 Good morning. We're going to start today by talking about what you need to know about English language learners and language acquisition a Mean arrived to a Canadian school three years ago from Somalia He was in a refugee camp there and his literacy skills involved reading and and talking about the Koran He's at about a level three Expanding in English proficiency He's not able to write or read his first language and he's reading at about an end of grade two level in the grade five class He's friendly outgoing and motivated, but he knows that he's not doing as well as his peers in school And he loves soccer Angela is also in a means grade five classroom She arrived from the Philippines six months ago She learned some English in school in the Philippines And her first language is Tagalog, so she's able to read and write two languages She's also at a level three expanding in her English proficiency She's shy. She speaks very little in class, but she says that she likes school She's reading and at an end of grade three level and she usually comprehends what she reads Angela loves swimming These are not real English language learners, but they could be English language learners are a diverse group of students with a wide range of skills background experiences and knowledge They arrive with varying literacy skills in their first language and in English as well as different academic and socio-emotional needs depending on their background They are not a homogeneous group with similar instructional needs Therefore teaching them can be a challenge however, we do know that classroom teachers can adapt their teaching methods and materials to meet the needs of English language learners and Although there is not a magic bullet. I wish there was there are a collection of highly effective strategies that are supported by the research Before educators can plan instruction for their English language learners. There are two important considerations their level of proficiency in English and language development One of the first things that the teacher needs to determine is the students level of proficiency in English when learning another language students pass through a developmental sequence or continuum of language acquisition The continuum is divided into stages with descriptors at each level of language acquisition These are outlined in the Alberta ESL Proficiency Benchmarks document, which is meant as a guide for teachers You can see a tiny picture in the left hand corner of what that website looks like It's on the Learn Alberta website under supporting English language learners You can also see a visual of the different levels of proficiency at each Division level and notice they are numbered one to five However, the benchmarks also have a name So in Alberta the benchmarks are described as beginning, which is level one, which is the lowest proficiency of English to developing three expanding for bridging and five extending It is important to be familiar with the benchmarks so that you know the proficiency level of your student and Where they're at so that you this guides instructions The benchmarks are also used to track progress and as a way to communicate that progress to parents and other stakeholders Knowing which stage your student is at is going to help you differentiate instruction As an aside, I just want to Reiterate the importance of getting to know your ELL student Get to know their culture their background their first language or languages their caregivers In a nutshell their story and I know we do this for all students But for our English language learners, it's even doubly important to get to know and honor and understand their culture It's also really important to find out for sure what their Proficiency is in their first language if you can Because we know that acquiring another language is more successful if the student is literate in their first language. I Like this quote the research suggests that students need to be knowledgeable about their students as members of a wider community and Plan instruction that builds on that first language, and I know this is referenced somewhere else on the website So back to language development and language acquisition Students require different kinds of support at each level of language acquisition Even students at the same benchmark level are going to require different kinds of support as Amin and Angela exemplified Earlier when I talked about them How do teachers know what kind of support and how much support a student needs? To help answer that question. We're going to look at Jim Cummins theory of language development He suggested that there are two kinds of language proficiency basic interpersonal communication skills and Cognitive academic language proficiency This is represented in this visual of an iceberg The top part that you can see you can think of as that social language and it takes one to two years to acquire and Calp is the academic language Shown below the water which is much larger and unseen So let's talk a little bit about these two distinctions Bix is the language needed in social situations and it's supported by facial Expressions gestures and tone of voice. It's also context embedded. So that means it happens in the here and now there it's Consists of usually simple sentence structure and common frequent vocabulary Bix happens on the playground in the lunch room and on the school bus for example if an English language learner is playing on the playground and Another person comes in front of them when they're waiting to go down the slide and says I'm going to go down the slide next Chances are the ELL understood that message Calp on the other on the other hand Includes lectures textbook language Specialized terminology and it tends to be context reduced and abstract It includes a vocabulary that drives from Greek and Latin root words and it also includes how words are put together syntactically All students are acquiring Calp at school However ELLs have the task of catching up to their to their age appropriate peers if we use the playground example again It's highly unlikely that a student would hear there are many alternatives for the responsible use and disposal of waste materials We just don't talk like that socially Here's another example of Calp from a grade 7 science textbook If you read that to yourself, you can just see all of the academic language and the way that words are put together syntactically The water cycle is the continuous movement of water through an ecosystem The cycle in but this cycle involves four main processes the first two processes evaporation transpiration Move water up from the earth into the atmosphere the second to condensation and precipitation return water to the earth Now if we ask the student to explain their understanding of the water cycle, they might say The water goes up into the air and it turns into clouds and then it comes down raining We might think they have a pretty good understanding of the water cycle, but notice that they have not used any academic vocabulary It is the development and use of academic vocabulary that will contribute to a student's long-term success at school Academic language cannot be left to chance encounters merely being exposed to academic academic English is not going to assure the development of Calp also this distinction between the the Social language bix and the academic language of Calp is not to be taken in a simplistic binary way Language acquisition does move along a continuum and students are acquiring both at the same time But it is a helpful distinction to know It's important because it helps draw attention to the timelines and Challenges that second language learners encounter as the attempt to catch up to their peers It also helps teachers be aware that if a student sounds pretty good in English But they're struggling with school related tasks that They still need time and support to acquire that academic language of school Many ELL stall at the intermediate level of language proficiency as they progress through through the grades Leading to an academic decline and this can be again construed as some kind of a disability When in fact if teachers are aware of these two kinds of language development, they recognize that that student needs more support To acquire and time to acquire that academic language Thank you