Wellington Today Wellington Today 2018 en

2018 WELLINGTON INSIGHTS BILINGUALISM Language Development Pre-production Early Production Professor Jim Cummins, an expert in bilingualism, found that a native speaker’s language proficiency development can be divided into two distinct stages: Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). Just as babies begin by listening before they can actually produce speech, children who are second language learners generally have a silent period called the preproduction stage. This stage of second language development involves primarily listening and using gestures or their first language to communicate although they may be able to produce some words. In this stage the children can produce single words and short phrases. They will understand a lot more language than they are able to produce. At this level, children have had anywhere from 3 months to a year of English. Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) are language skills needed in social situations. It is the day-to-day language needed to interact socially with other people. English language learners use these skills when they are on the playground, in the lunch room, on the school bus, at parties, playing sports and talking on the telephone. Social interactions are usually context embedded. They occur in a meaningful social context. They are not very demanding cognitively. The language required is not specialised. These language skills usually develop within six months to two years. Problems arise when adults think that a child is proficient in a language when they demonstrate good social English, this is only the first step in the journey to learning a new language. Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency CALP refers to formal academic learning. This includes listening, speaking, reading, and writing about subject area content material. This level of language learning is essential for students to succeed in school and for exams. Students need time and support to become proficient in academic areas. This usually takes from five to seven years. Recent research (Thomas & Collier, 1995) has shown that if a child has no prior schooling or has no support in native language development, it may take seven to ten years to catch up to their peers.Academic language acquisition includes skills such as comparing, classifying, synthesising, evaluating, and inferring. The language also becomes more cognitively demanding. New ideas, concepts and language are presented to the students at the same time. Jim Cummins also advances the theory that there is a common underlying proficiency (CUP) between two languages. Skills, ideas and concepts students learn in their first language will be transferred to the second language. STAGES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING What can you expect from a child who has recently begun second language acquisition? Will they be able to quickly begin speaking or is there a silent period? To answer these questions we need to examine the stages of second language development. The stages of second language development in children mirror somewhat those of first language development. 17 Children can be in this phase anywhere from 10 hours to 6 months. They may be shy and respond non-verbally. It is very important for them to have time to listen and absorb the language before they are required to speak it. This is sometimes called the Silent Period (Asher, 2000). As they move through this level, their vocabulary includes approximately 500 receptive words (word they can understand but don’t use yet), and they are beginning to develop Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS), which is language used for social communication. At this level, the adult should be doing about 90% or more of the talking, and the children should listen and respond non-verbally. In order for the adult’s speech to be comprehensible, it should include lots of pantomime, body language, facial expressions, and gestures. In addition, the adult should model rather than just verbally explain tasks and skills, and use lots of pictures and real objects. The adult’s speech should be simplified, slow, and clear. Children at this level can point to an item, nod to answer simple yes/no questions, and carry out simple commands (e.g., put the globe on the table). They have about 1,000 words in their receptive vocabulary, and as at any other level, about 10% of their vocabulary is expressive (words they regularly use). The types of questions that children can answer at this level are yes/no, ‘what’ questions that elicit 1 to 2 word responses (what is this?), ‘who’ questions (who is standing next to the equator on the floor map?), ‘either/or questions’ (is this an ocean or a sea?) and ‘where’ questions that require a simple phrase response (where is Bangkok? —In Thailand.). Simple sentences, phrases and questions are emerging as well. For example, they may be able to use the phrase, ‘How ya doin’?’ but they may not be able to understand the function of each word and how the words should form a sentence. Adults must be careful to ask children questions that are appropriate for their level and to use simplified language, avoiding idioms and uncommon vocabulary. Because children develop expressive skills in English at the early production stage, they can communicate in a simple manner with their classmates in pairs and small groups. Interacting with peers to solve problems, develop projects, discuss class topics, etc., provides better opportunities for children to understand the content as well as develop their language than many whole- class, teacher-directed activities. In whole-class activities, children are usually reluctant to ask questions if they don’t understand the lesson, but in a pair or small group activity, they may be less intimidated to ask for help. This stage may last up to six months and students will develop a receptive and active vocabulary of about 1000 words. During this stage, students can usually speak in one- or two-word phrases. Here are some of the things that students in this stage of English language learning are capable of achieving: • Ask yes/no and either/or questions • One or two word responses • Building vocabulary by using pictures • Participating in listening activities. • Understanding books with simple and predictable text This is the silent period. English language learners may have up to 500 words in their receptive vocabulary but they are not yet speaking. Some students will, however, repeat everything you say. They are not really producing language but are parroting. English language learners at this stage will need much repetition of English. Remember that the school day is exhausting for these newcomers as they are overwhelmed with listening to English language all day long. Children need time to listen to others talk, to digest what they hear, to develop receptive vocabulary, and to observe their classmates’ interactions. When they do speak, we want the speech to be real and purposeful. This does not mean children are not learning. They may understand what is being said, but they are not yet ready to talk about it. Teacher instruction is also an important factor in the length of the silent period. If the teacher provides ‘hands-on’ activities and has students interact in small groups, children will be able to participate in the life of the classroom a lot sooner. They will feel more confident in risking oral language. It should not be assumed that young learners of English do not feel embarrassment or shyness when attempting to speak in a second language. 18

Wellington Today Wellington Today 2018 en | Page 10