Teaching for Transfer

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Teaching for Transfer

• Tomasita Ortiz,
• Director
• Multilingual Student Education Services Orlando,
  Florida

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Agenda

• Introduction
• Issues in Teaching for Transfer
• Principles of Skill Transfer
• Nature of General and Specific Skill Transfer
• Variables that Influence Positive Transfer
• Avoidance of Negative Transfer
• Efficient and Effective Transfer
• Optimum Curriculum for Transfer
• Factors that Influence Positive Transfer

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Doctrines of Transfer

• Identical Transfer
• Generalization Transfer
• Gestalt Transfer
• Attitude Transfer
• Sensory Motor Transfer

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Types of Transfer

• Positive Transfer
• Negative Transfer
• Zero Transfer

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The Nature of Skill Transfer for Success
Second language
First Language
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Transfer is best when there is

• Similarity in learning conditions
• Similarity in the learning task
• Similarity in the expected student response

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Transfer is best when...

• There is opportunity for practice in the first
  language in the classroom
• There are comprehensible connections between the
  first and second language learning concepts
• There is clear understanding of the rules that
  can be applied to second language learning

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How to Avoid Negative Transfer

• Offer silent reading practice in English
• Check comprehension at reasonable intervals
  during the lesson
• Introduce idiomatic expressions ahead of time

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How to Avoid Negative Transfer

• Discuss with students syntactical patterns that
  can obscure meaning
• Alert students of false cognates
• Avoid the overemphasis on sound symbol
  connections

ESOL Class
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How to Avoid Negative Transfer
Remember. Negative transfer occurs when the
performance on the first language inhibits or
detracts from performance on the second
language. Thonis 1996
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How to Avoid Negative Transfer

• Help students avoid comprehension errors that may
  be caused by the use of similar words in the
  native language
• Deal immediately with negative transfer
• Collect examples of negative transfer and discuss
  with the students

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Conditions for Best Transfer of Literacy Skills

• Strength of the original learning
• Role of meaning
• Importance of transfer principals
• Nature of emotional responses
• Sense of self-confidence

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How can Teachers Maximize Students Transfer of
Literacy Skills?
La Célula
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Teaching for Transfer
Concepts are the tools of thought. Students
with abundant and clear concepts in their native
language can add the English vocabulary quite
readily
Thonis, 1996
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Spend Adequate Time in the Initial Stages of
Reading in the Native Language (L1)

• Develop clarity of concepts mediated by L1
• Promote strong listening comprehension skills in
  L1
• Expand the vocabulary and the control of
  structure in L1
• Implement multiple intelligence strategies in the
  curriculum

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Teach the Basic Decoding Skills of the Native
Language

• Associate speech and print relationships
• Acquire the names of the letters of the alphabet
• Learn the regular and irregular sound symbol
  connections
• Know the system of diphthongs
• Recognize consonant clusters
• Perceive the limited ways in which words end

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Avoid Language Confusion at the Early Levels by

• Offering only informal oral English Opportunities
• Keeping the acquisition of English natural and
  consistent with students developmental level
• Using the languages in separate contexts
• Making careful provision for second language (L2)
  comprehension in English during all activities

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How to Provide Positive Transfer From L1 to L2
What should I do?
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Give Thorough Practice in Using Strategies for
New Words in L1 by

• Acquiring the phonics clues to be found in speech
  print connections
• Learning the structural signals of words and word
  patterns
• Interpreting the information provided in pictures

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Give Thorough Practice in Using Strategies for
New Words in L1 by

• Using the system of syllabication

Cartilla Fonética

• Watching for the placement of diacritical marks

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Positive Transfer Curriculum Stresses

• Non-Cognitive Transfer
• Emotional Transfer
• Cognitive Transfer

Effective Habits
Positive Transfer
Rich Meanings
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Positive Transfer Curriculum Stresses

• Principle Transfer
• Attitude Transfer

Inductive Discoveries
Optimistic Attitudes
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Teach the Techniques and Guide the Practice so
Students can make Sense of Reading by

• Developing skills in literal comprehension
• Reading for interpretative comprehension
• Reading creatively for expansion of ideas
• Using reading for improving thinking skills

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Prevent Premature Introduction to L2 Word
Recognition, Comprehension, and Study Skills by

• Avoiding simultaneous reading programs in L1 and
  L2
• Developing sound criteria for timing transfer
  opportunities into L2
• Reassuring students and parents that literacy in
  L1 builds a strong foundation and background
  for L2

We made it!
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Prevent Premature Introduction to L2 Word
Recognition, Comprehension , and Study Skills by

• Using native language reading skills for content
  areas
• Encouraging encounters with the English reading
  and writing systems
• Based on what students hear and understand
• Maintaining the two writing systems in separate
  contexts

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When should transfer be promoted and how can
teachers be sure that students are ready to
transfer skills?
What should I do now?
First Language
TO
Second Language
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Factors for Successful Transfer from L1 to L2

• Proficiency in the native language
• Proficiency in the second language
• Oral fluency in L1
• Literacy skills in L1
• Achievement level in subject matter
• Age and/or grade placement of the students

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Factors for Successful Transfer from L1 to L2

• Ability to use logical thought
• Production of the sounds of English
• Receptive and expressive vocabulary of English
• Control of basic English structure
• Specific readiness and preparation for English
  print
• Interest and motivation to make the transfer

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Teaching for Transfer
Transfer of skills demands the ability of
abstract thinking. Teachers must develop the
students thinking skills by using cognitive and
metacognitive strategies. Thonis 1997
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Only Strong Skills Transfer
Teachers must remember that weak learning skills
in L1 do not transfer to L2.
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Teaching for Transfer
Teachers must make transfer happen in the
classroom by assisting students to recognize
transfer possibilities in every lesson taught.
Students must understand that the skills they
have in their native language will allow them to
excel in English.