International Students: Challenges and Practice

Monica Smith, PhDsmithm2@sfusd.edu

August 21, 2014

Practical English Lesson #1

Meteor eater

Purpose

• To consider challenges for ELLs & international students

• To provide broad overview of new research on language acquisition.

• Learn/recall strategies to support ELLs in the classroom.

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Think-pair-share

International Students:Who comes to mind? What challenges do international

students & EFL students face?

Share with a partner

Challenges?

• What do you see the challenges to be, or imagine the challenges to be?

Language Challenges for ELLs

• Gain multifaceted knowledge that native speakers almost invisibly learned

• Rules: grammatical forms, syntax, phonology• Registers: academic and social functions, code

switching, cultural context • Vocabulary • Nuances, idioms, cadence

Language Challenges for ELLs

• Comprehend and respond to complex texts• Demonstrate understanding of content

through discussions, presentations and written performance tasks

• Use formal English in their writing & speaking• Make informed, skillful language choices to

express themselves

Cultural Challenges for ELLs

• First name basis • Seemingly no hierarchy • Kind teachers vs. tough love teachers• Lots of praise versus only praise when

someone is absolutely outstanding,• Filling silence with talking rather than silence • Barrie’s / West’s notion of the individual

versus the family, community, nation

Cultural Challenges for ELLs

• Casual attire • Food • Relationship to nature• Relationship to animals • RISK: Barrie community is seen so much as

the other that it is not respected

Common Core State Standards

• What cognitive and linguistic skills and knowledge will students need to successfully respond to this prompt?

Use what you have learned from reading “Metamorphoses” by Ovid and “To a friend whose work has come to triumph” by Anne Sexton to write an essay that analyzes how Icarus’ experience of flying is portrayed differently in the two texts. Develop your essay by providing textual evidence from both texts. Be sure to follow the conventions of standard English.

Key shifts CCSS

• New research on academic (formal) language development (see CCSS ELD Standards & Framework)

• 50% of class time is student talk • ACADEMIC LANGUAGE – Late to a meeting to partner/spouse, new

colleague, boss

Examples of strategies

• Equity cards/sticks • Sentence frames that support academic

language development (sentence structures, academic vocabulary, verb tense)

Sentence framesCOMPARE AND CONTRAST

Use the following frames when you draft a paper or prepare to speak:

To open

The similarities between ______ and ___________ indicate ___________.By comparing ___________ to _________, it becomes clear that _________.A comparison of ______ to ________reveals ___________.

To compare or contrast

Although ______and ______are _________, _____ is ______.__________ is _______, whereas _____ is _______The most obvious difference between _____ and ______ is _______.

To support your ideas

One similarity / difference is ______.Their common characteristics include: _____, _____, and ________.

To close

By comparing ________ to ______, we learn_______.The differences between _____and _____are important because _________.

Examples of strategies

• Linguistic awareness of complex text – what are the cultural, cognitive and linguistic demands of the text?

• Structured academic discussions

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Collaboration

Two friends want to meet in Washington DC for a week’s holiday. They are trying to coordinate their arrivals into Washington Dulles.

On September 15, 2014, Yulin is leaving from Beijing, China at 12.23 a.m. local time and the plane will take 14 hours to arrive at Washington Dulles. Zulaika’s plane is leaving from Luanda, Angola at 10.15pm on September 14, 2014. Her plane transits through Dubai before landing in Dulles. Each leg will take 6.5 hours.

Who will arrive first? Should they wait for each other in the airport or does it make more sense for one to get a hotel?

Readings

1) Elizabeth Redden's Integrating international students touches upon successful / unsuccessful forms of integration.

2) S.G. Stevens' Differences between the academic cultures of China and the US looks at the challenges differences might bring.

Question to consider

What changes (if any) do you believe you should make to your curriculum or teaching strategies to address the needs of EFL & international students?

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Resources Academic Language Development Network:

http://aldnetwork.orgAcademic Language and Literacy:

http://www.jeffzwiers.comCalifornia Department of Education Brokers of

ExpertiseColor in Colorado: http://www.colorincolorado.org/index.php?langswitch=enTeaching Channel:

https://www.teachingchannel.orgText Project: www.textproject.orgUnderstanding Language: http://ell.stanford.edu

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Thank you. msmith@barrie.org.