Explore resources and activities relevant to courses that introduce students to issues related to first- and second-language development, cultural diversity, and language variation. These types of course addresses these issues in terms of teaching and learning, and serve as a base for subsequent courses that extend these issues in the content areas.
Course Activity 1: Helping Young Children Learn in Two Languages
The tip sheet, Helping Preschoolers Learn in Two Languages and blogs, Helping DLLs Learn in Two Languages During Early Childhood and Parallel Talk: A Simple Way to Provide English Vocabulary offer basic suggestions about practices for teachers who have some dual language learners (DLLs) in their classrooms, and may not be familiar with those children’s home languages. The video, Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley: Learning Through an Action Song shows one specific practice: teaching preschool-age DLLs an action song in English. (Note: for important contextual information, students should also read the text that goes with the video.)
Questions for reflection/discussion may include: What experiences have students had with learning a language other than English? (Or if English is not their first language, how did they learn it?) What questions and concerns do students have about working with children whose first language is not the same as theirs? Which suggestions in the tip sheet, blogs, and video do students think will be easy to implement? Which seem more challenging? What makes them think so? Extension: Invite students to find out which languages other than English are most common in the communities where they will be teaching. Ask them to look for reliable sources of culturally appropriate songs in Spanish, French, or other languages used in their communities.
Course Activity 2: Partnering with Families of Dual Language Learners
The tip sheet(written for parents) Helping Your Child Learn in Two Languages and the blog entry, Maintaining Home Language Is a Great Gift emphasize the importance of Dual Language Learners (DLLs) continuing to learn and use their home language while they learn English. The blog, Welcoming Immigrant Families to the Preschool Classroom suggests ways teachers can honor the cultures and goals of immigrant families.
The video Look What This Can Do shows a bilingual parent interacting with her child in Spanish, the family’s home language. Papa and Wayne: A Simple Game With Baby shows a grandfather using (and teaching) an Indigenous language while playing with his infant grandson. (Note: The text accompanying the video clips contains important contextual information.) Questions for reflection/discussion may include: What goals do students imagine the parents of young DLLs in their communities have for their children’s school experiences? What challenges might the parents face in communicating with the school? What strategies do students think they might use to facilitate that communication? How familiar are students with the idea that early childhood classrooms should support a child’s home language as well as their acquisition of English? What are their thoughts about this concept?
Course Activity 3: Learning Two Languages in a Bilingual PreK Classroom
These four video clips (see below) show preschool-age DLLs engaged with their peers in activities that address several Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards (IELDs)and WIDA standards. Viewing the clips can give students a sense of what choice time can look like in a bilingual PreK classroom. They will see DLLs using oral language for a variety of purposes. Different levels of code-switching/translanguaging are shown. Students not fluent in Spanish can use the translated transcripts or the closed captioning feature. It will be helpful to view each clip more than once.(Note: The text accompanying the video clips contains important contextual information, including discussion of IELDS benchmarks and WIDA standards.) Questions for reflection/discussion: What do students notice in the videos about the teacher’s verbal interactions with the children?
What problems or challenges related to language do the children encounter? Conversely, how do they use language to solve problems? What instances of codeswitching or translanguaging do the students notice? Who uses English, and when? What questions do the students have about ways these play activities meet IELDS and WIDA benchmarks?
Extending: Ask pairs of students to view a video clip of their choice one additional time, to pinpoint some observational data they could use in planning learning activities for individual children and for the whole class. What activities would they design? What would be the goal of each activity? Each pair of students can share their ideas with the rest of the class.