English Language Learners and the New Standards. Margaret Heritage

an elementary school is helped to recognize that the phrase “once upon a time” introduces a story. She also learns that story structure involves a character, a setting, and that something happens to the character (the plot). She will also expect to hear or read transition statements that describe the sequential action in the story: then, after that, suddenly, meanwhile. Finally, she will know that in the end something will happen to resolve a situation in happy or unhappy ways. Recognizing the “landscape” of the story and the expressions usually used to move the action forward helps her concentrate her efforts on making sense of the novelty in the story—how this story is different from (and similar to) others she has heard or read before.

      The predictability that comes from knowledge of story elements and expressions is essential for ELLs’ understanding of the genre’s communicative purpose and organizational pattern, and assists students in recognizing what tends to come first and what follows in the ideas presented.

      Similarly, when ELL students encounter a taxonomic report, one that classifies items into classes or types, they need to understand that the purpose of these texts is to organize some area of knowledge according to a class-subclass categorization or a part-to-whole arrangement. They also need to know that structurally these texts usually begin with a general statement whose purpose is to classify and define, and that they then name the classes as a macro theme. Students need to be aware that what occurs next is a description of subclasses and their distinctive characteristics, with the addition of parts and functions of each component. In terms of language, ELLs need to know that taxonomies include definitions of technical terms, classifiers and describers in noun groups, generalized participants, “timeless” simple present tense (“It rains a lot in Portland”), relating verbs (be, have, seem, appear), a topic as a theme, general-to-specific organization of information within paragraphs, and no time sequence.¹⁷

      As another example of an opportunity to develop students’ understanding of language patterns, in beginning courses, students could learn how to understand the purpose and organization of a text by perusing it first and learning to notice key details, such as, does the author say he is going to tell a personal story, describe a process, or explain why something is valuable? They could also focus on the words that link ideas. For instance, do the students find words that refer to sequences, such as first, then, after that? If so, this is a clue that the text may contain instructions or be the narrative of an event.

      Students could also learn that many words used in disciplinary texts look similar in English and in Latin- or Greek-derived languages, such as Spanish. For example, cognates, words that look alike in two languages and share the same meanings, are recognizable in print, although they are pronounced differently. Structure and the Spanish word estructura look similar, as do composition and composición, so the chances are that they refer to the same concept. Students need to see the words in Spanish and English to be able to identify them as cognates and assume they mean the same thing in both languages. Since a discussion about cognates and their exceptions conducted in English would be too complex for students at the beginning level of proficiency to understand, the explanation about cognates could be given in their native language if the teacher speaks it. For example, if the teacher speaks Spanish, using this language may be helpful to most students, given that the highest percentage of ELL students in U.S. schools speak Spanish as their family language. What teachers say, even those who speak Spanish, needs to be carefully prepared with the help of specialists, so that students are provided with a script that neither overexplains nor does not accomplish its purpose. These explanations should initially be given to teachers in writing to help them offer students the “just-right” kind of information, no more and no less. An example of such a script is:

      Miren, muchachos, hay palabras que en inglés se llaman cognates—en español, “cognados.” Estas palabras se ven muy similares tanto en uno como en otro idioma si estos derivan del griego o latín, y tienden a ser palabras importantes en el desarrollo de prácticas disciplinarias. Cuando lean un texto, revísenlo para ver si encuentran cognates, porque pueden serle muy útiles. Por ejemplo, composition y composición, relevance y relevancia, y structure y estructura son cognados en inglés y español.¹⁸

      Many students, however, come from homes where languages other than Spanish are spoken. In this case, teachers could engage speakers of those languages from the community in preparing translations, which may be written or recorded.

      With such activities, students beginning to learn English are able to develop understandings that are typically not expected of students at early levels of proficiency in their second language. In contrast, when students focus on discrete formal language knowledge, they do not develop academic skills and language awareness that will be transferable. Emphasis on discrete pieces of language does not lead to generativity; instead, students’ language skills remain inert. Over time, metalinguistic skills, such as the ability to recognize types of texts by concrete indicators, are practiced in English and appropriated, while other disciplinary practices become the focus of apprenticeship in English.

      Knowledge of the patterns of language is essential not just to orient second-language learners through their work in a language they are beginning to control, but also to help them grasp the most important rules of the system and gain confidence in their use of the language. Recognizing patterns leads students to feel more in charge of their own learning—to be able to use language across contexts and to develop their agency as learners.

      From . . . Using lessons focused on individual ideas or texts

      To . . . Using clusters of lessons centered on texts that are interconnected by purpose or by theme