Post on 01-Apr-2015
Reflecting on ESL Teaching and Learning Across the Curriculum
LAUSD District 6January 18, 2006
Professor Pauline GibbonsFaculty of Education
University of TechnologySydney, Australia
Pauline.Gibbons@uts.edu.au
Key Question
What is the “signature” of an effective teaching and learning classroom environment for English language learners?
3 Basic Assumptions Underpinning ESL
Teaching and LearningEffective ESL teaching and learning
requires:1. Development of a “high challenge and
high support” curriculum2. Teachers’ understanding of language as
a meaning –making system3. Explicit teaching of academic language
integrated with content teaching.
The Planned Curriculum: Evidence
front-loaded scaffolding;
scaffolding that builds on what learners bring to the learning situation (language, experience and knowledge), and makes connections between this and the curriculum;
language and subject/content integration;
meaning-driven language teaching;
The Planned Curriculum: Evidence (continued)
explicit focus on form and grammar;
links made between spoken and written language;
the development of second language literacy;
The Planned Curriculum: Evidence (continued)
opportunities for students to use new language in contextually appropriate ways and in authentic situations;
‘message abundancy’;
the development of metalinguistic and metacognitive understandings;
formative assessment practices with assessment used to inform teaching.
The Enacted Curriculum: Examples
extended dialogues (non- IRF) by students with teacher and peers, leading to ‘substantive conversation’ and increased depth of knowledge;
increased ‘wait time’ in teacher-student talk, and opportunities for self correction/repair by students;
opportunities for students to take on ‘expert’ roles;
initiation of questions and topics by students;
use of higher-order questioning by teacher;
The Enacted Curriculum: Examples (continued)
thinking (of teacher and students) made explicit in the discourse;
respect for alternative viewpoints: knowledge as problematic;
teacher as active listener (e.g., through appropriation of student ideas, and building on student responses);
positive interpersonal/affective relationships;
understanding by students of how to work collaboratively.
Implications for Teacher Learning in
Schools1. participation in action
learning with others;
2. development of a shared language by teachers (about language, learning and second language development) across faculties, classes;
Implications for Teacher Learning in
Schools
3. addressing teachers’ own perceived needs, questions and concerns;
4. authentic collaboration between researchers/academics and teachers;
Implications for Teacher Learning in
Schools
5. professional development that mirrors a collaborative classroom: congruence between the ‘medium’ and the ‘message’;
6. a focus on principled knowledge, not simply procedural knowledge.