-based lesson plans that utilize a problem-based learning design. Embedding science concepts across the curriculum was science across the curriculum was emphasized. Additionally, the use of visual images as a key component, rather than a supporting tool was promoted. Adding captioned descriptions in ASL and in Spanish provided another strategy for language transfer. These teaching protocols, created in two software packages- Microsoft Power Point and Sectorware, (Spencer, 2006) will be made available to teachers nationwide. Other vital information such as science writing samples that illustrate cross-linguistic transfer, strategies for incorporating assessment into labs, field excursions, social exchanges, and student projects will be disseminated as well.
Technology
High-tech, low-cost equipment: multimedia stations, document cameras, computers, printers, LCD projectors, digital microscopes, desktop videoconferencing, digital cameras and digital camcorders were provided for each classroom teacher in the project. The combination of training, curriculum development, and technological resources ensures instructional effectiveness and improves teacher motivation for immediate implementation.
Balanced Literacy Practices for Bilingual Students
There are numerous strategies available to bilingual teachers who work with ASL/English or Spanish/English bilingual students. It was imperative that teachers be provided with information regarding these. Below are a summary of many of these bilingual strategies we are working with teachers in the teaching of K-8 science content based on the work of our colleagues (Nover and al., 2002; Freeman & Freeman, 1998; Li, 2005, Lang & Meath-Lang, 1995; Padden & Ramsey, 1998; Simms, Andrews & Smith, 2005; Cappellini, 2005).
Table 1
Strategies for Balanced Literacy Practices
Deaf ASL/English Bilinguals / Hearing Spanish/English BilingualsTranslation (Free and Literal) / Translation (Free and Literal)
Preview-View-Review
(Li, 2005) / Preview-View-Review
(Freeman & Freeman, 1998)
Codeswitching (Fingerspelling)
(word, sentence, paragraph, lesson levels)
(Padden & Ramsey, 2000) / Codeswitching
(word, sentence, paragraph, lesson levels)
(Freeman & Freeman, 1998)
(In ASL) Storysigning, ASL Guided Retelling, Mini-Grammar lessons in ASL, ASL discussions, ASL summaries
(Simms and al., 2005). / (In Spanish) Read Alouds, Spanish Discussions, Retellings, Guided Reading, Shared Reading, Independent Reading, Literature Circles (Cappellini, 2005).
(In ASL/English) Storysigning, Storyreading, Guided Reading, ASL/English Mini-Grammar Lessons, Fingerspelling (Simms and al., 2005) / (In English) Read Alouds, Guided Reading, Shared Reading, Independent Reading, Retellings, Literature Circles (Cappellini, 2005).
Use of Fingerspelling to Expand Vocabulary (Padden & Ramsey, 1998) / Use of Cognates for Vocabulary Development (Cappellini, 2005)
Deaf Culture
(Deaf Scientists) (Lang & Meath-Lang, 1995) / Mexican-American Culture
(Hispanic Scientists)
Science lab reports and journals in written English and signed on videotape in ASL (Simms and al., 2005) / Science lab reports and journals in written Spanish and in written English
Guided Writing, ASL/English Mini-Grammar Lessons, Fingerspelling-to- Writing Lessons, Writer’s Workshop
(Simms and al., 2005) / Guided Writing, Spanish/English Mini-Grammar Lessons, Writers’ Workshop
Summary
Deaf and hearing bilingual students share similar characteristics in learning English as a second language. They also share fundamental differences such as deaf bilinguals to not receive the amount and quality of exposure to both their languages (ASL and English) as hearing bilingual students do, thus making the language learning processes more difficult for the deaf bilingual. Nonetheless, preservice and inservice bilingual teachers in Deaf Education and Bilingual Education can work together to develop dual language materials in ASL/English or Spanish/English as they jointly explore the underlying mechanisms in how their students learn English across the curriculum. These NSF projects have resulted in two doctoral dissertations related to bilingual science education as well as funded schools and teachers in stipends and technology to improve science learning with deaf and hearing bilingual students.
References
Abruscato, J. (2004). Teaching children science: Discovery methods for elementary and middle grades. 2nd edition, Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Cappellini, M. (2005). Establishing the balanced literacy program: Reading to, with and by children. Balanced Reading Instruction, 12, 1-37.
Crawford, J. (2004). Educating English Learners: Language diversity in the classroom. Los Angeles, CA: Bilingual Educational Services Inc.
Foots, B., Reescano, M. & Spencer, K. (2004). Teaching science with pictures. In R. Yager (Ed.). Exemplary science in grades 5-8: Standards-based success stories. National Science Teachers Association Press, Arlington, VA.
Fradd, S. & Lee, O. (1999). Teachers’ role in promoting science inquiry with students from diverse language backgrounds. Educational Researcher, 28, 21-27.
Fradd, S., Lee, O., Sutman, E. & Saxton, M. (2002). Materials development promoting science inquiry with English language learners: A case study. Bilingual Research Journal, 25(4), 479-501.
Freeman, Y. & Freeman, D. (1988). ESL/EFL Teaching: Principles for Success. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Hart, J. & Lee, O. (2003). Teacher Professional Development to Improve the Science and Literacy Achievement of English Language Learners. Bilingual Research Journal, 27(30), 475-501.
Lang, H. & Meath-Lang, B. (1995). Deaf Persons in the Arts and Sciences. Westport, CN: Greenwood.
Li, Y. (2005). The effects of the bilingual strategy—Preview, View, Review—on the comprehension of science concepts by deaf ASL/English and Hearing Mexican-American bilingual students. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas.