Tag Archives: foreign language

Foreign Language Modes of Communication (ACTFL)

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What is the purpose of communication?  Is it to practice language?  Maybe it is to polish our verb forms and word order?  Perhaps it is to use all the vocabulary that we have learned in a language?  Hopefully, we can all agree that this sort of “communication” that has not have a clear goal is not the reason that we engage in language learning.  The reason we communicate in any language in any form is to convey or understand a message.

The Importance of Message when Communicating in a Foreign Language (French, Spanish) www.wlclassroom.com When it comes to understanding or conveying a message there are three ways of looking at the communication.  The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines put communication to these categories: interpersonal, interpretive and presentational.  Each of these modes of communication looks at the message in unique way.  A solid understanding of how a message is conveyed or understood when speaking, writing or reading is essential to using various tools needed to effectively communicate.

Presentational communication is one-way speaking or writing that does not allow for real time clarification of meaning.  This means that the speaker/writer has to be sure to “fill in the gaps” and have a solid understanding of what the listener or reader knows or needs to know to interpret the message.

Conversely, interpretive communication is one-way listening or reading that also does not allow for real time clarification of meaning.  When reading and listening in this context the reader/listener needs to fill in their own gaps in understanding.  This may require accessing personal knowledge of the topic or doing research.  The most effective tool is the use of context clues and identifying what is understood to make meaning globally.

Interpersonal communication, on the other hand, is two-way speaking that allows for clarification of the message in real time.  When communicating interpersonally all speakers and listeners are involved in creating and interpreting the message and work together to assure that there is a collective understanding.

These tables below lay out the three modes of communication.

The Importance of Message when Communicating in a Foreign Language (French, Spanish) www.wlclassroom.com The Importance of Message when Communicating in a Foreign Language (French, Spanish) www.wlclassroom.com

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Language Learning with a Growth Mindset

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I wrote a post previously about how a change in words can change a students mindset.  Essentially if students change the words and questions they use to approach their work, the outcome will be different. A mindset that is more focused on growth and overcoming challenges will lead to higher confidence and a clearer understanding, whereas a fixed mindset causes students to limit their confidence and potential (Carol Dweck, Mindset).  I wanted to approach this topic again, but from a more linguistic perspective.  Here is a more focused list of ways that language learners can use a growth mindset to learn the target language more effectively, efficiently and with more increased proficiency.

Language Learning with a Growth Mindset. (French, Spanish, ACTFL) www.wlclassroom.com

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10 Ways to Use Task Cards in the Language Classroom

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Are you looking for new and inventive ways to make vocabulary and verb form/tense practice more engaging, communicative and proficiency-based in your language class.  Have you seen task cards popping up all over the Internet? They are getting more popular because they are a very effective way of accomplishing our goals for students. Task cards are particularly useful because they provide lots of opportunities for hands-on activities and movement in the classroom.

Here are some examples of task cards for the language classroom:

10 Ways to Use Task Cards in the Foreign Language Classroom (French, Spanish) www.wlclassroom.com

10 Ways to Use Task Cards in the Foreign Language Classroom (French, Spanish) www.wlclassroom.com

There are many ways to use task cards in the language classroom. Here are a few of my go-to activities:

  1. Warm-Ups (Do Nows): When they enter the room, students choose 2 or 3 cards and complete the prompt.
  2. Fast Finishers: Students that finish another activity early can choose a few of the cards and complete the prompts.
  3. Exit Ticket: Just before the end of class hand out a task card to each student and they respond to the prompt and hand it to the teacher (who verifies the answer) as they leave the room.
  4. Station Activity: Divide the cards up into different areas (stations) around the room put students into groups. Give student or group a task card response sheet. When groups finish the cards at the station, groups rotate to a new station.
  5. Scoot: Place a task card on each desk. Each student gets a response sheet. Students answer the question on the task card and then “scoot” to the next desk until they have rotated all around the room. Set a timer to complete the prompt. You can also put several cards on each desk for students to complete. They can either complete them all in one round or rotate back to that desk to complete the additional cards.
  6. Differentiation: Assign students specific cards that respond to their current abilities with the material.
  7. Back to Back: Give a pair of students the same task card to answer. They sit or stand with their backs against each other. Students read and complete the prompt at the same time when the signal is given to begin. This works best when answers are written on mini white boards. The first to answer correctly gets a point. This can be done with two big teams with one team member coming up to compete against a member from the other team, or in small groups of 3, with two students competing and one judging.
  8. Traditional Board Games: Combine the task cards with traditional game boards and have students complete a task card to be able to move.
  9. Quiz Games: Play games like Jeopardy and use the task card as prompts and questions.
  10. Interactive Bulletin Board: Put task cards on a bulletin board or around the room. Assign individual students 8-10 numbers. If done during class students can circulate and write the answers on a response sheet. This can also be done as a homework assignment.

 

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Posted in Activities and Games, Classroom Procedures, Grammar and Structures

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Emerging Literacy in a Foreign Language

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This is a typical writing and reading (Emerging Literacy) activity that I do with novice students (with the goal being to read and write at a novice mid sentence level*). In this particular version, my 3rd graders had learned lots of words for animals and we had recently begun learning the words for places in nature where they can be found.

Emerging Literacy in a Foreign (World) Language. (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.comThe class could list about 20 animals (individual words-novice low*), and they are beginning to recognize how they are written. We started this class by listing the words on the board (animals and places in nature), then I gave them the verb “est” (is) and some prepositions to go along with the places (as phrases; “sur l’herbe” -on the grass). Students then put the structure together verbally in pairs to makes sentences (novice mid). We then moved on to writing the sentences and drawing a picture to show the meaning (novice mid*).  Once done, I went around to each student and had then read the sentences, then I covered the sentences and had them describe the pictures orally.

*ACTFL Proficiency Scale

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Foreign Language Writing Project

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This project started as a simple writing assignment a few years back and I have reworked it in recent years to make it more interactive and to respond to students’ requests to read each others’ writing.  The photo is of the assignment with a 7th grade novice high/intermediate mid class, but I have used it with various proficiency levels.

Foreign (World) Language Writing Project. (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.comStudents begin with a writing prompt and create a brainstorm (mapping) sheet with the ideas they want to include.  I go over these sheets for content before students write a first draft of their writing. This gives them a chance to focus on content independent from language structures.  Students read each others’ drafts in class and comment on content and discuss any grammatical concerns.  Based on this feedback students complete a second draft that I go over with suggestions for richer content and highlighting grammatical issues.  It is very important to give prompts at the appropriate proficiency level of the students or the teacher will spend more time going over the grammar than it took for the student to write the draft.  This is a clear sign the proficiency level of the prompt was too high.

When students get the draft back they type a final draft to hand in along with an additional sheet that includes pictures or drawings of the content.  I post the writing and picture sheets on a bulletin board.

Foreign (World) Language Writing Project. (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.comI hand out a question sheet to students to complete as a homework assignment.  They need to read their classmates writing and find the information to fill in the question grid.  The picture sheet helps to guide students in understanding their classmates’ writing if there are words that they do not know.  I typically make several versions of the question sheet with 5-7 names on it.  I hand these sheets out to students, making sure that they do not get a sheet that requires them to read their own writing.

Foreign (World) Language Writing Project. (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.comStudents enjoy engaging with the writing of their classmates and look forward to opportunities to share their writing and to read what their classmates write.

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Planning Towards a Goal in the Foreign Language Classroom

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Feedback is an important and much-needed part of learning.  It is important that students have a clear understanding of what the goal or end product is so that they don’t feel that they are working just to work.  How many of us have heard students ask, “Why are we learning this?” or “When will I ever need this?”  Students ask this when they are not motivated to learn because the goal that they are working toward is not clear and obvious.  Teachers need to clearly understand what the end goal or product will be, and this needs to be shared with students at the beginning of a unit or lesson.Planning Towards a Goal in the Foreign (World) Language Classroom (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.comThroughout the unit or lesson the formative assessment and feedback should always be in relation to the goal.  Comments such as “good work” or “nice job” are not specific and in relation to the goal.  When the goal is presented early on it is more productive to assess formatively and provide feedback toward the goal.  For example, if the goal is to narrate an event in the past, feedback such as, “Your mastery of these regular verb forms will help you to speak confidently about what you did last weekend.  Now turn your focus to these irregular verb forms that will help you speak or write about more events.” Information from  Formative Assessment provides data during the instructional process. Without a clear goal, it is difficult to answer these formative assessment questions:

  • Where am I going?
  • Where am I now?
  • How can I get to where I am going/need to be?

Here are some ways to keep the goal the focus of the a unit or lesson.

Planning Towards a Goal in the Foreign (World) Language Classroom (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.com

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Language Learning Promotes Acceptance of Social and Physical Diversity

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I wrote a previous post on how a change in the words that a student uses can change a students mindset.  Essentially, a mindset that is more focused on growth and overcoming challenges will lead to higher confidence and a clearer understanding, whereas a fixed mindset causes students to limit their confidence and potential (Carol Dweck, Mindset).  I recently came across the results of a study done at Concordia University in Montréal, Québec that looked at how this concept of a growth or fixed mindset can be influenced by the process that a young learner goes through as he learns a foreign language.

Language Learning Promotes Acceptance of Social and Physical Diversity (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.comThis was an interesting study in its methodology.  The children they worked with were 5-6 years old.  Some children were monolingual and others were children who had learned a second language in some capacity.   The researchers told the children stories about babies born to English parents but adopted by Italians, and about ducks raised by dogs. They then asked if “the children would speak English or Italian when they grew up, and whether the babies born to duck parents would quack or bark”  They also questioned “whether the baby born to duck parents would be feathered or furred.”  The children who had learned a second language knew that a baby raised by Italians would speak Italian, whereas the monolingual children were not as certain. The children with experience learning a second language were also more likely to believe that an animal’s physical traits and vocalizations are learned through experience or that “a duck raised by dogs would bark and run rather than quack and fly.”

The results of the study show that learning a second language (not two languages together from birth) not only promotes a growth mindset, but it can “alter children’s beliefs about a wide range of domains, reducing children’s essentialist biases,”  which leads to less stereotyping and prejudiced attitudes. In addition, the study posits that “early second language education could be used to promote the acceptance of human social and physical diversity.”

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Is My Foreign Language Textbook Focused on Proficiency?

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This is an important question to consider as language teaching moves toward proficiency and what students are able to do with the language, rather than the more traditional focus of what students know about the language.

Is My Foreign (World) Language Textbook Focused on Proficiency? (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.comMany times, teachers are required to use a particular textbook, while in other situations they have choice or can be part of the decision-making process.  Here is a helpful Textbook Evaluation Instrument Based on the ACTFL Standards. Essentially, this document will guide educators in determining how much the textbook guides students toward higher foreign language proficiency levels, based on the ACTFL Standards.

What is a teacher to do if he or she determines that the textbook that is required proves not to be as focused on proficiency as one might hope?  This is actually excellent information to have.  A concrete understanding of what is missing provides the teacher with a solid idea of the types of supplemental activities that need to be used in the class so that proficiency is the goal.

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The PACE Model

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The PACE Model (Donato and Adair-Hauck, 1992) encourages the language learner to reflect on the use of target language forms.  Essentially the teacher and learners collaborate and co-construct a grammar explanation.

Download PDF with PACE Model Explanation and Lesson Plan Template.

The PACE Model (French, Spanish) wlclassroom.com

Much like  authentic language  learning that happens outside of the classroom, this approach stresses that learning happens between people through social interaction (reminiscent of Vygotsky).  The PACE model requires the learner to be an active participant in the language learning process.

Download PDF with PACE Model Explanation and Lesson Plan Template.

The PACE model is a “four-step” process that includes elements that encourage student comprehension and participation. The four stages are:

1. PRESENTATION :
The teacher foreshadows the grammar structure with an appropriate text, with emphasis on meaning. Typically, the teacher recycles the storyline through pictures, TPR activities, etc., to increase comprehension and student
participation.  The focus is not on the grammar structure at this point, but it is used by the teacher and in the text.

2. ATTENTION :
The teacher now has students focus on the language form or structure through the use of  images or highlighting a particular linguistic form.

3. CO-CONSTRUCTION :
After the teacher has focused student attention on a particular target-language form, together they co-construct the grammatical explanation. The teacher provides scaffolding and assists the learners with questions that encourage them to reflect, predict and form generalizations regarding the consistencies  of the language.  Students “write” their own grammar rules, guided by the teacher who will make sure that they end up with an appropriate explanation.

4. EXTENSION :
The learners use grammatical structures to complete a task relating to the
theme of the lesson, which helps the language remain communicative while also highlighting a particular structure.

The PACE Model is a great way to teach grammar as a concept, one of the ACTFL Core Practices.

Download PDF with PACE Model Explanation and Lesson Plan Template.

Reference: Donato, R. & B. Adair-Hauk. “A Whole Language Approach to Focus on Form.” Paper presented at the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages. San Antonio,Texas (1992).

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