Supporting English Language Learners in the Preschool Classroom
>> DR. JEFFREY TRAWICK-SMITH (Host): Most classrooms include children who speak a language
other than English. Preschool professionals are challenged to work effectively with young
children who may not understand much English at all. How can teachers best support the
English language learners in their classrooms? Bilingual education expert Dr. Ann Anderberg
offers us great suggestions for working with English language learners and their families.
>> DR. ANN ANDERBERG (Expert): Teachers do not need to speak the native language in order
to support its development and also to help transfer those skills to English. The underlying
skills that children acquire in their first language are similar.
>> BETH MARTIN (Teacher): We have a lot of parents that speak a variety of languages
other than English or Spanish at our school. For example, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Chinese.
What I notice about the English language learners at the beginning of the school year is that
they are nervous and scared but as are all the rest of the children. They're probably
a little more quiet, though, than the English speakers, and also very observant in watching
what other kids are doing so that they know what's coming next and watching what I'm
doing so that they can get any type of clue that they possibly can from my gestures, or
from the picture schedules that I'm offering so that they know what's coming next and
so that they can learn the routine.
>> DR. ANDERBERG: It wouldn't be unusual for a child to arrive in a classroom not speaking
any English in an all English environment it ís very natural for students to engage in a silent
period. During that silent period, what's really happening is they are acquiring the
sounds of that new language.
>> Teacher: That's how you go to the park? On a bicycle?
>> Child: Yeah. >> Teacher: Yeah?
>> DR. ANDERBERG: Most preschool teachers are very good at extending talk and trying to
elicit conversations with children so that they draw out more and more information by
asking questions, by finishing off sentences for children, by just helping them to create
more language.
>> Teacher: These are different kind of scissors. >> Child: Girls.
>> Teacher: Theyíre girls'? What makes it a girl's scissor?
>> DR. ANDERBERG: Ultimately what we want is for the children to be talking, talking to
themselves, talking to us, talking to each other, and using the language themselves.
>> Child: It's a pizza de apple >> Teacher: It is. It's a pizza of apples,
but you call that an apple pie.
>> DR. ANDERBERG: Two strategies that are very powerful in oral language development are
parallel talk and self-talk. Parallel talk is when I am sitting next to a child and I
am basically narrating what that child is doingólike a play-by-play description of
their activity.
>> Teacher: You put that on top of the girlís head. And you put the legs under the girlís
body.
>> DR. ANDERBERG: Self talk is actually doing that for what I'm doing.
>>Teacher: Open, close. Open, close. Open, close, stop.
>> DR. ANDERBERG: And by doing that, it makes a very tight link between the language and
the actions.
>> Teacher: Pato, amarillo. In English, yellow, duck.
>> BETH MARTIN: We have different techniques that help that, help them to use more of the English
language and also encouraging them to play together in the dramatic play area.
>> NARRATOR: Another effective strategy is what's called the Total Physical Response
Technique.
>> BETH MARTIN: Total physical response strategies include using your body. If youíre going
to be teaching about verbs, do the actions that you want them to learn.
>> NARRATOR: Total Physical Response, or TPR, builds on the relationship between language
and movement. Total physical response teaches children language in the same natural way
that parents model language to their young children. As the teacher speaks, she acts
out the language to make meaning clear, and expects no oral response from the child.
>> NARRATOR: Another helpful strategy for supporting English language learners it to learn a little
about the children's native languages, including a few key words and phrases.
>> Teacher: This book is in English, and this book is in Spanish. What's happening on the
cover of these books? >> Child: They're giving besos.
>> Teacher: They're getting KISSES, right? Besos is kiss in Spanish?
>> DR. ANDERBERG: Some languages may share cognates; that can be a very powerful tool
for children to learn vocabulary. True cognates are words that has the same meaning in both
languages and are basically the same. So for example the word animal and animal in Spanish,
same word, they're a cognate, they have the same meaning. However, often if we don't
point it out to them, they don't make that connection. Once it's explicitly explained,
the children can begin to make those connections for themselves.
>> NARRATOR: Teachers can support families in their understanding that their childís
learning their first language will build a solid foundation for learning English.
>> DR. ANDERBERG: Native language proficiency is very important for children because they
can transfer the skills that are involved in that to their second language. Families
should be encouraged to support that first language and be assured that it will support
the child's English language acquisition at the appropriate time.
[Girl and her father speak Chinese while reading.]
>>NARRATOR: Families are encouraged to engage in oral language and read to their child in
whatever language is spoken in the home. One great way to encourage parents to do this
is with rhymes and songs in their native language.
>> Class: Dos, tres
>> NARRATOR: With support from her family and teachers, the child learns to speak both languages
and is preparing to read and write in both languages.
>> DR. ANDERBERG: At the end of the day, the most important thing or the best practices
are very playful interactions with children around storytelling, storybook reading, rhyming,
oral language, really rich conversations, those are the same things that will help second
language learners in their first language as well.