Running Head: ELL 1

ELL Shadowing Activity

Kristy M. Treven

Concordia University Chicago

Author’s Note: This assignment was completed for EDU 6620 for the C&I with ESL

endorsement graduate program through the College of Education.

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Abstract

This assignment explores the second language acquisition of a fourth grade student with Down

Syndrome. It introduces her background information that is critical to understanding her

academic progress and language development. This student was observed on three separate

occasions and the notes taken from these observations (combined with teacher knowledge over

the course of the past academic year) are discussed and common themes are highlighted. The

student’s academic progress and the district’s choice of curricula is discussed and related to

Second Language Acquisition theories. Cummins theory on task difficulty and Krashen’s

theories of acquisition-learning and input are discussed in-depth and paired with examples from

the observation notes to show their application and validity. The affect of the student’s cognitive

impairment on her learning and SLA is also highlighted. Many acronyms are used in the article.

EC is Early Childhood, EI is Early Intervention, DD is Development Delay, CI is Cognitive

Impairment, Trans-K is Transitional Kindergarten, SLA is Second Language Acquisition, and DI

is Direct Instruction.

Keywords: cognitive impairment, task difficulty, acquisition-learning hypothesis

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ELL Shadowing Activity

Eddie is a fourth grade student (ten years of age) in Arlington Heights. She was born in

the United States, though both her parents are from South Korea. At birth, she was diagnosed

with Trisomy 21, commonly known as Down Syndrome. A common symptom children with

Down Syndrome share is an arterial septal defect. It is a congenital defect in which the wall that

separates the atria does not close. She underwent heart surgery three separate times to repair the

hole in her heart as it was larger than doctors anticipated. At six months of age, Eddie received

EI services for her health, communication, and cognitive/motor/social-emotional development.

These services took place in the home. Professionals who worked with the family noted that she

was very positive, but clung to the relationship she shared with her parents before reaching out to

others. Prior to her third birthday, was referred for Special Education services. She qualified

under DD and proceeded to finish EC and the Trans-K program through her home district. Both

these programs were housed in district buildings other than her home school. In 2008, she was

re-evaluated and qualified under CI. At that time, she was mainstreamed at her home school in

first grade receiving pull-out services with an individual aide. Eddie has progressed with her

same age peers through the grade levels and is now finishing her fourth grade year. While she

participates in class activities, the content is modified for her. Writing, mathematics, and reading

instruction were gradually changed into pull-out services as her academic performance became

discrepant from her peers.

Eddie is raised in a bilingual household. Both parents speak Korean fluently, and it is

documented as Eddie’s first language. They do their best to help Eddie with her homework in

English, but are not always able to understand the academic content (as they received their

education in Korea). Both of Eddie’s parents work in the music industry; her father is a music

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director/conductor, and her mother plays violin and is a music instructor. They live in a middle

class neighborhood in a high performing school district. Eddie is well cared for. She buys school

lunches and her wardrobe is clean and well-maintained. In second grade, Evelyn began to receive

ELL services on the recommendation of her teacher. She will continue to receive these services

for the remainder of her educational career, as she is not likely to pass the ACCESS test (due to

her cognitive impairment). The support she receives now is pre/re-teaching of content area for

the sciences. Clarifications in Korean help Eddie slightly. Over all, Eddie understands more

English than she is able to fluidly express; Her ACCESS sub scores place her at the

expanding/bridging level of listening, reading, and comprehension while her speaking, writing,

and overall literacy is beginning. I, along with educational staff, strongly believe that this is

primarily due to her cognitive impairment rather than her SLA. Looking at all information

available, I believe Eddie is in both stages III and IV of Haynes SLA. Stage III is appropriate

because the speech she uses is not always grammatically correct, she initiates short

conversations, and understands stories and content with visuals. She uses flash cards to help

learn content vocabulary, and uses word banks (Haynes). She also fits into Stage IV because she

has a large vocabulary, expresses her opinions and thoughts, asks questions in class, and does

grade level social sciences (with modifications and support). Her fluency and comprehension is

also improving (Haynes). It is hard to be more specific (speaking vs. reading/writing) because

her communication needs and her cognitive impairment impact her greatly.

This year, Eddie’s pull-out services looked a little different compared to previous years.

Before, she was the only one in her group and spent much of the day alone with her aide.

However, this year when we assessed her abilities, she was comparable to a few other students

who were really low readers and spellers. It worked in her favor since we were able to push her

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in with a couple different groups for reading and spelling (as the DI curriculums used by the

district changed this year). It was a huge transition for her as she now had more opportunities to

interact with her peers. As seen in the Appendix, Eddie occasionally gives in to impulsive

reactions and behaviors (growling, yelling, throwing items) when she becomes frustrated. I

believe it is more due to her disability rather than an inability to express herself. After any

instance as described above, Eddie fills out a Think Time Reflection Sheet. It is an organizer

with picture cues that helps her write down what she was feeling, her actions, why those were

inappropriate, and what she could do instead. She responds very well to this (not always

grammatically correct), and will apologize for her actions for at least two days before she is fully

ably to let it go. This was a regular occurrence at the beginning of the year as she transitioned

into sharing adult interactions with the other peers in her group. However, as she learned the

routines, she was able to take turns and thrive on the conversations she could have with her

peers. There are times (as seen in the Appendix) where she still struggles to wait, and interrupts

ongoing conversations to get her piece in (whether it is related or not).

Another theme found throughout the observations (Appendix), is her opportunities to

interact with peers. In all of her small group settings (reading and spelling), Eddie has no choice

but to sit at the same table as the other students in the group. The nature of the DI program

requires that all students participate equally. The only times Eddie initiates conversations on her

own, are typically at the beginning or end of a lesson, and usually geared towards an activity

they partook in together, appropriate school behaviors/expectations/routines, or talking about

preparedness for class (such as offering to get other students’ materials out, or commenting on

how they should arrange materials on the desk so everyone has equal space that does not infringe

on what she has deemed as her own).

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Two other things were consistent across observations (and throughout the school year).

During all activities, Eddie responded to visual cues and pictures to help with comprehension,

routine, task completion, and direction following. All her teachers are able to provide either

pictures or Boardmaker symbols/sheets to help with this process. For example, her daily

schedule was made on Boardmaker (though we will try transitioning to just the words/times next

year in preparation for middle school), her behavior plan materials have symbols, all her

assignments are modified with picture cues or word banks to help with the recognition style

format she excels with. Eddie also continues to prefer interactions with adults (as seen in the

lunchroom observation). When going out to recess, she will gravitate towards her aide rather

than her friends. This behavior is similar to that noted by EI professionals when she was little.

This put aside, she has no qualms about speaking her mind. Based on interactions with the

student, she does not seem to be self-conscious about her speaking, reading, or writing ability

and is always eager to share her thoughts to anyone willing to listen. Teachers have often needed

to interrupt her in order to continue with the lesson or activity at hand.

After reviewing many different SLA theories, Eddie exhibits behaviors that connect her

to many. One connection I found was with Jim Cummins' theory on task difficulty. As seen in

the reading observation (Appendix), Eddie is able to participate and complete tasks from the DI

program, with some support for the comprehension pieces. However, when that portion of the

lesson is complete, the group turns to assignments from the Treasure’s program which is the

general education curriculum at the fourth grade level. When this transition takes place, Eddie

begins to complain about not wanting to do it and asking instead to work on Lexia which is a

computer-based decoding program that she works through independently (at her level). Cummins

describes a continuum of tasks that range from cognitive undemanding with high context and

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gradually moving a student to cognitive demanding assignments with low context (Cummins).

While she is successful at context-embedded tasks of lower to average cognitive demand (DI

programs and her visually modified assignments/instruction), she struggles with tasks (such as

the Treasure’s program which is at grade level with little visual aids) that are of higher cognitive

demand and context-reduced. It becomes clear that some assignments asked of Eddie are too

difficult for her at this time even with some modifications because they fall too high on the

continuum.

Evidence from the observation notes (Appendix) also points me to Krashen’s theory on

the Acquisition-Learning and Input Hypotheses. The Acquisition-Learning hypothesis states that

acquisition of a language requires meaningful interactions or natural encounters. These often

take place in authentic experiences such has hands-on experiments, real-life applications or

reading (Freeman, 2011, pg. 114). Many of the stories in the DI program are silly and

entertaining. It keeps Eddie focused throughout the lesson. These stories are also designed to be

instructional, making it slightly more difficult than texts she could read independently. Because

of this, it also relates to the input hypothesis described by Krashen as being comprehensible, but

one step above her current level of linguistic competence (Freeman, 2011, pg. 121). These

activities (along with other visually modified assignments) are ones that Eddie can succeed at.

However, other lessons/programs are not as authentic, and therefore more learning based. The

DI spelling program she uses does not have any context. It is a skill and drill program. Because

of this, she is required to focus on learning about the language itself, one piece at a time until it is

mastered (Freeman, 2011, pg. 114). The skills introduced in the program are never put into

context outside the practice in the workbook. This relates perfectly to the learning portion of

Krashen’s theory because Eddie worked so hard in the classroom to focus on the skill/rule itself.

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Krashen believes that the acquisition side is more important than the learning side because it

comes in authentic situations. This is evident with Eddie’s spelling ability because if one looks

at her writing samples, hardly any of the spelling skills she has practiced carry over, regardless of

the topic. According to Krashen’s theory, if the spelling rules were presented in a more authentic

way, there would be a higher chance that it would carry over. I strongly agree with this because

of Eddie’s disability and communication needs. For students with cognitive impairments, it is

hard to transfer skills across settings unless it is taught in each of the new settings. For Eddie, if

the spelling skills were taught when she was writing journal entries to letters/cards, she would

have a better chance of retaining the skill and applying it.

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References

Cummins, J. Second language acquisition. [Course handout, EDU 6620, Z.H. Othman,

Concordia University Chicago, 2012].

Haynes, J. Stages of second language acquisition. [Course handout, EDU 6620, Z. H. Othman,

Concordia University Chicago, 2012].

Freeman, D.E., & Freeman, Y.S. (2011). What are the principal theories of first and second

language acquisition? (Chapter 5). Between Worlds, Access to Second Language

Acquisition (3rd ed.) (pp. 103-140). Pourtsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

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Appendix

READING:

Reads through her social stories while waiting for other students to arrive

She sits at the small table with the other 3 students

o Helps everyone determine personal space at the table

Very positive with classmates

Emotionally supports classmates

o Provides examples of solutions to problems

Growls and shakes eyes when frustrated (at friends, teacher, content)

o When prompted, will use words to describe how she feels and what she wants to

do to calm down

Takes turns on vocal decoding exercises (Direct Instruction Program)

o Will read shorter passages than other students

o Soft speaker (sometimes mumbled due to talking into arm)

o Participates equally during reading and decoding exercises, but not as much

during the comprehension checks

o During discussions or comprehension checks, will start speaking before raising

hand if she wants to join in (sometimes cutting off other students) Her responses

sometimes wander off topic and takes a few redirections from teacher to turn her

back around

Responds to visual cues (picture schedule of class routine)

o Respectful to teacher, listens and follows directions

Calls out other students who don’t follow directions

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Asks for help (from teacher for content/worksheet, and peers for organization/putting

things away)

Works at a slower pace

o For comprehension questions, requires guidance from teacher to stay focused

Teacher will reference a couple sentences that have the answer, Eddie then

reads paragraph to find answer (with some prompting if she is still unsure)

Eddie doesn’t always want the help, but cannot answer comprehension

questions on her own unless it was immediately after reading the sentence

with the answer (multiple choice, or written) even if there are pictures to

help

Thrives on routine (called teacher out when the routine was changed)

Asks for extra homework

Asks to use technology (Lexia decoding program on computer) at the end of class

o Typically occurs when the group is transitioning to the work from the Treasure’s

program (it is used with the general education students, and worked in at the end

of a DI lesson to keep them up to speed with their regular class). While modified

for the pull-out group, it is harder to follow as it is grade level text instead of

instructional level text.

SPELLING:

Direct Instruction Program

Sits across from one other student at a table for six

Chats with other student while getting materials ready (very positive)

o Even getting out other student’s supplies from the cabinet

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o Will talk about behavior with other student, or puppies, or what she’s planning

on doing that day/weekend.

o Asked teacher if she enjoyed her parent’s concert

Proceeded to ask about favorite song and why

Participates equally during vocal exercises from program (though with some of the

easier words/skills)

o No picture prompts/cues with this program except for a couple exercises

where parts of the word are left blank

When writing pre-determined sentences, will ask for help from the teacher if she can’t

remember what words come next.

Skills mastered in the program don’t always carry over into writing activities

Interrupts and says she’s hungry

o Sticks to that topic for a while

o Holds a conversation about hunger and when snack time/lunch is coming with

the teacher

Grabbed the other student’s pencil and won’t return it

o Argues with student (raises voice, growls, shakes eyes)

o Teacher steps in and goes through her behavior plan so she calms down

enough to explain how she feels

Teacher describes expectations, and student agrees and comes up with

possible solutions for the future.

Initiates conversation with other student as she’s leaving the classroom

LUNCH:

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Student gravitates towards aide who eats with her

o Sits at the end of a table with other students a few feet away

o Holds a conversation with the aide

o Converses with other students after prompting from the aide

Cleans up independently

o Points out to other students if they spill or need to clean their spot better

o Volunteered to do brooms when a sub was needed

Completes job, but doesn’t always ask students to move their feet to

sweep something up. Tries to go around them

When discussing what do to for recess later in the day, Eddie prefers to stay inside and

clean her desk, or play soccer with the aide

o Gravitates towards adults for relationships before peers

o On a side note, she usually eats with a group of fourth grade girls, but this week

they were doing an activity for a club during the lunch period.

On one occasion, she dumped a carton of chocolate milk on another student. When asked

about it, she stated that the other student was bothering her. Her behavior plan was put

into place, and appropriate actions taken. Shortly after, she was overwhelmed with guilt,

and was upset by her actions for a couple days (she does not like being mean).