Teaching Language in Context. Chapter 4 Summary

 

ULACIT Theory of Bilingual Education Adriana Sandí  Cascante Teaching Language in Context. Alice Omaggio Hadley Chapter 4 Summary

The role of context in comprehension and learning Hypothesis 1. Opportunities must be provided to students to practice using language in context.

This chapter explores content & context. Students need opportunities to learn language in context and apply it with real situations. This goal can be achieved if language is presented and practiced in communicative context. Natural language occurs in context. “Normal linguistic behavior doesn’t consist of  production of separate sentences but in their use of for the creation of the discourse.” ( Widdowson). “Classroom thinking and real-life thinking have been a long-standing problem in education” ( Strasheim). Slager  emphasized the need for context and “sentence connectedness.”  Jespersen refers to instruction as

mental gymnastics, replete with leap from one range of ideas to another. Disconnected exercises become boring, and disjointed language practice activities can still found in modern text. Scholars believe that programs should incorporate analytic and experiential approaches to language learning. Stern explains that in analytic approach, language is the object of study, and in experiential approach language is learned through communication in content-based classrooms.  Allen et al. feel these two types are complementary. Learners benefit most if form and function are instructionally linked. Students need opportunities to use the target language, to be motivated to use it accurately, appropriately, and coherently. Focused practice activities must be functional, organizational, and sociolinguistic. Analytical activities and form-focused practice is improved if they consist of sentences connected one to another in a logical sequence. In this part of the chapter there are two samples exercises. The first one is descontextualized. The second one is contextualized to a theme of the unit of study, which is politics. Both samples are equivalent in difficult and structure. But while the sentences in the first sample would hardly say in sequence in a realworld situation, in the second, it could say in summarizing political views. The second activity is more natural, and focused on particular grammatical point. Meaningful processing can be assured for sample 2 by asking students to use the given model to create their own statements about politics. The fundamental difference between noncontextualized and contextualized practice is that links form with meanings that language learners want to convey in natural communicative situations. Focused practice is designed to students can refine and shape their communicative output to conform to target language norms. It can be beneficial as students’ skills are developing.  Higgs & Clifford  concluded that if accuracy is a goal of instruction, students must pass through meaningful, structured or monitored practice, to open-ended communication.  McLaughlin expressed the language learning involves the gradual shift from controlled to automatic processing. At first, a learner searches consciously for words because of his lower-level processes are not enough automatic. Gradually, he increases the number of  situatio situ ations ns he can perform without without consciou consciously sly attending. attending. He becomes becomes more capable of devot devoting ing his conscious decision-making processes to the level of meaning. ( Littlewood ) He also suggests that classroom

 

activities be designed to follow a sequence in which meaning plays a role: 1) focus on form, 2) focus on form + meaning, 3) focus on meaning + form, and 4) focus meaning. Type 1 keeps a minimum proficiencyoriented instruction. Type 2 constitutes pre-communicative practice. Type 3 & 4 develop proficiency. Content-based instruction and immersion are experiential, and offer full contextualization of instruction.

The importan importance ce of contex contextt and backgr background ound knowle knowledge dge in the compreh comprehensi ension on process: some theoretical considerations Learning and practicing language in meaningful context is more appealing to students and teachers than learning isolated isolated bits of language language through memorization. memorization. The rationale rationale for context contextualiz ualizing ing and personalizing classroom activities not rest upon intuition. Additional support is found for the use of  authentic input in listening and reading, as well as meaningful and contextualized materials for language production. 

The role of background knowledge

Cognitive psychologists emphasized it.  Ausubel said that learning must bee meaningful to be eff effectiv ectivee and permanent. permanent. It mus mustt be relatable relatable to prior knowl knowledg edge, e, and ex existi isting ng knowle knowledge dge must be organiz org anized ed in a wa way y that new informatio information n be assimila assimilated ted or attached attached to learner’ learner’ss cognitiv cognitivee structure structure.. Teachers need to provide advance organizers (devices that activate background knowledge) to facilitate learning and retention. There are 3 types of background knowledge potentially activated: 1. Linguisti Linguisticc inf information: ormation: knowledge knowledge of target target code. code. 2. Know Knowledge ledge of the world: world: including store store of concepts concepts and expectations expectations based on prior experience. experience. 3. Know Knowledge ledge of discourse structure: structure: understanding understanding of how various discourses discourses (conversations, (conversations, radio broadcasts, literary text, political speeches, newspapers, magazines) are organized. Language practice limited to the use of form, only the first type of background knowledge is involved. The hypothesis that the need for activating knowledge is greatest for lower proficiency levels, is supported by Yorio who separate this factors in the reading process: 1. Know Knowledge ledge of the language: language: the code. code. 2. Ability to predict and make correct choices. choices. 3. Ability to remember previous cues. 4. Ability to associate associate between different cues selected. selected. In reading a second language appear new elements: 1. Reader’ Reader’ss knowledge knowledge of foreign foreign language language differs from native native speaker’s. speaker’s. 2. Predicting abi ability lity is hindered by by reader’s reader’s imperfect imperfect kno knowledg wledge. e. 3. Wrong choices make association more difficult. 4. Memory span is reduced making more difficult to remember remember cues. 5. There is interference from the nat native ive language. Yorio concludes that second language learners are in disadvantage because:

 

1. They are forc forced ed to recall cues that they don’t don’t know well, well, and they forget forget them much faster. faster. 2. The They y predict future future cues and make association association with past cues simultaneou simultaneously sly.. “If they predic pre dictt wha whatt is coming coming,, the they y fo forg rget et pa past st cues; cues; if they they concen concentra trate te on the past past cues, cues, prediction is impaired.” Novice No vice or intermedia intermediate te students students often try to proc process ess language language in a word-f word-for or-wo -word rd fas fashion hion.. If  students use other cues such as knowledge of the world, understanding should be facilitated. Teachers can help students by drawing the three types of background knowledge. They view that various types of background knowledge are used to comprehend written and oral texts was proposed by some theorists such as Smith and Goodman, they addressed first-language reading comprehension had a strong influence on second language theories about the nature of listening and reading process. Readers select elements of the text rather than use all the visual cues (reduction of  uncertainty) Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game ( Goodman). The ability to anticipate which has not been seen, is vital in reading. Readers sample the textual cues, use redundancies, and formulate their hypotheses about what the text is going to say. The sampling process helps readers confirm o reject the hypotheses as they process the information in the text (Barnett). Readers don’t process words; they work on the semantic or logical relations of the material. Top down theories of comprehension are replaced in popularity by more interactive models of reading, which suggest that comprehension involves an interactive process between the reader and the text that moves in a cyclical way. 

Schema theory: Using background knowledge to enhance the language-comprehension process

(Carrell & Eisterhold ) Any given text doesn’t carry meaning itself. It provides direction to listeners or readers can construct meaning from their cognitive structure, called schemata (the plural of  schema). Other similar but not quite synonymous are scripts, plans, goals, frames, expectations, and events chains. Rumelhart defines a schema as an abstract representation of a generic concept for an object, event or situation. For example, the individual abstract concept “ house”, may be altered by adjectives like elegant or squalid. Cultural differences also alter the abstract representation for a concept. Misunderstanding happens when we find the wrong schema for a given concept. When a schema represents a whole situation, a chain of stereotypic events or features is called up in mind in association with the situation. Schank & Abelson defined the term “ script ” as a structure that describes in a predetermined fashion, appropriate sequences of events in a particular context.  Hudson refers to the selection of a particular form of a schema as “ instantiation ”. Comprehending

a story depends on the schema that is instantiated as the listener who needs to construct a correspondence between the schema he had activated and the actual information. If both sources match, the message is understood. Comprehension involves fitting the meaning of the message to the schema in mind. Personal history, interests, preconceived ideas, and cultural background influence “Interpretation”. Schema theorists describe an interactive model of comprehension. They posit two modes: bottomup and top-down processing. Carrell and Eisterhold  differ these two operations in the type of information

used in comprehending the message and the way that information enters to the system. Schemata are organized hierarchically: most abstract schemata at the top, and most specific at the bottom.   Bottom-up processing: The message is interpreted by paying attention to specific details, and

attempting to instantiate the fitting lower-level schema for the incoming data. ( Data-driven moving from

 

the parts to the whole) Top-down processing: The listener/reader begins with a general high-order schema, predicts based

on background knowledge, and searches the input for information to fit into the slots. ( Conceptuall Conceptuallyy driven moving from the whole to the parts )

These two processing modes occur at the same time. Carrell says that skilled listeners/readers shift from one mode to the other as they accommodate the demands of the task, whil demands whilee lo lowe wer-p r-profic roficiency iency listene listener/rea r/reader der rel rely y on one mode. mode. This unidirection unidirectional al processing has five causes: 1.

Linguist Linguistic ic skill skill deficiencie deficienciess

2. Failure to activate available available schemata 3. Read Reading ing misconcept misconceptions ions 4. Individual differences in cognitive cognitive style style Carrell and Eisterhold explain that there are two kinds of schemata used to understand messages:

1. Content schem schemata: ata: prior knowledge knowledge and expectations about objects, events events,, and situations. situations. 2. Formal schemata: knowledge knowledge of the rhetorical rhetorical or discourse discourse structures of different different types of  text.

Research on the role of context in comprehension Some practical questions that second language teacher have asked are addressed in this chapter. They are about visual organizers, non-pictorial prereading or prelistening activities, cultural knowledge, influence of different types of text. 

The role of visual organizers  Bransford  and  Johnson made four studies of listening comprehension. They showed that relevant

contextual knowledge is a prerequisite for comprehending prose in the native language. They found the impo importan rtance ce of a suitab suitable le organ organiza izatio tion n of st store ore of previo previous us knowl knowledg edgee facin facing g a difficu difficult lt te text. xt. They They demonstrated that subjects don’t simply interpret sentences intrinsically and store meaning. They create semantic products with input information and prior knowledge. The experiment consisted of an acquisition phase (subjects listen to the passage) followed by 2 tasks: 1) subjects were asked to rate the comprehensibility of the passage and 2) subjects were asked to recall the facts in the passage. Five groups of subjects participated: 1. No-conte No-context xt: hearing the passage passage with no pictorial pictorial support. 2. Context-be Context-before fore: Seeing the contextual contextual visual before before hearing the passage. 3. Context-after: hearing the passage passage and then seeing the picture. 4. Partial-context: Seeing the picture before before hearing the passage, but the objects in the the picture are rearranged. 5. No- conte context xt 2: hearing the passage passage twice with no pictorial support. The results revealed that only the Context-before had a real advantage in comprehending the passage. The ambiguity of the passage was removed by the appropriate prior knowledge: the picture. Omaggio said that visual contextual information makes the comprehension task easier because

 

appropriat appr opriatee backgrou background nd knowl knowledg edgee or schemata schemata is activated. activated. She invest investigat igated ed the eff effects ects of selected selected pictorial contexts. Two variables were explored: 1. Pictorial contex contextual tual organizer: consisted of 6 levels levels or experimental experimental conditions: conditions: a.

No visual visual orga organizer nizer provide provided. d.

b. A sing single le object drawing depicting the title of the story. story. c.

A conte context xtual ual picture picture prov provide ided d prior prior to reading reading depict depicting ing an action action from the

beginning of the story. d. A conte contextual xtual picture picture provided provided prior to to reading depicting an action from the middle

of the story. e.

A contextual contextual picture picture provided provided prior to reading reading depicting depicting an action action from the end of  the story.

f.

All three contextual contextual pictures provided provided prior prior to reading.

2. Type of text text: consisted consisted in three conditions: conditions: a.

No text provided provided to one group, group, just just the pictures.

b. A te text xt in French provi provided ded to a second group. c.

The same same text text in English provided provided to a third group.

Comprehension of the text was measured by asking students to 1) write a resume of the passage content in English and 2) complete a 20-item multiple choice and true/false test. The results showed different effects of the conditions on reading comprehension in native and target language. Advance organizers had a significant advantage. Also this study revealed that not all pictures are equally effective in enhancing comprehension in the second language.  Mueller  in a similar study investigated the effects of visual organizer on listening comprehension

in German. He used one variable in measuring those effects. Subjects were asked to recall an English resume of the passage heard in German, it was heard only once. He found that providing a visual before hearing the passage had more beneficial effect. 

Visual organizers compared to other prereading activities

Hudson’s study: at lower levels of proficiency, the provision of the pictorial context cues aid comprehension. Read/test/reread/retests and vocabulary treatments are less effective at the beginning and intermediate levels than visual condition, they are effective at advance level. Induced schemata via picture cues can overco overcome me lo lower wer-pro -proficien ficiency cy deficits. deficits. Advanced Advanced readers are able to bring more non-visua non-visuall information in the comprehension process. Visual and pre-questioning treatments produce a deeper and more active involvement of the subject in prior to reading. 

Script activators and other organizers Titles and topic cues

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In   Bransford & Johnson experiments, subjects listened to the passage once without information about the topic, others were given the topic in a short statement, and a third group was given the topic after hearing the passage. The passage was more comprehensible for the subjects who had the topic before the passage.

 

  Anderson, Reynolds, Schallert, and Goetz showed that the background and interests of readers

influence their interpretation of passages. High-level schemata determine how discourse is understood, it cause a person to see a message in a certain way, without considering alternative interpretations. Familiar scripts facilitate reading comprehension; they help to make appropriate predictions and hypotheses about what will occur in the story. The higher proficiency level, the less impact script activators had, since high-proficiency students create a context from the linguistic cues in the text itself. Cultural background cues

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It has significant effect on reading comprehension. Johnson said that exposure to the meanings of  difficult vocabulary didn’t seem to affect comprehension. But who studied the target vocabulary before the reading, were in advantage. He concluded that background knowledge helps enhance comprehension. Atti Attitud tudes es and emotio emotional nal reacti reactions ons as well well as kno knowl wledg edgee st struct ructure uress may may ha have ve a role role in the instantiation of schemata and in the comprehension process. Story structure and expectations

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Spiro showed how expectations about the outcome of a story could affect comprehension and

recall. Comprehension is an active, hypothesis-testing procedure in which the reader constructs his own version against the incoming information. If a match can’t be achieved, they adjust the input to fit their hypotheses, choose a different schema and beginning the hypothesis-testing process again. Rhetorical schemata show that comprehension suffers when the structure of a story violates the expected norm. It can cause the reader to fail to comprehend. Carrell found that the content is kept constant but the story’s structure was violated, second language reading comprehension suffers at the same way. The role of formal schemata in language comprehension is shown to be as important to consider as that of  content schemata. For ESL students, the more loosely organized structure of  collections of descriptions is more difficult to recall than the more tightly organized comparison, causation and problem solution. Teaching them about rhetorical structure of a text before reading it improves their comprehension. Lee & Riley found that students with an expanded framework as an advance organizer remember more than those with the minimal minimal framework. framework. Providing Providing readers at lower lower levels levels of proficienc proficiency y with advance organizers about passages structure is an important step in helping them learn how to get the most information form a foreign-language text. 

Conclusion: contextualization and schema-based understanding

Comprehen Comp rehension sion is an active active process where stud students ents interact with the text, using using backgroun background d knowledge, and the rhetorical features of the text itself. Schemata-based understanding supports the view that learning language in context is easier than processing language in bits and pieces. Second language learners must be aware of conventions and constraints of discourse in the target language. Socio-cultural factors need to be taught overtly at various points along the course.

 

Integrating language and content: immersion and content-based instruction Immersion programs: Adaptations for schools in the United States. 1. As educati educational, onal, cultural, cultural, and linguistic enrichment programs in elementary grades. 2. As magnet sschools chools to bring about an ethnic ethnic and/or racial balance within a school district. district. 3. As means of ac achieving hieving a kind of two-wa two-way y bilingualism bilingualism in communities communities with large large minority minority populations (Genesee) Although the initial purposes for the immersion an content-based instruction, a common gal of  such programs is the develop development ment of significan significantt levels levels of language language proficiency proficiency through through exp experienti eriential al learning in subject-matter areas.  Met  defines content-based programs as instruction that uses learning objectives and activities

drawn from the elementary school curriculum as a vehicle for teaching foreign language skills. Genesee defines Canadian immersion programs as those in which target language is used for teaching regular school subjects. He describe 3 immersion models: th

1. Early im immersion mersion: in the first to 4 grades of schooling are done in French with a gradual incorporation of English until sixth grade. 2. Delay Delayed ed immersion immersion: 4th and 5th grades receive instruction in French, with reintegration into the English curriculum in the subsequent grades. 3. Late immersi immersion on: all- French French instruction instruction in 7th or 8 th grade with a daily period of English.  Also programs can be characterized as total immersion or partial immersion models.

In discussion the effectiveness of a content-based instruction for ESL students, Snow and Brinton conclude about the need to integrate language and content in a coherent fashion. Simply teaching language through content or content through language is not enough. An integrated of form focused activities and content-based assignments is needed to achieve the best results, regardless the age or level of proficiency of  the student.