401, Language Across The Curriculum

Language-across-the-Curriculum (LAC) Approach

Because the medium of instruction is the key to understanding the subject content in an EMI school, an LAC approach will help improve students’ language proficiency and understanding of academic content.

􀂾 What is an LAC approach?

An LAC approach is one that integrates language learning and content learning

Language across the curriculum (LAC) relates to linking different forms and aspects of language education within the school, particularly emphasising the role of language in all subject-matter learning. LAC has two meanings: in the narrow sense it is a concept suggesting the importance of language work and language training in all non-linguistic subjects. In the wider sense it is a concept demanding a comprehensive model of language education as the basis of a whole school language policy. The latter includes linking all languages as subjects (mother tongue education, foreign language education, second (or third) language education) and the language dimension in all other subjects. In the following I will focus on LAC in its narrow sense: extending the know- ledge and skills acquired through the language of school (LS) into subject- specific language vari-eties and discourse competencies, leading to a first (internal) or basic form of plurilingualism. A second form of (external) plurilingualism develops, when other languages than the LS and thus new language repertoires are acquired, through foreign language education or CLIL. Both types of plurilingualism are indispensable for becoming linguistically and culturally sensitive and knowledgeable and for developing democratic citizenship and participation within Europe.

Language Across the Curriculum (LAC) is a concept and a policy. As a concept it acknowledges the fact that language education in school does not only take place in specific language subjects such as mother tongue education, foreign language education, second language education etc., but also in each and every other subject, in each and every activity in school, across the whole curriculum. LAC leads to new forms of language use of Ll or LS (language of the school), to new types of discourse behaviour, to extended linguistic competences, the bases of which are already laid, mainly through early childhood socialisation and through Ll/LS education in school.

This is in accordance with the latest research findings on Reading Comprehension (which is demanded extensively in each non-linguistic subject-matter learning) and with insights that LS/Ll as a subject in school cannot be exclusively responsible for language education, but that the development of language skills and competences has to be integrated also into subject-specific teaching.

􀂾 Why is there a need for such an approach?

Language cannot be effectively learnt without a context while learning in all subjects is dependent upon language. In view of the above, language and content are closely interrelated. In fact, content subjects provide a context for language while effective language development facilitates the learning of content subjects. It is therefore necessary to integrate language and content.

Origins of LAC

LAC as a concept has been around for some time in academic and pedagogic theoretical discourse, but less so in school practice. It was developed in the late 70s/early 80s of the last century. It originated in Great Britain, where the idea of linking LAC with school language policies as a whole received formal recognition in the so-called Bullock Report (entitled A Language for Life):

Each school should have an organised policy for language across the curriculum, establishing every teacher's involvement in language and reading development throughout the years of schooling. (DES l975: 5l4)

A decade later this was underlined in the Swann Report (Education for All):

Unless there is a school language and learning policy across the curriculum there will be wastage of effort and often confusion. (DES l985: 4l9)

The ideas of LAC itself, which had received real impetus in that report, have somewhat changed over time, they were also influenced by work outside Britain. Nevertheless, the basic tenets on which LAC rests, have stayed the same: they focus on the importance of language in and for school education, for all subject-matter learning, across the whole curriculum (cf. Corson l990: 74):

1.      l. Language develops mainly through its purposeful use (domains to be broadened)

2.      Learning (often) involves talking, writing, shaping and moving (normally in reaction to perceptions)

3.      Learning often occurs through speaking or writing as much as through shaping and moving

4.      Language use contributes to /is a pre-requisite for cognitive development

5.      Language is the medium for reflecting learning, for improving it, for becoming autonomous.

Much has been studied about the role of language in learning and in cognition ever since (e.g. Bereiter/Scardamalia l993); much has been learned about language processing and language use, its basic structures, functions and similarities in all the activities and subjects in school (see Lemke l990, for example). But the institution itself apparently has some difficulties in accepting cross-curricular responsibilities; it also has difficulties in dealing with differences in their clientele, with heterogeneity in their studentship and particularly with disadvantaged learners for whose basic, successful education they are equally responsible: The criticism of Bernstein (l969) that school does not only not overcome these disadvantages, but rather reproduces them systematically through their linguistic norms and procedures, is probably still valid today.

􀂾 What are the benefits of an LAC approach?

For the school: To ensure that there is an organisational structure in the school which helps to formulate and implement language policy across the curriculum. This enables teachers to contribute and get support in dealing with language in learning issues as well as to work for a common target.

For the teacher: To use the language to teach more effectively and help students learn more effectively.

Ø  All the teachers can improve their skills in the foreign language.

Ø  It helps the teachers teach the content Effectively in the foreign language.

Ø  It helps the teachers make use of modern technology in his classroom effectively

Ø  It helps the teachers update their knowledge

Ø  It helps the teacher give clear instructions to students in FL

Ø  It makes the teacher encourage clarifications by learners.

Ø  It helps the teachers manage group activities effectively.

Ø  It helps the school to keep a common target.

Ø  It enables the teacher provide his own notes to students

 For the students: To minimise the problems of adjusting to the new medium of instruction and to learn the subject content better.

·         It helps the learners to improve their communication skill in the FL.

·          It helps the students to learn the content more effectively.

·          It helps the learners to expand their ideas.

·          It helps the learners discuss different issues in FL.

·          It helps the learners to collect technical terms related to different subjects.

·          It helps the students to submit original assignments free of plagiarism.

·          It opens a vast career world before the students.

·          It helps the students getting admitted in foreign universities.

·          It facilitates effective self study and refererring.

􀂾 What are the respective roles of content subject teachers and English teachers in an LAC approach?

English teachers introduce and teach the skills, reinforcing them from time to time in English lessons. Content subject teachers re-teach those skills or introduce related skills/concepts in their lesson, integrating language and content.

Example:

The idea of suffixes has been introduced in English lessons. The History teacher can introduce the new suffix ‘-ism’ and give examples such as ‘communism’ or ‘colonialism’, or consolidate familiar suffixes, like ‘ion’ in ‘rebellion’.

Sl. No	Language Teacher	Subject Teacher
1	Teaches General Vocabulary.	Teaches the subject Related Vocabulary
2	Teaches the Structural Elements.	Makes them Practice the Structures
3	Informs the Subject Teacher what He Recently Taught.	Tries to Make them Practice Recently taught items in Language Classroom
4	Teaches Prefixes and Suffixes.	Teaches how to Use Prefixes and Suffixes in Sentences Related to the Concerned Subject.
5	Teaches how to Create Definitions.	Helps them Create their own Definitions.
6	Giving Guidelines to the Subject Teachers.	Consulting Language Teachers for Clearing Doubts.

·         It is important for English teachers and content subject teachers to each know what the other is doing. For instance, the English teacher can teach students how to do a vocabulary log. The content subject teachers then ask students to keep a vocabulary log for their own subject. The English teacher can collect the vocabulary logs and check from time to time to make sure that students are on the right track.

·          As every subject has to contribute to the language development of students, a balance between an emphasis on English and an emphasis on content is recommended.

·          Since more time and effort has to be spent on the development of students’ language proficiency, the subject content may have to be reduced, especially at the initial stages.

home language and school language

Definition

A home language is a language (or the variety of a language) that is most commonly spoken by the members of a family for everyday interactions at home. Also called the family language or the language of the home.

According to research studies examined by Kate Menken, bilingual children "who are able to develop and maintain their home languages in school through bilingual education are likely to outperform their counterparts in English-only programs and experience greater academic success"

Observations

·      "Educational organizers in English-speaking countries have tended to assume that the languages of school and home are the same, but this is not necessarily so, especially in areas of high immigration and those in which everyday usage differs from the standard) 

·      Language and Identity "[T]he Newbolt Report on the teaching of English in England (Board of Education, 1921) stipulated that children should be taught spoken and written Standard English in the interests of national unity: a unified language would help to produce a unified nation. This link between language and national identity was also made in the (more recent) Australian curriculum statement . . ., [which] emphasizes respect for children's home language varieties, and this balancing act between respecting home language and providing access to a standard variety has also characterized practice and policy elsewhere. In 1975, the Bulloch Report . . . argued that teachers should accept the child's home language variety but that 'standard forms' should also be taught:

The aim is not to alienate the child from a form of language with which he has grown up and which serves him efficiently in the speech community in his neighbourhood. It is to enlarge his repertoire so that he can use language effectively in other speech situations and use standard forms when they are needed

Virtually all educationalists and policy makers recognize the importance of children's home language."

The Role of the Home-Language in Second-Language Learning

"Bilingual education programs have a mixed track record, but strong programs that support children in their home languages CAN help them make an effective transition to schooling in a second language. In the United States, we have tried a variety of approaches to educating children who are not fluent in English when they enter an English-dominant school, including immersing English learners in English-only classes with little or no support, pulling children out for ESL instruction or tutoring until they achieve basic fluency, teaching children content in their home language as they learn English, grouping children with peers who speak their home language, separating children from same-language peers in order to encourage English, and discouraging children from speaking anything but English. The results have been mixed. However, a study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education found that children in programs that provide native-language content instruction for at least 40 percent of the school day through the fifth grade do better in math and English-language skills than children in English immersion or shorter-duration bilingual programs. This research review has convinced some previously skeptical educators of the value of teaching children content--including reading--in their home language and in English until they have become proficient in both languages."

What is the difference between home language and school language?

It may be one of formality or correctness. School language tends to be a model for what one can use later on in life in formal situations (an interview, a meeting, so on and so forth). On the other hand, home language is that which we use to directly express what we feel, think or want, without many complications. Usually cursing is part of home language, since it comes from deep within us, close to where feelings originate

***The difference between home language and school language can be in the case of formality. I mean while you are expected to be more formal with your teachers and colleagues in discourse, you can be informal in your interactions at home.

***What is the difference between home language and school language?

Home language is the language spoken in the home. School language is the language spoken in the school. In many bilingual,homes, they are different. A child who starts school knowing only a home language that is different from the school language frequently needs help learning to speak the school language. If they are very young, they learn quickly,but older children may need special classes to learn the school language.

***Ideally the school language should be more proper, as to home language more free to use slang.

For me, at home it was just Spanish and in school Spanglish never just English.

The relationship between knowledge and language

Language is not only an instrument for social communication. Language has been used, through oral transmission and writing, to fix and store information and knowledge. As well as enabling it to be transmitted over time, this verbal representation of knowledge has allowed for discussion and scientific disputes, which are essential, from the epistemological point of view, to question and ensure its validity. It also makes it possible to disseminate knowledge in such forms as education in the strict sense or popularisation (which takes place outside educational institutions), or operational formulations within specific applications (e.g. in the form of instructions, directions for use, protocols, recipes etc).

Many types of knowledge can be expressed in semiotic systems specific to them which make little use of language: mathematical writing, symbols, formulae, statistics, maps, diagrams, photos etc. These codes are self-contained, but they need to be verbalised for purposes of discussion, commentary or teaching.

Lastly, it must be borne in mind that some subjects (e.g. social science) do not use language solely as a means of representing knowledge established outside the texts recording it. A report on an experiment or research report transposes into the language of protocols data or findings established independently of their textual expression and fixation. But some knowledge has no existence or substance outside its verbal representation: for example, there is no historical knowledge outside the texts of historians, even if it is built up from data and evidence of all kinds which are commented on and analysed. In this case, language is not only a transmission medium, but a “place” where knowledge is created. This function is also present in the so-called “hard” sciences, which also use language for heuristic purposes.

This brief outline emphasises the diversity of the relations between knowledge and language. The latter combines functions of:

-    representation: expounding and disseminating knowledge established independently of language;

-    mediation: verbalisation, making it possible to go from one semiotic system to another;

-    interaction, allowing exchanges (discussion, debate, disputes) between the producers of knowledge and between the producers and users of knowledge, which may lead to advances in knowledge;

-    creativity, because language can be a means of creating knowledge, the creation and writing of knowledge thus being the two sides of one and the same process.

This diversity of relations between language and knowledge prompts us to consider that language is essential to knowledge and to take the fullest possible account of the variety of functions that language can perform (expounding, transposing,  transforming and creating knowledge) in the teaching of school subjects and their appropriation by learners.

Language for Thinking

Language for Thinking is an expansion of the skills and concepts taught in the Language for Learning Direct Instruction program. Both programs emphasize language as a means of describing the world and as a tool for thinking and solving problems. The program is most commonly used with students in grade 1 but is also effective for high-performing Kindergarten through low-performing grade 3 students, or with speakers of English as a second language.

Language for Thinking sets the stage for reading comprehension and written conventions of grammar by teaching extensive vocabulary and critical thinking skills. Newly learned language concepts and thinking skills are applied to problem-solving situations and continuously integrated and reviewed in later lessons. Students who complete Language for Thinking are well prepared to succeed on later tasks of reading comprehension, logical thinking, and applications of knowledge in new situations

multilingual class

A multilingual class is a class where the learners speak a variety of first languages. Multilingual classes can be compared to monolingual ones, where all the learners speak the same first language.

Example
Multilingual classes are typically found where learners have travelled from other countries to learn a language, e.g. summer schools.

In the classroom In a multilingual class there can be much more use of the target language, because it will be the only common language between the learners, who will use it for their normal interactions both in and out of class. Learner behaviour and cultures can be very different, which may create problems but can be used as a focus of comparison and discussion.

Multilingual Education

Multilingual Education typically refers to "first-language-first" education, that is, schooling which begins in the mother tongue and transitions to additional languages. Typically MLE programs are situated in developing countries where speakers of minority languages, i.e. non-dominant languages, tend to be disadvantaged in the mainstream education system. There are increasing calls to provide first-language-first education to immigrant children from immigrant parents who have moved to the developed world.

Components of Multilingual Education (MLE)

• "Strong Foundation" - Research shows that children whose early education is in the language of their home tend to do better in the later years of their education. For more information about the effect of "Language of Instruction".
• "Strong Bridge" - an essential difference between MLE programs and rural "mother tongue education" programs is the inclusion of a guided transition from learning through the mother tongue to learning through another tongue.

Related to the emphasis on a child's mother tongue is the implicit validation of her cultural or ethnic identity by taking languages which were previously considered "non-standard" and making active use of them in the classroom. Multilingual Education in that sense underscores the importance of the child's worldview in shaping his or her learning.

Stages of an MLE Program

A widespread understanding of MLE programs (UNESCO, 2003, 2005) suggests that instruction take place in the following stages:

1. Stage I - learning takes place entirely in the child's home language
2. Stage II - building fluency in the mother tongue. Introduction of oral L2.
3. Stage III - building oral fluency in L2. Introduction of literacy in L2.
4. Stage IV - using both L1 and L2 for lifelong learning.

MLE proponents stress that the second language acquisition component is seen as a "two-way" bridge, such that learners gain the ability to move back and forth between their mother tongue and the other tongue(s), rather than simply a transitional literacy program where reading through the mother tongue is abandoned at some stage in the education.

Introducing the multilingual classroom

Activity 1: Key principles

The three statements that follow are based on the findings of international educational research on effective classroom practice in multilingual contexts:

• Students learn best in the language they know best.
• Teachers teach most effectively in the language they’re most familiar with.
• The longer teaching and learning take place in the first language, the better the educational outcomes.

The benefits of multilingual education

There’s been a long-held belief in the United States that English-only education is beneficial for all students. The general thinking was that an English-only education would help students learn English faster; that learning English helps everyone assimilate to American culture and life; and that learning English created a sense of social unity. In fact, even in California where multilingualism and multiculturalism have long been the norm, voters passed a bill in 1998—Prop 227 (the English in Public Schools Statute)—that began placing English-language learner (ELL) students (i.e., students who speak a non-English language at home and learn English at school) in English-only monolingual classrooms. Though there were certainly various politics at play, the general belief behind this 1998 bill was this same long-held belief that students—especially ELLs, who are largely immigrant children or the children of immigrant parents—would benefit in many ways by being immersed in an English-only educational environment.

How would multilingual education benefit English-language learning (ELL) students?

Multilingual education helps ELL children both learn English and maintain their home language—both of which benefit these children’s overall language and social development. When ELLs have a strong foundation in one language, that strong foundation also supports learning and academic achievement in the other language. For example, Spanish-speaking ELLs’ oral language skills in Spanish (the home language) has been found to predict English literacy skills, such that ELLs with stronger Spanish-speaking skills have better English literacy skills 2 years later! Thus, helping ELL children maintain and further develop their home language can actually support English language learning as well.

In addition to supporting the acquisition of English language skills, maintaining the home language is critical to ELLs’ ability to maintain relationships with their families and communities. Many ELL children lose their oral language skills in the home language when they are placed in English-only monolingual classrooms, and that can make communicating with family and community members—who may only speak the home language or have very limited English proficiency—extremely difficult. Aiding ELLs in maintaining their home language not only supports ELLs’ English-language learning, but also ensures that ELLs do not become disconnected or driven apart from their families and communities. Multilingual education can help ELLs learn English while simultaneously maintaining their home language and ties to their families and communities.

How would multilingual education benefit monolingual English-speaking students?

Multilingual education provides monolingual students with the opportunity to learn a second language and become bilingual. A large body of research now shows that bilingualism benefits various cognitive and social-linguistic skills, throughout the lifespan. Infants raised in a bilingual environment are perceptually more flexible than infants raised in monolingual environments. For example, when infants are shown silent videos of two people speaking in different languages, bilingually-raised infants—compared to monolingually-raised infants—are better able to differentiate that the two people are speaking in different languages, even when the speakers are speaking two different languages that the infants have never been exposed to! This perceptual flexibility seems to last into adulthood and might even make learning a third (or fourth or more!) language easier. On top of this perpetual flexibility, bilingual children have also been found to have a better understanding of the communicative functions and grammatical conventions of language. Bilingual children develop an understanding of grammatical rules and structures earlier than monolingual children, and bilingual preschoolers—compared to their monolingual peers—better understand that speakers of different languages call objects by different names (e.g., apple vs. manzana). Bilingual preschoolers have also been found to be better able to name the language that they speak!

Aside from language-related skills, learning to speak two languages benefits cognitive skills like attention, inhibition, and switching as well. Bilingual children develop these kinds of cognitive skills earlier than their monolingual peers. The reason why researchers think bilingual children develop these kinds of cognitive skills faster is because bilingual children are constantly exercising their cognitive skills each time they speak: bilingual children need to pay attention to what language they’re speaking, inhibit speaking in the other language, and switch from one language to the next depending on who they’re talking to. And this also seems to have lifelong consequences; bilingual older adults show behavioral symptoms of Alzheimer’s about 5 years later than monolingual older adults, even though images of their brains will show similar progression of the disease. In other words, bilingual older adults’ brains are able to compensate for beginning Alzheimer’s symptoms through the cognitive skills they’ve been exercising throughout their life.

Concluding thoughts

Multilingual education can benefit all students not only academically during childhood, but also cognitively, socially, and linguistically across the lifespan. With the number of multilingual, multicultural children increasing in the United States, increasing the availability and accessibility of multilingual education could be an asset now to both ELL and monolingual students, as well as in the long-run as these students enter an increasingly more global society and economy.

What is the role of a teacher in a multilingual classroom?

Opinion as a teacher:

The role of the teacher in a multilingual classroom is essential!

First of all he or she has to be multilingual too, (if possible). Be able to explain and translate where the students don't understand with a few simple words…

Second, the teacher must be a good communicator in order to explain and guide the students that they could trust him or her, must know how to arrive straight to the point in order to be clear and precise.

Thirth, the teacher must be a good mediator , must know the cultures of different countries and the specificity of their languages in order to not create problems but resolve them.

Fourth, the teacher must understand at first sight if the students follow him or her, if they understand and if not to make clear quickly all the misunderstanding. In conclusion to be a good psychologist.

Fifth, the teacher have to be able to make all the students cooperate in order to improve, be a good cooperator.

And least but not last the great importance of the personal example.

Once, it happened to have in my class a multilingual students so it was an exciting discovering for them to know that is possible to know and study languages with pleasure. And that is possible!

The teacher could make them participate in the process of studying and guide them showing that even the most difficult part of the language could be pleasant and easy.

Opinion as a student:

When I've been in China, it happened to be a part of a multilingual class, there were Koreans, Russians, Japaneses, Bulgarian, Americans…

Everybody made their part and it was amazing how could we be so good in studying Chinese. The progress was not the same for everybody but at the end it was a good experience! The experience that we were together to achieve the goal of the language examination and to react as “the eight immortals”, everybody with his own power was amazing! One could said that it was a great cultural exchange!

A teacher’s first and most important role is to enlighten students, help them become a better person in life, guide them towards a bright future. A good teacher will never differentiate between their students, even if it is in a multilingual classroom. He/She will find a way to deliver the right information and knowledge to their students. Here are some examples of such great teachers.

What is Multicultural Awareness?

Multicultural Awareness is the ability to understand and appreciate the history, life experiences and beliefs of diverse groups of people. Inevitably, greater cultural awareness and consideration fosters a better community.

Key Considerations to Becoming More Multiculturally Aware:

• Appreciate your own cultural identity and understand how your cultural identity impacts your worldview
• Understand the world through multiple perspectives 
• Enhance your communication and interpersonal skills 
• Understand and appreciate diverse communities 

READING SKILL

The word, 'reading' implies reading with comprehension. Reading comprehension involves understanding the meaning of content, vocabulary, structures, concepts and relationships of ideas. Reading like listening is a decoding process. But it is a very complex process involving many physical, intellectual and often emotional reactions. Moreover, it entails the ability to recognize graphic symbols and their corresponding vocal sounds.

1 IMPORTANCE OF READING SKILL

Of the four language skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing, reading is the most important skill to be developed among the pupils. It is the gateway to learning. The reading skill is directly connected with oral approach to the teaching of English. It is reading, which gives the pupils full control over the words and patterns which they first come across during the process of speaking.

2. PROCESS INVOLVED IN READING SKILL

Reading is a process of looking at written or printed symbols and translating them into appropriate sound components. Theses spoken symbols are associated with the objects which they stand for. Thus, 'reading' consist of three important elements, namely, the symbol, the sound and the sense. These three elements of reading can be represented by the three vertices of a triangle as shown hereunder:

Three 'S 's of Reading:

   symbol

Sound  Sense

For example, when the pupil wants to read a word like 'building', he undergo all the three stages in reading. First, the child looks at the symbol (the object), translates it into a specific sound pattern that stands for the object and then tries to understand the meaning of the word, 'building'. This is how the pupil undertakes the process of 'reading'.

3. TYPES OF READING

Depending on the nature and purpose, reading may be classified into various categories:

(i) Loud Reading

Much of the reading to be done at the early stage will be reading aloud. It is necessary to ensure that the child associates the spoken word with the printed symbols correctly.

Reading aloud or loud reading provides practice in good speech habits among the children and gives an opportunity for the teacher to find out whether the children are able to read with correct stress, intonation and pronunciation or not. Loud reading also helps in inculcating in the children the right habits of reading in word groups.

(ii) Silent reading

Along with the ability to read aloud, the children may be encouraged to read silently. Most of the reading done at the higher stage of learning will be of this nature only.

The purpose of silent reading is to encourage the students read with comprehension. The speed in silent reading is more than that of the same in reading aloud. This enables the students to read more material in relatively less time when they read anything silently.

The following are the advantages in silent reading:

a)      Silent reading keeps the whole class busy.

b)      It helps the students work at their own pace.

c)      It prepares the students for independent reading.

iii) Intensive reading or critical reading

Intensive reading or critical reading is done while the students try to gather facts or arrive at some conclusions on the basis of the facts. This is done mostly when the students prepare for the examinations. This kind of reading is done with thinking and comprehension. Hence, it is otherwise known as 'Critical Reading' or 'Reading for Comprehension'.

(iv) Extensive reading

Extensive reading is a kind of wide reading based on the large field wherefrom we gather the desired information for the purpose of our surveyor report. This is an advanced stage in reading, which emphasizes the expansion of vocabulary and advanced skills of comprehension. Most of the time, it would be silent reading and it is at this level that the speed of reading begins to increase. The students start reading independently at this stage. The reading at this stage is need-based and hence the reading development should be multi-dimensional in nature. This kind of reading is also known as 'Reading for information'. The students may be encouraged to read a good number of journals, magazines, newspapers etc., apart from their prescribed textbooks.

4. READINGS: IMPORTANT TYPES

We can't say that of these two types one 1s better than the other and hence more important. The fact is that both these types of reading are important in their own ways.

In Indian Schools, we find that more stress is laid on intensive reading. The extensive reading is encouraged in a very few schools. Intensive reading should serve are means to extensive reading.

Exercises of Skimming

Skimming of a lesson means gathering together salient facts contained in it. Skimming of a prose paragraph means going through it and collecting the main points contained therein. Surely the reader is able to take out the best contained there in the lesson or the paragraph.

Practice of skimming is very important for the senior students. It gives them a lot of confidence. The main purpose of the person is to assemble main thing contained there.

Exercises of Scanning

Scanning of a book or a lesson or a paragraph means collecting detailed information contained in the subject matter. The reader goes through the subject matter with searching looks. He/She examines very thing very closely. So much so that the reader is not allowed to ignore even a single difficult word contained therein. In scanning, everything good or bad is pointed out. Everything very objectively and in a A-cry scientific manner is highlighted.

Scanning of materials is recommended for the senior students. It teachers them to call a spade a spade. It also develops the habit of working hard. It also helps them in developing scientific attitude in thinking and understanding things which is very important in life. They tend to read the subject matter cautiously and carefully.

Barriers to reading skill

The followings are some of the barriers to reading skill

i)      Physical factors

Physical deformities of the pupils affect their reading negatively. The pupils who are defective in hearing may not be able to read properly. Similarly, there are some pupils who have problems with their speech sounds. They cannot utter sounds properly.

ii) Emotional factors

The emotional factors imbalances among the students affect their reading habits negatively. Some students, who are shy, submissive, withdrawn, aggressive etc., are observed to be not up to the mark in developing reading skill. Further, it is observed that anxiety plays an important role in respect of intelligent students whose reading performance is very high. These students may sometimes find an escape from reading with which they are frightened.

iii) Environmental factors

Some factors like classroom organization, the strength of students in the class, the reading environment, the methods followed by the teachers in developing reading skill etc., influence the reading skill of the students very much.

ACTIVITIES FOR DEVELOPING READNG SKILLS

METHODS OF TEACHING READING

The Alphabet Method

This method is a very old one. This method is self-explanatory since it deals with the sequential order A B C D....etc. pupils are then made to memorize words as consisting of these 'named' letters

e.g. ern ei tee tee ee ar MATTER

The Phonic or Syllabic Method

This method is considered to be an improvement on the alphabet method. Here the stress is not on the names of the letters but on the sounds each of them represent

For exam pie,

hat                           few

cat                           new

bat                           dew

Word Method or Look and Say Method

This is a very useful method, because word is traditionally regarded as the minimum meaningful unit. It is possible to teach reading by this method with the help of flash cards.

Phrase and Sentence Method

In this method sentence is the unit, which has been based upon the psycholinguistic principles because whole learning is better than the part learning. It is advocated that only a sentence can give a complete meaning. To teach sentences, the teacher can make use of charts

e.g.

The pen is on the box

The biscuit is in the tin

The hen is under the table

Sentence Group Method

It resembles the sentence method. With little practice it will enable the slow reader to accelerate his reading. At the outset he may be bewildered when he comes across fairly a large sentence.

A description of phrases, clauses, pauses and punctuation etc. will enable him to gam access to the sense group reading and read the sentence correctly as,

When I reached the station/ the train was leaving/ and I jumped into the last coach.

Writing aims at facilitating clear and effective communication. It trains our mind through our senses particularly through eyes and ears. We write in the way we speak or hear from others. Writing develops our memory and the process of thinking. It develops individual activity.

LISTENING SKILL

Listening is the ability to understand what others speak or say. In the process of communication, we find both the speaker and the listener. The two skills- 'listening' and 'speaking' are interdependent. There cannot be any listening without someone speaking. When someone speaks, those around him listen. The listener understands the message of the speaker and grasps the stress, pause, intonation and the pattern of pronunciation in his speech. This, in tum, helps the listener acquire the habit of speaking in the language meaningfully.

Sub-skills of Listening

Sub-skills can be understood as the pupil's competencies expressed in behavioural terms. They are also known as enabling skills. Pupils acquire these skills when they are provided with ample opportunities to listen to good models of spoken English.

Richards (1983) identified as many as 50 "micro-level sub-skills in listening that the students of English, in a second language situation, are expected to master to understand the day­ to-day conversational discourse. These skills are indispensable to develop listening for comprehension and listening for conversation. The following are some of the sub-skills of listening:

The pupils

•             understand the meanings of words, phrases and sentences

•             follow directions commands given by the speaker

•             understand intonation patterns, stress, pauses m speech etc., which provide clues to understand the speaker's tone and intentions

•             understand simple descriptions and narrations

•             understand the meaning of inverted statements

•             understand questions and respond to them suitably

•             recognize cohesive devices like 'such as', 'in addition to', 'in fact', 'in tune with' etc., used by the speaker.

Phases of listening

The macro-level sub-skills in listening can be learnt by the pupils effectively when they practice them keeping in mind the purpose of listening, viz., listening for perception, listening for comprehension and listening for conversation.

Listening for comprehension

In order to make the pupils acquire these skills in listening, the teachers should ensure that their pupils

•      realize the need for listening to English in the classroom attentively

•      realize that they can speak words, phrases or sentences properly when they listen to them intensively

•      listen to good models of pronunciation in English

•      understand when the speaker says through gestures, actions, activities, blackboard drawings etc.

•      enjoy and appreciate the rhyme and rhythm pattern when they listen to simple poems, songs etc.

Importance of Listening skills

There 1s a clear distinction between 'listening' and 'hearing'. We pay conscious attention when we listen. A good listener learns a language more effectively and efficiently. But, when we 'hear', we do not pay much attention. We may hear any sound consciously or unconsciously and forget it soon. Listening with a purpose, results in better comprehension and retention. There is no communication without listening. Hence, listening is said to be a basic skill for perception in the process of learning a language.

Listening with a purpose will result in better comprehension and retention. There is no communication without listening. Hence, listening is said to be a basic skill in the process of learning a language. understand the meanings of words, phrases and sentences follow directions commands given by the speaker understand simple descriptions and narrations recognize cohesive devices like 'such as', 'in addition to', 'in fact', 'in tune with' etc., used by the speaker.

BARRIERS OF LISTENING SKILL

There are several factors they make barriers to listening. They are Linguistic, Physical and Psychological factors.

Linguistic Factors

If a listener's language proficiency is low, he will have problems in listening. We know that some words have more than one sense developing on the context. If the listener knows only one context in which the word is used, he will not understand what the speaker is saying.

Some listeners may not seek clarifications because they may feel shy or afraid to ask the meaning of a word. Or they may think that they should not ask meaning of words because they are expected to know them. They may feel that they may cut a sorry figure if they ask such questions.

Some words are used technically and they have special meaning in the subject concerned. For example, the word 'mouse' is known to all of us. It refers to a small rodent. But the same word is used to refer to an input device while talking about computers. Everyone may not be familiar with technical jargon.

Physical Factors

The environment m which the communication is taking place also affects listening. Public places like cinema hall, parks, shopping malls, workshops and manufacturing units are usually noisy. In such places, however hard the speaker shouts and however hard the listener strains his/her ears, there may not be effective communication.

Sometimes, there are also technological disturbance affecting listening. For example, sometimes the broadcasting by two different radio stations is heard at the same time, making listening to any of the broadcasts, difficult.

Psychological Factors

Psychological factors affecting listening include lack of interest, attitude, impatience and over enthusiasm. Lack of interest

There are some students attend the class just for the sake of attendance or to satisfy the teacher. This lack of interest in that teacher's class may have developed because the teacher is very strict or not clear or for some other reason. In other words, lack of interest affects listening. Negative attitude and feelings.

The attitude towards a person also matters when we are listening to him. If we have negative attitude towards the speaker we try not to understand him or misunderstand him. Similarly, our feelings about a person influence our listening. For example, If we dislike a person, we understand him at all. If we like a person very much, even if the person talks nonsense, we try to give it a sensible meaning and feel happy.

Impatience and over enthusiasm

A listener needs a lot of patience. But people who think too much of themselves and are overconfident usually do not have patience. They think that they know more than the speaker and they can speak better than him. They jump to conclusions immediately based on their own knowledge about the subject. Therefore, instead of listening to the speaker patiently, they try to fill in words for the speaker distracting the speaker or they disturb the person sitting next to them by talking about the same topic.

Activities for Developing Listening Skill

i)              Be attentive, note the sounds, train your ears.

ii)            Ear training helps in listening; note the stress.

iii)          Hearing sounds and separating them in pitch is good.

iv)          Developing a feeling for the new language

v)            Good listening habit ultimately makes a good speaker.

vi)          Have practice in listening from talks, radio, TV etc.

vii)        Don't allow interruptions in listening English.

viii)      Have good models of speech before you speak.

ACTIVITIES FOR DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS

Listening in English is attending to and interpreting oral English. Listening is necessary to develop the speaking skill. The student listens to oral speech in English, then separates into segments the stretch of utterances he hears, groups them into words, phrases, and sentences, and, finally, he understands the message these carry. Listening prepares the students to understand the speech of the native speakers of English as they speak naturally in a normal speed and normal manner.

LISTENING SKILLS

1. Dictation

The practice of dictation should be given to the students only when they have acquired knowledge of words and small sentences. Without this preliminary knowledge, the dictation cannot be taught properly.

Aims of dictation

1. The practice of dictation has an element of examination in it. The teacher, with the help of dictation, tries to test whether the students have learnt to write the correct spelling and the order of the letters of the words that they have learnt. He also tests whether the students have acquired the power to use those words in written form.

2. With the help of this practice, it is possible to make the students to have a practice in pronunciation also. The teacher speaks out or pronounces every word clearly and correctly and the students, on hearing them, copy them out. After a slight practice, it is possible to achieve accuracy in pronunciation.

3. This practice of dictation also helps to improve the speed and the writing power of the students. The teacher gives the dictation at the speed he thinks proper for the students of the particular stage or standard.

4. This practice of dictation has another important feature as well. It g1ves an opportunity to the students to correct, by practice, the spellings of the words that he has wrongly written. Thus, the knowledge of the spelling goes on ripening.

5. It also helps the teacher to ascertain the capacity of punctuations.

6. This practice leads to the training of attention, propriety, correctness. Etc. it also helps the students to learn to write compositions.

Steps Used In Dictation

Selection of the passage-

Before giving out the dictation, the teacher has to select a passage. In selecting a passage great care has to be observed. If due care is not exercised, it is quite possible that a wrong passage may be selected. This passage may be either away from the standard and the attainment of the students or easy to benefit him in any way. Really speaking, the dictation should be in accordance with the standard or the age of the student. It shall be wise to select passage for dictation from the lesson or the lessons that students have read not very long ago. It is useful to give in dictation the words that the students have already read or known.

The passage selected for dictation should not be very long. The passage selected for dictation should be of interest to the students. It should not be packed with unknown words. Passages that contain such names of persons, places and objects that are not known to the students may not be selected for dictation.There are certain other precautions as well that the teacher has to undertake before taking to dictation. These precautions are of immediate importance.

Delivery

After the passage has been selected, the teacher should stand in the middle of the class and read the whole passage slowly and clearly so that the students may have some idea of it. This reading will enable the students to listen to it attentively and have a rough idea of the passage. This knowledge is helpful for the students during the process of dictation.

Proper seating-

The teacher should also see that the students are properly seated and they have with them the writing material. There should be sufficient distance between the seat of the two students. Without this, there is likelihood of the one copying from the other.

The teacher should so stand in the class that he may have an eye on every student. His position should be visible to every student. On the other hand, his delivery should be audible to everyone.

After the teacher has done all this, he should take to dictation. The dictation should be given in a clear voice and slow speed. The voice or the sound should neither be harsh nor so soft as to become inaudible. The teacher should determine the voice according to the size of the class. While dictating, too much of repetition should not be done. One sentence should be dictated once only. If it is repeated many a times, it is possible that the students may not pay proper attention to it.

Punctuations should be well marked in dictation. The teacher should dictate the passage in a way that the students may be able to discern the punctuation marks that they have to put.

There should be complete calm in the class room while the dictation is being given. Movement of the desks and the chairs is likely to disturb the dictation. Students should also be well trained as not to put questions while the dictation is being given.

After writing out a phrase the students should look at the teacher so that he may know that the students have written what he has dictated. Then he shall speak out the next phrase. The teacher should keep an eye on almost all the students. their speed of dictation should not be guided by the speed of writing of one or two students. On the other hand, too much of attention should not be given to the students who are very much behind the class. Those students who are either small or hard of hearing should be made to sit on the front benches.

As soon as the teacher has finished dictating the passage, he should repeat it. This repetition will help the students to correct the mistakes that might have crept in. in this process also too much repetition of phrases is not good. The passage should be repeated once only and at a proper speed.

The teachers should collect the answer books without letting the discipline being spoiled.

Correction work

Correction is the most important stage of dictation. The teacher should observe this work very cautiously and consciously. There are various methods that can be employed in correction work. They are

1. Correction by the Teacher.

2. Mutual correction method and

3. Self-correction.

1. Correction by the Teacher.

The teacher should take to correction work by himself. This gives an idea of the students individually. With the help of this correction the power of concentration, correctness and propriety of the students are also assessed.

2. Mutual correction method.

After finishing the delivery of the passage selected for dictation, the teacher asks the students to exchange their note books. When the students have done this, the teacher writes out the difficult words on the blackboard and the students correct them. In this method the teacher has to pay a good deal of attention to the discipline and control in the class room.

3. Self-correction.

This is an ideal method of correction. In this method the student himself, with the help of the book or the words written on the black-board, corrects the mistakes of the passage as written by him. This method, in order to be successfully employed, requires high moral standard to be generated in the students. the teacher should try to be generated in the students. the teacher should try to experiment with this method. It may lead to the growth of moral values in the students.

2. LISTENING TELEPHONE CALL

Listening is the first skill which is very important to the human beings because without listening they cannot speak the way in which others are speaking. Listening to a telephone call is also needs a special attention, unless they listen carefully they cannot give proper answer to the other end so in developing listening skill listening to telephone call is required some training. For instance

Saying who you are and whom you want to speak to

Hello. This is Ramesh/ Ramesh here/ Ramesh speaking.

Can I speak to Rajesh?

Finding out who is at the other end

Who's speaking? Is that Rajesh?

3. COMMENTARIES AND LISTENING INSTRUCTION

Commentary is the kind of discourse to the audience concerned with action, with events in time, with life in motion. For instance

"George Barton, a poor boy about twelve years old, was forced to sell the mastiff, which he had reared from a puppy and was much attached to, for two reasons: first having lost his job, he could no longer buy proper food for a dog of such size. Second, after it had frightened a child in the neighborhood, he was afraid that someone would poison it'.

This passage involves an action, the fact that the boy sells the dog, but its pnmary concern is with the causes of the action and with what the action illustrate rather than with the immediate presentation of the action in time.

Commentary gives us a moving picture; tells a story; gives immediacy; gives us a sense of the event happening before our eyes, involving us, our interest and perhaps our sympathy.

For exam pie

Radio commentary of Cricket match, Hockey, and Food ball etc. Sometimes the temple festivals world leaders meet would be narrated by commentary.

SPEAKING SKILL

The most important among the four skills of a language is speaking or speech. Mostly the need to learn a new language arises only when one is faced with a situation, where one is required to converse in a new language. When one is able to speak fluently, the next stage to be mastered is of narration, which depends on suitable words or vocabulary and correct sentence structures.

IMPORTANCE OF SPEAKING ENGLISH

It is very necessary to have the proper training in the speaking of particular language. Importance of this art is well recognized. It is an essential part of the personality of an individual. It adds to the impression caused by a personality. The more a person is efficient in speaking and conversation the more he shall be able to attract others. By words we can assess the knowledge of a person and his thinking. Through the conversation we are able to have the knowledge of the philosophy of a person and his social and cultural standards.

Characteristics of good conversation or speaking English

Given below are the requisite elements of a good speech:-

1.      Naturalness

2.      Clarity

3.      Fluency

4.      Audibility

5.      Comprehensibility

6.      Effectiveness

Scholars have said that these are the requisite elements of good speaking. It is not possible to develop all these qualities at a time. It is also possible that a person may not have all those qualities in him. Such English knowing people shall be rare who have all these qualities in them. Even then the teacher should try to develop these qualities in the students. It is quite possible that all these qualities may not develop simultaneously and equally. But diligence and practice can help a lot.

BARRIERS TO SPEAKING SKILL

There are some barriers that hinder the process of speaking always. They are:

i)                    Lack of mastery over the language

ii)                  Individual differences among the pupils

iii)                Emotional factors and

iv)                Physical conditions. Let us learn one by one.

Lack of mastery over the language

Since English is an additional language which the pupils learn besides their mother tongue, they find it difficult to express their ideas and feelings properly in the English language. Due to lack of mastery over the language, the pupils find it difficult to comprehend the message and to respond to the message in the process of communication.

Individual differences among the pupils

The pupils, who are involved in the process of communication, carne from different backgrounds of knowledge, experience, horne environment, socio-economic status of parents etc. but all these pupils perceive the same information from the teacher. Since the pupils come from different backgrounds, they differ in their perceptions also. These differences affect the process of communication.

Emotional factors

Emotional feelings like anger, fear, jealousy etc., by the teacher through the message also affect the process of communication adversely. When the teachers exhibit their personal feelings in the process of communication, they cannot develop the skills of communication properly among their pupils.

Physical conditions

Unpleasant surroundings of the schools, lack of physical facilities in the school, unfavorable attitude of the learners at the receiving end etc., are some of the forces that affect the process of communication.

ACTIVITIES FOR DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILLS

1 CONVERSATION

When we ask students to speak, our focus is to judge how effectively they communicate. This involves a meaningful interaction between the speaker and the listener where both of them co-ordinate the act of communication in a manner that enables systematic build-up of thought and conversation. Both need to be made aware of the differences in the sound systems of their mother tongue and the foreign language so that when they listen to another speaker from a different environment.

Characteristic of good conversation

1. Naturalness

2. Clarity

3. Fluency

4. Audibility

5. Comprehensibility

6. Effectiveness

Scholars have said that these are the requisite elements of good speaking. It is not possible to develop all these qualities at a time. It is also possible that a person may not have all those qualities in him. Such English knowing people shall be rare who have all these qualities in the students. It is quite possible that all these qualities may not develop simultaneously and equally but diligence and practice can help a lot.

2 GROUP DISCUSSION

In this form of group discussion, a particular number of people (approximately three to eight) meet face to face and through free oral interaction originate, share, and discuss ideas to arrive at a decision or solution to a problem.

Group discussions are widely used m many organizations for decision-making and problem solving. They are also used widely as a personality test for evaluating several candidates simultaneously. They help to shortlist candidates for a final interview, to select personnel for positions of responsibility', especially in the service sector and to select students for admission to professional institutes. The Indian defense forces were the first to tap the potential of group discussions and incorporate them into their battery of tests for recruitment of officers. Since then, group discussions have become popular with various recruiting bodies because of their operational ease and effectiveness in terms of both time and cost. Most reputed business schools require students to participate in a group discussion before moving on to the final stage of the selection procedure, the interview. In a few cases, the group discussion may not be an elimination round, i.e., every person who participates in the group discussion also gets an opportunity to appear for the interview.

3 DEBATES

Debate is a discussion at a public meeting. " it is a verbal controversy between two or more people within well-defined rules". It must be of academic interest. It involves reasoned arguments and counter arguments.

The subject for the debate should be presented in the form of a motion. It must be in the form of a positive statement.

e.g. English is a boon to our Indian Society

it must have clarity. There should be at least two speakers and a chairman. One of them speaks in favour of the subject and the opposer will speak against the motion. Speakers speak alternately for and against. The speakers make themselves thoroughly conversant with the subject.

The teacher guides them on the given topic and gives them practice in pronunciation and stress. He gives them practice in giving the meaning of certain words through their tone. This nurtures fluency of speech

4 INTERVIEWS

Interview is a useful technique to get to know each other. It is an effective device for improving fluency. The students are identified by the teacher. The teacher and the students play different roles. Time for preparation and rehearsal is given. It should be conducted in an informal manner.

Oral fluency increases when we attend interviews. It is the latest method of understanding how one speaks and expresses ideas with clarity. Expressions like 'well', I see 'what you mean,"

'I thing you mean' 'would you mind repeating the question, etc are practiced.

5 EXTEMPORE SPEECH

A speech given without previous thought or preparation is an extempore speech. Speech through speech is an exercise for promoting oral fluency. The stimulus in these exercises is speech itself, not actions or pictures. The main thing is that the pupil should have enough language (words and structure) for this exercise. We need to get our pupils to talk on a whole range of topics and acquire in that process a large vocabulary. If they have control over a rich vocabulary, they can be fluent, not having to hunt for the necessary words when they speak on the given topics. In extempore speeches extra verbal factors, gestures, facial expressions, mannerisms, vocal qualities and physical bearing play an important part in communication.

WRITING SKILL

Out of the four skills in language learning, 'writing is a very important skill, as it serves as the medium through which we communicate our ideas, thoughts or feelings to other people who are at a distance from us. In fact, language learning is said to be incomplete without developing the skill of writing.

IMPORTANCE OF WRITING SKILL

For a second language Ieamer, writing in the second language is used for specific purposes, whereas his mother tongue or Language I (Ll) is used for all other general purposes. Proficiency in writing in the second language is required:

•             to communicate to the other persons in the written medium when they cannot be spoken to directly;

•             to make a record of events in a specific field;

•             to prepare documents, records, reports etc., which may be used as references m the future.

•             to give an evidence or testimony in the form of a written document

Writing aims at facilitating clear and effective communication. It trains our mind through our senses particularly through eyes and ears. We write in the way we speak or hear from others. Writing develops our memory and the process of thinking. It develops individual activity.

MECHANICS OF WRITING

Ø   Knowing how to make letters of right shape and size

Ø   Knowing how to give proper spacing between letters, words and lines

Ø   Knowing how to use capital letters and punctuation marks correctly

Ø   Knowing how to co-ordinate the muscles of the wrist with those of fingers in taking up writing

Once the pupils are aware of the mechanisms of writing, they will be able to write correctly -and legibly at a reasonable speed.

The process involved in writing

It is evident that the teaching of writing is a complex process solving many activities such as initial probing into experiences, organization of ideas into meaningful sequences and expression of thoughts and feelings with confidence and ease.

The pupils may be asked to write only those structures and vocabulary items that they have practised orally. Writing should be taken up just after the completion of word-recognition exercises. There are various advantages in doing so. Firstly, writing reinforces oral and reading work. The language items learnt already get firmly fixed in the minds of the pupils. Secondly, writing provides a change of activity and thus helps in reducing monotony. Finally, it encourages pupils to take up creative writing in the areas of their scholarship.

Sub-skills in writing

Writing aims at clear and effective communication. In order to achieve this aim, a number of sub-skills in writing are to be developed among the students.

The following are some of the sub-skills in writing:

i)                    Visual perception - Spelling, Pronunciation and Spacing

ii)                  Syntax - Word order, Sentence structure

iii)                Organization - Selecting topic, sub-topic etc., and organizing ideas into paragraphs

iv)                Grammar- Use of articles, prepositions, various forms of tenses and their agreement

v)                  Content or subject matter- Originality, relevance and clarity

vi)                Purpose - Justification and reasons for writing

The above sub-skills are to be developed right from the beginning among the pupils in order to lay a firm foundation in developing writing skill.

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD HANDWRITING

The teachers are supposed to make their students know the different characteristics of good handwriting and thereby try to improve their skills in writing a good hand.

The following are some of the important characteristics of good handwriting:

i) Distinctiveness

Each letter in the English alphabet has a characteristic form of its own and hence it should stand distinctively from its neighboring letters. It should not resemble any other letter in shape or form in the alphabet.

ii) Legibility

Legible handwriting 1s an ornament to the document. In the words of Bell, "Illegible handwriting in a young man or a woman is a sign of an untidy and careless mind". In order to bring about legibility in the handwriting of the pupils, the teacher should pay special attention to the five aspects of cursive writing - letter formation, spacing, alignment, regularity or slant and quality of stroke.

iii) Simplicity

The writing of the students should be simple and neat. Simplicity implies that there should not be any unnecessary ornamentation or extra flourishing in the strokes in writing.

iv) Uniformity

The letters in each line should be uniform in size. There should be a consistent proportion between the height and breadth of these letters.

v) Spacing

There should be proper spacing between the letters in a word, the words in a line and the lines in a paragraph. We should leave one letter space between one word and the other, one letter space after a comma and two letter spaces after a stop.

vi) Capitalization and punctuation

Capital letters should be used at appropriate places. Similarly, punctuation marks should also be used carefully in our writing.

vii) Speed

The students may be encouraged to write legibly and correctly at reasonable speed.

1. BARRIERS TO WRITING SKILL

In learning a language, especially a foreign language, the skills in writing are said to be very important. Writing is an art. The pupils can learn it quite unconsciously. However, skills in writing can also be acquired by constant practice. The following are some of the hindrances that come in the way of acquitting the skills of writing in the second language situation.

I) Lack of instruction in writing

Out of the four fundamental skills in language learning, the skill of writing is not being paid proper attention in the classroom.

II) Differences in syntax

The sentence structure in the foreign language is different from that of the same in mother tongue. Hence, the pupils find it difficult while translating their ideas in to script in English language.

III) Spelling and grammar

The spelling in English is important in nature. One cannot write the words simply as they are spoken. There are words that give the same sound but are different in spelling. Similarly, words with the same spelling differ in their sounds. This has become a great hindrance in developing the writing skill among the pupils.

ACTIVITIES FOR DEVELOPING WRITING SKILLS

MECHANICS OF WRITING

Ø  Knowing how to make letters of right shape and size

Ø  Knowing how to give proper spacing between letters, words and lines

Ø  Knowing how to use capital letters and punctuation marks correctly

Ø  Knowing how to co-ordinate the muscles of the wrist with those of fingers in taking up writing

Once the pupils are aware of the mechanisms of writing, they will be able to write correctly -and legibly at a reasonable speed.

The process involved in writing

It is evident that the teaching of writing is a complex process solving many activities such as initial probing into experiences, organization of ideas into meaningful sequences and expression of thoughts and feelings with confidence and ease.

The pupils may be asked to write only those structures and vocabulary items that they have practiced orally. Writing should be taken up just after the completion of word-recognition exercises. There are various advantages in doing so. Firstly, writing reinforces oral and reading work. The language items learnt already get firmly fixed in the minds of the pupils. Secondly, writing provides a change of activity and thus helps in reducing monotony. Finally, it encourages pupils to take up creative writing in the areas of their scholarship.

Sub-skills in writing

Writing aims at clear and effective communication. In order to achieve this aim, a number of sub-skills in writing are to be developed among the students.

The following are some of the sub-skills in writing

vii)              Visual perception - Spelling, Pronunciation and Spacing

viii)            Syntax - Word order, Sentence structure

ix)                Organization - Selecting topic, sub-topic etc., and organizing ideas into paragraphs

x)                  Grammar- Use of articles, prepositions, various forms of tenses and their agreement

xi)                Content or subject matter- Originality, relevance and clarity

xii)              Purpose - Justification and reasons for writing

The above sub-skills are to be developed right from the beginning among the pupils m order to lay a firm foundation in developing writing skill.

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD HANDWRITING

The teachers are supposed to make their students know the different characteristics of good handwriting and thereby try to improve their skills in writing a good hand.

The following are some of the important characteristics of good handwriting:

i) Distinctiveness

Each letter in the English alphabet has a characteristic form of its own and hence it should stand distinctively from its neighbouring letters. It should not resemble any other letter in shape or form in the alphabet.

ii) Legibility

Legible handwriting 1s an ornament to the document. In the words of Bell, "Illegible handwriting in a youngman or a woman is a sign of an untidy and careless mind". In order to bring about legibility in the handwriting of the pupils, the teacher should pay special attention to the five aspects of cursive writing - letter formation, spacing, alignment, regularity or slant and quality of stroke.

iii) Simplicity

The writing of the students should be simple and neat. Simplicity implies that there should not be any unnecessary ornamentation or extra flourishing in the strokes in writing.

iv) Uniformity

The letters in each line should be uniform in size. There should be a consistent proportion between the height and breadth of these letters.

v) Spacing

There should be proper spacing between the letters in a word, the words in a line and the lines in a paragraph. We should leave one letter space between one word and the other, one letter space after a comma and two letter spaces after a stop.

vi) Capitalization and punctuation

Capital letters should be used at appropriate places. Similarly, punctuation marks should also be used carefully in our writing.

vii) Speed

The students may be encouraged to write legibly and correctly at reasonable speed.

2 GRAMMATICAL SKILL

Under this category, grammatical skill, wed include all items of knowledge and abilities necessary for the construction of correct sentences:

Ø  The abilities to understand and use grammatical forms such as the tense forms, plural forms, possessive forms, forms for showing different degrees of comparison, etc.

Ø  The abilities to understand and use such features of structures as order of words, subordination and coordination of clauses, etc.

Ø  In addition to (i) and (ii), the ability to recognize grammatical errors and correct them and the ability to transform sentences from one type to another will fall under grammatical skills.

3 JUDGEMENT SKILLS AND DISCOURSE SKILL

Judgment skills are also discourse skills, but they are of a higher order than those discussed under 'Discourse Skills' in the previous section.

Judgment Skills include style, register, organization and relevance. They are so called because they involve choice of language that suit the purpose, which is a matter of judgement. When there are two grammatically correct sentences:

I gave Ram money to pay his fees

I gave Ram so that he could pay his fees

The second sentence is stylistically a neat sentence and it is therefore preferable to the first. We need to make such stylistic choices in our writing. Also we should be careful not to mix the language of speech and the language of writing. Such words as cop (policeman), brat (child) mosey (curious, inquisitive), that occur in speech/ conversation should be avoided in writing. This is a matter of register, the choice of language that suits the written medium. Register is also a matter of choosing language that suits the subject. If your topic is none relating to law, you are justified in using words such as plaintiff, defendant, ultra virus, grounds (of appeal) res judicata, etc. but in an article of general interest, the legal terms are best to be avoided. Thus the use of the right register, the words that suit the medium of discourse (speech or writing) and the subject or field of discourse (law, science, literature, etc) is the second judgement skill. Thirdly the choice of organization of ideas or details in spatial, temporal or climatic (according to degree of importance) manner and finally the employment of relevant material in writing form the two additional judgment skills.

The Role of Languages in Learning and teaching School Subjects

1.      Why language matters – and which kind of language is at stake?

It is fascinating to see how in recent years educational experts around the globe have started to focus on the language dimension when it comes for schools to meet the demands of modern knowledge societies. Empirical results from large-scale international comparative studies (e.g. PISA, PIRLS, TIMSS) have demonstrated beyond doubt that in many countries educational systems fall short of providing learning opportunities for all students to acquire, share and use knowledge for their own future well-being and for the ability to participate in public life. Especially students who come from families with a migrant and/or below average educational background are often found to lack opportunities for attaining the PISA competence level 2 in reading comprehension, Sciences and / or Mathematics  which is considered to be a conditio sine qua non for successful vocational training, competing on the labour market, and active participation in public life.

In the past, in many national contexts, school teachers based their daily routines on three “assumptions of normality”: (a) society wants only a smaller proportion of a student cohort to qualify for professional (academic) careers, (b) students are competent native speakers of the dominant language of schooling, and (c) they are used to the school´s particular patterns of language use since in their families reading and writing is a major concern. Based on these three points of departure schools delegated responsibility for language development to the specialists, i.e. teachers of language (L1) as a subject and to teachers of classical and modern languages (L2). The teaching of other subjects, however, focussed on subject-specific content and expected students to be able to face the linguistic challenges of subject teaching – if not, they simply did not qualify for academic advancement. Although this pedagogic “division of language labour” in school education is outdated because of various demographic and socio-cultural reasons, it has become a habitus in Bourdieu´s meaning of the term (cf. Gogolin 1994) and is still highly influential concerning deep rooted daily content[1] teaching routines. On the other hand, experts have come to the conclusion that mastering the language of schooling is a key to successful learning across the curriculum and the most reliable track to school success and elevated socio-economic status after graduating from school. They have also made it quite clear that school is a discourse community with its own ways and means to use language as a medium or tool for making meaning, i.e. teaching and learning content across the curriculum. Thus, one of the major aims of the Council of Europe´s project “Languages in Education, Languages for Education” is to devise and support strategies and actions to battle the outdated Taylorism of language education in our school systems to such an extent that language awareness becomes a matter of course in content teaching across the curriculum. Following the concern of experts worldwide for the specific patterns of language use in school education, the leading question for this conference is “What have we done so far and what can we do in the near future to support schools in developing and implementing whole-school policies of inclusive academic[2] language education?”

However, things get rather complicated when we take a closer look at the language patterns which are considered characteristic of teaching and learning in formal education. What exactly is academic language? What are the elements, patterns, strategies and rules for language use in classroom interaction, textbooks, and exams? And – even more important and crucial – how can we actively help so-called vulnerable groups to cope with this particular register?

To understand the cognitive and language challenges of modern competence-based school education let´s have a closer look at an example from the Geography classroom. Students are asked to take up the role of a meteorological expert and to explain on a mock radio interview how hurricanes build up, what makes them so strong and what happens inside and outside a hurricane. They are supposed to do this on the basis of the two diagrams below and results from their own web quests.

First, students have to understand the assignment, they must decode information from verbal as well as visual forms of representation including the technical terms of the discipline (e.g. “stratosphere”, “evaporation”), they have to  apply higher order thinking skills such as “hypothesise” and “conclude” in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of the hurricane mechanisms, then consider the type (genre) of the target text (radio interview) and what potential listeners might (want to) know about hurricanes, and, finally, come up with coherent meaningful and media-adequate oral speech. What a challenge – especially for those students who are not exposed to such language and thought patterns at home and among their friends.

The example might show that the functions of language are manifold. In the context of teaching foreign and second languages we are used to consider language as a medium for everyday and often fairly trivial communicative activities. We are also well aware of its function for retrieving information from all sorts of verbal sources. However, in the context of teaching and learning content in subject areas such as Mathematics, History, Social Sciences, Physics and even Art and Music there are more reasons why language matters:

·         Language as a constituent component of higher-order thinking skills and a necessary precondition for successful content learning: There is little doubt that successful learning in most school subjects strongly depends on the availability of higher-order thinking skills. To demonstrate how thinking skills are linked to language, I shall take advantage of a poster a Canadian school library technician (“Enokson”) developed for the English language arts and social studies departments (humanities) to use in their classroom, as well as in the library:

This example clearly shows how the language side of learning activities relate to cognitive operations and skills. Also a closer look at the highly influential Anderson/Krathwohl (2001) update of Bloom´s taxonomy confirms the symbiosis of verbal and cognitive activities for teaching and learning in formal education. They are two sides of the same medal – you cannot have content without language and vice versa.

·         Language as a tool for making meaning: Many of the approaches to the language dimension of content teaching are based on social-constructivist concepts of learning and the original ideas of the developmental psychologists Vygotsky and Bruner. Vygotsky claimed that young children develop higher order thinking skills through cultural mediation and interpersonal communication with more knowledgeable adults or peers, which means that the development of mental concepts and the appropriation of procedural knowledge depend on social interaction and verbal exchange. Thus, without adequate language means and strategies which are geared to formal education learners cannot be expected to take advantage of opportunities schools normally offer.

·         Language as a filter for assessing learning outcomes: Formal assessment procedures in school subjects heavily rely on open- or half-open-formatted tasks and on oral or written presentations by the student how s/he has solved the task. What makes matters even more complicated is the fact that in high stake assessment the academic register determines the characteristics of the verbal filter. In plain words: If students do not have an age-adequate command of subject literacy they have no chance to meet the (very often) implicit expectations by the teacher as a subject specialist who claims to be primarily concerned with content. If one would choose to reduce the language load of assessment tasks by resorting to closed-formatted items such as multiple-choice, matching or fill-in formats, one would seriously delay the development of subject literacy.

So, language really does matter – not only in the language classroom, but across the whole curriculum. This should lead us back to the question: What exactly is academic language, and how can we approach it in content teaching?

distanced – decontextualised – dispassionate – exact – objective – complex – highly structured – complete – unambiguous – explicit.

On a relatively high level of abstractness experts seem to agree how academic language use can be conceptualised by a set of features such as

amounting to a way of language use which we normally find in content-focussed writing. This style of projecting ideas into words and texts is also expected by the academic discourse community for oral classroom communication especially when learning results are presented, discussed and achievement is being assessed.

Below this level consensus on a definition what academic language is by identifying elements and rules of language use which are altogether different from colloquial patterns has not been reached – and personally I doubt that such an approach is feasible. However, in order to raise awareness among educators of the distinguishing features of conversational and academic use of a standard language it is imperative to have a closer look at the dimensions which have to be accounted for when setting the academic apart from the conversational register. A text like this might be presented to students in the Social Studies classroom at the end of compulsory education:

The federal debt exploded to an incomprehensible $12.1 trillion, and the nation continues on its path to becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the People’s Republic of China. Yet lawmakers can’t even agree on a modest proposal to form an independent debt commission and then vote on its recommendations. The debt commission is expected to be voted down Tuesday morning, as foes on the far left and the far right unite to form a status quo supermajority. Prospects have become so bleak that a couple of retired congressional leaders got together Monday morning in hopes of shaming their former colleagues into action.

Obviously, the lexico-grammatical dimension immediately attracts attention to the technical terms (e.g. “to be voted down”, “debt commission”, “status quo supermajority”) and to words and constructions of standard language less frequently used (e.g. “shaming into action”, “wholly owned subsidiary”), “yet …”, “as” …). Lists of lexical surface features which are characteristic of academic language use do exist for quite a number of languages and there are also examples for functional “grammars in context” for content-based learning (cf. for example Margarita Rigal Aragón and Ricardo Marín Ruiz). However, a pedagogical approach to academic language competences by linguistic surface features will not guarantee a deeper comprehension of the above quote from the Washington Post. Also the discourse dimension and the textual level have to be covered by making students aware of the purpose of the text, of contextual factors, of coherence and cohesion, the development of ideas, the textual structures (e.g. paragraphs!) etc..  The discourse dimension (purpose, development of ideas) is closely related to the cognitive dimension with its operations and thinking skills on various levels.  Experts like Uribe (2008) have added two more dimensions which seem to be highly relevant for pedagogical approaches to academic language use in the content classroom. The socio-cultural dimension is important for students to understand and critically deal with school subject texts as communities of practices or discourse communities which have agreed on specific text types or genres and conventions concerning their formats and patterns of language use. The socio-psychological dimension is concerned with the language user, his identity and membership of a social group and its values, norms, beliefs, attitudes and habits – all of them affecting critical language awareness and the disposition to adopt new verbal habits and communicative strategies.

Because of this multidimensional complexity it is a highly challenging task for educators to support academic language competences and for decision-makers to envisage educational reforms for curriculum development, teacher training and management of school development.

2.      Academic literacy: a closer look at what happens in content classrooms

There are many misconceptions which often make consensus on educational priorities for inclusive academic language education difficult:

·         All teaching and learning in content classrooms is or should be mediated through academic language: No, definitely not. Classroom language use is a blend of language varieties. And there are good reasons for it, too. According to Bailey & Heritage (2008) and Scarcella (2008) it is helpful to distinguish four different patterns of language use or classroom varieties. They call them

o   Basic colloquial language (BCL)

o   School Navigational Language (SNL)

o   Curriculum Content Language (CCL)

o   Essential Academic Language (EAL).

All of them serve different purposes: e.g. making students feel at ease (= BCL), organising work (= SNL), calling on subject-specific concepts and procedures in an unambiguous manner (= CCL), supporting the development and exchange of learning experiences and ideas according to the expectations of the discourse community of school teachers (= EAL).

·         Teachers should systematically build up stocks of academic language elements (e.g. use of abstract nouns, expanded nominal constructions, highly complex syntactic structures) and coach students to use them appropriately: Again, no. Stockpiling of such elements for later demand does not lead to a sustainable academic discourse competence. Students should be confronted with strategies and language elements at a point of need for making meaning in the content classroom through modelling, scaffolding or apprenticeship.

·         If schools set up standards for teaching academic language, such standards should be equally applied to both, to comprehension (listening and reading) and to production (oral, written): This would not be the fairway to academic literacy. Receptive skills are a definite priority. In content teaching authentic texts which are not produced for didactic purposes have significant value.  They are a motivating challenge for the students. On the other hand, they may contain linguistic obstacles (technical terms and set phrases, complex sentence structures, intricate strategies of reasoning). One of the most important aims of inclusive academic language teaching is to familiarise students with techniques and strategies to “attack” such texts, unwrap them for meaning, and consider them as a potential source for new patterns of subject-specific language use.

·         If everything goes well, students have acquired academic language competence by the end of compulsory education or before they enter university: Again a serious misconception. The process of developing academic competences transcends formal education. It is a never ending process since discourse patterns and representational forms in the media are subject to continual change. Thus, it makes little sense to pile up language knowledge. A more effective and sustainable way of inclusive academic language teaching is to develop the students´ awareness and abilities to focus their attention on how language is being used in social contexts for which purposes and to reflect on language diversity and the advantages of code switching.

Furthermore, there are at least five aspects of content teaching routines which are serious obstacles to the development of academic discourse competence:

·         In primary and lower secondary education, by far most of the teaching and learning process is of oral nature. If writing plays a role at all, it rarely is challenging and thought provoking: in most cases it amounts to copying notes from the board, taking notes, filling gaps, answering questions and the like. In a random sample of 20 content lessons, I found that writing activities take up less than 10% of teaching time. In these cases, students clearly have not enough opportunities to reflect on the appropriateness of their language and to revise their texts with the help of peers or the teacher.

·         Oral interaction is dominated by so-called IRF-cycles – initiation by the teacher through (closed formatted) questions and impulses followed by a student reaction frequently by body language, single word answers or short phrases and concluded by the teacher´s confirmation or feedback. These IRF-patterns allow for teacher control, but they are highly inefficient for the development of meaningful and coherent discourse.

·         Teachers´ feedback is focussed on content and only very rarely on language performance.

·         There is little awareness-raising of and reflection on subject-specific genres as well as basic communicative-cognitive functions such as defining, describing, explaining, reasoning, evaluating, etc., since in many educational systems curricular documents for content teaching do not explicitly touch on the language dimension and do not define which (academic) language learning objectives are supposed to be achieved.

·         Micro- or soft language scaffolding techniques (e.g. prompting, rephrasing) can be observed. But designed-in or systemic scaffolding of academic language use is more an exception than a rule. By designed-in scaffolding (e.g. Hammond 2001) is meant that in lesson planning language support is aligned to specific content target.

In short, deep routed classroom routines, activities and interaction patterns in content teaching ought to undergo a critical revision to make them more language sensitive as a major contribution to the development of academic discourse competence and to school success of marginalised student groups.

3.      A more or less global view on what has already been achieved

Whenever educational systems consider focussing school reform on the language dimension across the curriculum for reasons of equity and the right of all students to quality education, they can resort to research work, concepts, and materials from institutions around the world. There is no need to start from zero. A bird´s eye glance at some of the more prominent projects and approaches on inclusive academic language teaching might help us to discover options for national or regional initiatives.  There is not enough time for this introductory presentation to go into the technical details of such projects and initiatives, but at least some of their influential features will be called upon and highlighted.

·         Adapting the concept of literacy to the demands of modern knowledge societies: On a global scale, we witness a continual evolution of the term “literacy” which in former times was restricted to the technical skills of reading and writing. Nowadays it comprises a complex set of abilities to understand and use the dominant symbolic systems of a culture for personal and community development: The UNESCO (2004), for example, defines literacy as the "ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society." The Council of Europe´s project on “Languages in Education, Languages for Education” is compatible with this definition, but takes it a step further or let us say further down to the practicalities of teaching and learning in the content classroom. In the 2012, on occasion of the Council of Europe´s seminar on subject literacies, Helmut Vollmer summarised what is implied by the term “subject literacy” when applied to a specific discipline or content area. It means that students are able

o   to comprehend and fully understand the meaning of an utterance, a passage, a text

o   to negotiate meaning and communicate knowledge

o   to reflect on the learning process and the learning outcomes

o   to transfer information from one representational system to another (e.g. “translating” facts from a topographic map into a coherent spoken expository text)

o   to partake in socio-scientific discourse

o   to make use of generalisable knowledge and skills for solving problems and tasks in private and public life beyond the context of formal education.

·         Maintaining educational standards in mainstream education with targeted language support across the curriculum for vulnerable groups: We should be aware of general  tendencies in Canada and the USA of not “dumbing down the curriculum” anymore and separating vulnerable groups from their more successful peers, but maintaining academic standards for all with the help of cautious “sheltering” and scaffolding strategies in mainstream education. We might learn from programmes such as SIOP® = Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (Echevarria / Vogt & Short 2008), CALLA = Accelerating Academic Achievement for English Learners (Chamot / Uhl & O´Malley 1994) and others like the Word Generation approach (Strategic Education Research Partnership 2011). We should also take advantage of the wealth of basic research on the topic of “academic English” (cf. Anstrom et al. (2010) and the attempts to implement such expertise to the practicalities of the content classroom (e.g. Schleppegrell 2004, Zwiers 2008). Experts (Short, Fitzsimmons 2007) in the USA have also identified challenges and solutions to acquiring academic literacy of adolescents as a new target group, intensified attempts to link language standards to content standards on a very practical online platform, and discussed standards of academic English for entering colleges and universities.

From countries like Australia, New Zealand and many other countries in East Asia we can learn how to adapt pedagogies to contextual factors such as  linguistic and cultural diversity among students, large quota of (English) language learners and socio-economical demands (e.g. inclusion, social cohesion, high level of literacy and academic standards). In these countries, educational authorities have acknowledged the need for language support not only of newcomers to their educational system with little or no English, but also of those students of a migrant background who are born and raised e.g. in Australia and who have a fluent command of informal English, but are not exposed to such language patterns in their families which are normally used for learning and teaching purposes in schools. These countries have opted for a systemic-functional or functional semiotic approach to language education instead of more traditional approaches (e.g. lexico-grammatical, systemic linguistic approaches) through curriculum development and teacher training. They have also institutionalised the genre-based curriculum cycle (e.g. Hyland 2002) and familiarised schools with scaffolding techniques (e.g. Hammond 2001).

·         Curriculum development and reference systems for academic language competences: We should respect and value what so far has been accomplished by the Council of Europe in the project “Languages in Education, Languages for Education”. The project has initiated and/or supported successful attempts to introduce the language dimension to subject-specific curricula through defining concepts, points of reference, structured frames, descriptions and descriptors for academic language competences.  Instead of a unified and authoritative approach as taken for the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment, the Council´s platform offers options of framework structures/dimensions as well as procedures how to arrive of practical descriptors for making academic language learning objectives transparent, e.g.:

Basic cognitive-communicative strategies and discourse functions Pupils can use appropriate linguistic strategies and tools to process information, experience, and ideas applying basic discourse functions. This entails mastering the following cognitive and linguistic skills in particular: Naming, defining ·         appropriately labelling living things, objects, processes, events, topics and viewpoints ·         assessing and specifying their specific characteristics ·         Describing, presenting ·         making relatively concise and consistent oral contributions without excessive use of body language or gestures so that listeners can understand without having to ask for clarification ·         describing living things, objects, processes, events, topics or viewpoints related to the specific subject area through features related to their appearance or function, whether directly observable or emerging as the result of experiments

In the course of the Council´s project it became evident that there are complementary strategies to coordinate the academic language objectives across the curriculum: top-down from a general common frame of reference applied to the level of the individual school subject as practiced for example in Norway and North Rhine Westphalia or bottom-up from the particular language demands of individual subjects or subject areas to a coordinated cross-curricular framework. Member states are invited to consult and use such material in support of their educational policies according to their needs, resources and educational culture. Since there are several presentations scheduled for this conference on integrating the language dimension into content teaching, there is no need for me to go into details any further. Those member states which look for options may also study the Swiss HarmoS (EDK 2011) project or analyse how language standards are linked to content standards on the website of The George Washington University Center for Equity & Excellence in Education (GW-CEEE).

·         Integrating the language dimension into the training of non-language specialists: The European Commission, for example, supported a project on a “European Core Curriculum for Mainstreamed Second Language – Teacher Education”, which is an instrument for teacher pre- and in-service training to cope with linguistic diversity of their students. The preamble points out that social cohesion is indeed an essential part of a policy package towards a vibrant knowledge economy. Referring to the OECD publication No More Failures: Ten Steps to Equity in Education (Fiel/Kuczera/Pont 2007) it is argued that segregating students into different types of school, tracks or streams can harm the learning of vulnerable groups in a way that institutionalises unfairness and erodes human rights. These considerations led the EUCIM-TE consortium to support language across the curriculum. The European Core Curriculum moves from a ‘compartmentalised’ language learning for second or additional language learners to an ‘inclusive education’ in which second language education is seen as an integral part of a generalised and common curriculum process, i.e. mainstreamed second language education. The EUCIM-TE consortium explicitly refers to similar and successful approaches in Australia and North America (Canada) as well as to the Council of Europe´s endeavours to promote language education across the curriculum. The EUCIM-TE´s conceptual framework has been adapted on a national level by North Rhine Westphalia (Brandenburger / Bainski / Hochherz / Roth ) where the language dimension is a compulsory element of the pre-service training of all teachers, also for the non-language specialists.

·         Classroom development and language sensitive content teaching: For this area the leading question is: “How can content teachers provide language support and contribute to the development of subject literacy without lowering content standards?” Attempts to answer this question have led to sets of criteria for inclusive language sensitive content teaching for example in Germany (Thürmann / Vollmer 2013; RAA) and Austria (Dorner / Helten-Pacher / Langer / Schmölzer-Eibinger (2013). These sets of criteria for “language sensitive” content teaching are already part and parcel in the training of experienced educators to become literacy coaches as change agents for those schools which intend to work along the lines of a whole-school language learning policy. Such programmes have extensively been set up in the US, where training modules and quality criteria for the training of academic literacy coaches can be found (e.g. Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse; Sturtevant; Wren /  Reed 2005).

4.      Crystal ball gazing: Priorities for future action

Although there is a reliable basis of experience, research and practical tools concerning the language dimension in content teaching being offered on the Council of Europe´s website, a lot remains to be done on various levels of the educational system so that students across Europe – and not only those who are considered to be vulnerable or - can take advantage and fully develop multiple subject literacies.

·         On a supra level (Council of Europe) future developmental work could continue to focus on framework structures for subject literacy which can be offered to national or regional curriculum agencies as a tools for integrating the language dimension into subject-specific curricula. Effective support for curriculum reform would also imply an offer of possible (a) general descriptors for relevant framework dimensions (e.g. genres, cognitive-language functions, available language and textual means), (b)  descriptors for the language dimension in particular subject areas (e.g. Science, Social Studies and History, Art) – both kinds of descriptors in the shape of can-do statements.

·         On a macro level, ministries, national / regional / local authorities update and enrich curricular documents across the whole range of content areas by taking advantage of the curricular tools offered by the Council of Europe. They could also consider updating and enriching teachers´ professional profiles accordingly through teacher education. There is also a need for qualified change agents in the sense of “literacy coaches” who can help individual schools to adapt their language education policies and practice to specific contextual needs. Those specialists need to be trained.

·         On meso- and micro-levels, individual schools and their staff could try to reach consensus setting up a school-based language development plan which would result in a vertically (across grades) and horizontally (across subjects) coordinated language education policy for the alignment of content and language standards. Additionally they could practice a critical-friends-approach to classroom observation using a set of criteria for language-sensitive subject teaching and learning. Such checklists already exist….

·         On a nano-level, individual learners should consider school as a sort of apprenticeship adopting attitudes and acquire skills to examine very closely which strategies, linguistic and textual means are used for which purposes, become aware of different language registers and practice code switching whenever it seems functional and appropriate.

DEVELOPMENT OF ORAL LANGUAGE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON TEACHING AND LEARNING

Meaning of Oral Language

Ø  It is a system through which we use spoken words, express knowledge, ideas and feelings

Ø  It involves a process of utilizing thinking, knowledge and skills

Ø  It is essential for literacy learning, and successful use of language is critical for students wellbeing.

DEFINITION OF ORAL LANGUAGE

“Oral Language is the child’s first, most important, and most frequently used structured medium of communication. It is the primary means through which each individual child will be enabled to structure, to evaluate, to describe and to control his/her experience. In addition, and most significantly, oral language is the primary mediator of culture, the way in which children locate themselves in the world, and define themselves with it and within it”

COMPONENTS OF ORAL LANGUAGE

Vocabulary - understanding the meaning of words and phrases

Syntax - Understanding word order and grammar rules

Morphological skills  - understanding the meaning of word forms and parts

Pragmatics  -  understanding the social rules of communication

Phonological skills  - an awareness of sounds, such as syllables and rhymes

Development of oral language and its implications on teaching and learning

Developing oral language means developing the skills and knowledge that go into listening and speaking- all of which have a strong relationship to reading comprehension and to writing

HOLBROOK (1983)

    Fluency

    Clarity

    Sensitivity

THE ROLE OF TEACHER FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ORAL LANGUAGE

Ø  Oral language is used more by the teachers than the students

Ø  Oral language as used by the teachers, seldom function as a means for students to gain knowledge and to explore ideas.

Ø  The teacher’s role is to teach-usually interpreted to mean that to teach means to talk.

ORAL LANGUAGE AS A FOUNDATION

The literacy learning process actually begins with speaking--talking about their experiences, talking about themselves. It is through speech that children learn to organize their thinking and focus their ideas (Lyle, 1993). The neglect of oral language in the classroom will destroy that foundation and severely hinder the development of other aspects of language skills.

RESEARCH ON COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Current research literature on critical thinking and cognitive development indicates that the development of language has a close relationship to the development of thinking abilities.

Before achieving proficiency in reading and writing--and even after proficiency in reading and writing have been achieved--oral language is one of the important means of learning and of acquiring knowledge.

TEACHER AS FACILITATOR

To facilitate a learning process in which children are given both opportunity and encouragement to speak and to explore their own thinking, the teacher has to do more than tell children what he or she means, or what the text means.

The teacher can encourage students to bring their ideas and background knowledge into class learning activities.

CONCLUSION

Oral language development is connected to children’s cognition (thinking skills) in many important ways. As children’s vocabularies increase, for example, children demonstrate specific cognitive skills such as classification  and the ability to categorize.

Oral language develops vocabulary concepts.  Children gain information about word meanings and pronunciation and these concepts are first introduced in speaking and understanding others’ speech.

Children learn through oral language the structure of language and that it communicates meaning. Children who can articulate their words and thoughts clearly have an advantage in learning to read over those children who have poor oral language skills.

Oral language teaches children cultural nuances, giving them specific background knowledge that aides in reading comprehension.

Oral language acquisition builds a desire to use language for a variety of purposes, such as reading, wiring and listening.

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[1] In this presentation, “content” as in “content teaching” is used as a short formula referring to declarative as well as procedural knowledge taught and learnt in so-called non-language subjects (German: Sachfächer).

[2] In this presentation, the term “academic” as in “academic language” refers to the context of schools with an emphasis on the secondary level (10/11 – 15 year old students), i.e. a period in education with a broad range of different subjects.