Kamil TrzebiatowskiEAL Coordinator & EAL Academy Associate

ResearchEd Swindon Conference – 7 November 2015

“English teachers are (not) teachers of English”: language focus in the English classroom

http://valuediversity-teacher.co.uk/

RESEARCH QUESTIONTo what extent do the attitudes and opinions of EAL pupils and classroom teachers to class withdrawal vs mainstreaming differ?

1. Do subject (mainstream) teachers and EAL pupils have different views on whether or not they should be mainstreamed or withdrawn for EAL support?

2. Establish the ratio of preferred number of withdrawal sessions to the time spent in mainstream classrooms

3. Reasons for both parties’ opinions

• Mainstream: problematic = EAL peripheral? (Reeves, 2006)• Mainstream teachers “better” and EAL teachers not “proper”

(Creese, 2005)• Mainstream teachers found unprepared to teach language and

grammar to EAL learners (Cajkler and Hall, 2009)• Creese (2005): metalinguistic function of language vs

referential function of language in English schools• Places of submersion with little focus on form

England and EAL: National background

Are EAL pupils’ opinions on mainstreaming vs withdrawals the same or divergent?

Is EAL pupils’ education done for them or to them?

Research gap: scarcity of research investigating the views that pupils themselves hold

regarding EAL withdrawalsChen (2007) appears to be the only one conducted in England.

Research Context• Conducted in spring 2015• Comprehensive mainstream secondary school for girls in north-east

England• Attended by approx. 700 pupils• 21.7% EAL pupils• Social/economically deprived area• EAL Coordinator + 2 EAL Teaching Assistants with no formal qualifications• EAL pupils on short withdrawal course, combining English Language,

English, Literacy and Maths)• Pupils leave for the mainstream upon achieving satisfactory level of SLA

• 5 EAL learners and 5 mainstream teachers involved• EAL learners: Poland, Portugal, Chad, Lithuania and Latvia• Learners in the mainstream – not higher than EAL(QCA) level 2• Teachers: all white British (English, Arts, Food, MFL)• Semi-structured interviews with all participants

Design

Findings

Mainstream or withdrawal preferences

Number of preferred EAL

withdrawal sessions (out of 15 lessons per

week)

Pupils’ reasons

Teachers’ reasons

EAL PUPILS TEACHERS

PREFERENCE: Mainstreaming

Teachers: Emotions teaching EAL learners

“Help me!” (Teacher C)

Teachers: language of uncertainty

“I try to pre-plan” (Teacher A)

“I think I'd be able to do – I mean, I – some of the standard procedures. So, things like having bilingual dictionaries. Things like having perhaps a list of key terms, maybe some word ((shifts)) and some picture associations.” (Teacher B)

“I think as a language teacher, I could probably say, yes. I think I c- +could–you know, quite easily, because if we deliver, which we do as majority, the language–the lessons in the foreign language, we're almost teaching EAL learners anyway.” (Teacher E)

Teachers: EAL training

“No.” (Teacher A)

“Apart from the stuff that you have done, no. Not that I remember but that’s 21 years.” (Teacher B)

“No. None.” (Teacher C)

“Only that coming into our graphic organizer–our own in-house training; but as training to be a teacher, no. Not at all.” (Teacher E)

Interviewer: What did your teacher do for you to learn English language? Did they--?

Pupil D: Uh–They–{NS}

“Yes, I have help. Yes, if I ask for it myself.” (Pupil E)

”If I call them I don't understand something, they help me.” (Pupil B)

“the teacher help me to find in tablet.” (Pupil D)

“for example, sometimes he gives me an iPad, and it’s easier somehow.” (Pupil E)

“She writing–writing–and I am copy what she writing.” (Pupil C)

Pupils: Support from teachers

Pupil D: Because–in lessons, we do English, but not English like vocabulary and listening–We do English like tests, we–

Interviewer: So you do everything in English.

Pupil D: Yeah.

“English teachers are not teachers of English.”

(Teacher E)

3 out 5 students: believe they learned more English in the mainstream

Teachers: What language is to be taught?“I want to say you would be covering the sort of the

basics of English language and understanding: comprehension, grammar, spelling and things like that.

(Teacher C)

“You'll teach them English, and not worry about Science”(Teacher C)

“the role of the EAL teacher would be more specialised approach” (Teacher A)

“we should start ((encoding)) them into some basic comprehension of what we do.” (Teacher B)

“we have to worry about the rest. “(Teacher C)

“And then from my own point of view, it's then to pick up from there and to help them to be starting to make

progress in my subject” (Teacher D)

“you would want them to focus on the core subjects rather than – the foundation subjects, first of all” (Teacher

C)

“Probably leaving in practical things. Like PE or Food or Textiles where–if–they don't necessarily need to have their language–they can observe and go from there.”

(Teacher E)

EMERGING ISSUES

• EAL as a non-subject• Superiority of the mainstream = little linguistic differentiation• Little differentiation = EAL pupils’ stress = social/linguistic benefits of

the mainstream nullified• EAL difference perceived as a deficit due to lack of teachers’ training• Children think in English = learning English language• Children not aware that not teaching English language has become

normalized in their schools• Choose content over language as metalinguistic function of

language is not required of them

CONCLUSIONS

• Teacher and pupils: hope for very different educational outcomes• Lack of EAL pedagogy awareness leads to pursuit of myths and false

assumptions• urgently needed: professional EAL training to all mainstream teachers

• EAL to become a subject• Establishing criteria for what language is to be taught by mainstream and

EAL teachers alike• Elimination of the confusion that learning in English is the same as

learning English language• The voice of new arrived EAL children to be heard more often

• More research needed to build a more comprehensive picture

• a framework for the study of knowledge and education• The nature of ‘knowledge’: few theories as to what

knowledge actually is• knowledge as homogeneous and neutral, and ignore, for

instance that there are “relations within knowledge”• concrete or abstract• context-dependent or context-independent• based on personal experience or specialist

• ‘knowledge-blindness’

Legitimation Code TheoryAutonomy

Density

SemanticsSpecialisationTemporality

Maton, K. (2015) Knowledge and Knowers. Abingdon: Routledge

http://www.legitimationcodetheory.com/

Semantic Wavessemantic gravity (SG) • how much meaning is related to its context. • SG+ (strong semantic gravity) - meaning more

dependent on context than SG- (weaker semantic gravity)

semantic density (SD)• how highly condensed a meaning is• SD+ is a stronger semantic density whilst SD- is

weaker

SG+

SG-

Naming an animal

Naming types of jobs

An event from history

An event from history

Building a telescope

PhotosynthesisSD

+SD-

Gold (chemistry)

Cell (science)

Head (a director)

Gold (metal)

Cell (a room)

Head (a part of the body)

Semantic flatline: highly abstract, little dependence on context

Semantic flatline: simple meanings, highly dependent on context

Semantic wave: Simple and context-dependent at the beginning, then more abstract, less context-dependent, then falls back to less academic

Several such rises and falls happening over the course of your lesson / talk / writingCan start in a different place and will depend on a lesson

SEMANTIC SCALE Most basic EAL / language strategies (dictionaries, translators, a few

keywords) – not enough!

Deconstruction

Contextualising language Analysing model texts (the structure)

Power composition

Discussion of individual items

Power words Power grammar

The teacher leads – analysis and annotation. Draw attention to the text structure, power words, grammar and composition.

Unpack firstMove down the semantic scale

Use gestures Use analogies

(context)

Then repack

Use Power WordsUse Power Grammar

Use Power Composition

unpacking

repacking

Deconstruction

SEMANTIC SCALE

TIME

Power WordsThe words that are absolutely essential to the understanding of the text – key words

Ensure they are relational (cause-effect chains)

Relations can only

be shown through…

Power Grammar• Nominalisation

• Linking words

Rewrite sentences so that nominalisation is used

ConnectivesAND

verbs that link

Substitution tablesSentences with options

allows for, leads to, results in…

Structure of text

Specify how the power composition occurs:Connectives?Tenses?

Joint Construction - BridgingPreparation stage before text analysis: revising shared knowledge

Use graphic organisers.Show links between keywords.

Joint Construction – Text NegotiationThe teacher leads the construction of text.The teacher makes the text density and gravity explicit.

Greater gravitySmaller density

Use gestures Use analogies

(context)

Smaller gravityGreater density

Use Power WordsUse Power Grammar

Use Power Composition

repacking

Joint Construction - Review

Editing the text

Reflecting on the text

• Analyse and annotate the text (including its structure)• Point out power words / power grammar that makes up the text • Link to power composition (within paragraphs and in text as a

whole)

Stage 1 - Deconstruction

In The Ruined Maid Hardy uses language to portray the “country girl” as innocent and the “ruined maid” as corrupting. The lady from the country is referred to as a “country girl” highlighting her innocence, whereas the lady from town is titled “the ruined maid” which suggests that she has lost all innocence; she has been “ruined”. Furthermore, the colloquial language used by the country girl “fits ‘ee for high compa-ny” contrasts strongly with the sophisticated tone of the ruined maid “some polish is gained with one’s ruin” which demonstrates the difference in women from the different areas; the country girl is portrayed as humble and simplistic, whereas the ruined maid is shown as sophisticated but sneering. The country girl also uses language such as “bewitched” and “hag” when talking about the maid, suggesting her to be evil and supernatural. However, as the country girl begins to envy the lifestyle of the ruined maid, the language changes: “I wish I had feathers, a fine sweeping gown”. This admiration of the ruined lifestyle, combined with the witch-like imagery, demonstrates the dangerous effect the town women can have on country girls; the ability to lure them away from the safe, simplistic country life.

Stage 1: Deconstruction - annotating Why is she innocent?

How is the sophistication expressed?

What’s the demonstration of the difference?

Who admires this lifestyle?

How do highlighting and suggesting differ in meaning?

What tense is the response written in?Is there a verb that doesn’t end in –s here?

She is in awe of the ruined lifestyle. (ADMIRATION)______________________________________________.She exhibits admiration of the ruined lifestyle.

Because she is called a “country girl”, it shows how innocent she is. (INNOCENCE)___________________________________________.Being referred to as a “country girls” highlights her innocence.

Stage 2 - Bridging - Nominalisation

Both Ozymandias and The River God are poems that create a character for whom power is a major issue. Ozymandias indirectly creates a voice of an Egyptian king, Ramesses II, but does this through the distancing narrative frame of a traveller 'from an antique land.' This sense of distance diminishes and undermines the sense of power given to the subject, Ozymandias. In the River God, Stevie Smith creates the persona of a river who has great and enduring physical power, but feels unappreciated and neglected.

Stage 2 – Bridging - Graphic Organizers

Give your students a list of the words – ask them to link/find connections between them.

Students reverse engineer the text into a graphic organizer.

Ozymandias The River God

Persona of a river

neglected

underappreciated

creates

feelscharacter

power

issue

createcreates

Voice of Ramesses II

Narrative frame

Physical powerPower

diminishes

Character Power Issue Physical power Voice

Narrative frame

Power Persona of a river

Underappreciated neglected

Stage 2 - Text Negotiation: Substitution tables

Stevie Smith creates the persona of a river with enduring physical power.

Stevie SmithThe authorThe writerThe poet

createsforgesconstructsdevises

the personathe personalitythe character

of a river withenduringlastingstrongunyieldingpersistent

physical power.

Context-dependent AcademicThey are poems that have people… The River God and Ozymandias are

poems that create…

… he has less power… … this diminishes his power…

They both have a problem with power Power is a major issue for them…

Time to Repack!

Both Ozymandias and The River God are poems that ______________ (make) a ______________ (person) for whom power (being strong) is a major _______________ (problem). Ozymandias indirectly ____________ (makes) a voice of an Egyptian king, Ramesses II, but does this through the ________________ (far away) __________ (story-telling) frame of a traveller 'from an antique land.' This sense of distance ____________ (makes smaller) and undermines the sense of ___________ (being strong) given to the subject, Ozymandias. In the River God, Stevie Smith _____________ (makes) the ____________ (personality) of a river who has great and enduring ______________ (body) power, but feels __________________ (disliked) and __________________ (ignored).

character Create

Power Issue

Distancing Narrative

Diminishes Persona

Physical Underappreciated

neglected

So are English teachers also teachers of

English?

i.e. Do you use metalinguistic

function of language in your lessons?