CALLA

1
CALLA

• Cognitive Academic Learning Approach for
• ESL Content Area Instruction

2
Rationale

• Most students can profit from instruction in
  learning strategies
• Many students lack academic language skills that
  would enable them to use English as a learning
  tool
• Adding academic content to ESL prepares students
  for grade-level content
• CALLA has been influenced and supported by
  cognitive theory

3
Development of CALLA

• Students who have developed social communicative
  skills through beginning ESL classes
• Students who have acquired academic language
  skills in their native language
• Bilingual English-dominant students

4
CALLA Integrates

• Language development
• Content area instruction
• Explicit instruction in learning strategies

5
Sequence of Content Areas

• Science
• Math
• Geography
• Social Studies
• Language Arts

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Language Skills and Types of Knowledge

• Listening
• Speaking
• Reading
• Writing
• Types of Knowledge
• Declarative consists of what we know or can
  declare (memory, repetition, elaboration)
• Procedural consists of things we know how to do
  (practicing complex procedures)
• Metacognitive relating learning tasks to past
  knowledge

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Why Incorporate Content in ESL?

• Content provides opportunities to develop
  important knowledge
• Students are able to practice language functions
• Introducing content in ESL helps motivate
  students
• Content provides a context for teaching learning
  strategies

8
Teaching Content

• Provides hands-on experiences
• Links lesson topic to prior knowledge
• Enables students to use technical language
• Addresses different learning styles
• Provides a general overview
• Shows students how to ask and answer higher-level
  questions
• Allows teacher to monitor student comprehension
• Enables students to utilize graphic organizers
• Provides resources for students to use

9
What is Academic Language?

• More difficult and takes longer to learn than
  social language
• Consists primarily of the language functions
  needed for authentic academic content
• Requires the use of lower and higher-order
  thinking skills

10
Why Teach Academic Language?

• Command of academic language is key to success in
  grade-level classes
• Academic language is not usually learned outside
  the classroom
• Content teachers may assume that students already
  posses the skills
• Academic language promotes critical thinking

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Selecting Academic Language

• Observe and record language used in content
  classrooms
• Analyze language included in texts
• Select authentic language tasks
• Have students use a variety of language skills to
  utilize the vocabulary
• Allow students options in selecting academic
  language to practice

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Guidelines for Teaching

• Model the use of content vocabulary
• Have students identify new words
• Provide practice in listening for academic
  vocabulary
• Create opportunities for use
• Teach language learning strategies

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Why Language Learning Strategies?

• Provide means of transfer
• They represent the dynamic processes of learning
• Active learning
• Academic language is more effectively internalized

14
Types of Learning Strategies

• Metacognitive
• Planning for learning
• Self-monitoring
• Evaluating
• Cognitive
• Manipulating the material to be learned through
  rehearsal and organizing
• Social/Affective
• Interacting with others
• Using affective control for learning

15
Selecting the Strategy

• Curriculum should determine the strategy
• Start with a small number of strategies
• Use tasks of moderate difficulty
• Use strategies that directly apply to content

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Teaching Procedure

• Preparation
• Develop students awareness through a variety of
  activities
• Presentation
• Present strategy
• Practice
• Practice strategy
• Evaluation
• Expansion
• Encourage students to apply in new situations

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Science Difficulties

• Discourse structure may be different L1 and L2
• Grammatical forms in texts
• All four academic language skills are involved
• Scientific misunderstandings
• Study skills are similar to those in language
  arts and Social Studies

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Math Difficulties

• Language dependence in math
• Specialized terms
• Non-linguistic difficulties
• Complex processes
• Complex concepts
• Unfamiliar terms
• Cultural differences
• Special procedures may be necessary

19
Social Studies Difficulties

• Curriculum assumes prior knowledge
• Specialized vocabulary
• Discourse is primarily expository
• Language functions include lower/higher order
  skills
• Reading texts
• Decontextualized language and unfamiliar concepts