TEACHERS’ INSTRUCTIONAL LANGUAGE WITH

ELEMENTARY STUDENTS WITH LANGUAGE

IMPAIRMENT

Wenjing Zheng & Erna Alant

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT School teachers and students Paulo Tan, Lindsey Ogle, and Michael

Verde Marwa Tagheb Erin Peabody Xuyang Cao

RATIONALE Importance of special education teachers’

instructional language Current studies of special education

teachers’ interaction with children with special needs Kim & Hupp (2005): cognitive disabilities Nind, Kellett,& Hopkins (2001): learning

disabililies Dukmak (2010): comparison between special

and general Wang, Bernas, & Eberhard (2001): severe

language impairment Popich & Alant (1997): miscellaneous group

RESEARCH QUESTIONS What are the characteristics of special

education teachers’ instructional language during one-on-one instruction?

Are there any differences between the instructional language with students with mild language impairment and students with severe language impairment?

METHOD Setting: two self-contained elementary

special education classrooms Participants: Two special education

teachers Facilitating participants:

Two students with mild language impairment

Two students with severe language impairment

PARTICIPANTSClassroom

Participants Facilitating participants

#1 Teacher: Bachelor7 years of teaching, ABA licensed

Child (severe): Grade K; ASD; non-verbal; one-step instruction Child (mild):Grade 1; Cognitive; utterances +3; answer wh-; read 30 sight words

#2 Teacher: Bachelor28 years of teaching

Child (severe):Cognitive; Grade K; non-verbal; one-step instructionChild (mild): Grade 1; ASD; utterances +2; answer wh-; follow two-step instructions

METHOD Recorded session: “Teacher work” Audio recording: 10 sessions (15-25

minutes) for each student Nvivo: coding of the characteristics of

teachers’ instructional language -Sentence type-Sentence function-Level of cognitive demands

Inter-rater reliability Sentence type: 100% Sentence function: 80.0% Level of cognitive demands: 73.3%

EXAMPLES OF CODINGSentence type ExampleDeclarative It is a rubber bear!Exclamatory That is awesome!Imperative Put the horse in the box.Interrogative Are you ready for your first sentence?

Language functionRepeated instruction Want ball! Ball!Affirming Yes, it is a red horse.Attention directing My turn.Greeting Hi, how are you today?Imitating Twenty twoInformative The bear is jumping!Negating Not so much!Praising Excellent job!Questioning What do we need first?Requesting Show me jumping!

Cognitive levelMatching perception Show me the dog.Selective perception Can you show me the dog

pushing?Reordering perception Baby sitting! Where are you

sitting?Reasoning about perception

Do they get stuck? Can it get down from the tree?

EXCERPT 1 (MILD; BOOK READING) T:Show me blue gloves. S: Blue. T:Those are red gloves. Can you show me

some blue gloves? S: Blue gloves. T: Yes, there is sky. Sky is blue. Blue gloves. S: Blue gloves. Turn the page. T: Turn the page. You want to see the TV? OK,

sit down. What do you see now? Can you see a baby?

S: baby. T: What is that baby doing? Waving! Good job!

EXCERPT 2 (SEVERE; MATCHING) T: Match cup! Matching cup! Good job! T: Put it in the basket. OK, my turn. T: Look! Match bowl. A little closer! Let’s

try again. T: Match bowl. Matching bowl! Good job!

Are you OK? T: Use your hands and eyes. Match cup.

Let’s try again. You are very fast. T: Let’s practice cups three times, and

we will move on.

EXCERPT 3 (MILD; SIGHT WORD ) T: I am going to write some words and see if you

know them. Are you ready for a test? S: Yeah! T:Good! I am going to start with a really hard one.

Are you ready for a hard one? S: MOM T: “Mom”! Great! She is gonna be very happy. It is

too easy for you. OK. How about this? S: YOU T: “You”! Yes, you know it. You are so smart! How

about this one? S: BOY T: “Boy”! That’s right! (name) Am I a boy? No? Who is

a boy in our class? Who? Is Karla a boy? S: No.

EXCERPT 4 (SEVERE; LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL INTERACTION) T: Want ball. Want ball. T: Good job signing! Want ball. Want ball.

Orange ball. Do you put it under your shirt? T: Under shirt. Under shirt. There it is. Ball. Ball. T: Do you want ball? No? OK. Oh, want toys?

OK. Let’s put some back. What would you like? T: Oh, what is this? Want dinosaur. Want

dinosaur. That is a big hit today. T: Green dinosaur! Dinosaur! T: Ok, my turn. (name) My turn. Let’s take off

the tokens. Thank you! Tokens off. Put it on the table.

FINDINGS-SENTENCE TYPE

Declara

tive

Excla

matory

Impe

rative

Interr

ogati

ve05

1015202530354045

Severe1Mild1Severe2Mild2

FINDINGS-FUNCTIONS

repea

taffi

rmatt

en Info

reque

stqu

esPra

iseIm

itat

greet

nega

ting

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Severe1Mild1Severe2Mild2

FINDINGS-COGNITIVE LEVEL

Matching Selective Reordering Reasoning05

1015202530354045

Severe1Mild1Severe2Mild2

DISCUSSION Variation in the language use, patterns

between two classroom are similar Difference between mind and severe Structured instruction with variation Common Core Essential Element for k-1

for communication: With guidance and support, to identify and retell, match similar information, and to state thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

LIMITATIONS Method: audio recording; two classroom

in one school strict No description of the Students language

level and responses (matching between T and S)

No focus on specifically how teachers modify their language in interaction between severe and mild

IMPLICATION FOR PRACTICE 1. pre-instructional sections in “teacher-

work”Social interactionReview and recap

2. post-instructional sections in “teacher-work”Raising questionsCommunicate with students and share

thoughts

CUBING METHOD FOR TEACHERS’ SELF-MONITORING

Level of thinking subcategories Question starters

Matching perception Identification, naming, counting

What is this? What do you see? How many..? Who is..?

Selective analysis of perception

Details (color, shape, pattern), compare and contrast

What shape is it? It is the same/different..? Is this one faster/better…?

Reordering of perception

Related information(relative position, function), referencing

Can we use it to..?What…for?When…?Where…?

Reasoning about perception

Predict, reflect on, and integrate ideas

What will happen to..? What…going to do next? Why … like it? Why …happen? If…., then…?

FUTURE How the coding and analysis of this

study raise awareness of instructional language

Whether teachers will spontaneously adjust their instruction (two directions)

How teachers’ perceptions of the curriculum and students’ language level interact with their practice.

REFERENCES Blank, M., Rose, S.A., & Berlin, L.J. (1978). The Language of Learning: The

Preschool Years. London: Grune & Stratton, Ltd. Dukmak, S. (2010). Classroom interaction in regular and special education

middle primary classrooms in the United Arab Emirates. British Journal of Special Education, 37(1), 39-48.

Gregory, G. H., & Chapman, C. (2007). Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size Doesn’t Fit All. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Kim, O., & Hupp, S. (2005). Teacher interaction styles and task engagement of elementary students with cognitive disabilities. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 40, 293-308.

Nind, M., Kellett, M., & Hopkins, V. (2001). Teachers’ talk styles: communicating with learners with severe and complex learning difficulties. Children Language Teaching and Therapy, 17(2), 145-159.

Popich, E., & Alant, E. (1997). Interaction between a teacher and the non-speaking as well as speaking children in the classroom. The South African Journal of Communication Disorders, 44, 31-40.

Wang, X., Bernas, R., & Eberhard, P. (2001). Effects of teachers’ verbal and non-verbal scaffolding on everyday classroom performances of students with Down Syndrome. International Journal of Early Years Education, 9(1), 71-80.