native speakers in the tprs classroom

S

The elephant in the TPRS classroom: The

Native SpeakerAna Alfaro

Conversa Program Director

Zuchovicki-Alfaro-Todd 2013 CONVERSA


Who is your heritage speaker?

Student who is a native speaker.

Is fluent speaking but not literate (does not know how to read and write in the target language).

Confused about cultural inheritance.

Defensive mechanism: wants to show he knows more language than the teacher.

Has a negative attitude towards class.


Native speaker student vs. Foreign language student

Native Speaker Student Foreign Language Student

• Needs the language to survive

• Fluent in the target language• Is not literate in their first

language• Confused about their cultural

background• Goes to class to get an “easy

A”• Thinks he is better than the

teacher at the target language

• Generally does not have a positive attitude towards FL class

• Is very familiar with the cultural aspects of the target language

• Lives in a double cultural world which makes him/her very adjustable

• Does not need the language to survive

• Not fluent in the target language

• Literate in their first language

• Proud of his cultural background

• Curious about other cultures• Treats foreign language as a

regular subject• Generally has a positive or

neutral attitude towards FL class

• It is not familiar with the cultural aspects of the target language

• Does not understand cultural differences until explained

• Lives in one cultural world where it is difficult to have changes


Heritage Speaker Profile

Attitude towards FL class will vary depending upon the perception of their native language and the instructor (teacher) of the FL class.

They have different needs from the FL class (Ex. learn to write and read).

Think their knowledge of the native language is not good enough.

They are defensive to the teacher due to unreasonable expectations of performance.


Heritage Speaker Profile

They could have “strong” reactions to corrections of their language since it pertains to a personal and cultural history.

Some of this heritage speakers associate their own language with conditions of discrimination and poverty, resulting on a preference for English which could have consequences for their native language use and development.


Teacher Standpoint

Teachers are not always familiar with all the cultural background and variety of terms of the language they are teaching.

It is not the job of the teacher to “fix” the native language that the student speaks, but rather to teach “additional and more formal speech styles”.

Developing a good relationship with the heritage speaker will help enrich your classroom environment.


Teacher Standpoint

The heritage speaker student should be told that their use of their language is correct but there are more academic forms of the language that can be understood better by all the native speakers of the world.

Ex. Colloquial forms like “tonces, orita” used by Spanish native speakers are acceptable for speaking but in writing they are not appropriate.


Making a connection with the heritage speaker student

Teacher should show respect for the way the heritage speaker uses their language.

Teacher uses cultural information to connect with the heritage speaker.

Teacher encourage heritage speaker to share their cultural experiences with the rest of the students.

Heritage speaker should respect the way the teacher presents the language.


Making a connection with the heritage speaker student

Establish the rules since the beginning: let your heritage speaker know how TPRS works and what you are trying to accomplish.

Make him feel special and ask him to be your TA.

As TA he/she will have to follow your directions, like write the structures on the board; model the gestures for the rest of the students; write the stories; count the repetitions when circling.


Written language and assessment

Your job as a teacher of a heritage speaker is to teach them how to read and write correctly.

Explain to them that the way you will assess their performance in class will be different from the rest of the students.

Teach your heritage speaker to love his/her own language. Make them feel proud of their background.


Correcting the heritage speaker

Heritage students’ language is a natural, valid linguistic system like any other.

When deciding whether to give corrective information, ask yourself: Will the form the student has used mark them excessively as a user of a stigmatized variety of the target language, or as someone who has not received formal instruction of the target language?


Comprehensible Input Strategies and Groupings

Jigsaw

Think-Pair-Share and 10/2

First Turn/Last Turn

Stay and Stray

Directed Reading-Thinking Activity

SQP2RS (“Squeepers”)

Speedwriting


Remember…

A rule of thumb is to let your heritage speakers that their challenge is to use ONLY words or structures taught in class. Notice that this rule of thumb applies to all the strategies.


Jigsaw

This is a collaborative learning technique where individuals in a small group become experts on one portion of the text and share their expertise with another small group (called home group).

This technique enables students to cover large portions of material in a short period of time.

Everyone shares responsibility for learning.


Jigsaw

Divide participants into “home groups.”

Assign each person in a home group an “expert number” (1, 2, 3 or 4)

Assign each “expert group” a part of the story

Students join their assigned “expert group” and read the text and decide how best to teach the material to their home groups.

Experts return to home groups and share content learned in expert groups


Think-Pair-Share

Pose a question or a topic to the class. Ask students to think about the answer to this question or their reactions to the topic.

Wait for 5-7 seconds or longer while students “think.”

Next, ask each student to turn to a Buddy (pair) and talk about their answers or reactions.

Finally, after several minutes of sharing, ask students to share their responses with the entire class.



Students are placed in groups of four to six. They each have two to three index cards in front of them.

A piece of text in the form of an article, short story, or letter is introduced and the students read silently to themselves.

After reading, students fill out comments about the reading onto the index cards. Then a group discussion begins where one student reads their comment to the group .



The student to their left then makes a comment about their comment.

This continues around the group until the first person to comment has a final say.

Then the next comment is started with another student in the group and the process begins again.


Stay and Stray

Divide the students into groups of no more than four students.

Have each group put a poster paper on the wall so that there are blank posters stuck to the walls throughout the classroom.

Have each student write a predetermined title to his or her poster.

Then have the student’s number off in their groups (1-4).


Stay and Stray

Have them write on their particular poster all things related to their topic.

After two to three minutes call out a number and have that numbered student stay at the poster.

The rest of the students move clockwise to the next poster.

The student who has “stayed” now talks about why their group wrote what they wrote to the “strayed” group and then the “strayed” group can then add to the poster.


Directed Reading-Thinking Activity

This is a group activity to get students to think about the content of a fiction or non-fiction reading selection.

The steps are:

1) Students predict what they will read and teacher set purposes for reading.

2) Students read the material.

3) Students discover if their predictions and hypotheses are confirmed.


SQP2RS

1. Surveying – scanning the text to be read for 1 – 2 minutes.

2. Questioning – having students generate questions likely to be answered by reading the text, with teacher guidance

3. Predicting – stating 1 – 3 things students think they will learn based on the questions that were generated

4. Reading – searching for answers to questions and formulating new ones for the next section of text to be read.

5. Summarizing – Orally or in writing summarizing the text’s key concepts.


Speedwriting

Speed writing requires that all learners become actively engaged in their own learning because, rather than generating ideas orally, students are instructed to write down all their ideas as quickly as they can.


Independent studies resources

Entre mundos (Alonso-Lyrintzis, Zaslow, & Villarreal, 1996, Prentice Hall).

Nuevos mundos (Roca, 1999, John Wiley & Sons).

Español escrito (Valdés & Teschner, 1999 Prentice Hall).

Nosotros y nuestro mundo (Schmitt & Woodford, 2000, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill).

Tu mundo (Samaniego, Alarcón, & Otheguy, 2002, McDougal).

La lengua que heredamos (Sarah Marqués, 2009 Wiley & Sons, Inc).


Questions?

native speakers in the tprs classroom

Education