Con Confianza: A Community of Learners in a Content-Based Class

for English Language LearnersCALPIU 2012

Rosita L. Rivera, Ph.D.Associate Professor, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez

Centro para la investigación del bilingüismo y aprendizaje

Overview

• Context • Research Questions• Literature Review: Defining Confianza• Theoretical Framework: Translanguaging as a Learning

Strategy (García, 2009; Lewis, forthcoming)

• Data and Data analysis: Gee (2011) social languages– Confianza: collaborative language learning – Task completion– Scaffolding and language learning

Context• Content-based (Science

readings and thematic units to learn English)

• Strategy based instruction• Cohort 30 agriculture

majors in a “Remedial” Summer Intensive English Class

• Collaborative Language Learning Classroom

Collaboration in Confianza

We argue that …A collaborative classroom environment fosters learning an L2 (Confianza)

The use of the L1 in the L2 classroom (translanguaging) as a tool to learn the L2.

Organic environment as opposed to a controlled environment for both teachers and students.

Confianza

• Luis Moll Funds of Knowledge

• Kris Gutierrez Third Space

• Cook-Gumperz & Szymansky cited in Reyes

Familia

• Lave & Wenger Community of Practice

Research Questions

• What social languages emerge in a bilingual and collaborative language learning classroom?

• What language learning strategies students use in a collaborative language learning classroom?

• What language choices do students make in a bilingual collaborative language classroom?

Literature ReviewTaylor (2003) Literacy events and staging the classroom to foster collaboration in a formal literacy classroom

Saxena (2010) directive and supportive scaffolding in bilingual classrooms

Reyes (2008) strategies used in bilingual classrooms

Palmer (2009) use of English and Spanish in science classroom

Canagarajah (2011) College writing course and code-meshing

Theoretical Framework

• Vygostky (sociocultural theory and ZPD)

• Lantolf and Thorne (SCT Self-regulation in L2 Learning)

• García (Translanguaging and use of both languages in academic setting as one language)

SCT, Bilingualism, and Confianza

“Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first on the social level, and later on the individual level, first between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapersonal). This applies to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relations between human individuals.” (1978, p. 84)

Methodology• The Discourse of Bilingual Classrooms

–Gee (2011) Social Languages (the role of language in Discourses) social issues implicit in social languages in pragmatics

–Big “C” conversations

–“Who is doing What” (Gee) in Language

Data Collection

• Ethnographic field notes/Observations (micro and macro analysis of social languages)

• Semi-structured Interviews of students (macro level social aspects of the classroom)

Coding of the Fieldnotes

Code Explanation Example

Helper Who provided the

help

Name of the helper

Helping role The role of the helper Student, professor,

teaching assistant

Means of

communication

Language or non-

verbal communication

used

Formal Spanish,

informal Spanish,

English, nonverbal

Data Analysis

Gee (2011)

Macro-Level (Social Languages). Use of language in the Discourse of the classroom.

Micro-Level (lexical cohesion) The insertion of lexical items in code switching when using strategies for language learning.

Defining Confianza

“Confianza is defined as the space among people and that each person respects that space among themselves yet they are sharing the same space to the point that both individuals involved agree with what they are doing and that is how I define confianza in the group… in this course confianza has been the key to all the activities that we have worked on and the way we treat each other…we always respect that space. “

Defining Confianza Cont’d

“It’s like you feel you are at home as if they were family… like you are going to take a class, but those who are sitting next to you are like your brothers and sisters… Things like that you can share because you’ve known them for a while and a great relationship has been already established and it could continue to develop even more.”

Confianza and Social Languages

CONFIANZA

Cooperative Work

Task Completion Scaffolding

Social languages

Strategies Used in Social Languages

Cooperative Work

• Request Information

• Clarifying Doubts

Task Completion

• Informal Register

• Negotiating to Solve Problems

Scaffolding

• Bottom up strategies

• Top down strategies

Collaboration and Confianza

Requesting InformationS1: (calls instructor) Que significa after?

(What is the meaning of the word after?)T1: After es despues, before es antesT1 walks way S2: Tu sabes como yo me acuerdo? (Do you know how I remember? With the Day after Tomorrow

Collaboration and Confianza Cont’d

Requesting InformationS1: Que significa was? (What is the meaning of was?)T1: Era es el pasado de el verbo ser. (Era is the past tense of the verb to be)S2: era (was)

Collaboration in ConfianzaClarifying Doubts “The group work… Because we were able to share our doubts.. For example the vocabulary that was difficult for us… for instance sometimes someone said I don’t understand this word when we were reading, but then someone will come up with the definition and it wasn’t what I thought it was. Sometimes someone would explain something and would clarify the doubts some of us had. ”

Working with a group helped him because he felt that he was getting more support not only from the staff but also from his classmates.

Task Completion and Collaboration

Use of Informal and Colloquial LanguageS1: Mira a ver chequea esto!(Hey come

check this out!)

S2: Ven aca, mira a ver (Get over here, check it out.)

S3: Mera! (Hey you)

Task Completion and Collaboration Cont’d

”Well… I usually work with Antonio, Rosa, Lisa and Sandra because they are the ones I was able to work with as a team in the classroom… they were the ones… they were the ones I was a ble to communicate with although sometimes we had our disagreements and different points of view. But in the end we were all able to agree on one point of view and we tried to make the best decision... In other words, each on of use presented their point of view, but that point of view (when we heard all the points of view) we tried to get the best of each perpective to do the best work possible.”

Scaffolding and Language LearningGetting meaning from contextTASK: “Evaluating Online Sources: The Domestication of Animals”

S1 focused on the meaning of a specific word in a sentence.S 1 asked the tutor “Zaira que es cattle?” What does cattle mean?

In order to get the meaning of this word, the student was instructed as to how to get meaning from other words in the same sentence. This is another strategy that came organically from the process of thinking out loud about the task at hand. S2 focused on the meaning of a specific word within the context. S2 asked the tutor how to say: ‘hace’ in the sentence ‘hace 13,000 años’.

The tutor explains to the student how to come up with the English version of the same expression in English which is ‘13,000 years ago’

Scaffolding and Language Learning Cont’d

Bottom up strategies

S: asked the tutor how to write: El primer animal fue domesticado en el este de Asia, he tells the tutor “falta el verbo que conjuga” (I need to conjugate the verb)

This student focused on word order and a part of speech and how to use the correct tense

Traditional vs. Confianza L2 Classroom

Traditional Collaborative Classroom Confianza Classroom Teacher Guided assignment of classroom roles

Student centered (organic)

Feedback is given mostly by the teacher or by peers assigned by the teacher

Peers are able to provide feedback in a less threatening environment

Mostly monolingual (structured and L2 use)

Bilingual (students are able to use both their L1 and L2 when asking questions or thinking out loud to process information (metacognitive strategies)

Pedagogical Implications

– Social languages and roles emerge organically in a collaborative environment.

– The L1 facilitates the foundation of a collaborative learning environment.

– The L1 facilitates scaffolding and internalization of concepts and skills as well as self-regulation processes that facilitates L2 learning.

Lines of Inquiry • Discourse analysis of specific language learning strategies

and the role of the L1 and L2 in this context.

• Quantitative data analysis from surveys about students’ and teachers’ perceptions of language use in the ESL classroom.

• Implications for assessment.

• Language use in Science and content based classrooms or STEM classrooms (science technology engineering and math)

Contact Information

Centro para la investigación del bilingüismo y aprendizaje

ceiba@uprm.edu

Rosita L. Riverarosita.rivera1@upr.edu

Thank You