(1993). Teacher Talk: Cognitive Goals Inferred from Instruction. To suggest that activity in the classroom shift from a focus on memorizing procedures to using mathematical reasoning is to suggest a shift in the classroom environment accompanied by shifts in teacher talk. The task of this report was to introduce the idea of teachers' orienting behaviors aimed at facilitating student cognition, and to suggest that these behaviors might indicate cognitive goals that guide the teacher's decision making. To accomplish this task, results of an exploratory study of naturalistic data were reported. The question addressed was, "What does an observer infer about expectations of student cognitive activity from the teacher's talk and organization of instruction?" Three teachers from a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded study were selected two of the teachers were bilingual. Seventy hours of videotapes of whole class and small group instruction were examined for explicit or implied references to cognitive goals. Types of cognitive goals… [PDF]
(1987). Ecobehavioral Variables within a Classroom with Limited English Proficient Students. A study analyzed the effects of classwide peer tutoring on science vocabulary spelling achievement for three language groups in one school's sixth grade. The groups consisted of: (1) Spanish-dominant and limited-English-proficient (LEP) students (n=8); (2) students proficient at grade level in both Spanish and English (n=14); and (3) monolingual English speakers (n=5). For comparison of weekly spelling gains, the second and third groups were combined as one non-LEP group. Experimental stimuli were drawn from the sixth-grade science text. Results of weekly spelling pre- and post-tests demonstrated that the peer tutoring procedures resulted in gain scores for the three language groups. In addition, the Spanish-dominant LEP group made greater gains when compared to the non-LEP group. Implications for the design and implementation of peer tutoring programs for LEP students are discussed. An 11-item bibliography is included. (Author/MSE)… [PDF]
(1983). TPR-Plus. In recent years progress has been made in facilitating the acquisition of interpersonal English language skills through the use of new approaches such as the Total Physical Response (TPR) method, which is based on the premise that second language learning involves the same stages as those evidenced in first language acquisition. TPR-Plus, an expanded version of the TPR approach, applies TPR not only to acquisition of interpersonal communication, but also to the more formal English of classroom instruction. Based on the abilities and needs of limited English proficiency (LEP) students, the lessons are related to curriculum areas, with the focus on the communicative functions students need in order to succeed in a classroom. With regard to instructional materials, the teacher would diagnose students' linguistic and academic needs and then adapt materials to their needs and purposes. Whatever material is used or adapted, the basic criterion for including academic and/or linguistic…
(1983). Organization of Chicano Children's Narrative Behavior. Final Report. To determine how bilingual children display a sense of story in an oral reading activity at home, researchers video- and audio-taped samples of four bilingual Chicano second grade chidren engaged in matched narrative tasks. While the two male and two female children read aloud storybooks in English and Spanish in the home setting, reseachers focused on their presentation of story content, projection and control of the social role of story reader, and accuracy of story delivery. In particular they concentrated on the children's perspective strategies (how the children organized and coordinated the social act of story reading by manipulating the perspective of their speech and how this helped audience perception) and contextualization cues (how the children manipulated intonation, prosody, stress, and gesture to assist the listener's reception of an intended message). The children apparently followed general plans or "scripts" for how to go about reading to an audience and… [PDF]
(1987). Problemes de l'enseignement de la langue seconde standard pour les minorites culturelles (Problems in Standard Second Language Teaching for Cultural Minorities). Second-language and native-language methodologies are equally inappropriate as a foundation for the language training of cultural minorities. Second-language methodologies are based on the assumption that the language is to be acquired in school, as either a subject or a school activity. The relationship between teaching and learning is taken for granted, as is the existence of levels of competence acquired in school and related to age-grade learning progression from year to year. Language minorities of the same age-grade level enter school with extra-scholastically acquired competence in the second language that ranges individually from incipient to native-like. However, few can be classed in the same age-grade level as unilinguals for whom the language is native, since entire areas of their conceptual universe may exist only in their other language. Yet their combined language repertoire may be sufficient in their bicultural environment. The function of the school may be to enrich…
(1986). Project GET SET, 1985-1986. OEA Evaluation Report. This report evaluates the achievement of Project GET SET, a Bronx, New York, program designed to provide supportive and peer-tutorial services to Hispanic junior high school students for the following purposes: (1) to reinforce English language skills, especially reading and writing; (2) to reinforce native language arts skills; (3) to offer personal counseling services; and (4) to offer career guidance. Pupils from a local high school were used as tutors. Their services were to be offered to students as extra enrichment classes. The report describes the program, its participants, and staff. It discusses evaluation findings, draws conclusions and makes recommendations. Project GET SET began in 1983 with many funding, staffing, and site problems. The program survived, however, and results of student performance on tests for English proficiency in Spring 1986 showed that seventh graders made gains, but they were not statistically significant. The gains made by eighth- and ninth-grade…
(1987). The Difference between Task Understanding and Reasoning Skills in Children's Syllogistic Performance. A study investigated the reason for the high performance of bilingual children on a syllogistic reasoning task. Thirty-nine Puerto Rican Spanish-English bilingual children in grades 3 through 6 were asked to solve problems in both languages. Response times were recorded, and the subjects were asked to justify their answers to assess to what extent reasoning led to task success. Response times were found to be longer if the justification given reflected reasoning, but it was also found that students needed more time to give an answer in their stronger language (Spanish) than in their weaker one (English). In addition, solution accuracy and solution strategy did not interact and the strategies used to solve syllogisms were manifested differently at different grade levels. In the lower grades, the justification given seemed to reflect whether or not the student understood the purpose of the task, and in higher grades, the justification appeared to show whether the student succeeded in… [PDF]
(1980). Television Public Service Annoncements: Are They an Effective Channel for Communicating Health Information to Urban Mexican Americans?. To document the effects of television public service announcements (PSAs) in a community setting, a public service campaign was designed and implemented to stimulate awareness of and behavioral response to problems of hypertension among urban Mexican Americans in Houston. Three pretested Spanish language PSAs were designed to motivate the audience to call for additional information about the control of hypertension. The PSAs were aired 224 times over 6 weeks on all local television stations during daytime and prime time viewing periods. A three-phase evaluation of the effectiveness of the PSAs consisted of telephone surveys of adults in randomly selected Mexican American households. Over one-third of the 499 surveyed adults reported awareness of the PSAs. Also, a significantly greater percentage of the group exposed to the PSAs reported subsequently dicussing their blood pressure with their physician, family, or friends; 16.5% reported having a blood presure checkup. The 101 viewers…
(1983). The Nature and Development of Letter Writing in Hispanic and Anglo Children Using a School-Based Postal System. Final Report. Most school writing required of students is done in artificial situations that have little resemblance to the writing demands people actually face. For this reason, students often fail to see the value of writing and thus produce writing that does not reflect their true ability to communicate. In a bilingual Los Angeles school serving students from low income Hispanic and Anglo backgrounds, a method was devised to make writing more meaningful. Students in grades two through four were asked to write letters each day to anyone in the school they chose. These letters were then distributed through a school "post office" system. Students were free to write in English or Spanish; the letters were not graded, or even read, by teachers; and students wrote whatever they wished. Letters written by 32 students were analyzed for three aspects of writing development: (1) the acquisition of the ability to write and respond to letters, (2) the purposes for which students wrote, and (3)… [PDF]
(1984). Newton High School Project Capable, 1982-1983. O.E.E. Evaluation Report. Project CAPABLE, in its first year of funding, provided instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL) and native language skills, as well as bilingual instruction in science and social studies, to approximately 500 Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese students in grades 9-12. The program operated at three sites in the New York City borough of Queens: Elmhurst, Long Island City, and Flushing. The project's overall goal was to help students achieve proficiency in English. Upon successful completion of the ESL sequence and bilingual content-area courses, students were considered ready for transfer out of the program. In addition to the instructional services, program activities included academic and personal counseling, career orientation and information, academic evaluation, translation of school materials for parents, and home visits and phone calls. Development activities for staff members, as well as parent participation workshops, were also conducted. Quantitative analyses of… [PDF]
(1984). Project KANPE, 1982-1983. O.E.E. Evaluation Report. This report describes Project KANPE, a multi-site program. In its final year of a three-year funding cycle, the project served approximately 275 Haitian students of limited English proficiency in grades nine through twelve at three New York City high schools. Ninety-six percent of the target population were born in Haiti and all spoke either Creole or French as their first language. The original program goal was to provide talented Haitian limited English proficiency (LEP) students with the opportunity to gain proficiency in English while continuing to develop their academic skills. The project proposed to use instructional assistants and aides to supplement each school's bilingual services. However, as only one of the schools had a basic bilingual program, at the other two Project KANPE became the basic skills program. Curriculum development, likewise, could only be a major component of the program at one of the schools. At that school, staff development and parent involvement were… [PDF]
(1976). Bilingual Consciousness. Alberta Modern Language Journal, v15 n1 p42-52 Fall. This paper is concerned with the role of speech in the development of control of cognitive processes, with particular attention paid to the nature of bilingualism. It is stated that exposure to a second language provides a way of overcoming the encapsulation of the mind that develops when an individual is exposed to only one language. In order to understand the phenomenon of bilingualism, it is necessary to adopt a historical perspective and to note what has changed and developed in the lifetime of both a group and an individual. There is a need to explain how it is that two languages interact so that a new kind of consciousness is the outcome. In considering bilingualism, three central questions are: (1) What is consciousness? (2) How did it come about? (3) What are the particular understandings of a given cultural group and what is that individual's experience within that cultural group? These questions are discussed in light of Bain's work on the nature of human consciousness….
(1980). Sarah J. Hale High School Project SABER. ESEA Title VII. Final Evaluation Report, 1979-80. This is an evaluation of a Title VII Bilingual Program conducted at a New York City High School in 1979-80. The report contains information on the program goals and objectives, the school site, and the student characteristics. Aspects of the instructional component discussed include programming, mainstreaming, and program funding. Non-instructional components covered are curriculum and materials development, supportive services, staff development, and parental and community involvement. Tables show Spanish speaking students' performance on the Criterion Referenced English Syntax Test, and on English Spanish Reading, and mathematics achievement tests. The number and percentage of mainstream and bilingual program students passing content area courses is given, as are student attendance figures. (APM)… [PDF]
(1978). The Educational Disadvantage of Language-Minority Persons in the United States, Spring 1976. This bulletin provides information on two educational disadvantages of language-minority persons in the United States based on an analysis of data from the nationwide Survey of Income and Education (SIE), conducted in the spring of 1976 by the Bureau of the Census. Language-minority persons were found to be educationally disadvantaged on two key measures: school grade attainment for age and drop-out rate. SIE findings for persons of Hispanic origin who usually speak Spanish show that on these measures, this group is even more disadvantaged than language-minority persons in the aggregate. In addition to summaries of some of the findings, data are presented on the percentages of students two or more years behind expected age-grade levels by ethnic origin and language characteristics and on the numbers and percentages of students age 6 to 20 in grades 1 to 12 who were below expected grade levels. Additionally, numbers and percentages of persons 14 to 25 years old who had not completed… [PDF]
(1977). Developmental Assessment Instruments: Survey and Identification of Head Start Practices and Needs. Interim Report. This interim report presents the background, procedures, and preliminary results of a national survey of Head Start directors and teachers, focusing on the extent of use of developmental assessment procedures and instruments, staff perceptions of their usefulness and of unmet needs, and the relationship of selected variables to the use of assessment procedures and instruments. A review of related literature presents information on the history of Head Start, current legislation, educational accountability, legal trends, issues in testing, and training. Data on developmental assessment practices were collected on two questionnaires sent to 1900 Head Start directors and 1900 Head Start teachers. Results presented here reflect data from 773 teachers and 657 directors from center-based programs. Statistics describing the structural characteristics of the programs, training and experience of teachers, and language and ethnic/racial composition of classes are provided. Other data reported…