The importance of student participation is a necessity when promoting language development and academic language. The more ELs talk, the more opportunities they have to practice English. However, all opportunities to talk, and structures for generating engagement, are not created equal.
Taking into consideration students’ language levels, personality traits, cultural background, and other individual differences, we must ensure that classroom communication is culturally responsive. The ways in which we call upon students to share information can privilege certain personality types and also cultural ways of communicating with others.
Take Culture Into Consideration
Some cultures expect and welcome active participation from children. Conversely, in other cultures, not participating is valued. When students walk into our classes, they don’t just leave their cultures at the door. We all operate from our cultural backgrounds, so educators have to consider their ELs’ cultures. Our goal is to create a balance between what we want and how they prefer to participate to ensure that all students engage.
I use the metaphor of a cog to teach my ELs that we want them to participate. Every cog is essential to the engine. Learning is our engine, and to keep the learning going, we need them to participate. Just like a cog, I want students to understand that their role in conversations and class discussions is essential. Each voice and each perspective is pertinent; therefore every student needs opportunities to engage.
If we want ELs to participate, we can attend to their cultural communication styles and preferences when asking them to engage in conversations with partners and peers so they are comfortable. As long as ELs are compelled to participate, the form of participation is of secondary concern.
Avoid Bypassing the Affective Filter
A huge consideration when teaching English Learners is the anxiety and stress-induced affective filter, which can interfere with students’ ability to receive, process, and produce comprehensible input. When students are uncomfortable and/or self-conscious, their ability, and perhaps, the desire to participate diminishes.
There exist a plethora of effective talk strategies, but we must remember to be responsive to our own students when choosing how to elicit student talk and conversations in our classrooms. We must do this in order to avoid putting students into situations where their comfort level becomes a barrier due to what Gay (2010) calls a “communicative mismatch” (p.77)
How we expect ELs to participate can be different than how they prefer to participate depending on their cultural backgrounds.
He Said…He Said
To illustrate how a single strategy can work for some and not for others, I like to use the example of Doug Lemov, the author of Teach Like a Champion versus Alfie Kohn, a well-known proponent of progressive education. Among his championed instructional strategies, Lemov promotes No Opt Out as an important strategy to promote engagement and hold all students accountable for responding to teacher questions. Kohn, on the other hand, calls it “truly disrespectful and controlling” to call on kids whose hands are not raised (Tweet, 26 Jan 2016).
Bottom Line: Know Your Students
Just because a talk strategy or structure is touted as highly effective, does not automatically mean it will work with any student, from any background, in any context.
We need to know our students in order to know what will and won’t work for them to set them up for success. We need to meet our students where they are with appropriately structured and scaffolded opportunities to talk that suit their cultural and linguistic needs.
Do we need to draw students out of their comfort zones sometimes and push them to try different things? Absolutely! Yet, this must be done after a foundation of trust has been established between teachers and students so that students’ affective filters can in tack.
If at First You Don’t Succeed…
There are so many proven strategies teachers can use to get students talking, so how will we know which strategies to use? The best indicators for success are what you see and what you hear. Watch students as they engage in conversations to get a feel for engagement and comfort levels. Also, ask them for feedback! You may not be able to tell what a student is truly feeling just by watching, so ask students for verbal or written feedback after trying a new talking strategy to gain a better understanding of their perspectives.
Not all students will agree on what they like and don’t like, so it’s also important to use a variety of strategies to ensure that the communication preferences and styles of all students are recognized and honored. Despite our desire to promote culturally responsive communication, we can’t assume that all students from particular cultural and/or ethnic groups will be exactly the same when it comes to communicative preferences. Personality, proficiency level in the target language, and stress can also play a role in students’ willingness to communicate.
Tried and True
Despite my emphasis that specific communication strategies won’t work for all students, there are a few protocols that I highly recommend for use with English Learners. Because they are extremely well designed, scaffolds are built in to ensure sufficient time for students to think about and prepare responses before they have to share.
- Precision Partners-The teacher purposefully assigns partnerships based on individual factors such as personality, language level, and skill level. Teacher controlled alteration of speakers ensures an equal distribution of time for students to share their responses.
- QSSSA(+)-The components of this protocol are Question, Signal, Stem, Share, Assess. Adequate think time and the opportunity to practice with one partner before possibly sharing with the entire class are built in.
- TRTW: Talk Read Talk Write engages students in all four language domains as part of academic conversations. Five primary considerations for successful conversations (accountability, respect, purpose, tone, and momentum) encourage teachers to invest time teaching elements of conversing to help students understand expectations and feel comfortable.
Terrific Resources
- Talk, Read, Talk, Write by Nancy Motley- In Nancy Motley’s book Talk Read Talk Write, she describes this very versatile framework for getting students to utilize all four language domains when engaging in academic conversations.
- Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning by Sharokky Hollie- This text is jam-packed with great ideas to engage students and ensure that all students have opportunities to talk, often with designated roles.
- Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures (MiniBook) (Kagan MiniBook) offers a variety of books, articles, and smartcards detailing strategies that ensure individual accountability and equitable participation, which are both great for English Learners who need to practice language output!
- Technology- Apps that allow voice recording (e.g. Book Creator, Educreations, Recap, Flipgrid, Adobe Spark, Seesaw) provide students with opportunities to practice their language output without an audience, which lowers the affective filter.
By purchasing these books, you also contribute to the blog.
Takeaways
Classrooms where students must raise their hands for permission to speak, and only one student speaks at a time, privilege students who are willing to raise their hand to speak in front of the entire group. Those circumstances are not ideal for promoting language production among English Learners who may experience self-consciousness and stress about speaking in English when they are still acquiring the language.
When teachers incorporate culturally and linguistically responsive protocols for classroom communication, English learners will have more opportunities to speak and to practice target language in circumstances that allow them to feel more comfortable, supported, and engaged.
Of course, we can look to the experts for different methods that promote student talk. Yet, ultimately, we are the experts about our students and are most equipped to determine what types of communication practices will have the best outcomes for them.
Katie Toppel, Ed.D is a K-5 English Language Development Specialist in Oregon and also teaches as an Adjunct Professor of ESOL courses at Portland State University. She has experience as a migrant Head Start preschool teacher, a classroom teacher in First Grade and Kindergarten, and as a K-12 Support Services Teacher at the Franconian International School in Germany. Katie has a doctorate degree in Curriculum and Instruction and is the co-founder of #EllChat_BkClub on Twitter, which is a virtual book club aimed at improving instruction for English Learners. Katie can be contacted via Twitter at @Toppel_ELD
Gay, G. (2010). Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice (2nd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press