Be Smart: Using Multimedia to Accelerate Academic Language Prociency

Cara Kruse-Hoppe, Leslie Kirshner-Morris

District of Columbia Public Schools, School District of Philadelphia cara.hoppe@dc.gov, lmorris@philasd.org

Smart Devices in the Classrooms

Students are engaged by digital devices. They are able to be exposed to grade & skill level texts. The interactive nature of smart technologies allows for immediate feedback for emergent and beginning readers. The hypertexts with embedded images provide visual, tactile and auditory supports. In recent studies, students indicated that they felt they learned better when using interactive white boards. Students also reported that they were better able to check for mis-understandings (Beeland, 2002). In a similar study, Hall & Higgins (2005) found that students felt the smart board technologies offered more variety and were more engaging when compared to the traditional write and wipe method. Ellen Ullman (2010)found that the use of ipods and audio books engaged students and accelerated their transition into English-only classrooms. Similarly, Proctor, Dalton & Grisham (2007) saw gains in students comprehension and uency after using hypertexts with embedded supports such as modeled decoding and tracking.Using smart technologies can improve access to rigor and relevance for English Language Learners at all levels. These methods are also an effective way to build social and academic language.

Classroom APPS

T WEET @ TESOL APPS : See something missing that you use in your classroom? Let us know!

A PPLE VOICE R ECORDER : Students are able to track themselves reading; peers can listen and track for uency Figure 3: Hyperlinks and embedded texts allow teachers to anticipate and address vocabulary and comprehension hang-ups on the spot. A MAZON K INDLE : Ebook readers allow students to listen to texts above their reading level, but at their listening comprehension level. Any word can be selected for dictionary look-up

Interactive PowerPoint Presentations

Powerpoint presentations have long been used to show ELLs a long series of pictures in order to build background knowledge when introducing a new theme or complex text. However, Proctor, Dalton, and Grisham (2007) found that including hyperlinks, embedded images, auditory supports led to gains in student comprehension. This can be done by scanning a published text or using a digital text. Once scanned, words, images, or phrases can be linked to web images or videos that support comprehension. As seen in the image below, the phrase Put the lights out can be easily shown using a video. The word drapes is linked to Google-Translate.
Figure 1: Students report they learn better and are better able to check for understandign when using smart devices (Beeland, 2002).

M EE G ENIUS : Students can read and listen to texts selected from a library. many texts are free, however, a wealth of texts are available for purchase

D RAGON D ICTATION : Students can read their writing and monitor the real-time dictation for errors. This allows for a comparison between written syntax and spoken syntax

Accelerated Language Development

Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS), describes language that is usually easy to understand. This language deals with every occurrences and uses relatively simple language structures. Cognitive Academic Language Prociency (CALP) is more context reduced and cognitively demanding. These types of language patterns are often referred to as academic language and as such, the language structures relate to abstract concepts, have specialized vocabulary and require more complex language structures. Students who are offered supports such as those available with smart devices are able to scaffolded by the use of increased visuals, sentences starters, real-time translations, sentence frames, and multiple opportunities for language use. Increased engagement and use of high rates of exposure are associated with increased attainment of academic language (Hall and Higgins, 2010). Although CALP can take from three to eight years to acquire, smart device applications can build the context and a safe practice space needed to be successful in navigating classroom texts and conversations.

G OOGLE T RANSLATE : Students can translate a word or phrase in multiple languages.This can bridge the barrier in classes where multiple native languages are spoken

100 W ORDS A LMOST E VERYONE M ISPRONOUNCES : Students are able to listen to words are commonly mispronounced in order to monitor reading & pronunciation M ONTESSORIUM L ETTERS : Students are able to see & hear letters, digraphs, and dipthongs. Students are able to record themselves and compare pronunciation. E VERYDAY M ATHEMATICS , TOP -I T: Mc-Graw Hill has created apps that accompany most of the classroom games; these apps expose students to an opponent that consistely uses mathematical terminology S TARFALL : Students are exposed to basic vocabualry visuals and text. As in the online version, students are guided through text and experience modeled decoding stratgies, uency, tracking, and reading with expression.

Figure 2: Audio book provide students with opportunities to hear modeled uency and tracking for texts on their level.

TESOL Convention 2012, Philadelphia PA