College of Education and Human Development

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josterli@gmu.edu

Summer 2002

George Mason University
Graduate School of Education

EDCI 516-B01
BILINGUALISM AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION RESEARCH
Summer 2002 - Session B

COURSE OUTLINE

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EDCI 516-B01: Bilingualism and Language Acquisition Research is a 3 credit course designed to meet the needs of graduate students who are seeking initial licensure or a Master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction, with tracks in bilingual/multicultural education, English as a second language (ESL) instruction, or foreign language (FL) instruction. This course is required in the state of Virginia for PK-12 ESL/FL licensure and for foreign language immersion teachers.

The investigation of how humans acquire language and how language interacts with culture is essential for ESL or FL teacher candidates by assisting in the development of a knowledge base appropriate for teaching in today's multicultural world. This course emphasizes second language acquisition (SLA) research - as well as the social, cultural, affective, and cognitive factors playing a role in SLA. Students will examine available research on the cognitive and linguistic achievements of bilingual children and will acquire knowledge about the consequences of bilingualism for children's cognitive development, school achievement, and linguistic processing.

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Course Delivery:

The seminar format of EDCI 516-B01 requires the active participation of all students. As an experiential course, it is structured around discussion and small group activities. Therefore, it is critical that all students keep up with the readings and actively participate in class. Students should be prepared to discuss the content of the readings in relation to teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students in grades PK-12, as well as to ask questions for clarification, exploration, or discussion.

In order to meet the needs of varied learning styles and needs, EDCI 516-B01 uses a combination of instructional methods and technologies. These methods include: instructor-guided presentations (i.e., lectures assisted by PowerPoint or other visuals); student-guided presentations; video presentations; case studies; facilitated discussions that promote critical thinking; cooperative learning (i.e., small group structure emphasizing learning from and with others); collaborative learning (i.e., heterogeneous groups in an interdisciplinary context); and guest lectures; as well as the use of the Blackboard 5 web-based software.

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Students With Special Needs:

Students with disabilities that affect their ability to fully participate in the course or who require special accommodations are encouraged to advise the instructor in order to ensure their successful participation in this course.

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Course Outcomes:

At the conclusion of EDCI 516-B01, students will be able to demonstrate:

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Relationship to Program Goals and Professional Organizations:

The relationship of EDCI 516-B01 to GMU-GSE program goals is as follows:

EDCI 516-B01 follows the guidelines and recommendations made by:

ACTFL and TESOL, along with NABE and NAME, are the largest professional organizations that specialize in research on working with culturally and linguistically diverse populations. They embrace and celebrate cultural and ethnic diversity as a national strength that enriches society and reject the view that diversity threatens the fabric of society. ACTFL and TESOL have the more specialized mission of developing the expertise of their members and other educators involved in teaching world languages. This mission encourages the fostering of an effective learning environment, accomplishing the goal of effective communication in diverse settings, and respecting an individual's rights and needs.

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Standards

The following standards aim to provide consistency in teacher education programs across the United States in terms of what EFL/ ESL/ FL teachers need to know and be able to do --that is, the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that are essential for the effective teaching of culturally and linguistically diverse students.

TESOL's ESL Performance-Based Standards for P-12 Teacher Education Programs
TESOL's ESL Performance-Based Standards for P-12 Teacher Education Programs serve as a bridge to the general education standards expected of all students in the United States. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the TESOL Board of Directors approved the P-12 ESL Teacher Standards in October 2001. Chaired by Lydia Stack, this 2-year project is now being prepared for publication and implementation. These standards cover the following five domains:

The standards cover five domains:

1. Professionalism (i.e., understanding the nature of of L2 teaching as part of and in relation to the broader community, the broader teaching community);
2. Language (i.e., an understanding of what language is and how it is used).
3. Culture (i.e., understanding who ESL students are and how their communities, heritages, and goals shape their experiences in learning).,
4. Instruction (i.e., what occurs in the classroom setting and how to collaborate with content-area teachers),
5. Assessment (i.e., using knowledge and student performance to make decisions about future planning and instruction)..

The standards aim to provide consistency in teacher education programs across the United States in terms of what good ESL teachers need to know and be able to do -- the knowledge, skills, and dispoistions that are essential for effective teaching in particular settings. TESOL's Vision of Effective Education for All Students

TESOL's Vision of Effective Education for All Students

In addition, TESOL's vision of effective education for all students includes:

• Native-like levels of proficiency in English.
• The maintenance and promotion of ESOL students' native languages in school and community contexts.
• All educational personnel assuming responsibility for the education of ESL students.
• The availability of and access to first-rate services for ESL students.
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Course Requirements:

EDCI 516-B01 will meet face-to-face and will confer on-line (via electronic discussion list) at http://blackboard.gmu.edu/
This course requires students to:

EDCI 516-B01- course requirements will be met as follows:

Schedule

EDCI 516-B01
Summer 2002

Required Texts:

Baker, C. (2002). Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (3rd ed.). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. [ISBN 1-85359-523-3].

Collier, V.P. (1995). Promoting Academic Success for ESL students: Understanding Second Language Acquisition for School. Woodside, NY: Bastos Educational Books. [ISBN 1-8835-1400-2].

Recommended Books

American Psychological Association (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in Development. Language, Literacy, and Cognition. Cambridge: University Press.

Ellis, R. (1984).Understanding second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ellis, R., Fotos, S. et al. (1999). Learning a second language through interaction. Philadelphia : J. Benjamins.

Fox, H. (1994), Listening to the World. Cultural Issues in Academic Writing. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English.

Hakuta, K. (1986). Mirror of language: The Debate on Bilingualism. New York : Basic Books.

Nieto, S. (2002). Language, culture, and teaching : critical perspectives for a new century. Mahwah, N.J. : L. Erlbaum.

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Classroom Lesson Plan
Due Date: Monday, June 24

Project Objectives:

Students working as members of collaborative teams will develop lesson plans based on both a specific, selected communicative language method for teaching an EFL/ ESL/ FL lesson, and a primary language subject matter lesson that is taken from the appropriate grade level curricular framework and linked to the ESL lesson objectives. This project will be posted on Blackboard 5 and presented to the class.

Project Guidelines:

For examples of communicative language methods, read "Communicative language teaching: An introduction and sample activities," which is located at:

http://www.cal.org/ericcll/digest/gallow01.html.

After selecting the communicative EFL/ ESL/ FL method, students must read two articles on the EFL/ ESL/ FL method. A brief review of each article you read must accompany a copy of the written group lesson plans to be submitted to the instructor.

Each team is to develop one EFL/ ESL/ FL lesson plan that is both age and grade appropriate and will link the subject matter of the lesson to the L2 lesson.

Team members should be prepared to discuss how the subject matter lesson is linked to the L2 lesson. Enough copies of the lesson plan (reviews of articles not included) for each member of the class must be made. Lesson plans should be comprehensive, i.e. thorough enough that class members can replicate submitted lessons in their own instructional environments.

Students will receive a group grade for the lesson plan, with all members of the group receiving the same grade. Individual grades will be given for article reviews.

Suggested Format:

How long is the class? What if they are not teaching? What should be included on the handout? How long should the article review be? What type of article should they look for?age subject matter lesson that is both age and grade appropriate and will link the subject matter of the lesson to the L2 lesson. Team members should be prepared to discuss how the subject matter lesson is linked to the L2 lesson. Enough copies of the lesson plan (reviews of articles not included) for each member of the class must be made. Lesson plans should be comprehensive, i.e. thorough enough that class members can replicate submitted lessons in their own instructional environments.

A "group grade" will be assessed for the two lesson plans, all team members receiving the same grade. Individual grades will be given for "reviews of articles".

REFLECTIVE PAPER

GUIDELINES FOR EDCI 516-B01
Last Day of Class

Project Objectives:

It is essential that PK-12 schools teachers in the field of second language education (ESL, FL, EFL) remain current on the research regarding second language acquisition in order to inform their teaching practice with the most recent methodologies. By conducting this research project and recording their findings and reflections, students will complement the course work and become more familiar with topics of particular personal/ professional interest in second language acquisition. In addition, students will become familiar with the use of both traditional and computer-based resources.

The reflective paper requires you to be critical and sophisticated consumer of research on second language acquisition. The reflective paper serves as a shortened literature review that might be done as the first step in reflecting on your own classroom practices as a teacher, or conducting a research study on a topic of interest to you. Each of the readings for this course presents a literature review, synthesizing a wide variety of studies on the topic of focus.

Your task for this reflective paper is to create your own research synthesis by critically analyzing research on your chosen topic. Through this analysis, you will become more aware of both the knowledge base to date and the limits of the research on a particular topic. No matter what the topic is, more research needs to be conducted in order to fully understand how humans acquire language.

Directions:

Possible Sources:

Traditional publication sources: A minimum of TWO articles you review for this reflective paper should come from among a variety of print journals; try to include at least one article from a peer-reviewed research publication. Journals for consideration may include: TESOL Quarterly, Applied Linguistics, Studies in Second Language Acquisition Research, Bilingual Research Journal, Educational Leadership, Journal of Educational Research, Phi Delta Kappan, or others.

On-line sources: A minimum of TWO additional articles should come from sources on the Internet. Conduct a net search on the web for information relevant to your topic. Helpful sites include: http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/ or the ERIC databases (accessible from the GMU Library homepage).

Helpful Hints for Writing a Short Focus Paper:

Do not organize the focus paper around the references, by first discussing one author and in the next paragraph another author, and so forth. Instead, organize your focus paper around issues through which you can weave a number of sources together into the discussion of each issue. A useful technique is to use headings; many articles that you will read for this course are organized in this manner. Headings help the reader to identify the overall organization of your paper, and they help you as a writer to communicate what you intend to be the focus of each section. The final section of the paper will give you a chance to summarize your own reflections on research implications for classroom practices.

FYI Only: Titles of Past Reflective Papers

• A brief introduction to first language attrition
• A comprehensive look at foreign language anxiety: A new challenge for FL educators.
• Bilingual classrooms and instructional approaches to maintain bilingualism.
• Bilingual maintenance.
• Bilingualism and language impairment.
• Children growing up bilingually.
• Code-switching.
• English as a second language in Japan.
• ESL students with learning disabilities: Is there a misrepresentation?
• Finding a voice: Empowering parents of ESL students.
• How do I ensure academic success in second language learners?
• Implications of reading in the language acquisition process, specifically multicultural and bilingual literature.
• Instructional approaches in the L2 classroom.
• Language acquisition: From Pidginization to Creolization and beyond.
• Motivation and strategies for second language learning.
• Self-esteem and second language learner.
• The effectiveness of bilingual education.
• The politics of bilingual education.
• The role of comprehensible input in second language acquisition.
• Technology in the L2 classroom.
  
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  FIELD EXPERIENCE
  Due Date: Wednesday, July 10
  

  To be completed at a GMU's English Language Institute

  Project Objectives:

  EDCI 516-B01 has a 15-hour field experience requirement. This means that in addition to class work, during the summer 2002 semester, each student must spend a minimum of 15 hours observing at GMU's English Language Institute.

  As a result of the field experience requirement, students will:

  1. Gain first-hand familiarity with second language teaching roles, goals, methods, and curricula in elementary and secondary schools;
  2. Observe the application of second language teaching strategies and methods embodied in the classroom procedures of the cooperating teachers.
  3. Understand the multicultural/ multilingual dimensions and mandates of L2 environments, including addressing the learning needs of a culturally and linguistically diverse student body;
  4. Develop the ability to think critically about current educational issues by analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of educational approaches and practices;
  5. Discuss their school-based observations with each other, practicing teachers, and university instructors, comparing and contrasting teaching methods and styles at different levels and with culturally and linguistically diverse student populations.

     As a requirement of the GMU Graduate School of Education, participants will engage in 15 hours of school-based field experiences. Students will engage in observations, interactions with students, and in teacher interviews in the school setting. A final written report should consist of three principle sections and be a total of 4-5 pages in length. Guidelines and suggested report format are described, as follows.

     Suggested Format:

     The following is the suggested format for the written report of the field observations. Iin addition to a short introduction where you briefly describe the field setting, you should include three (3) principle sections, as indicated below:

     Introduction	Brief overview of: Classroom you observed (e.g., grade level, number students, number of teachers and teacher aides); Teacher you observed (e.g., academic background, years of service, courses/ subjects taught, languages spoken, PK-12 schools experience). Include their teaching philosophy and how this philosophy is incorporated into their teaching methods and style.
     Part One	Narrative Report with: Information from Pre- and Post-Observation interviews. Description and analysis of lessons observed.
     Part Two	Reflexions, Conclusions.
     Attachment	Signed Field Observation Form.

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     Part One -- Narrative Report

     The following guiding questions may serve to target your observation notes. Your written report should synthesize the information gleaned from your observations. You need not cover all the topics listed; they are merely guides for your observation notes:

     Instructional methods: Is it lecture-based? Collaborative? Are there question and answer sessions? Hands-on activities? Worksheets? How does the teacher incorporate multiple learning styles and needs into lesson plans? What is the percentage of time devoted to the 4 skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking) and the 5th skill of thinking? How are the textbooks used during instruction? How was the lesson introduced? Presented? What instructional activities were used? How cognitively demanding were they? Were the activities context embedded or context reduced? How did the teacher connect students' prior knowledge, life experience, and interest with learning goals?

     Students: Are they focused? Are they actively participating? Is the teacher interacting with all of students? Do they understand the activity and the purpose? Are they working together well? How do they interact with the teacher?

     Classroom appearance: What is the seating arrangement (e.g., rows, tables, clusters of desks, cooperative groups)? What is on the walls of the classroom? Are the objectives posted for students?

     Classroom management: What is the daily routine? How are the daily objectives implemented? Are there a variety of activities? How does the teacher create and maintain an effective educational environment for students?

     Classroom environment: What is the effect of having multiple cultures and languages in class? What is the amount of L1 and L2 used both by students and teacher?

     Instructional Technology: Does the teacher use visuals and/or instructional technology (e.g., VCR, TV, Internet, and computer software)? Manipulatives?

     Assessment: How did the teacher assess the students' second language acquisition?

Pre- and Post-Observation Teacher Interview:

Ask the ELI cooperating teacher to conference about one of the EFL/ ESL/ FL lessons. For your planning purposes, a pre-observation interview may last 15 - 25 minutes, but you should be mindful of the teacher's time demands; the follow-up interview should only take 5 - 10 minutes. As you prepare for the interviews, you may want to use some of the questions below as a guide.

Part II: Reflections and Conclusions:

This final section provides you with the opportunity to draw theory and practice together by reflecting on the observations, activities, and interviews. You should comment on how the information gleaned applies to second language acquisition research issues and practices we have examined and discussed in this course.

This section will probably be one to one and a half pages in length. One paragraph should also state how this knowledge might be applied to your current or future teaching situation.

BE SURE TO THANK THE INSTRUCTOR FOR HER/HIS TIME.

GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
Graduate School of Education
Center for Multilingual/ Multicultural Education
MSN 4D1
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444

Name:

School:

Course: EDCI 516-B01
Title: Bilingualism and Language Acquisition Research
Professor: Jorge P. Osterling, Ph.D.
Clock Hours: 15

FIELD PROJECT
Due Date: Monday, July 15

Project Objectives:

The purpose of this project is to analyze second language acquisition patterns among EFL/ ESL/ FL learners. This project is appropriate for all EDCI 516-B01 students, whether currently teaching or not. It requires no prior knowledge of linguistics for completion.

The field project component of EDCI 516-B01 is designed so that you begin to engage in active inquiry about teaching, one that requires you to think about teaching in the second language classroom (ESL/ EFL/ FL) and the students with whom you are working. It will help you develop a perspective that will contribute to your professional identity.

This project observes the following INTASC standards:

Project Guidelines:

Suggested Format:

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Rubrics

Please use the following rubrics to assess and grade EDCI 516-B01 course assignments. Please remember that you could also lose points in formatting (APA), grammar, mechanics, spelling.

Classroom and On-Line Participation Rubric
(20% of Grade)

Reflective Paper Rubric
(20 % of Grade)

Course Field Project Rubric
(30 % of Grade)

Classroom Lesson Rubric
(15 % of grade)

Field Experience/ Observation and Report Rubric
(15% of grade)

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