LEAP - Supporting language development

Learning from talking and writing 

Speaking and writing—along with presenting—are often referred to as "productive skills". When learners produce language in speaking and writing, they engage in these three processes that help them learn language:

1 Noticing

As learners learn a language, they notice something they need—something that allows them to express what they are planning to say or write. For example, Sione wants to talk about a picture. He realises he does not know the language he needs to do this. He searches the page for a label, title, or picture description, and then he uses the words he finds to talk about the picture. Alternatively, he might listen carefully to other people talking about the picture and then use some of their words to say something himself.

2 Metatalk  

Metatalk is learners’ talk about language while they are using it for a purpose. They might clarify when and where to use certain words or language structures and how to use them. They are talking about the language they should use. For example, a learner might ask, "Should I say, 'Then he cooked the leaves', or 'Then he has cooked the leaves'?"

3 Hypothesis testing 

Hypothesis testing occurs when learners try out new language structures and see if they are understood and accepted by other people. Hypothesis testing helps them find out what does and does not work. Learning through hypothesis testing depends on teachers or peers giving feedback on language usage. This feedback could focus on the learner’s meaning. For example, a listener might say, "I don’t understand that. Do you mean that you can eat taro leaves and taro roots?" The feedback could also focus on the correctness of language forms. For example, if the person said, "You can eat taro leafs", the feedback could be, "It’s ‘leaves’. Leaves has a ‘v’ sound not a ‘f’ sound." This feedback can be a powerful source of new learning. 

Giving feedback 

Only give feedback on some of the language your students use. They might not take up everything they do get feedback on. This means that at any one time, they learn only a small proportion of all the possible things they might learn. 

Focused teaching can help increase the amount of information taken up, but a natural limit to the rate of language learning exists.

Exploring your practice

Learning from talking and writing 

All your learners are learning a new language. All are expanding their knowledge of English. Some are also expanding their use of a Pacific or other language. 

As your learners work with you and with each other, look out for and record: 

• examples of what they are using their language output for 
• the kinds of language-related feedback described above. 

It is more interesting (and easier to record) if you can get together with another teacher who observes you and keeps a record, and then you observe that person and record for them. 

Observe your students and record instances of when they focus on meaning and correct forms for each of these processes: 

• noticing 
• metatalk 
• hypothesis testing 
• asking for feedback on language usage 
• uptake of new language

Observe how the students use important vocabulary related to this curriculum topic. Do they: 

• use correct terms? 
• use simpler or less exact words? 
• manage (or not) to find words to express themselves adequately? 

Promoting noticing, metatalk, and hypothesis testing 

Get students to work in pairs or groups. Set up a task where all students need to communicate information that other students do not have.  

The simplest kind of split-information activity, which a teacher can use at any time with a small group, involves these easy steps: 

1. Choose a text you want your students to work with. 
2. Cut up a copy of the text so that each student has a piece. (You may want to give specific bits to particular students.)
3. Give the students a shared list of questions to answer or a task, such as a problem to solve, based on the text. Make sure most of the questions cannot be answered from one piece of text held by an individual student. The students share their information (without showing the written text) and integrate it to answer these questions or complete the task. 
4. Give your students a specified time for reading before they share and answer questions. 
5. Give each student the role of "expert" on their own piece so that they feel a sense of responsibility for it. 

Split information activities

Split information activities, such as barrier or jigsaw activities, are cooperative learning tasks that provide opportunities for learners to interact and negotiate in pairs or groups. The important feature of these activities is that each participant has only part of the information needed to complete the task, so all learners need to communicate and share the information others do not have.   

You can set up split-information activities using texts in Pacific languages with the support of a bilingual colleague. Alternatively, two groups of Pacific learners could set up activities for each other using different texts. Students will learn just as much from setting the tasks as from completing them. 

Split information: Primary maths – Using Gala activity

This activity is based on Figure it Out – Gala: Mathematics Curriculum Support Levels 2–3.

In the two examples below, sharing the information is only the beginning. Students then have further tasks to do. For example, they: 

• discuss and rank options 
• give reasons for their rankings 
• interpret and expand on graphed data. 

Classroom organisation 

When you first introduce the activity, model it for the students so they understand how to share their information, evaluate it, and discuss it. Make sure they understand that talking through possibilities and giving reasons are essential parts of the activities. 

Focus on students providing reasons for their answers, rather than just giving and receiving the correct answers. 

Have the students face each other so they cannot see the material their partner or partners have. 

Design the activities so that students have additional paper if they need to write, so you can reuse the parts needed in the activity. 

Example 1: Date dilemma, page 1  

The students decide which is the best weekend in November for a school gala. They must give their reasons. They have a calendar for November showing the days of the week. They also have seven statements, such as: 

• Three teachers are going to a wedding on the second Saturday. 
• Rooms 6 and 7 are on camp from 14 to 18 November. 

Splitting the information 

To make the split information activity, divide the material among two, three, or four students. Let all of them see the calendar, and make sure each person has only some of the statements of information. 

Now, get students to: 

• record their information next to the relevant weekends 
• discuss and rank the possible weekends for the gala 
• provide reasons for their choices 
• explain their choices and reasons to you or to another group. 

Example 2: Gala graphs, page 24 

The two graphs show how many people were at the food stall at each half-hour during the day and how much money was taken. There are questions and activities based on the graphs. 

Splitting the information 

• Have the students work in groups of three. 
• Give the students the graphs to share, but without any data recorded on them. 
• Ask one student to record the figures on the graph as the other two tell her what they are. One student has the figures recorded in the morning, and the other has the afternoon’s figures. 
• Each student has one of the discussion questions. When they have completed the graphs, they discuss the questions together. 

Split information: Secondary science – pH: Acid or alkaline 

In this example, sharing the information is only the beginning. The students have three further tasks: 

1. Decide whether their sentences are true or false, according to the written information they have. 
2. Rewrite the false sentences so they are correct. 
3. Describe the results of changes in pH (potential of Hydrogen). 

Classroom organisation 

• Model the activity for students when you first introduce it, so that they understand how to share and discuss their information. 
• Have the students face each other so they cannot see the material their partner has. 
• Design the activities so that the students don’t write on the sheets, and they can be reused. 

Split information activity 

This activity is based on the text below by Dr Jane Gilbert. 

Acid things have pH values between 1 and 7. 

These things are acid:

Lemon juice, hair, skin, apples, Coca-Cola, vinegar, and hydrochloric acid 

Only a few kinds of bacteria like to live in acidic places. 

Most bacteria like to live in alkaline places. 

Alkaline things have pH values between 7 and 14. 

These things are alkaline:

Toothpaste, soap, caustic soda, sodium bicarbonate, and dishwashing power 

These are the true or false statements, based on the above text and previous class work. Only three are false; most are true. 

1. Your skin is slightly acidic.
2. It has a pH of about 10. 
3. Your skin is the habitat for some special kinds of bacteria, which like to live in acidic conditions. 
4. But most other bacteria like to live in slightly alkaline conditions. 
5. Your skin is acidic, so it is not a good place for most bacteria to live. 
6. Soap is alkaline. 
7. When you wash your skin with soap, it becomes acidic.
8. Then your skin is no longer a good place for its own special bacteria to live. 
9. While your skin is alkaline, other harmful bacteria could take over.
10. It is a good idea to keep your skin alkaline so that the right kind of bacteria for your body can live there. 
11. After you wash with soap, you can return your skin to the right pH by rinsing it with vinegar (or ____________). 

Splitting the information 

1. Divide the material so that each partner in a pair has half the information. Each partner should have half of the original text and half of each sentence, as shown below. While working in pairs gives each learner the maximum possible amount of speaking time, you could also divide the material into three or four for small groups of learners. 
2. Have learners face each other so they cannot see their partner’s text. 
3. Instruct learners that they will: 

• join the sentence parts to make a whole sentence
• check against their parts of the text to decide whether the sentence is true or false
• make the sentence correct, if it is false.

4. Model the activity so that learners understand how to share and discuss their information.

5. Design the activities so that the learners don’t write on the sheets, and they can be reused. 

Student A materials  

Acid things have pH values between 1 and 7. 

These things are acid:

• Lemon juice 
• Hair 
• Skin 
• Apples 
• Coca-Cola® 
• Vinegar 
• Hydrochloric acid 

Only a few kinds of bacteria like to live in acid places. 

Complete the sentences below. Your partner has the other half of each sentence. 

Some sentences are not true. Correct them. 

Work by talking. Do not look at your partner's paper. 

The person with the X next to the number speaks first.

1. X Your skin is ___________________. 

2. _______________ about 10. 

3. X Your skin is the habitat for some special kinds of bacteria ____________________. 

4. ______________________ live in slightly alkaline conditions. 

5. X Your skin is acid, so it is _____________________________. 

6. _______________________alkaline. 

7. X When you wash your skin with soap, ______________________. 

8. _______________________________ for its own special bacteria to live. 

9. X While your skin is alkaline, __________________________________. 

10. ______________________________ so that the right kind of bacteria for your body can live there. 

11. X After you wash with soap, you can return your skin to the right pH __________________________________________________________________ 

Explain to your partner why it is not good for your skin to have its pH changed. 

Student B materials 

Most bacteria like to live in alkaline places. 

Alkaline things have pH values between 7 and 14. 

These things are alkaline:

• Toothpaste 
• Soap 
• Caustic soda 
• Sodium bicarbonate 
• Dishwashing powder 

Complete the sentences below. Your partner has the other half of each sentence. 

Some sentences are not true. Correct them. 

Work by talking. Do not look at your partner's paper. 

The person with the X next to the number speaks first.

1. ___________ slightly acid. 

2. X It has a pH of ________________ 

3. ___________________________________ which like to live in acid conditions. 

4. X But most other bacteria like to _________________________ 

5. ____________________________not a good place for most bacteria to live. 

6. X Soap is ____________ 

7. _______________________________________your skin becomes acid. 

8. X Then your skin is no longer a good place________________________ 

9. __________________________other harmful bacteria could take over your skin. 

10. X It is a good idea to keep your skin alkaline_________________________ 

11. _______________________________________by rinsing your skin with vinegar (or ____________). 

Explain to your partner what happens to the pH of your skin when you wash your skin with soap and then rinse it with lemon juice. 

Learning from listening and reading

Second-language research tells us that learners need a great deal of exposure to language input. This means that Pacific learners need a lot of opportunities to listen and read. Reading and writing, along with viewing, are often referred to as "receptive skills".

Languages are different from other school curriculum areas because they can be learned without any direct teaching. All children learn their first languages this way. In the global context, most second languages are probably learned as a result of participating in a speech community, through the process known as language acquisition. This is when people acquire or develop language "naturally".   

Bilingual Pacific learners in Aotearoa New Zealand schools are in a second-language environment for a large part of their time. They will learn English by hearing and reading it, especially because they have strong practical reasons to do so.

Extending Pacific languages

The more opportunities schools can provide for their bilingual Pacific learners to listen and read in a Pacific language, the more the learners’ knowledge of their Pacific languages will be extended.

Output, input, and interaction

Student output (the language learners say or write) and interaction (learners communicating with other people using the language they are learning) are needed for you to hear and read. 

Understanding factors that affect comprehension

The English Language Learning Progressions  (2007) outline the five stages involved in learning to read English as an additional language.  

Vocabulary knowledge 

One way you can judge whether your students are likely to understand a particular text is by looking at the number of words in the text that they know the meaning of. Paul Nation (2001) notes that: 

• learners need to know between 95 and 98 percent of the words they are reading in order to understand and read material easily 
• to read independently, only two out of every 100 words can be words the reader does not understand well.  

Get learners to show what they know 

Show your learners a text. Ask them to underline or make a list of all the words they are not sure they understand. If they are unsure of more than five words per 100 (or 1 in 20) they will only be able to study this text with support. They will be unable to read it independently, fluently, and easily, with enjoyment and good comprehension. 

Vocabulary learning 

A small proportion of words are permanently learned the first time they are encountered (perhaps four or five percent). Most words usually take up to 20 encounters before they are permanently learned. You need to build a great deal of recycling and repetition into language learning. 

Spacing introductions with new words 

Spacing introductions to new words is the most effective approach. This practice, called "spaced retrieval", is based on memory research. 

• First day: On the first day, there should be several encounters, not just one. 
• Over the week: There should be several more encounters spread over the week. 
• In the following weeks and months: In the following two weeks, include a few encounters. Give some during the next month, and after that, one or two in the following months. 

The benefits of regularity, recycling, and repetition 

It is likely to take half a year of regular encounters for all students to learn a particular set of words permanently.  

Because there is much to learn for each language item and because language items take many encounters to be permanently and fully learned, a great deal of recycling and repetition need to be built into language learning. 

Scaffold learning: high challenge, high support

For optimal language learning, spoken or written input should be at the right level—neither too hard nor too easy, just above the learner’s current language level.

Difficult input does not always need to be discarded or simplified. It may be suitable for instructional material used in a scaffolded way in the class. Evidence exists that learners make better progress from: 

• texts that are elaborated rather than simplified 
• working with material in ways that allow them to interact and process the meaning at deeper levels. 

This connects to the importance of teachers having high expectations for Pacific learners while also providing strong support.

Help students notice vocabulary and language structures 

To make language learning both more successful and more efficient, teachers need to help learners notice vocabulary, patterns and structures in the language they hear and read. This is best done in a way that does not interrupt the learners’ attention to meaning.

Ways to help students notice language items and patterns 

• Seamless reading, choosing, and writing down words for attention – While reading a story aloud (without interrupting the flow of the story), select words for attention and write them on the whiteboard. (Most junior class teachers do this regularly.) 
• Make questioning time part of classroom routines – Set up classroom routines so that at the end of a section of a text or at other specific times, students can ask about words or phrases they are unfamiliar with or are unsure of. Learners could answer each other, as in reciprocal teaching. They could also discuss the strategies they used, or could have used, to independently identify the unfamiliar language items. 
• Students highlight text features – Students or teachers highlight features in a text. This can happen before, during, or after reading, depending on the students' reading abilities.
• Pause and repeat – When teachers are explaining or introducing new content, they can pause and repeat key words or phrases, drawing students’ attention to these items.

Exploring your practice

Help students notice vocabulary and grammatical features 

Some simple ways to help learners notice:

• Choose a lesson or a unit of work in a curriculum area that you teach. 
• Choose several vocabulary items that you will use in the lesson/s.
• Record the items on a card. To make students more aware of these, write them on the whiteboard as you use them. 
• Before the next lesson or unit, use a simple quiz to check whether the learners understand the words you selected for attention. 

Using enhanced input 

Another way teachers can draw learners’ attention to aspects of language is through enhanced input. This is when you take a text that learners are reading and highlight a particular feature of grammar for attention or focus. 

Examples of using enhanced input

These examples show how one teacher highlighted specific grammatical features their learners needed help with: 

• regular verb endings 
• irregular verb endings 
• the use of the definite article "the" 
• different kinds of possessive structures in English. 

(The excerpt used in the examples is taken from  Sachar. L, Holes, Chapter 7.)

Example 1

"The shovel felt heavy in Stanley’s soft, fleshy hands. He tried to jam it into the earth, but the blade banged against the ground and bounced off without making a dent. The vibrations ran up the shaft of the shovel and into Stanley’s wrists, making his bones rattle."

Example 2

"The shovel felt heavy in Stanley’s soft, fleshy hands. He tried to jam it into the earth, but the blade banged against the ground and bounced off without making a dent. The vibrations ran up the shaft of the shovel and into Stanley’s wrists, making his bones rattle." 

Example 3 

"The shovel felt heavy in Stanley’s soft, fleshy hands. He tried to jam it into the earth, but the blade banged against the ground and bounced off without making a dent. The vibrations ran up the shaft of the shovel and into Stanley’s wrists, making his bones rattle." 

Example 4 

"The shovel felt heavy in Stanley’s soft, fleshy hands. He tried to jam it into the earth, but the blade banged against the ground and bounced off without making a dent. The vibrations ran up the shaft of the shovel and into Stanley’s wrists, making his bones rattle." 

 

Giving feedback

Give effective, deliberate feedback to achieve the best outcomes for bilingual Pacific students who are learning English as an additional language. Doing so encourages the students to notice the language form they are using. 

Ways to give feedback 

• Explicit feedback: Give feedback through instructional strategies like telling, directing, and explaining. You can also provide a correction (telling them what the right language is and directing them to use it) or explain the error (what is wrong). 
• Implicit feedback: Give feedback through instructional strategies like modelling, questioning, and prompting.  
• Reformulation or recasting: Reword either what the learner said or the part that contained an error. Through the reformulation, you can model ways to use language more accurately.  

Example 1: Reformulation or recast focused on grammar 

Learner: *I very like nature.  

Teacher: Yes, I like nature very much, too. 

Teacher: Did you see the pōhutukawa flowers today? 

Learner: I no see flowers. 

Teacher: You didn’t see the flowers? 

Learner: Didn't see the flowers. 

Teacher: They’re on the tree in the playground. You can see them out of the window. 

Learner: *Where School Journal, please? 

Teacher: Where is the School Journal, Tina? It’s in the box on my table. 

Learner: *On table. 

Note: An asterisk (*) indicates that the form is incorrect.

Uptake: Taking up and acting on feedback

For learning to occur, the learner has to notice and use the correct form. This is called "uptake".

The use of the interactional techniques described above does not necessarily mean that a student will learn. A problem with recasts is that learners may not always notice them.

If the teacher stops speaking immediately after the recast, there is a greater likelihood that the learner will repeat the last few words and correct their errors. However, even if they correct the error at this time, they may make the same mistake again at another time. Learners need many experiences with a new language before it becomes an easily accessible part of their language repertoire.

Recasts or reformulations can also be used to provide feedback on bilingual Pacific learners’ writing. This involves rewriting all or part of a learner’s text, preserving all the learner’s ideas but removing inaccuracies in vocabulary, language, and text structures. Discussion with the teacher or between learners will help the writer notice changes and why they have been made.

Use your judgement

Use your judgement in deciding how direct to make your feedback on language usage. If a student already knows what the correct form is, then implicit feedback may be enough. If a student does not know the correct form, you may need to give more explicit feedback.

Exploring your practice: Feedback can help students notice grammar 

Try this investigation with a colleague. 

Ask 

Ask your colleague to observe your class during a lesson. Have them take notes about feedback related to Pacific learners’ language usage and uptake, as suggested in Observations below. 

Record 

Make a voice or video recording of the lesson.  

Review

Listen to or watch the lesson with your colleague. Pay attention to the interactions between you and individual Pacific learners. This will add to your understanding of your colleague’s notes and allow you to hear exactly what took place. 

Discuss and evaluate 

Discuss and evaluate the different types of interactions that occurred with your colleague. 

• Do you prefer a particular type of feedback related to Pacific learners’ language usage? 
• Did you hear any examples of uptake from the students?
• Could you try using some new kinds of language-related feedback? 

Seek input from students

Talk about the interactions with the students involved. Ask them whether the kind of feedback you gave was helpful to them. 

Discuss with them the kinds of feedback described above and ask which they think would be most helpful to them. 

Talk about ways they could learn to ask you and their peers for the most useful kinds of feedback when they need it. 

Observations 

Note how many times the teacher interacted with individual Pacific learners. 

For each interaction, describe what type of feedback on language usage the teacher gave. For example: 

• they corrected the student’s error
• they explained the error
• they recast the student’s response
• they indicated that they had not understood what the student said because they asked the student to clarify or repeat what they said.

By scaffolding learning, teachers give Pacific learners guidance, support, and opportunities for practice as they progressively develop independent use of the new knowledge or skill.

Scaffolding requires:  

• careful analysis (review closely) of the learning focus
• teachers to use a variety of instructional strategies to provide students with support, guidance, and opportunities to practise working with the new learning. 

To make the best possible progress with language development, learners must engage in activities that focus on both language meaning and language forms. Curriculum and language objectives can therefore often be addressed together through the same learning tasks.

Zone of proximal development

The concept of scaffolding comes from the work of Lev Vygotsky (1978 and 1986) and his notion that learners learn most productively with support in the zone of proximal development (ZPD). This zone is where learners cannot yet complete work fully on their own but can complete work if they have suitable support. Vygotsky saw learning as a social process that occurs through relationships between people. He observed that what people can do and learn with the support of others exceeds what they can do on their own.

Scaffolding in early language development

In their early language development, children begin by taking part in:

• limited communications 
• specific contexts 
• and with the adults or children they are close to.

Their language develops only through social interaction.

Gradually, they add to these limited communications, internalise them, and widen them into a whole language system of inner speech. Drawing on this inner-speech language system, they express a wide range of concepts to themselves and to others.

The scaffolding of learning occurs in familiar, non-academic contexts, such as when young children are taught skills such as how to dress and feed themselves. It also occurs when people of all ages are taught a physical skill, such as how to play a sport or use new equipment.

Scaffolding continues for adults. For example, those who are being taught the processes and particular knowledge required in a new job.

How language-learning tasks can help language development 

To make the best possible progress with language development, students must engage in activities that focus on both language forms and meaning. In terms of second-language learning, a task is a learning activity that is structured so that students engage actively with meaning through working with input and processing meaning to produce output. 

Most curriculum learning activities also involve input from the teacher and students engaging with meaning and processing it to produce a planned outcome. Curriculum and language objectives can often be addressed together through the same learning tasks. 

Exploring your practice

How we scaffold language 

1. Read one or more of the passages listed below under "Further reading". If possible, discuss them with colleagues. 
2. Note three ideas that could be used to scaffold bilingual Pacific students’ English-language learning or other ideas that could enhance the teaching of these students. 
3. Comment on what these ideas may imply for your teaching and discuss how they might be used with your bilingual Pacific students. 
4. List ways of scaffolding your bilingual Pacific students’ development in English and any ideas for encouraging them to use their Pacific languages in their learning. 

Further reading 

• Chapter 4 of both Effective Literacy Practice books (Ministry of Education, 2003a and 2006) discusses instructional strategies (such as modelling, prompting, and giving feedback) teachers can use to scaffold learning. These are important strategies for teaching learners from early childhood to adulthood.
• Deliberate acts of teaching – Effective Literacy Practice in Years 1-4 
• Chapter 4: Reading for deep understanding – Effective Literacy strategies in Years 9-13 
• Pasifika Languages Research and Guidelines Project: Literature Review – Franken, May, and McComish (2005, Section 5.3.4, pages 65–66) discuss language scaffolding for Pacific students. See Materials that come with this resource to download Pasifika Languages Research and Guidelines Project: Literature Review (.pdf).
• Gibbons, P. (2002). Learning language, learning through language, and learning about language: Developing an integrated curriculum. From Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching Second Language, Learners in the Mainstream Classroom. pp. 118-138. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann looks at how mainstream teachers with little or no specialised ESL training can meet the challenge of teaching linguistically diverse students. 

A framework for scaffolding language 

Scaffolding in language learning has specific focuses. 

The table below provides a framework to help you decide what aspect of language learning you want to focus on during a particular learning activity.  

To move from defining the focus to scaffolding language development, you have to think about the: 

• purpose of your focus, for example, do your students need to develop more complex language for a real communicative purpose? 
• methods that can be used to support and scaffold the students’ learning 
• students’ goals and associated success criteria. 

Language focus	Components of language
Students need to learn to use:	Sounds	Words	Sentences	Texts
More complex language
More fluent language		X
More accurate or correct language		X
	How language is used
Focus	Speaking	Listening	Reading	Writing
More complex language
More fluent language	X
More accurate or correct language	X

 

Using the table

Focus: The four marks (X) in the table show that at a particular time, you have decided to focus on developing students’ skills in speaking sentences more accurately and fluently. 

Purpose: The purpose could be for students to learn to produce fluent spoken sentences in accurate English when contributing to class discussions. 

Method: You might scaffold this learning by modelling two or more sentences that comment on a specific subject and draw students’ attention to their features. Then, have students work in pairs to: 

• construct a similar sentence using their own comment 
• check the accuracy of the English they have used 
• practise saying their sentences fluently to their partner before contributing them to a whole-class discussion. 

Criteria for success: 

• Content - criteria could be that the students produce a relevant, meaningful sentence. 
• Fluency - criteria could be appropriate phrasing with no hesitation or unplanned repetition. 
• Accuracy - criteria could be that the students produce a sentence with correct and clearly spoken words in an English sentence structure that is appropriate for the informal discussion context. 

Tips and suggestions 

• Work with a colleague and write several examples like the one above, specifying the purpose, focus, method, and criteria for some language learning as part of your teaching in a particular curriculum area. 
• An important part of scaffolding language is making explicit to your students the things they need to learn. Express these goals in ways that engage your students’ interest. 
• Work out ways of providing support so that all students can meet the criteria for success. 
• Try out what you have planned with your students. 
• Observe and evaluate the students’ work. 
• Watch this video about the secondary curriculum and vocabulary. It shows teachers carefully scaffolding aspects of vocabulary learning.

When we specify goals for students’ language production, we want them to use language correctly or accurately. We also want them to develop fluency and increase the complexity of their language. 

Different language-learning tasks have characteristics that are more likely to promote one or other of these objectives. 

Language-learning tasks can be structured to promote particular aspects of language development, such as the following: 

• Communicative uses: reading, writing, speaking, listening, oral interaction 
• Language analysis: sounds, words, sentences, and texts 
• Language production: fluency, accuracy, and complexity 

Fluency 

In productive language, fluency can simply be a measure of how many connected words a person can say or write in a given time. Fluency measures may also consider the number of hesitations, self-corrections, repetitions, and space fillers like "um". A person may speak quite slowly but be very fluent because none of these "interruptions" occur. 

"Fluency is often associated with speed, but speed in itself has no value. What is important is the ability to work with the rhythm, pace, and accuracy that is appropriate to the purpose of reading or writing. Being measured and deliberate may be right for one purpose, and reading or writing quickly, or expressively, may be best for another. Whatever the purpose, fluency should not be thought of as separate from comprehension." (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 24)

Promoting fluency 

To develop fluency, teachers need to design tasks that provide opportunities for learners to use the language they already know. 

Accuracy 

This relates to the number of mistakes a speaker (or writer) makes and whether they use the forms that are expected for the type of text being produced. For example, it would be inaccurate to use very formal language in a personal note to a friend, just as it is inaccurate to write," he was falled down". 

Complexity 

This relates to aspects such as the range of words a person uses (reflecting the size of their vocabulary) and the variety and complexity of language structures and texts used.

Characteristics of language-learning tasks

The table below draws on the research findings about how to devise tasks that promote fluency, accuracy, or complexity in your students’ language. 

Characteristics of task	Promotes fluency	Promotes accuracy	Promotes complexity
Input
Contextual support (for example, pictures, diagrams)	There is contextual support.	The task has no contextual support.	The task has no contextual support.
Number of elements	There are only a few elements in the task input.		The task has many elements.
Topic	The topic is familiar, or the topic generates debate.
Conditions
Shared versus split information			The information is shared.
Task demands	The task poses a single demand.		The task poses a single demand.
Opportunity for advance planning	The task allows advance planning.	If the task allows advance planning, this may promote accuracy.
Monitoring their own performance as they speak or write	Tasks that involve monitoring (watching) while they are done impair (damage or weaken) fluency.	Tasks that involve monitoring while they are done promote accuracy
Task outcomes
Closed versus open outcome	The task outcome is closed	The task outcome is open.	The task is open and has divergent goals.
Inherent structure of the outcome	The task outcome has a clear inherent structure.	The task outcome has a clear inherent structure, and there is opportunity for planning.
Discourse mode			Narrative tasks promote more complexity than argument tasks. Discussion tasks produce least complexity.

 

Terms used to describe tasks 

Contextual support 

Contextual support refers to material (such as pictures and diagrams) that supports the language of a learning task because it has some meaning. Using these methods reduces the learner's reliance on the language itself.

Shared and split information 

If the information is shared, all the learners have access to the same information. 

If it is split, the learners have different items of information and are not allowed to share them.

Split information tasks force all learners to participate; shared information promotes more complexity in the learners’ language (possibly because they each have to deal with a larger amount and diversity of information). 

Closed and open outcomes 

The outcome of a task can be closed or open. 

Closed outcomes for tasks are when there are only certain correct outcomes or solutions. 

Problem-solving tasks often have only one or two solutions and have closed outcomes. Role-playing and interviews, on the other hand, are almost completely open. 

Inherent structure of the outcome 

The degree of a language-learning outcome’s openness differs according to its inherent (built-in) structure. For example, explaining to someone how to get to the ATM) has an inherent structure; that is, the person pictures a map of the route to the ATM. Thus, the form is a mental map. 

An interview has an open outcome in the form of the answers received; however, the outcome may have an inherent structure if the information gained is to be categorised.

If the students report back in any way they choose, no inherent structure exists. They will probably report back in relation to the questions they asked. 

Task demands 

Some tasks ask learners to do several things at the same time. A single-task demand promotes both fluency and complexity. Thus, it is probably better to break complex tasks down into several tasks.

These single-demand tasks can then be completed one after the other. However, it will be important to make sure learners integrate (combine different things together to make them one) what they learn from the separate tasks and do not treat them as isolated events (that is, events that happen far apart from each other). 

Say It! Example 

This example of a "Say it" activity is based on "My Dad's Raw Fish" by Mata Mataio (School Journal 2.4.02).  

"My Dad's Raw Fish"

	A	B	C
1	Pretend you are Dad. Tell your daughter all the ingredients you need to make raw fish. Tell her something about each ingredient.	Pretend you are Mata. Tell your friend the names of all your brothers and sisters.	Pretend you are Mum. Tell your children what to do to get ready to eat.
2	Pretend you are David. Tell your children about the other dishes they will eat with their grandfather’s raw fish.	Tell your classmates about your own favourite meal. Tell them the ingredients you need for it.	Pretend you are Dad. Explain why you leave the bones in the fish.
3	Pretend you are Mum. Tell your youngest child why you say grace before you start eating.	Pretend you are Denise. Tell your friend all about catching fish yesterday with your Dad.	Pretend you are the youngest brother and introduce yourself to the group. Tell them about preparing the fish. Tell them how you feel about your job.

 

Rules 

1. Each cell in the "Say it" table is a little role-play. 
2. Working in small groups of three or four, learners take turns speaking according to the instructions in a cell. 
3. The cells can be chosen at random, by dice or counters in a bag. 
4. To begin with, everyone should be given a cell and have a minute or two to prepare by checking the text. If you think your learners need extra support, ask them to do the preparation in pairs. 
5. Next, the learners take turns speaking.
6. The learners assign cells and speak again. 
7. The group can do this several times, so that each cell has been done more than once by different people. 

Variations 

• Impromptu performance: After a few turns, learners might become confident with the text, so that they do not need to prepare their role-plays but can do them straight away when given a cell number.
• Use as a writing prompt: Teachers could use some of the cells as a basis for writing later. 
• In their own words: When learners are familiar with participating in "Say it" activities, they might like to write their own for texts they have read. 
• Simpler ‘Say It": Tasks could have only four cells and very simple instructions, for example, "You are Binoka. Say who you are. Say what you did yesterday with your aiga." 
• More difficult "Say It": Activities can be based on senior secondary curriculum material, for example, "You are a geologist. Explain to the engineers planning a bridge what the rock types are in this area".

The "Say It!" activity is valuable for Pacific learners because it provides opportunities for them to practise speaking about familiar content in a small, safe group context with written stimulus. It also promotes noticing and hypothesis testing. It enables learners to consider different perspectives, thereby enhancing comprehension of the content.

Exploring your practice: Fluency, accuracy, and complexity in language

With a colleague, study the accuracy, fluency, and complexity of some of your bilingual Pacific learners’ English language production. With the support of a bilingual Pacific colleague, find out about their accuracy, fluency, and complexity in their Pacific language. 

You might ask, for example: 

• Is the learner who is fluent in English also fluent in gagana Samoa?
• Does the learner who uses complex language in Tongan also use complex language in English?

You can use this information to identify learners strengths and needs for further language development.

Improving learners’ fluency, accuracy, and complexity

Different input, conditions, and output requirements promote fluency, accuracy, or complexity in the language learners produce as they carry out a language-learning task. 

If you want to help your learners become more fluent in using the language they know, the task should: 

• have contextual support, such as a diagram, picture, or table
• have limited input (only a few elements) 
• be based on familiar topics and/or generate debate or conflict 
• require only one thing to be done, rather than several 
• have only one correct answer or correct solution 
• require the use of a clear structure (for example, a list of items, steps in a process, or a table or simple diagram to be completed) 
• allow for planning time. 

Best practice for promoting accuracy or complexity 

The characteristics of language-learning tasks have a table that shows the characteristics that best promote accuracy or complexity.

1. Choose an aspect of English language – fluency, accuracy, or complexity – that you want one or more of your students to develop further. 
2. State the evidence that leads you to believe your student/s need to develop this aspect of their English. 
3. Use the information in the table Characteristics of language-learning tasks to devise a relevant, curriculum-related learning task that will promote that aspect of language. 
4. As the students complete the learning task (and again later, as they complete other similar learning tasks), monitor their progress in the target aspect of English and provide explicit teaching when appropriate. 

Questions to ask yourself 

• Do you see an improvement in the students’ performance? 
• Can you attribute the change to the kinds of tasks they have completed? 
• Can you attribute the change to any particular characteristic of the tasks they have completed? 

Learning to use more complex sentences 

As learners progress through their schooling, they work with more complex ideas. To express these ideas, learners need to be able to write and say sentences of greater complexity. 

Three ways of scaffolding students in learning to use more complex sentences are: 

• sentence combining 
• repeating and substituting word patterns 
• building complex sentences in the context of information transfer activities. 

Because of the relationship between output (speaking and writing) and the acquisition of new language, when students begin to produce (say and write) more complex sentences, they also begin to understand such sentences better in their reading.  

Activities to produce complex sentences 

Sentence combining 

Give your learners sets of two or three simple sentences. Ask them to combine each set into one sentence.

Sentence combining is an activity that focuses more on language form than on meaning. As the students work, preferably in pairs or groups, to combine the sentences, they do need to focus on meaning to make sure the combined sentence means the same as the separate sentences.

An example of sentence combining 

Combine these three sentences into one longer sentence. There are many possible sentences. Find as many as you can. 

• This plant might be a fern. 
• The young leaves can help you to decide. 
• The young leaves have a special form. 

Repetition and substitution 

If you draw your students' attention to a useful sentence pattern that is complex (difficult) for them, they can use the same pattern many times just by changing one or two words. In this way, they create important sentences that are more complex than they would say or write on their own. Do this activity orally because the repetition, which can be boring in writing, is a challenge when speaking 

The 4/3/2 activity 

• Give students a few seconds to prepare to speak about a topic (for example, fern leaves). 
• After preparing, they speak to their first partner for about 60 seconds.
• Then, they move to another partner and give the same talk for 45 seconds.
• Finally, they move to a third partner and speak for 30 seconds.

When students do this, what they say changes slightly each time, and they speak more correctly and more fluently. 

Rhythm and repetition

If you and your learners are interested in rhythms and beats, you can use this interest to support their language development. 

In this activity, you choose a complex sentence that is useful for curriculum learning. You make them comfortable with it by using repetition and rhythm. 

You set the beat. 

Then, students must try to keep the beat when they say the sentences. 

You can start off with the whole class together, then choose individuals or pairs of students to speak, and then another student, and so on around the class or group. 

You can go on to make small changes in the sentence, keeping the same rhythm. 

Example 

Ferns are usually very easy to identify from their leaves. 

Some learners will find it quite hard to say this sentence fluently. You should give them a chance to practise until they are quite confident with it. Then they can start changing some parts of the sentence (substitution). 

To begin with, you can supply the words: 

• Grasses: Grasses are usually very easy to identify from their leaves.
• Flaxes: Flaxes are usually very easy to identify from their leaves.

Next, you can ask your learners to change two items: 

• Flowers: Flowers are usually very easy to identify from their petals 
• Conifers: Conifers are usually very easy to identify from their needles. 
• Trees: Trees are usually very easy to identify from their trunk and bark. 

Finally, the learners may be able to supply their own words for the slots in the sentence pattern without losing the beat: 

• Spiders: Spiders are usually very easy to identify from their eight legs.

Activities like these can form part of an oral language programme. 

Exploring your practice: Learning to use more complex sentences 

Try these three ways of helping students produce more complex sentences for an authentic, curriculum-related speaking or writing purpose. 

• Sentence combining 
• Repeating and substituting word patterns 
• Building complex sentences in the context of information transfer activities. 

Observe your students and record some of the sentences they produce. Compare these with sentences for similar purposes that they have previously produced. 

Develop an information-transfer activity based on a table or a diagram that helps your students record and organise information, which they will need to write or talk about using appropriately complex sentences. 

Think about how you can encourage the students to write or say longer sentences based on the information transfer activity that are interesting to hear or read and that present an achievable challenge for them. 

Information transfer 

An information transfer activity involves getting students to put spoken or written texts into another form, such as a chart, grid, picture, table, or diagram. Another option is to start with the chart, grid, picture, and so on, and have students put this into spoken or written texts.  

Develop an information-transfer activity based on a table or a diagram that helps your students record and organise information, which they will need to write or talk about using appropriately complex sentences. 

Supporting learning through interactions 

Certain types of learning activities, especially group activities where students need to exchange information with each other, help students engage in interaction and negotiation (back-and-forth conversations to agree on something).

Effective interactive discussion and negotiation lead to noticing, hypothesis testing, and metatalk, and their language learning improves.

Organising groups that make the most of language-learning opportunities 

Group interaction allows students to understand the concepts they need for their curriculum. Working together, they negotiate new learning. 

Different learning activities have different purposes. For example, activities where students either share different points of view or reach an agreement help them think about a range of opinions on a particular topic or idea. These activities can also support students' language learning. 

Engaging in negotiation and interaction 

In a learning languages context, a task is an activity that: 

• requires the learners to focus primarily on meaning 
• has some kind of gap that learners can close by communicating 
• requires learners to construct their own productive (meaningful) language rather than manipulate the language (simply reorder the words already used) that the teacher provides 
• has a clearly defined outcome (other than producing "correct" language). 

Learners acquire language and develop fluency when they are engaged in tasks that allow them to create meaning for a purpose that is authentic (applies to a real-life setting).

Language-learning tasks that use negotiation and interaction 

The types of language-learning tasks that result in the most negotiation and interaction among students include tasks that: 

• require an exchange of information; participation is key (one person gives information to another) 
• require a two-way exchange of information in which both or all participants must contribute and gain information  
• have a closed outcome (only certain outcomes or solutions are correct) 
• are new types of activities for the students 
• include detailed information and not much contextual support (that is, other bits that help explain or show the information, for example, from pictures) 
• involve familiar topics and familiar partners. 

Jigsaw activities 

Jigsaw activities create the conditions that lead to interactions helpful for language learning. 

Jigsaw Classroom describes ways jigsaw learning can be organised and some learning outcomes that can result from it. 

Input alone can teach a certain amount about a language, but interaction is also necessary for full learning. This is because during the process of interaction, learners receive feedback on their own errors. This feedback is:  

• focused 
• at a level appropriate for the speaker 
• immediate. 

As participants in interactions negotiate meaning (that is, talk with others to reach understanding or agreement), they seek clarification from others and check their understanding. 

Exploring your practice: What do students learn from interaction? 

Reconstructing a strip story is a language-learning task. 

What is a strip story? 

This is a split-information activity. Each student is given part of a story or other text. They read the text several times so they can become familiar with it. They could also memorise the text. 

Then they talk with others in the group. Each person shares what they remember about the part of the story or text they read. 

After that, they work together and reconstruct the complete text, in the correct order, from recall or memory. To do this, they might have to repeat their bit—or each sentence from their bit—many times.

How to set up a strip story 

To set up a strip story, choose a short but complete text, for example, a short narrative or a description. 

A short text like this example of a strip story could be used with five group members. 

"A compound of sulphur that is easily recognised by its unpleasant smell is hydrogen sulphide (H2S). 

It is a gas that is found in thermal places such as Rotorua, New Zealand. 

This gas is poisonous. 

Small quantities are enough to cause dizziness, headaches, and nausea." 

Steps in a strip story activity 

1. Cut the text into strips and distribute them among members of the group or class.

• You need as many strips as there are participants (about ten strips is the maximum number that works well for interaction).  
• If your students are expected to memorise the text, the strip should not be too long.
• The strip does not need to be a whole sentence; the first sentence in the "Example of strip story text" above would be a good one to split in two. 

2. After you have given the students a few minutes to read their strips several times or to memorise them, collect the strips from the students.

3. Now, ask the students to reconstruct the text. Note: Do not help them or intervene in any way. 

4. Observe and take notes on what types of interactions take place between participants. 

5. Engage in some language analysis to find out why some sentences come before others.  This helps the students become aware of language forms. 

• For example, why do we talk about "a gas" before "this gas" or why do we generally use the word "it" only after the noun that "it" refers back to. 

Activity follow-up 

You could follow up on a story strip activity in one or more of these ways. 

Use a different text 

Prepare a different type of text for a subsequent strip-story activity. Note, however, that the task will no longer be entirely unfamiliar to students, and they will have worked out some processes to get it done more efficiently, although probably with less language-based interaction. 

Change the conditions 

Vary the conditions of the task so it is less familiar to students than the first time they did it. For example, you could change the group size or the length of text to be learned or memorised. Or you could give them parts of sentences rather than whole sentences.

Use students' first language 

Bilingual Pacific students who share a language can easily reconstruct a strip story in their language. If they are in two groups, each group could make the activity strips for the other group 

Assessment to support learning 

Good assessment is one of the keys to achieving better teaching and learning for all students. 

It is one of the ten characteristics of quality teaching for the diverse student groups identified in Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis (Ministry of Education, 2003a).  

Recommendations from Best Evidence Synthesis (BES) 

This BES recommends that assessment for learning should focus on how students learn and on learner motivation. 

In addition, assessment for learning should be: 

• part of effective planning of teaching and learning 
• recognised as central to classroom practice 
• regarded as a key professional skill for teachers 
• sensitive and constructive (because any assessment has an emotional impact). 

It should recognise the full range of achievements for all learners, provide learners with constructive guidance about how to improve, and foster their capacity for self-assessment so they can become reflective and self-managing. 

According to BES, assessment for learning should show commitment to learning goals and a shared understanding of what is required to meet the goals. 

(Adapted from Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis, pp. 51-52.)

Assessment for Pacific bilingual students 

To know your bilingual Pacific students as learners, teachers and schools need to: 

• monitor and assess their curriculum learning in appropriate ways 
• monitor and assess their progress in English 
• encourage them to develop their Pacific languages 
• discuss with them their language proficiency and progress. 

Set up times for students to work with a group of bilingual peers. Doing so can help you find out more about each student’s understanding of the curriculum and their ability to apply their understandings. 

Assessing English using English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) tools 

Bilingual Pacific children have entered the New Zealand schooling system with limited knowledge of English, in comparison with their English first language (L1) peers, may need assessment of their English proficiency from an ESOL point of view. Some may need this for seven or more years. 

ESOL assessments are an important component of schools’ usual English-language assessments because they pinpoint specific gaps that distinguish (set apart) learning English as a second language from learning it as a first or only language. 

ESOL funding 

For ESOL funding purposes, mainstream teachers are often needed to assess ESOL students' English in mainstream contexts

Find out if your school has a teacher who is responsible for ESOL funding applications. See if there are any teachers who have expertise in helping mainstream teachers assess their EAL (English as an Additional Language) students’ English proficiency. 

See the Ministry of Education website for more information on:  

• ESOL funding 
• ESOL resources 

Exploring your practice: How to assess bilingual EAL students 

See if some of your colleagues would like to work with you on this investigation. 

• List the different assessment tools and processes you use. Describe their purposes. 
• Which assessment results do you keep records of? What use is made of these records? 
• From bilingual Pasifika students’ point of view, evaluate your current assessment practice. Identify the needs. 
• Brainstorm changes in assessment practices that would better support the long-term learning progress of your bilingual Pasifika students. 
• Plan and implement one change intended to meet an identified need of your Pasifika bilingual learners. Observe whether this change has the desired results.