How to Help Struggling Students Become Good Language Learners

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How to Help Struggling Students Become Good
Language Learners

• Anna Uhl Chamot Jill Robbins
• National Capital Language Resource Center
• Summer Institute 2006

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Who is the Struggling Student?

• This student has problems with
• keeping up with classmates
• organizing him/herself and the work environment
• following verbal instructions
• longer-term work tasks and need work chunked for
  them
• social and emotional skills

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CALLA-FL The Cognitive Academic Language
Learning Approach for Foreign Languages

• COMPONENTS
• AUTHENTIC CONTENT
• SOCIAL ACADEMIC LANGUAGE
• LEARNING STRATEGIES

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Five instructional principles in CALLA-FL

• Recognize and build on students prior knowledge.
• Provide meaningful learning tasks.
• Engage in interactive teaching and learning.
• Focus on learning processes and strategies.
• Help students evaluate their own learning.

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DEVELOPING METACOGNITION

• Model metacognitive awareness.
• Ask students to describe their thinking
  processes.
• Have students take responsibility for their own
  learning.

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PREPARATION
EXPANSION
CALLAS FIVE PHASES
PRESENTATION
SELF-EVALUATION
PRACTICE
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PREPARATION

• Identify objectives.
• Elicit students prior knowledge.
• Develop vocabulary.
• Provide motivation.

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PREPARATION

• How would this help the struggling learner?

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PRESENTATION

• Present new information in varied ways.
• Model processes explicitly.
• Explain learning strategies.
• Discuss connections to students prior knowledge.

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PRESENTATION

• What kinds of presentation methods would help the
  struggling learner?
• Are you already presenting with a variety of
  media?

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PRACTICE

• Use hands-on/inquiry-based activities.
• Provide different cooperative learning
  structures.
• Use authentic content tasks.
• Ask students to use learning strategies.

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PRACTICE

• What kinds of practice activities would help the
  struggling learner?

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SELF-EVALUATION

• Students discuss their own learning.
• Students keep learning journals.
• Students assess their own strategy use.

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SELF-EVALUATION

• How can you help struggling learners to evaluate
  themselves more accurately?

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EXPANSION

• Students apply information to own lives.
• Students make connections between content
  subjects and the target culture.
• Students relate information to first language
  knowledge of content and culture.

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EXPANSION

• How can what has been learned in FL class help
  struggling learners in their other classes?

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CALLA Instruction Summary
Teacher Responsibility
Changes over time
Prepare Present
Practice Self-Evaluate Expand
Student Responsibility
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Teachers role in . . Preparation Activate
Background Knowledge Presentation Explain Model Pr
actice Prompt use of strategies Give
Feedback Self- Evaluation Assess
strategies Expansion Support transfer Apply
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Students role in . . Preparation Attend Presenta
tion Participate Practice Apply strategies with
guidance Self- Evaluation Self-assess
strategies Expansion Use strategies
independently Transfer strategies to new
tasks
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CALLA-FL Assessment

• Use authentic content tasks.
• Evaluate content knowledge.
• Evaluate language proficiency.
• Use self-report for learning strategies.
• Use self-assessment and reflection.

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CALLA-FL Assessment

• How can you use assessment to better understand
  your struggling students?
• Can assessment become a more positive experience
  for your struggling students?

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CALLA-FL Instruction Is...

• Learner-centered
• Reflective
• Supportive
• Focused
• Enthusiastic