Week 2

03CH_Piper_Language.pdf

Learning Outcomes By the end of this chapter you will be able to accomplish the following objectives:

1. Explicate the differences between simultaneous and sequential second language acquisition and explain the relevance to ELL teachers.

2. Summarize the major differences between first and second language acquisition in children.

3. Differentiate among the defining characteristics of each of the five stages of language learning.

4. Explain why the question “How long does it take to learn English?” is so difficult to answer.

The English Language Learner 3

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Section 3.1 Becoming Bilingual

Introduction Lucy and Dinh are both in third grade, and they are both bilingual: Portuguese-English in Lucy’s case and Vietnamese-English in Dinh’s. Their teachers would say that Lucy is a more fluent speaker, although she didn’t start school in English until second grade, while Dinh began in kindergarten, but they would also praise Dinh’s reading ability. At home, Dinh’s fam- ily exposed him to English from the time he was three years old, but Lucy had no exposure until she started school. Both children are in a mainstream classroom now, and they require little additional language support. Yes, both children are bilingual and share the same class- room, but they took different paths to get there, as did the other eight English language learn- ers in the class.

In this chapter we explore different paths to bilingualism. By examining the similarities and differences between first and second language acquisition, we see how, for example, young learners might take a different path than older learners. We also see that whatever the route to bilingualism, most second language learners go through the same five stages. However, the time it takes to arrive at the final destination can vary widely, depending on a number of dif- ferent factors. The ultimate goal in teaching ELLs is that they become functioning bilinguals, so we begin with a brief discussion of bilingualism. “Bilingualism refers to the ability to speak two languages, and bilinguals are those who do so” (Piper, 2012, p. 84). Not everyone who is bilingual is equally so—most people feel more comfortable in one language or the other, and will also rate their own proficiency higher in one or the other. Some are highly proficient in speaking their second language but less confident in writing it, and there are numerous other variations in skill sets among bilinguals. But fundamentally, some degree of functional ability in two or more languages gives one the right to claim bilingualism.

3.1 Becoming Bilingual Although the number of bilinguals is definitely increasing, monolingualism is still the norm in this country. That trend is changing, however, as we saw in Chapter 1, and so it is impor- tant that teachers understand that there may be significant differences in how their monolin- gual and bilingual students learn. In part, this is because acquiring two languages affects the brain differently than acquiring just one. In recent years, researchers have discovered that the benefits of bilingualism have a basis in brain structure and function.

The benefits of bilingualism are well documented in the research literature. Researchers have found, for example, that bilingual or multilingual children and adults are more toler- ant of ambiguity. Tolerance of ambiguity is associated with personality traits and with learn- ing style. Those with a higher tolerance for ambiguity tend to be more open-minded and less rigid, authoritarian, or dogmatic than those with low levels of tolerance for ambiguity (Dewaele & van Oudenhoven, 2009; Dewaele, 2013). People who know and use two or more languages have also been found to have higher levels of cognitive empathy as well (Dewaele & Wei, 2012; Dewaele & Wei, 2013).

In terms of learning, researchers have shown that those with a low tolerance for ambiguity tend to find complex or unfamiliar tasks stressful, while bilinguals are more likely to react

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Section 3.1 Becoming Bilingual

more positively, viewing them as an interesting challenge (Furnham & Ribchester, 1995; Dewaele & Wei, 2012). We also know that bilingual children are

. . . better able than their monolingual peers at focusing on a task while tun- ing out distractions. A similar enhanced ability to concentrate—a sign of a well-functioning working memory—has been found in bilingual adults, par- ticularly those who became fluent in two languages at an early age. It may be that managing two languages helps the brain sharpen—and retain—its ability to focus while ignoring irrelevant information. (Perry, 2008, para. 5)

Furthermore, there is evidence that the benefits of bilingualism appear very early in life:

. . . researchers have shown bilingualism to positively influence attention and conflict management in infants as young as seven months. In one study, researchers taught babies growing up in monolingual or bilingual homes that when they heard a tinkling sound, a puppet appeared on one side of a screen. Halfway through the study, the puppet began appearing on the opposite side of the screen. In order to get a reward, the infants had to adjust the rule they’d learned; only the bilingual babies were able to successfully learn the new rule (Kovacs & Mehler, 2009). This suggests that even for very young children, nav- igating a multilingual environment imparts advantages that transfer beyond language. (Marian & Shook, 2012, para. 11)

There is additional evidence that learning multiple languages in childhood will pay lifelong benefits. In one study, monolingual and bilingual subjects in their 60s

. . . underwent brain scans while performing a cognitive task that required them to switch back and forth among several different ideas. Both groups per- formed the task accurately, but bilinguals were faster, as well as more meta- bolically economical, in executing the cognitive mission, using less energy in the frontal cortex than the monolinguals. (Kluger, 2013, para. 12)

Other scientists have found that dementia and Alzheimer’s disease appear later in bilinguals than in monolinguals (Sohn, 2013). What is not known is whether the actual onset is later or whether bilinguals are simply better at coping with it. In either case, the question is why? It may be that because bilinguals are accustomed to switching back and forth between lan- guages, suppressing one to speak the other, that their brains have formed enhanced brain networks, making them better prepared to compensate when Alzheimer’s sets in (Rodriguez, 2014; Schweizer et al., 2011). Researchers speculate that the switching back and forth amounts to a “workout” that increases blood flow and oxygen to the brain, keeping the neural connectors healthy (Bialystok, et al., 2004). Or it may be that the bilingual brain is structur- ally different. Rodriguez and other researchers (Mechelli et al., 2004) affirm earlier evidence suggesting that a number of different factors—age, manner of acquisition, level of proficiency attained, and the linguistic learning environment—have an impact on the brain’s function and structure.

Acquiring a second language increases the density of gray matter (brain tissue that contains information-processing cells) in the left inferior parietal cortex,

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Section 3.1 Becoming Bilingual

and the degree of structural reorganization in this region is modulated by the proficiency attained and the age of acquisition. (Rodriguez, 2014, p. 7)

The positive effects of bilingualism on the brain appear to be strongest in those who acquired their two languages before the age of five, when the brain still exhibits its most robust neural plasticity (Petitto, 2009; Rodriguez, 2014). Because children who are exposed to and learn two languages from birth reach the same milestones as monolinguals at roughly the same time—age of speech onset, age when 50 words have been attained, and so on—psychologists and educa- tors have long believed that a single process or mechanism is used for both. In recent years, this belief has been sustained by research findings. Specifically, the brains of early bilinguals “. . . uti- lize overlapping classic language areas within the left hemisphere for each of their languages, and crucially, the same language areas universally observed in monolinguals” (Petitto, 2009, p. 190). Learning two languages before the age of five is considered to be simultaneous bilingualism, but the benefits to bilingualism do not vanish if the learning occurs later than age five.

Later bilingualism changes “. . . the typical pattern of the brain’s neural organization for lan- guage processing, but early bilingual exposure does not” (Petitto, 2009, p. 191). In general, the changes are in the brain structure (youngest bilinguals) and in the organization of the brain (older learners), and these changes impact all learning; bilinguals are generally more flexible in their thinking, more focused, and better able to concentrate (Perry, 2008; Petitto, 2009). For educators, it is important to remember that there may be fundamental differences among the learners in their schools—differences between bilinguals and monolinguals, and differences among bilinguals. A bilingual is not just two monolinguals residing in one brain.

Educators refer to learning a second language before puberty as early second language acquisition (SLA). Puberty does not end the possibility of learning a new language, of course, but phonological processing, which affects accent as well as reading, is more difficult for post- pubescent learners (Pettito, 2009). Early SLA is similar to simultaneous language acquisition, the major difference being that learners quickly figure out that their first language doesn’t work in an English environment and will often respond with a silent period when they pro- duce little language but are actively processing the language they hear (Piper, 2012, Chapter 4). In general, the younger children are when they begin to learn an additional language, the more the process will resemble first language acquisition.

Learning Two Languages at Once Children who learn two languages before the age of five or six are essentially learning two first languages, employing similar or identical strategies for both. One of the surprising facts about early simultaneous language acquisition is that children generally keep the languages distinct, although some code/language mixing, which entails the mixing of two languages in the same utterance, will sometimes occur, as in these examples:

Jose, age four: Voy a run! (I’m going to run!)

This example is likely lexical, meaning that the child speaking Spanish doesn’t know the appropriate word in that language and resorts to the equivalent in English. In the following sentence, however, the mixing probably occurs for a different reason:

Sara, age four: It’s too hard pour moi. (It’s too hard for me.)

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Section 3.1 Becoming Bilingual

It is highly unlikely that she does not know the words “for” and “me” in English. It may be that she has not yet mastered the prepositional phrase, but what is more likely is that she considers pour moi to be a single word and does not know a single word equivalent in English (because there is none). Language mixing is not uncommon and takes many forms. Formu- laic expressions in one language, for example, are sometimes interspersed with the other language, as in “Bonjour, Papa. Do you have to work today?” One aspect of language that is rarely affected by code-switching, at least in young children, is the sound system. It is rare for a bilingual child to mix up the sounds of the two languages or even to assign the wrong stress pattern to a word or sentence.

Theorists ponder how to fit all these occurrences into a single explanation of the language learning process in bilinguals; simply put, the question is, does the young bilingual child have one language system or two? These kinds of data do not resolve the issue, but happily, for teachers of ELLs, it doesn’t matter very much. Neither code-mixing nor code-switching is a cause for concern. Code/language switching refers to the ability of proficient bilinguals to select the correct language according to the situational context or topic of conversation. Bilin- gual children as young as two or three routinely switch to the language that matches the person with whom they are speaking, and the ability to switch easily between languages in different situations is the ultimate goal of learning a second language.

Simultaneous language acquisition is no doubt the easiest because, as we saw earlier, these children learn their two languages in essentially the same way as they would learn one. Chil- dren who learn English as one of their two languages from birth or very early childhood, therefore, rarely present as ELLs. Nevertheless, it is important to understand how these young children acquire language in order to develop effective strategies for ELLs who have not had substantial exposure to English by the time they are five or six. It also helps to understand why it is rarely true that students need no special assistance to acquire English, that somehow they will “just pick it up.”

Children become bilingual in a variety of ways. In much of the world, children acquire one language in the home but pick up another in the wider community outside the home. In Miami, for example, there are many children of Spanish-speaking parents who learn Eng- lish at daycare, on the playground, and from English-speakers in the predominantly English- speaking community. By the time they get to school, they are functioning bilinguals. Some children are bilingual because they have a mother who speaks one language and a father who speaks another, or grandparents or other caregivers who speak a language different from their parents. Monique and Jacqueline are the daughters of a Francophone mother and an Anglophone father. Both girls are fully functioning bilinguals, even though their patterns of education differed—Monique attended English Montessori School from the time she was two and a half, transferring to a French language school when she was in first grade. Jacque- line attended only French school, beginning at age four in pre-kindergarten. Now nine and seven respectively, the girls are reading at grade level in both French and English, although the medium for instruction in their school is only French. They learned to read English at home. Although each of these children took a slightly different path to bilingualism, there was an important similarity: In each case, the child associated one language with one person or group of people. In general, there was little mixing of the languages spoken to the child. In cases such as these, the research evidence of the last hundred years or so strongly supports the hypothesis that when children learn in this way, they will experience little, if any, confu- sion between the two languages (Piper, 2012; Ronjat, 1913). Moreover, it appears to be the

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Section 3.1 Becoming Bilingual

case that these children learned their two languages the same way that monolinguals learn their language—it would simply be inefficient of the human brain to do otherwise, and the brain is normally very efficient.

As noted, ELL teachers will encounter rarely simultaneous bilinguals; learners who are add- ing English to their home language or languages are much more common. These students will, at some point, be sequential bilinguals.

Learning Two Languages in Sequence Sequential language learners arrive at school with varying competencies in their home lan- guage. Whatever their age and degree of linguistic attainment, they will be placed in school where they have to learn both the content of the curriculum and the English language. Most will have a good foundation in spoken language, although some children may appear to have

limited speaking ability for cultural rea- sons (Chapter 2). Some ELLs, particularly in the later grades, will be literate in the home language as well, although some will not. Among those who are, there will be some variation in their reading and writing abilities (Chapter 2).

With so much variability in what ELLs bring to school, it is to be expected that they will also vary in the length of time it takes them to reach proficiency in English. The speed and ease with which they acquire the lan- guage will depend on a number of factors, among them age, context or situation, teaching method, and degree of literacy in the home language.

Age When the Second Language Is Introduced In general, the younger the learner, the faster she will learn a second language. There are a number of reasons for this, including plasticity of the brain, the fact that younger learners have less language to learn and fewer inhibitions about learning it, and the recent experi- ence of acquiring the first language. For many decades, researchers in several disciplines— neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, education, medicine, and speech pathology, to name a few—have been fascinated by the differences in the bilingual and monolingual brain, as well as differences between sequential and simultaneous bilinguals. As research methods such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) become more sophisticated, we are beginning to under- stand more about how the brain learns and stores language, but there is no consensus among researchers yet, and possibly will never be for the simple reason that there are too many variables involved in creating a bilingual. What we can conclude with some certainty is that age does not in itself diminish the ability to learn a new language. Although younger learners have a distinct advantage in learning the sound system, older learners have more reasoning and problem-solving abilities.

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All these children need is adequate exposure to acquire two or more languages simultaneously.

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Section 3.1 Becoming Bilingual

ELLs who begin to learn English after the age of puberty are more likely to have a “foreign” accent, but generally they will learn the structural properties and vocabulary of the language faster because they are more experienced learners. The reason they struggle is the amount of material to be learned—the tasks are unequal. If a 5-year-old and a 15-year-old are given the task to learn 250 words of everyday English vocabulary, the 15-year-old will learn much faster. The difference is that a 250 word vocabulary is woefully inadequate for a 15-year-old but could serve the 5-year-old fairly well. Or to put it another way, if the task is to reach a degree of proficiency appropriate for a 5-year-old child, the 15-year-old will get there much faster, but, of course, no 15-year-old wants to sound like a 5-year-old. In short, although the level of proficiency eventually achieved may vary, learners of any age can learn language.

The Contexts in Which the New Language Is Introduced One of the apparent advantages that younger learners have over older learners is contextual: What is the purpose for learning the new language, and where is it learned? In most cases, younger preliterate children will learn in a social setting, whether in the community, place of worship, playground, or even the home. Sometimes, for instance, a family will have a care- giver who speaks English and “teaches” the language to the child in the context of normal everyday activities. The caregiver may have even exposed the child to books in English. In such a situation, the child is exposed to the same kind of language for the same kind of pur- pose that the first language was learned. In other instances, young ELLs will have played with English speaking children in the neighborhood and will have attained social English, but have probably not acquired any academic language or literacy skills. The context and degree of exposure will have an impact on the speed with which young ELLs progress in school.

How the Language Is Taught Once they get to school, one of the major determinants of speed and success of learning is the way the language is presented. The good news is that there are many techniques that are highly effective. The bad news is that it is hard to predict what will work best with any one learner. Absent a clearly perfect approach, however, there are certain principles, resulting from many decades of research and practice, that can guide teachers as they make instruc- tional and curricular decisions for their ELLs. In general

1. ELLs in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade will benefit from language situa- tions that mirror their experience of first language learning—somewhat simplified language used for social purposes, not overtly “taught.” Language used with these young learners should be concrete and linked to observable actions and objects.

2. Repetition is good, but “drills” are not. Whether the goal is to learn the meaning or meanings of a word, or to master its pronunciation, it is easy to find many opportu- nities to re-use target vocabulary without resorting to mindless drills or rote repeti- tion of forms for no apparent reason. Younger children expect language to be used meaningfully and do not normally respond well to exercises that do not appear to have a purpose. But remember: Sometimes the “purpose” is to have fun, and so sing- ing or rhyming games might be helpful.

3. Meaning is central to all language learning, and so ELL teachers must constantly ensure that their students understand what is being said or what they are reading. Asking “Do you understand?” is seldom effective as a way of determining whether students have understood.

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Section 3.1 Becoming Bilingual

4. Since content and language must be learned simultaneously, focus is on making the content comprehensible. For example, a teacher might use a box of crayons in an arithmetic lesson to teach color, object names, and basic mathematical concepts simultaneously. It is then easy to test for comprehension of the content by changing the objects—perhaps to colored drinking straws or building blocks—and repeating the same lesson.

5. The same principle applies to older learners, but the objects will differ or be replaced by pictures or graphics. The idea is to reduce the dependence on language, initially, for understanding content. It then becomes easier for the learner to acquire the language that goes with it.

6. No learner is a blank slate, but ELLs who begin in middle or high school will likely have extensive experience and knowledge on which to build. Teachers need to get to know their ELLs, using whatever resources may be available to them.

7. Use age-appropriate content. “Teaching basic language skills is essential, but it’s important not to make students feel like they are doing elementary work” (Law- rence, 2009).

8. Oral language first! “Oral language provides children with a sense of words and sentences and builds sensitivity to the sound system so that children can acquire phonological awareness and phonics” (Strickland & Riley-Ayers, 2006, p. 2). ELLs must have some level of oral language proficiency before beginning to read, although it is possible to teach word recognition from the time new vocabulary is introduced.

9. Learners who have begun to learn English around the age of puberty or later may need addi- tional assistance with decoding skills because they have more limited phonological processing ability. 10. Above all, ELLs of every age must be in an environment in which “the first language and literacy are not only valued, but enriched in a planned and systematic manner” and in which instruction is sensitive and responsive to the student’s developmental level (Restrepo & Towle- Harmon, 2008).

In Chapters 5 through 8 we will revisit these prin- ciples in increasing depth and from different per- spectives as we delve into approaches and methods for teaching literacy and the content areas, and the importance of using high-impact strategies within the context of the Common Core State Standards.

Degree of Literacy in the Home Language Whether learners are ELLs or not, the degree of literacy in the home is an important determinant of the speed with which they will learn to read and their success in school. Simply put, students who develop literacy skills early in life do better in school than students who come to school with

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Because they have just started to learn English, these six-year-olds are sequential language learners. Their teacher understands the importance of doing regular comprehension checks.

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Section 3.1 Becoming Bilingual

little or no literacy skills or awareness. Research has demonstrated repeatedly that chil- dren from homes where literacy is valued become better readers and do better in school than children from low-literacy homes (Stickland & Riley-Ayers, 2006; Roberts, Jurgens, & Burchinal, 2005).

Emergent literacy skills develop in the preschool years and include print knowledge, pho- nological awareness (the ability to differentiate speech from nonspeech sounds, and the understanding that those sounds have meaning), and writing letters and words, all built on a foundation of oral language. Reading to children is one of the best ways to instill an early interest in reading and familiarity with the sounds and structures of stories. It is reasonable to ask whether the language of literacy in the home should be English. The answer is easy: It’s good if it is, but perfectly okay if it isn’t. What matters is familiarity with text and the kinds of meaning that text conveys. Teachers, of course, have no control over the language and literacy levels that children bring to school, but in making policy and curricular decisions, schools and school districts need to be mindful that programs such as Head Start and the move toward universal prekindergarten are particularly important for ELLs.

Even though schools have no control over children’s prior language and literacy experiences, they do have a responsibility to communicate with parents. Not only do they need to gather as much information as possible about their learners, they need to communicate the school’s and the teacher’s expectations. As Restrepo & Towle-Harmon (2008) point out,

It is important to provide parents with training to help them understand the role of native language in overall academic, language, and biliteracy development, for cultural identity, and in English acquisition. . . . Many parents may be satisfied with their child’s development but may not know that their child is behind in emergent literacy skills in the native or sec- ond language. For example, parents may think that at the end of preschool their child is doing well because the child can communicate basic needs in English, but they may not know that the kindergarten teacher expects the child to know some letters, colors, and shapes. Explaining these expecta- tions helps parents understand the system better and helps ensure that the child is better prepared.

These authors, writing for the ASHA Leader, a publication of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, go on to advocate training for parents, which is a good idea for schools that have the resources. In undertaking training or, indeed, less formal communication with parents, school personnel need to be culturally sensitive. For example,

Retelling a story from a book . . . may not be a culturally appropriate task for some families, although parents should be aware that this skill is important. Additionally, asking parents to label objects may feel unnatural to them. Find- ing alternative ways to build vocabulary through conversations and discus- sions may be more appropriate.

The level of literacy in the home not only influences how quickly and how well children learn to read; it has an impact on their early oral skills as well. As Ellen Rodriguez illustrates in her Tale of Two Learners, children who have heard stories in their home language may be quicker to respond to stories in the new language and thus learn it faster.

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Section 3.2 Comparing First and Second Language Acquisition

Ellen’s account comprises anecdotal evidence, but what does research say? Research agrees. Dick- inson and colleagues point to the “bidirectional relationship” between phonological awareness and literacy, building on the work of many previous researchers, including Wagner et al. (1994), who demonstrated that phonological awareness—essential for oral language and for literacy—is partly an outgrowth of children’s early literacy experiences (Wagner et al., 1994; Dickinson et al., 2004). In their own study, Dickinson and colleagues “hypothesized that growth in phonological awareness in Spanish would predict growth in phonological awareness in English . . .” (Dickinson et al., 2004, p. 329). Studying four-year-old Spanish-speaking children enrolled in English lan- guage Head Start, the researchers found that “the most potent predictor of . . . phonological awareness in both languages is phonological awareness in the other language,” and suggested that “stimulation of phonological awareness of bilingual children in either language is likely to transfer to the other language” (p. 336). Since phonological awareness is associated with early literacy, the experiences that ELLs have of literacy in any language cannot be underestimated.

3.2 Comparing First and Second Language Acquisition Although there are differences, there are also similarities between first and second language acquisition. When children simultaneously acquire two languages, they are essentially acquir- ing two first languages. If the languages are learned sequentially, the younger the learner, the greater the similarities. Even with older learners, however, the two processes share certain characteristics. But if all ELLs were able to acquire English in the same way that they acquired their first language, the ELL teacher would have little to do because the first language is acquired in the course of development and without overt instruction. Assuming normal hear- ing and health, all that is required is an environment in which people speak.

So we focus on the differences. A simple and obvious one is the older the child, the more there is to learn—more language and more content. See Table 3.1 for a succinct comparison.

A Teacher’s Story: A Tale of Two Learners

I met the two first graders, Vien and Cara soon after I started teaching in Chicago. They had arrived in the country a few months earlier and lived in the same apartment complex. Vien immediately surprised me by shattering several stereotypes at once. First, I had thought that he would be more reserved, as Asian children often are, and second, I thought that his lan- guage learning would lag behind Cara’s because girls often appear to learn faster at that age. But from the outset, Vien was the one who came eagerly to the story circle and who eagerly raised his hand to ask a question or to retell the story in his limited but rapidly improving Eng- lish. Cara, in contrast, spoke mainly in Vietnamese to Vien and to another Vietnamese girl in the class. She responded to questions with a yes or no, behaving much more like a true begin- ner than Vien, although as far as I knew, they had had similar exposure to English. Eventually, I learned that there were differences that might be affecting the children’s progress. Vien’s mother had been a teacher in Vietnam before he was born, and she had told him stories and read to him regularly. She had also begun to study English before she got to the United States and was continuing her studies at the local YMCA. I learned through an interpreter that Cara’s mother had believed that reading to her child in Vietnamese would impede her English and had stopped reading to her or telling her bedtime stories in Vietnamese. She was also afraid to read or talk to her daughter in English because her own English was only rudimentary.

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Section 3.2 Comparing First and Second Language Acquisition

Table 3.1: Similarities and differences between first and second language acquisition

Factor Importance

1st Language 2nd Language

Age of learner Very. Children begin to learn first language at birth.

Moderate. Younger learners have an advan- tage in acquiring English without an accent and having less to learn. Older learners bring greater cognitive powers to the task.

Structured input None. Children learn their first language in the “chaos” of family life and require only exposure to normal language in use.

Moderate to very, depending on the age and the prior language experience of the learner.

Listening Very important. First language learners hear language for many months or years before they are expected to produce it.

Very important, but second language learners rarely have the luxury of a long period of listening, although wise teachers will recognize the importance of the silent period.

Comprehensible input Critical. No learning will take place otherwise.

Critical. No learning will take place otherwise.

Place Little. Children need a normal environment, and one that is verbally rich helps, but they learn language even in environ- ments with limited exposure to conversation and text.

Moderate to very, depending on the age of the learner and the environment. Young children, for example, learn well with peers in a play setting, whereas older learners usually benefit from a more formal setting, at least part of the time.

Reasons for learning None. Children learning their first language are all learn- ing it for the same reason: to communicate.

Moderate to very. The need to learn English to succeed in school puts pressure on ELLs to learn quickly. Older learners may resent the fact that they cannot be educated in their home language.

Use of contextual clues and nonlinguistic knowledge to figure out meaning

Very important. Parents help children make the connections between words and meaning.

Invaluable, especially with older learn- ers. Without contextual clues and extra- linguistic knowledge, they would have only translation to rely on. Older learners have more life knowledge to draw upon.

Developmental errors as a part of learning

Yes, but correction will not help. Yes, and measured, carefully delivered correction will help to move learning for- ward, especially in middle and high school students.

Method of instruction None required! Moderate to very. The older the learner, the more receptive they are to teaching meth- ods that align with their learning styles and prior experience of learning.

Prior knowledge of language

None required! Children come “wired” to learn language.

None required, if learning simultaneously. Older learners benefit from what they have previously learned about language and about language learning.

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Section 3.3 Stages of Second Language Acquisition

3.3 Stages of Second Language Acquisition Children acquiring their first language go through predictable stages of learning. Similarly, ELLs pass through predictable stages in learning English, although the speed with which they do so depends on a great many factors, some instructional, some cultural, some individual. Although most ELLs typically pass through these phases, or stages, the stages are not dis- crete. That is, a learner does not tidily finish up one stage and move to the next. For example, a learner may begin to use telegraphic English words very early when, for the most part, she is still using her own language or is mostly nonverbal. Nor are they time-limited. Very young learners may pass through the first two or three stages very quickly, while older learners may take longer and get “stuck” at a stage for an extended period.

Stage 1: Preproduction At this stage, ELLs have little or no understanding of English. Communication is often in the language of the home, although ELLs may be able to respond nonverbally to simple requests or questions and may mimic single words or short phrases they hear often. Their interac- tion with text is mainly through illustrations, graphs, maps, or other graphic representations requiring minimal text.

Some teachers adopt an “English only” rule for their classrooms, believing that they must banish all other language in order to focus ELLs’ attention exclusively on English. While it is certainly appropriate to insist that English be the primary means of communicating, it is important to remember that the goal is to add a language, not to replace one. Research has established that children are able to transfer language and literacy skills between languages, and that a high level of proficiency in the home language facilitates learning the new one (Lapp et al., 2001). It makes little sense not to use ELLs’ home languages when possible. In fact, using children’s first languages can be very helpful, not only by fostering classroom com- munication, but also for first language maintenance.

Bilingual teachers may communicate with ELLs in the home language for a short period of time, or they may engage an interpreter, sometimes an older child in the school. But even when it is impossible to speak the child’s language, ELL teachers can adopt a variety of strategies for communicating with these early stage students even without an inter- preter. Some of the most effective ones are described in Effective Strategies for Teaching Pre-beginners.

Effective Strategies for Teaching Pre-beginners Before any specific strategy can be implemented, the ELL teacher must create a comfortable, safe, and language-rich environment. The classroom should include a library with a listening center that includes books, audio books, and headphones. It should also have easily acces- sible manipulatives and white boards, or word walls with pictures, or drawings demonstrat- ing the meanings. Once a good learning environment is established, the next most important

(continued)

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Section 3.3 Stages of Second Language Acquisition

The goal at this stage is to motivate the learner to want to learn English, take away the fear, and to make language comprehensible so that learners can progress quickly through the next three stages toward full proficiency.

Stage 2: Early Production Learners at this stage have a small general academic vocabulary and limited reading abil- ity, and they write with many errors. Typically, stage 2 ELLs will have realized that they cannot use the home language to communicate in school, and they enter a phase during which they listen and work out the meanings of words and sentences. They will always understand more than they are able to produce, and it is not necessary, nor useful, to push them to speak before they are ready. It is especially important for ELLs at this stage to have all the same support as outlined in Effective Strategies for Teaching Pre-beginners, but they also need ample safe opportunities in which to practice the language they are beginning to learn. Giving them directions that they can follow without speaking is a good way to ensure that learners comprehend what they are hearing. These might be directions in art to draw, color, or build something, or they might be directions involving physical activity.

During this stage, ELLs should begin to name objects, answer yes/no questions, and to count and sort or group objects in response to requests such as “Please put all the red pieces in this pile.” Some learners will be very silent during this period, and silence is not necessarily bad. The most important thing for teachers to remember is that the silent, or nonverbal, period has no set time limit and that it is erroneous to assume that the silence means that no learning is taking place. Ellen Rodriguez learned this, as we see in The Importance of Silence.

Effective Strategies for Teaching Pre-beginners (continued) thing is to establish predictable classroom routines. For ELLs, these routines provide valu- able opportunities for learning social language and conventions, but they also provide security through familiarity. Once this environment is established, the following strategies have been used successfully with pre-beginners:

• Use visuals that illustrate and reinforce spoken and written vocabulary. • Use gestures when appropriate, or ask more proficient speakers to demonstrate

meanings. • Speak a little more slowly using simple syntax, but do not engage in baby talk. • Repeat but don’t overdo the repetition. If a child does not understand, simply repeating

will not be effective. Try a synonym or rephrasing instead. • Spend additional time with commonly used (high-frequency) vocabulary. • Avoid idioms. ELLs will try to interpret their meaning literally and not understand. • Don’t try to correct all errors. Choose carefully, and when possible, simply repeat the

correct form in a response, rather than saying “No, that’s not right” or otherwise indicat- ing the mistake.

• Do regular comprehension checks!

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Section 3.3 Stages of Second Language Acquisition

Typically, learners at this stage can communicate very limited information and often rely on memorized phrases, or formulaic speech, especially for everyday routines, as well as tele- graphic speech to convey simple meanings. Formulaic speech consists of phrases they hear on a regular basis, including conversational routines such as “Hello, how are you?” or “Good morning,” “I don’t know,” “Thank you,” and so on. Learners can produce these in similar situa- tions without having to think about them. Telegraphic speech refers to the use of one or two words to express the meaning of an entire sentence. “Out,” for instance, can mean “I am going out,” or “I want to go out,” or “I’ve been out,” depending on the context.

Using formulaic and telegraphic language, ELLs are able to convey limited information and can use a limited number of simple structures correctly. Their formulaic routine may be a fragment such as “I need . . .” or “I would like . . . ,” to which several kinds of completers can be added, as in “I need go home” or “I would like go home.” Or their routine may be an utterance such as “No, thank you,” and it may not always be used correctly:

Teacher: Jose, would you please sit down now?

Jose: No, thank you.

In this case, Jose has not yet learned that what appears to be a question is not a question at all but a polite directive, and thus his polite response is entirely inappropriate.

Some of the formulaic expressions that children learn early are associated with the structure and telling of stories. It is not unusual, therefore, for learners at this stage to be able to retell simple stories, although often with hesitancy and a limited vocabulary. Their storytelling may be a result of memorized words and phrases—starting each story with “Once upon a time . . .” or “A long time ago . . . ,” for example.

A Teacher’s Story: The Importance of Silence

I remember making some major mistakes with some of my first classes. Lani’s family came from Brazil when she was five, and her first schooling was in English. She was one of five chil- dren in my first grade class who didn’t speak English. I was nervous enough about teaching first grade, and the fact that a quarter of my class were second language learners scared me, almost into requesting a transfer. I was greatly relieved to learn that one of them was very proficient already and that three had already learned a fair amount of the language. Then there was Lani. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get one word out of that child. Two or three times a day I patiently repeated the names for common objects in the classroom—board, book, desk, flag—and encouraged her to repeat after me. Usually she would, but she never initiated any language of her own. When I prompted her with “What is this?” she would sometimes respond correctly with the name of the object, but no amount of prompting could get her to expand the one word answer to a full sentence—for example, to say That’s a book instead of book. Lani kept her silence for weeks, and I was beginning to think that I should refer her to Special Ed for testing. Then one morning, just before Thanksgiving, the children were making construction paper turkeys to decorate the classroom when a disagreement broke out at the table where Lani was working with three other children. I arrived just in time to hear her say, “That not turkey. Wrong color!”

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Section 3.3 Stages of Second Language Acquisition

Stage 3: Speech Emergence ELLs at this stage are able to understand more complex language structures and will use Eng- lish spontaneously, although they will still have a restricted vocabulary and limited knowl- edge or use of language structure. Their listening abilities have improved to the point that they can usually interpret sentence-level meanings in general academic contexts, although they still rely on nonverbal context. Their speaking ability improves rapidly during this phase, but it is still marked by the use of simple sentences, often with errors. Proficiency in reading varies greatly at this stage, depending on what level of literacy they have in the home lan- guage. Some learners are able to decode and understand fairly complex paragraphs, drawing often on background knowledge and previous experience. They are able to write increasingly complex sentences. Vocabulary for social situations has expanded considerably and academic language has grown as well, primarily vocabulary associated with concrete objects and com- mon concepts. ELLs at this stage are able to write using a broad social vocabulary and a some- what more limited academic vocabulary, but they may make the kinds of errors that interfere with meaning.

Toward the end of this period, ELLs, especially older learners (third grade or above), may be able to explain, compare, describe, and summarize. Teachers help them to grow through and past this stage by using games, simple problem-solving tasks, language from television, radio, or movies familiar to the age group, and having ELLs follow along as the teacher or more pro- ficient students read aloud.

Stage 4: Intermediate Fluency Stage 4 ELLs have the language skills they need for most everyday communication needs. They are able to use English in new or unfamiliar situations but still have trouble with complex structures and abstract academic concepts and language. Many ELLs at this stage are able to read with a great deal of fluency and can respond accurately to requests to locate and identify particular facts within a text. They still tend to have difficulty with more abstract concepts, decontextualized text, and vocabulary that has multiple meanings. ELLs at this stage typically do not yet read at grade level although they are able to comprehend increasingly complex text. Writing has improved, they are able to use increasingly complex grammar and better mechan- ics (punctuation and spelling), and the errors they make do not usually obstruct meaning.

As the name of this level suggests, this might be a very lengthy phase. Learners are acquiring language very quickly, especially academic language, but the curricular demands are growing as well. The goal for ELL teachers is to get learners to this stage as quickly as possible, because the more language they know and can use, the faster they will assimilate new language and content. This stage may last for months or years, depending on the age of the learner.

Stage 5: Continued Language Development/Advanced Fluency At the beginning of this stage, ELLs will have begun to produce their own sentences as they work out the more complex rules of English grammar. Their comprehension is good, they have begun to use complex sentences, and they are able to understand and produce, orally and in writing, complex sentences in longer passages of language. They have begun to understand idioms, and they are able to use language for a larger variety of functions—to analyze, create, defend, debate, predict, evaluate, and to justify, for example. ELLs may experiment, and even

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Section 3.4 How Long Does It Take to Learn English?

more proficient learners will make mistakes because productive does not mean proficient. They are better self-monitors, and will frequently know that word or structure is wrong and ask for the correct one:

Isabelle: Nana, I want you to bend my hair. Nana: You want me to what? Isabelle: I don’t know en Anglaise. You know, bend it around. Nana: How would I do that? Isabelle: You use a, a, sort of like a brush but no—how you say?—stickers? Nana: Bristles. A brush has bristles. Isabelle: Right. Bristles. Nana: So you want me to use a brush without bristles? Isabelle: No, but sort of like that. But it’s hot. Nana: Oh, you mean a flat iron? Isabelle: Yes! A flat iron. It bends hair. Nana: Yes, or it can even curl it. Do you want it curled? Isabelle: No curls. Just bend it under.

Isabelle, at age six, is definitely in the productive stage of language learning. She is, by any indicator, a fully functioning bilingual (French is her other language), and yet there are words and expressions she has not yet learned in English (or en Anglaise, as Isabelle would say).

In a sense, this stage lasts forever. Even native speakers keep adding new words and expres- sions to their language throughout their lifetimes. The goal for ELLs is to reach the stage in which they can continue to grow their English independently, as native speakers do, both in academic and social settings. If we could predict how long a learner would remain at this or earlier stages of learning, we would be in a better position to answer the question “How long does it take to learn a language?”

How learners pass through these five stages must be understood within the context of the two broad kinds of language that learners acquire. When children learn their first language, they begin with social language—the language needed for building and maintaining basic interpersonal skills. Later, they develop cognitive/academic language proficiency, or the ability to think, solve problems, read, and write in the new language. If they have acquired those skills in one language, they are better placed to learn them in English. If they are lacking content knowledge, and the vocabulary for dealing with it in any language, their road to suc- cess will be rockier and probably longer.

3.4 How Long Does It Take to Learn English? Those who wrote the standards of most accountability measures seem to believe that three years is the time it takes to learn a second language, but research has shown otherwise. In an older but carefully designed study, researchers Wayne Thomas and Virginia Collier found that

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Section 3.4 How Long Does It Take to Learn English?

children who began schooling exclusively in English in kindergarten through third grade fared very well in relation to their native English–speaking peers. For those who began in fourth grade or later, however, the out- comes were less than stellar: Their academic performance fell well below the 50th per- centile (Haynes, 1998–2010). By this time, the curricular demands are greater and the language needed to cope, both academically and socially, has increased. With each pass- ing year, the learning deficit continues to grow, because ELLs who have not met grade level expectations during the year have more catching up to do in the next year. Thus, it is imperative that the learning deficit be reduced as much as possible as early as possible.

One way of reducing this deficit would be to teach ELLs using their home language for a sig- nificant portion of the time in the beginning and to reduce it as they became more proficient in English.

Studies have shown that children who are taught in this manner outper- form ELLs who are taught mostly in English from very early in their school- ing. Children in this ideal bilingual learning situation do so well because they understand what they are hearing and are thus able to build their underlying conceptual-linguistic foundation. (McKibbin & Brice, 2014, para. 14)

Unfortunately, few school districts have the resources to offer bilingual programs. Neverthe- less, there are several steps they can take to create an effective learning environment for all their learners.

Alternatives to Bilingual Programs: What Schools Can Do In Chapter 4 we will describe the program options that schools might adopt for their ELLs. The suggestions given here are applicable whatever program option is adopted.

1. Ensure that teachers are well prepared. Teachers who understand what is involved in second language learning, who are sensitive to the cultural and experiential dif- ferences ELLs bring to the classroom, and who are able to develop differentiated language instruction, are essential. Most states now require ELL training for initial certification.

2. Use resources wisely. In particular, direct extra support to fourth grade and above. Don’t ignore younger learners, but remember that they will gain more from less structured language instruction than the older learners and that they have fewer academic demands on them.

3. Encourage literacy in the home language. Any exposure to reading and writing counts. Children who read and write in one language are able to transfer much of their ability to a new language. Even preliterate learners benefit from the experience of being read to.

Liquidlibrary/Thinkstock

This teacher is teaching both art and English simultaneously, helping her pupils to learn both social and cognitive/academic language.

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Section 3.4 How Long Does It Take to Learn English?

Factors other than age, however, influence the time it takes:

1. Cognitive and academic abilities. Just as these vary in the English speaking popula- tion, they will vary in the ELL population. Nonetheless, children who have acquired one language are capable of acquiring two, but the ease and speed may differ.

2. Attitude toward learning a new language—the parents’ and the child’s. For example, if parents are angry or resentful about the circumstances that brought them to this country, those attitudes can affect the child’s willingness and readiness to learn.

3. Personality traits. Risk takers tend to learn the oral language a little faster. Some children simply don’t like to make a mistake and will resist using English until they think they are able to do so without error. A silent period is fine, but learners who are willing to take risks will usually progress more quickly.

4. Prior experience of language learning. Children who have grown up speaking two languages are able to add a third more easily.

Language Learning and Academic Learning Many theorists contend, that “. . . school-based learning for students with interrupted or lim- ited formal schooling is far different from that of their counterparts who have a strong and consistent educational background” (Fairbain & Jones-Vo, 2010, p. 47). The reason is that cognitive academic language proficiency differs from social language, primarily because it is more abstract and must be learned in association with more demanding content. According to Bailey, academic language proficiency involves the ability to use

. . . general and content-specific vocabulary, specialized or complex gram- matical structures, and multifarious language functions and discourse struc- tures—all for the purpose of acquiring new knowledge and skills, interacting about a topic, or imparting information to others. (Bailey, 2007, pp. 10–11)

ELLs, of course, need both kinds of proficiency, and this recognition led theorists and expe- rienced practitioners to develop five English language standards for assessing proficiency levels. These standards, developed by the WIDA Consortium and adopted by TESOL Interna- tional, include

Standard 1: ELLs communicate in English for social, intercultural, and instructional pur- poses in the school setting.

Standard 2: ELLs communicate using academic language within the subject area of lan- guage arts.

Standard 3: ELLs communicate using the appropriate academic language within the sub- ject area of mathematics.

Standard 4: ELLs communicate using the appropriate academic language within the sub- ject area of science.

Standard 5: ELLs communicate using the appropriate academic language within the sub- ject area of social studies.

Source: Gottlieb et al., 2006

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https://www.wida.us/membership/states/

http://www.tesol.org/

Section 3.4 How Long Does It Take to Learn English?

These are not ordered standards, mean- ing that they do not have to be acquired in the order shown, with two exceptions. The first standard must be at least mostly fulfilled before any of the others is pos- sible, and the second standard is criti- cal to the development of the remaining three, for reasons discussed throughout this chapter. These standards are use- ful as goals, but they do not provide any kind of roadmap to achieving the levels of proficiency described earlier in this chapter. Rather, the standards provide a general framework in which to develop curriculum for realizing the proficiency expectations that correspond to those five stages.

Standards and Proficiency Levels Table 3.2 summarizes the five stages of second language acquisition in terms of what is expected of ELLs at each level of proficiency.

Standards and proficiency expectations are very different constructs, but one thing they share is their greater compatibility with assessment than with instruction. Both the stan- dards and the proficiency expectations are very general, and as noted, neither provides a roadmap to achieving them. They provide some guidance for assessing whether a learner has

XiXinXing/Thinkstock

Math exercises such as these place little demand on language, but how might language learning be integrated?

Table 3.2: What ELLs are expected to process, understand, and produce

Preproduction Graphic representations; words and phrases in simple one-step directions and commands; yes/no and WH (who, what, when, where, why) questions, when supported by visual cues and support.

Early Production Phrases and short sentences; general (i.e., social and routine) language contain- ing errors that may interfere with meaning.

Speech Emergence General, and some specific, language in longer oral utterances and some writing; language with errors that may interfere with meaning.

Intermediate Fluency Specific, and some technical, language; sentences of different lengths, both in oral and written language; language with errors that do not interfere with meaning.

Continued Lan- guage Development/ Advanced Fluency

Technical language necessary for all curricular areas; wide range of sentence structures and lengths in speech and in longer written work on a greater diver- sity of subjects. Some errors may remain, but generally learner is approaching native speaker proficiency.

Source: Adapted from WIDA Standards and Pappamihiel & Florin, 2011

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Summary & Resources

In this chapter we examined the nature of bilingualism and the different paths that lead there. Beginning with the broad distinction between simultaneous and sequential language learning, we saw that there are different degrees, or proficiency levels, of bilingualism, and that a great many variables influence the speed and level of proficiency that learners acquire in a second language. We discovered that while there are similarities between first and second language learning, there are also differences and that these differences increase as the age of starting the second language increases. Second language learners go through a predictable process, described in this chapter in terms of stages of language learning. The goal of ELL teaching is to help learners become truly productive ELLs, as quickly as possible. The length of time it takes, however, is dependent on a number of variables. Because ELLs are also learning curricular content simultaneously with English, one of the most important variables is their previous educational experience. We concluded our look at the expecta- tions of ELLs in terms of national standards and proficiency levels.

achieved them. But as experienced teachers know, working backward from the assessment to an instructional plan for getting there may lead to a poorly focused curriculum, commonly referred to as “teaching to the test,” which does ELLs a grave disservice. The remainder of this book deals with the decisions, planning, and instruction that help ELLs get to the levels of proficiency needed to meet the standards imposed by government regulation or by school districts themselves. From time to time, we will remind ourselves about those standards and examine how particular activities or lessons can help us to achieve them, but the focus will be, as it has been in this chapter, on helping each individual learner to achieve maximum pro- ficiency in English and success in education. We conclude this chapter with Juanita’s story to see how a teacher can help a student along the bumpy road to bilingualism.

Why I Teach: Inspiration I was born in Mexico, but I have lived in this country since I was seven years old. I’m bilin- gual now, but I won’t pretend that it was easy for me. The first two years we were here, my parents went where there was work, and so my brother and I moved around a lot. I think we went to seven different schools in those two years. In some of the schools I was put into a segregated ESL class, and in others I was just left in the back of the classroom and ignored. Somehow, though, my brother and I both learned some English, but we lived mostly among other Mexican families and so we were hardly fluent. My mother taught me to read in Span- ish, but her English wasn’t good, and so I only saw books in English at school. When I started attending school regularly, I was put into fourth grade, but there was no way I was ready for that. My English wasn’t where it needed to be, but I started picking it up pretty fast. An even bigger problem was content—I hadn’t learned much. The school told my mother that I barely had second grade math skills. I had a patient teacher, Mrs. Cobb, and she used to work with me after school, and on Saturdays she would sometimes include me in activities with her family. She is the reason that I’m a teacher today. I just hope that I can be someone else’s Mrs. Cobb.

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Summary & Resources

bilingual The ability to function in more than one language. Bilingualism, thus, admits of degrees in that some bilinguals are only minimally able to communicate in one of their languages, some may be able to communicate about certain topics, and still others are equally comfortable with both languages.

code/language mixing The interweaving of languages within a short utterance, such as one French word or phrase within an English sentence.

code/language switching The practice of alternating between two or more languages during conversation.

cognitive/academic language profi- ciency The competency needed to function and to succeed in academic settings.

early second language acquisition Second language acquisition that occurs before the onset of puberty.

emergent literacy The knowledge and skills about text that develop in the pre- school years and include print knowledge, phonological awareness, and writing letters and words.

Building on the general guidelines and principles for each level suggested in this chapter, the chapters that follow will help ELL teachers construct maps or goals, and plans for achieving them, beginning with the matter of assessing and placing ELLs in the appropriate instructional program.

Key Ideas

1. Children who learn two (or more) languages before age five or six are considered to be simultaneously bilingual.

2. Learners who add a language after the first language is well established are consid- ered to be sequentially bilingual.

3. In general, the younger the learner, the more likely he or she will have first language learning strategies to draw upon in learning the second language.

4. The major differences between first and second language learning are the age of the learner, the reasons for learning the language, the context, and the nature of the input.

5. Although there are many ways of becoming bilingual, most second language learners progress through five predictable stages but at different speeds.

6. The length of time it takes to acquire English may vary greatly from learner to learner.

7. The major factors affecting the speed with which ELLs learn are prior educational experience, degree of literacy in any language, their attitude toward learning, and how they are taught.

8. It is critical for ELLs to learn language and content simultaneously to avoid deficits in academic achievement that will worsen each year as the gap widens.

Key Terms

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Summary & Resources

formulaic expressions Phrases acquired as unanalyzed wholes by second language learners. For example, an ELL may not know for some time that “How do you do?” is not a single word but four separate words.

neural plasticity The brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural con- nections throughout life. Also referred to as neuro-plasticity or neuroplasticity.

phonological awareness An infant’s abil- ity to differentiate speech from nonspeech sounds and understand that those sounds have meaning that correspond to some object or action in his or her environment.

sequential bilingual A person who “adds” a second language after the first is well established.

simultaneous bilingual A person who has acquired two languages simultaneously.

telegraphic speech A form of communi- cation consisting of simple sentences of three or more words, usually comprising at least one noun and verb that adhere to the grammatical standards of a culture’s language.

Critical Thinking Questions

1. Why do teachers need to know anything about the language learning process? Do they need any theoretical knowledge to inform teaching? Why?

2. Why do you think the author states with such certainty that children who have acquired one language are capable of acquiring two? What is the evidence?

3. What similarities between first and second language acquisition are useful for ELL teachers to know?

4. Why is comprehensible input so important to language learners? Why is “Do you understand?” seldom effective for gauging whether a learner has understood what was said?

5. Four-year-old Juanita moved to Boston from Puerto Rico and began preschool in January. Her dominant language appears to be Spanish, but her parents insist that she “knows English,” having been exposed to U.S. television and visitors while in San Juan. Their own English is intelligible—their errors do not usually impede compre- hension—but heavily accented. What further information about Juanita would you like to learn from the family that would help you to plan for her first few days in preschool?

6. If an ELL third grader speaks English comfortably on the playground and inter- acts effectively with teachers, can you conclude that she has acquired English? Explain.

7. Why is home literacy such an important factor for young ELLs? 8. Examine the TESOL/WIDA proficiency standards in Table 3.2, together with the

summary information in Table 3.1. Do you see any correspondence between the proficiency standards and the proficiency expectations? For example, at what stage of proficiency could you reasonably expect standard 4 to be achieved?

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Summary & Resources

Additional Resources For a comprehensive review of the research on bilingualism and the brain, see http://journals.tc-library.org/index.php/tesol/article/view/31 and follow the link to the full article by Monika Ekiert.

For very readable discussion of the effects of bilingualism on the brain, see http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/23/bilingualism/ as well as http://www.brainfacts.org/sensing-thinking-behaving/language/articles/2008/ the-bilingual-brain/

For a practical discussion of emergent literacy and ELLs, see http://www.ncte.org/library/nctefiles/resources/policyresearch/ellresearchbrief.pdf

For a description and discussion of effective general strategies for teaching ELLs, see http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/teaching-ell-general-instructional-strategies

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http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/23/bilingualism/

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