Implementation Grant Retreat Strategies for Working with

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Transcript Implementation Grant Retreat Strategies for Working with

TESOL 2009
Teacher Training for Caribbean Creole English
Speakers: Navigating Uncharted Territory
Dr. Shondel Nero
Associate Professor
New York University
[email protected]
March 27, 2009
The facts
Rapidly increasing number of speakers
of Caribbean Creole English (CCE) in
New York City public schools.
Many of these students are recent
immigrants from the Caribbean.
A large percentage are reading and
writing far below grade level.
The issues
 The spoken and written language of CCE speakers
seem at variance with standardized academic
language.
 CCE speakers, being categorized as native speakers
of English, are not eligible for ESL services.
 Uncharted territory: Many teachers are unsure how
to respond to the language and literacy needs of
students who are classified as native speakers of
English but whose spoken and written language
appear nonnative or unfamiliar.
Pilot project with middle/high school
teachers
Objectives:
To analyze the language use and literacy
practices of CCE speakers in middle and high
schools.
To raise teacher awareness of the unique
linguistic practices and needs of CCE
speakers through ongoing professional
development and training in sociolinguistics.
Guiding questions
What are the typical patterns of language use
as well as literacy practices of CCE speakers
in NYC middle and high schools?
To what extent does raising language
diversity awareness through teacher training
in sociolinguistics and professional
development impact the academic
performance of CCE speakers in middle/high
school English language arts classes?
School profiles: School #1
 Combined middle/high school
 Located in Brooklyn in very Caribbean neighborhood
 Grades 6-12
 Recently created specialized school
 Approximately 550 students
 About 85% Caribbean background
 Many students reading below grade level
 Working with 4 English Language Arts (ELA)
teachers: 3 white females; 1 Hispanic female.
 8 Students: 3 Jamaicans, 2 Trinidadians, 1
Guyanese, 1 Grenadian, 1 St. Lucian.
School #2
 Located in Queens
 Middle school - approx 1300 students
 Grades 6-8
 Approximately 35% of students of Caribbean
background
 Some students at grade level, but many reading
below grade level
 Working with 1 African American ELA teacher; 2
literacy teachers - 1 white female, 1 white male.
 4 students: 2 Guyanese and 2 Jamaicans.
Training and data collection
 Professional development workshops
 Classroom observation
 Questionnaires completed by participating teachers
and students
 Taperecorded interviews with teachers and students
 Samples of reading/writing assignments
 Teacher reflective journals
 Samples of students’ written work, tests
 New York State ELA curriculum grades 6-12.
Educating the CCE Speaker:
Three components
Linguistic
Debunking dialect/language myths
Language of the student/community
Language of the teacher; language of the curriculum
Sociological
Who are the students?
What is their immigrant status?
What are their socioeconomic and educational backgrounds?
Pedagogical
What are the most effective instructional approaches for CCE speakers?
Intensive/extensive reading and writing
Contrastive approach; constructive feedback; sensitive error correction
The relevant literature:
On Creole English history & features:
Peter Roberts (1988)
Dennis Craig (2006)
Hubert Devonish (2007)
On differences between CCE and
ESL writing:
Arlene Clachar (2004a; 2004b)
Literature cont’d
On academic language/discourse:
Michael Halliday (1994)
Mary Schleppegrell (2004)
On literacies:
David Olson (1994)
Brian Street (1984; 1995)
On language in the content areas:
Ana Uhl Chamot & J. Michael O’Malley
(1994)
Literature cont’d
On language socialization and
classroom discourse:
Courtney Cazden (1990)
Lisa Delpit (1996)
James Gee (1990)
On reflective teacher practice:
Jack Richards & Charles Lockhart
(1994)
Literature cont’d
On Caribbean immigration:
Foner (1984)
On working with Caribbean students in
North American schools:
Elizabeth Coelho (1991)
Shondel Nero (2000; 2006)
Yvonne Pratt-Johnson (2006)
Lise Winer (1991; 2006)
On language attitudes and dialects:
Adger, Wolfram & Christian (2007)
Language Attitudes: Debunking dialect
and language myths
Training begins with language attitudes
survey
What is a dialect?
A dialect is a social, regional, or ethnic variety
of a language characterized by a distinct
grammar, pronunciation, and lexicon.
Myths about dialect
They are deformed versions of the
standard language.
They have no grammar.
They are the same as slang.
They are only spoken by less educated
or poor people.
Myths about the standard
language variety
There is only one standard variety.
It is inherently superior.
It has no accent.
It is fixed and doesn’t change.
Why is dialect use controversial in
education?
 Schools are the historical custodians of standard language.
 Dialect use seen as interfering with the acquisition of the
standard.
 Dialect use also appears to undermine the integrity of the
standard.
 Dialect use by students marks them as lesser (linguistically,
educationally, and socio-economically).
 Fear that dialect use might further ghettoize historically
marginalized groups.
 Several of these reasons were cited in the Ebonics controversy
(1996).
Language of the student/community
Caribbean Creole English (CCE) - the mass
vernacular in the countries of the Caribbean,
Central America, and mainland South
America, formerly colonized by the British.
Started as a Pidgin, then evolved into a
Creole with vocabulary words from the
colonizer language (English) as well as those
from the indigenous and transplanted groups.
The Creole Continuum
<<---------------------------------------------------------->>
Basilect
Creole (Patois)
Mesolect
Creole English
Acrolect
Standard English
CCE typical features
Grammar:
Sentence structure is flexible. Subject and
object can switch positions, e.g, “Me tell she
fuh come”
Zero inflections for: (1) plurals if plurality
already indicated e,g. five dollar
(2) possession - e.g. my friend house
(3) subject verb agreement - e.g, She live in
Manhattan.
(4) tense - e.g., They call me yesterday.
CCE features cont’d
Words (vocabulary, lexicon):
Creole words., eg. “nyam” means “eat”
Standard English words with Creole
meanings, eg. “hand” means everything from
the shoulders to the fingers
“foot” means everything from the thighs to the
toes.
 “waiter” means a “tray”.
 “tea” can mean any hot beverage.
Pronunciation
 Vowels pronounced differently from Standard
English, e.g, “mistah” for “mister”.
 In Jamaica, “h” is often dropped or added differently
at the beginning of words, e.g “ouse” for “house” or
“honion” for “onion”.
 Voiceless “th” pronounced as “t”, e.g “tree” for “three”
 Voiced “th” pronounced as “d”, e.g “dem” for “them”.
 Syllable timed pronunciation as opposed to stress
timed pronunciation of Standard English. e.g
cóndémn vs. condémn
Home
Peers
School
Books and
other printed
material
CCE speaker’s
language repertoire
Wider
community
Internet
TV
Sample sentence of a CCE speaker
Im bruk e foot
Im bruk im foot
Him bruk im foot
Him bruk im leg
He broke is leg
He broke his leg
Linguistic identity of CCE student
CCE speakers self-identify as native speaker
of English regardless of their level of
proficiency in standard English
CCE speakers are surprised that they are not
always understood by American teachers.
Some have been placed in ESL class, and
are shocked and insulted by the placement.
Language of the teacher
Likely to be more standardized
Might exhibit “teacher talk” where authority is
deflected, e.g, veiled commands.
Often follows the “IRF” (Initiation, Response,
Feedback) format.
Exhibits a range (sometimes conflicting) of
response to spoken and written errors.
Adjusted to the age of the students
Language demands of the curriculum
 Most writing to be produced in standardized English
 Language more decontextualized
 Language is content specific
 Requires understanding of complex sentence
structures
 Requires a wide and sophisticated vocabulary
 Requires understanding of academic language
functions such as summarizing, analyzing, justifying,
evaluating, inferencing, etc.
 Writing in essayist form is disproportionately
privileged
English Language Arts (ELA) Learning
Standards for Middle School in New York
State
Students will read, write, listen, and speak for
information and understanding
Students will read, write, listen, and speak for
literary response and expression.
Students will read, write, listen, and speak for
critical analysis, and evaluation.
Students will read, write, listen, and speak for
social interaction.
Teacher responsibility
Familiarize yourself with the students’
language and culture through training.
Make language the object of study explicitly
contrasting CCE features with SE features
where appropriate.
Ensure reading and writing are done
everyday in class.
Highlight the linguistic demands of the
curriculum.
Practice sensitive, effective response to
student writing
Comparing language demands of the
curriculum with students’ language
Refer to handout.
Writing samples
Look at samples of CCE writing. How
would you respond?
Look at suggested strategies for
teachers. What challenges do you
anticipate in implementing them?
Sociological/cultural
considerations
 Socioeconomic status is a strong determinant of
access, to and quality of, schooling in the Caribbean.
Home language is a factor as well -- a catch 22
situation.
 Views of school and the role of the teacher different
in the Caribbean. Teacher is more an authority figure
with power in the larger community.
 Immigration status -- legal or illegal -- affects
students’ and their families’ options upon arrival in the
US.
Sociological/cultural
considerations cont’d
 Interrupted education can negatively affect student
academic performance particularly those with low
levels of literacy.
 Students might be experiencing migration stress due
to disrupted relationships with family members and
friends, and reuniting with estranged family members
in New York.
 Students may have difficulty adjusting to a new
culture, new way of speaking, and new ways of doing
school.
 It may be students’ first encounter with American
racism, and being framed as a minority.
THANK YOU.
References
Adger, C.T., Wolfram, W., & Christian, D. (2007). Dialects in schools and communities, 2nd ed.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Cazden, C. (2001). Classroom discourse: The language of teaching and learning, 2nd ed.
Boston: Heinemann.
Clachar, A. (2004a). The construction of Creole-speaking students’ linguistic profile and
contradictions in ESL literacy programs. TESOL Quarterly 38 (1): 153-165.
Clachar, A. (2004b). Creole discourse effects on the speech conjunctive system in expository
texts. Journal of Pragmatics 36, 1827-1850.
Coelho, E. (1991). Caribbean students in Canadian schools. Book II: Ontario: Pippin
Publishing.
Craig, D. (2006). From vernacular to standard English: Teaching language and literacy
to Caribbean students. Miami, FL: Ian Randle Publishers.
Delpit, L. (1996). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York:
New Press.
References
Devonish, H. & Carpenter, K. (2007). Full bilingual education in a creole situation. The
Jamaican Bilingual Primary Education Project. Occasional Paper, No. 35.
St. Augustine, Trinidad. Society for Caribbean Linguistics.
Foner, N. (1987). Introduction: New immigrants and changing patterns in New York
City. In N. Foner (Ed.). New immigrants in New York (pp. 1-33). New York:
Columbia University Press.
Gee, J. (1990). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. London:
Falmer Press.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar, 2nd ed. London:
Edward Arnold.
Nero, S. (2000). The changing faces of English: A Caribbean perspective. TESOL
Quarterly 34 (3), 483-510.
Nero, S. (Ed.). (2006). Dialects, Englishes, Creoles and Education. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
References
Olson, D. (1994). The world on paper: The conceptual and cognitive implications of
writing and reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pratt-Johnson, Y. (2006). Teaching Jamaican creole-speaking students. In S. Nero
(Ed.). Dialects, Englishes, Creoles, and Education (pp. 119-136). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Richards, J. & Lockhart, C. (1994). Reflective teaching in second language classrooms.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roberts, P. (1988). West Inidans and their language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Schlepegrell, M. (2004). The language of schooling: A functional linguistics perspective.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
References
Street, B. (1984). Literacy in theory and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Street, B. (1995). Social literacies: Critical approaches to literacy in development,
ethnography, and education. London: Longman.
Uhl Chamot, A. & O’Malley, J.M. (1994). The CALLA handbook. New York: Addison
Wesley.
Winer, L. (2006). Teaching English to Caribbean English Creole-speaking students
in the Caribbean and North America. In S. Nero (Ed.). Dialects, Englishes, Creoles
and Education (pp. 105-118). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.