Cope 1
Monica Cope
25.01.2007
LPP
Linguistic Profile: GunnHigh School
Part I: Data and Linguistic Profile
1. Contacts:
I contacted many people at Gunn, including my Cooperating Teachers, the students in my placement, an English Learner(EL) teacher, an EL aide, the school secretaries, the English Language Development (ELD) coordinator, and several other teachers. Communicating with a variety of people helped me gain insight into the different perspectives regarding Gunn’s resources and support for EL students.
2.Focus of Class:
I chose to focus on my primary placement which is a French I class. The purpose of this class is to help students develop proficiency in the four basic language skills—reading, writing, listening, and speaking—and to increase the students’ knowledge and appreciation of the diverse cultures of French-speaking countries. This class is designed for all students in grades nine through twelve who have never taken French before or who took French I and did not feel adequately prepared for French II.It is expected that students who have already progressed to French II or above do not take this class. Currently, we have students from all four grades as well as one student who took French I before. None of the other students had taken any French prior to this class. There is no tracking in the World Languages department at Gunn in the sense that there are no honors or remedial classes for each level. However, the department is scaffolded in the sense that in order for a student to progress to the next level, he or she must first pass the previous level with a C or better. Because I am teaching French I, however, this system does not affectstudents’ entry into my class. Students with learning disabilities are not discouraged from taking World Languages classes; I have four students with learning difficulties in my class, one of whom is also an EL.
3. Linguistic background of GunnHigh School:
The approximately 1,800 adolescents that comprise the student body at Gunn come from a variety of backgrounds. According to Great Schools (2006), fifty-four percent of students are Caucasian, thirty-two percent are Asian, five percent are Latino, and two percent are African American. The remainder of the students is Filipino, American Indian, Pacific Islander, or a combination of one or more races. The Asian population is significantly higher than the state average, and the Hispanic population is significantly lower. Many Gunn students come from other countries—predominately China and South American countries—and speak a language other than English at home: the most common languages among ELsinclude Mandarin (32%, significantly higher than state average for ELs), Spanish (20%, significantly lower than state average for ELs), Russian and Korean (11% each, higher than state average for ELs), and Hebrew (6%, higher that state average for ELs). Eight percent of students are considered English Learners (about 145 students).
Gunn uses the CELDT to determine whether a student is an EL or is Fluent English Proficient (FEP). If a student is in the Early Advanced stage or lower of learning English, he or she is considered an EL. ELs at Gunn are asked to participate in the on-site ELD program.In this program, students take shelteredlanguage arts and social studies classes that focus on teaching the English language as well as these content areas. These classes are taught by the same teachers that teach mainstream classes, but the content is a bit watered down and the entire class is comprised of EL students of varying proficiency levels. Except for language arts and social studies, students take mainstream classes. With an ELD teacher’s recommendation, ELs may work with a Primary Language Tutor during their first year in the Palo AltoUnifiedSchool District. The tutor collaborates with the ELs’ mainstream classroom teachers in order to help the student complete assignments in these classes.Many students do this when they are in the Early Advanced stage of learning English. This way, they do not have to take sheltered classes, yet they still receive supplemental help and instruction for their core classes. After the first year, ELs are expected to be able to take mainstream classes and complete all assignments on their own. Most students only spend about one semester in sheltered classes.
4.Linguistic background of French I:
My primary placement gives a fairly accurate representation of student demographics at Gunn. There are twenty-five students in my class, including fifteen girls and ten boys. Twenty-one students are freshmen, three are sophomores, and one is a senior. There are nine Asian or Asian-American students, one Indian student, four Latino students, and eleven Caucasian students, including one German exchange student whose first language is German. Four of the other ten Caucasian students speak second languages: two speak Hebrew, one speaks Farsi, and one speaks Bengali. The Indian student is bilingual in English and Sinhalese. Of the nine Asian and Asian-American students, seven speak Mandarin (five of these seven are native speakers) and one is a native Japanese speaker. All four Latino students are native Spanish speakers andthree have moved to the United States within the past four years. Two of the native Spanish speakers are fluent in English, the third (who I will call Paula)can take part in conversations and understand about eighty percent of the information she hears, and the fourth (who I will call Ralph) understands about seventy percent of what he hears and lacks oral skills. In addition to Spanish and English, Ralph also speaks Quechua, a dialect common in Peru. Paula, Ralph, the German exchange student, and one native Mandarin speakerare all classified as ELs. The native Mandarin speaker is considered an Early Advanced EL, Paula is in between the Early Advanced and Intermediate levels, and Ralph and the German exchange student are classified as Intermediate ELs. Three students—two native Mandarin speakers and one native Spanish speaker—have been reclassified as Fluent English Proficient—and the native Japanese speaker opted out of the ELD program via a waiver when she was at the Early Advanced level.There was no data regarding CELDT results for the other students who are not native English speakers, although they all speak fluent English to the best of my knowledge.[1]
5.Language Demands of French I:
Many students struggle with the language demands they face in French I. Although one of the EL students, Ralph, does have the most difficultly understanding directions—I need to explain directions to him individually about half of the time—other students also struggle with directions when they are given only in French. For Ralph, who also has learning disabilities, the difficultly occurs when instructions are given in English, as I have a tendency to speak more quickly in English. I often forget that not all students’ first language is English, and thus I do not adjust my pace when I speak in English as much as I do when I speak in French.It is important to note that because this student has learning disabilities, it is difficult to tell to what extent his language demands relate to the fact that he is an EL. The other three EL students do not have as many difficulties understanding me, regardless of what language I speak. In addition to Ralph, two of the other threestudents with learning difficulties also have trouble meeting language demands. However, they are more likely than Ralph to ask me clarifying questions. For all of these students, the issue lies in the fact that it takes them longer to process the information they hear and must produce—whether in English or in French—than it does for other students in the class.
There are a wide variety of language demands in our French I classroom. In regards to productive skills, speaking demands include one word responses to fill in the blank questions, one sentence answers (usually to book exercises), dialogues, and presentations of projects. Writing tasks include formulating single words or complete sentences and constructing paragraphs and dialogues. Both speaking and writing demands are often done in pairs and small groups. Sometimes I ask for whole class spoken responses.In terms of receptive skills, students are asked to read short sentences and paragraphs in French—longer material is in English—and listen to lengthy dialogue in French. Very little English is spoken, unless it is to clarify grammar points or directions. Reading is often accomplished through pair or small group work, whereas listening comprehension is achieved individually.
Language Demand / Individual / Pair / Small Group / Whole ClassSpeaking
- One word responses / X / X
- One sentence responses / X / X / X
- Dialogues / X / X
- Presentations / X / X / X
Writing
- Single words / X / X
- One sentence / X / X / X
- One paragraph / X
- Dialogues / X / X
Reading
- Short sentences / X / X
- Paragraphs / X / X / X
Listening
- One sentence / X
- Multiple sentences / X
- Paragraphs / X
Not all students participate equally in class discussions, primarily due to shyness or lack of confidence in their ability to speak French. However, Marcel and I have been working to improve this situation, and we have implemented a system that ensures each student speaks at least once per period. We have a cup of popsicle sticks with students’ names on them, and we pull randomly from this cup when we want a student response. The French-only policy that we have adopted still proves problematic at times, but with this system students expect that they will be called on to speak in French at some point throughout the class. Enforcing a French-only policy (in which the students may only speak in French) is by far the most challenging language demand for the class as a whole: on a student questionnaire, sixteen of twenty-five students listed this as the most difficult aspect of French class. However, three of the four EL students noted that understanding the teachers when they give directions in English is the most difficult for them. Furthermore, they do not benefit as much from English clarifications of complex French ideas. It does not appear that students of different language backgrounds had common difficulties—the ELs, regardless of their native language, just had a harder time understanding English instructions in general. The students with learning disabilities also noted that the amount of material we cover and speed at which we learn it is challenging. Two of the students who I consider as shy mentioned tasks requiring prolonged speaking in front of the entire class (such as presentations and dialogues) as particularly challenging. These responses show the different learning needs of students based on their varying backgrounds.
Part II: Reflections
1. Data Collection:
Gathering data proved easier than I might have expected. Although time-consuming, I was able to speak with many contacts at Gunn, all of whom were more than willing to discuss the situation of ELs at Gunn. Many of these people seemed relieved to be able to speak openly about the issue of ELs and expressed interest in examining how they could help make the current ELD program better. Furthermore, I had access to all of the cumulative folders for students in my class, which gave me substantial information regarding individual CELDT test results, rankings, and native languages spoken by the students. Overall, this was a positive experience, especially when I spoke with individual students. Many of the students were excited when I asked if they spoke other languages. Their voices boomed and they smiled as if they were saying thank you for validating my ability in another language.
2. Future Endeavors:
This assignment allowed me to examine my own teaching bias—a bias that I did not even know existed—of assuming all my students spoke English as their native language. Because I teach in a foreign language classroom that has a French-only speaking policy, I rarely have the opportunity to hear my students speak in English. Furthermore, three of the four ELs are among the quietest students in the class, thus when students are allowed to speak in English, these particular students say little, if anything, at all. Next year, in order to have a clearer picture of what languages students speak and their proficiency levels in these languages, I will ask students to complete a language profile at the beginning of the year. I can then examine cumulative files and conference with individual students to gather more information. As a French educator, I believe knowing the background languages of EL students, and of all students who speak languages other than English, is crucial. Knowing this information will allow me to make connections between French and the students’ native languages, as I know a fair amount of Spanish myself, and I can always refer to the other foreign languages teachers in my department for questions regarding other languages. I would also like to explore other resources that can help me in this manner by looking into online language instruction blogs and discussion groups and speaking with students themselves to try to discern language similarities together. Furthermore, validating students’ success in another language can encourage them of their potential success in learning an additional language—in my case, French.
I still struggle with the issue of how best to instruct in English. Certain lessons, for example culturally-based topics and challenging grammar points, may be more beneficial if taught in English, especially at the lower levels and if the daily objective is understanding the material not developing language skills. How do I present this information in an equitable manner if I am teaching in English? If I speak too quickly, ELs may not be able to understand me, but if I speak too slowly, I may lose some native English speakers because they are bored. Where can I find resources that enlighten me as to how to solve this predicament? Do I need to reexamine the way in which I teach in order to use only French in the classroom? Finally, how do I encourage ELs to speak in French more often in class? Does the popsicle stick method I am currently using really work, or does it raise the affective filter? Are ELs quieter than their peers because they are accustomed to being stereotyped as incapable of speaking the language? If so, how do I build community and boost confidence levels in order to ensure this does not happen in my classroom? These are all questions I hope to examine before embarking on my teaching journey next fall.
Works Cited
Great Schools Website. (2005-2006). HenryM.GunnHigh School. California Department of Education. 20January 2007.
[1] I gathered this data from several interviews with the students, from their cumulative files, and from information my cooperating teacher already had on the students.