scholarly journals What Teacher Librarians Need to Know about Science Information Literacy and Second Language Learners

Author(s):  
Patricia Montiel Overall

Science is considered a critical area within the curriculum and instruction by teachers alone is not enough to ensure success for all students. School librarians must be considered in delivering science information to students, particularly those who are second language learners. This two-year study examined the effect of teacher and librarian collaboration (TLC) on inquiry-based science information literacy of Latino students in the United States. Although no significant gains were found between Control and Intervention classes, qualitative data indicated that TLC was successful in motivating students, improving inquiry and information literacy, and understanding of science concepts. The implication is that that test scores alone do not provide a complete assessment of student learning. Factors limiting student gains included reduced science and library time, and state policies that removed second language learners from regular classroom instruction. Continued advocacy for TLC is recommended to provide students needed tools for long-term academic success.

English Today ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norma A. Register

A review of the problems learners of English can have with actual and borderline taboo usages in the United States


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Enriqueta Claudia Serrano Romero

ABSTRACTIn the United States, typically since the 1970s, among the instructors dedicated to the teaching of a Second Language (L2) there is a great dilemma that may be caused by an apparent pedagogical confusion about the term competence and the teaching of grammatical rules. Cognitive approach has been feasible and current alternative for teaching a second language. However, literature in the field shows that teaching a foreign language is much more complex aspect than a simple choice. Also, it has been perceived that the student's purpose is not only using the language in regular basis of communicating but also in academic and professional settings. Second language learners must distinguish between acquiring a language and learning it.RESUMENEn los Estados Unidos, típicamente desde la década de los 70’s, los instructores que se enfrentan al dilema sobre qué método es más conveniente para la enseñanza de una segunda lenguas. La aparente causa puede ser la confusión pedagógica sobre el término de competencia y la enseñanza de las reglas gramaticales. Los instructores han recurrido al método cognitivo por figurar éste como la alternativa viable e inmediata para tal propósito. Sin embargo, la literatura especializada muestra que el tema sobre los métodos de instrucción de lenguas extranjeras resulta ser un problema más complejo que el de una simple elección, particularmente cuando se percibe que el propósito del estudiante no es sino sólo lograr el manejo de un idioma extranjero para la comunicación en todos los ámbitos y para cuestiones académicas y profesional, lo que involucra distinguir entre adquirir una lengua y aprenderla


2020 ◽  
pp. 38-69
Author(s):  
Mary Beaton

Previous studies demonstrate that some aspects of the phonological grammar of heritage Spanish speakers in the United States are monolingual-like while other aspects show influence from English (Ronquest & Rao, 2018). The syllabification of vowel sequences is an interesting trait to study in the Spanish of U.S. heritage speakers due to the tendency in English phonology to separate vowels into separate syllables and the contrasting preference for diphthongs in Spanish. Studies across several language pairs have shown that second-language learners use the syllable structure of their first language in their second language, creating non-native-like patterns. We have little understanding, however, about whether heritage speakers syllabify like monolingual Spanish speakers or if they rely on the structure of the dominant language in their environment. The present study compares the syllabification judgments of 54 heritage speakers to those of 40 monolingual speakers. The results show that heritage speakers have monolingual-like syllabification intuitions for verbs ending in -ear and -iar overall, but heritage speakers who have spent less than two years in their parents’ home country syllabify differently in reading versus listening tasks. Lexical frequency did not affect the results, indicating that syllabification intuitions are robust even in unfamiliar words.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Okhee Lee

Abstract In the United States, A Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) offer a vision of rigorous science standards for all students across K-12 classrooms. As science and engineering practices (e.g., develop models, argue from evidence, construct explanations) are language intensive, engagement in these practices presents both language learning opportunities and demands to all students, especially second language learners. The purpose of this article is to describe science instructional shifts, spurred by the Framework and the NGSS, and language instructional shifts, informed by contemporary views in second language acquisition described in English Learners in STEM Subjects (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). The article describes a yearlong fifth-grade science curriculum to illustrate how science and language instructional shifts are mutually supportive of each other to promote rigorous science learning and rich language use with a focus on second language learners.


2002 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 934-944 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Jun Zhang

Research has shown that foreign or second language learners' metalinguistic awareness has important effects on their acquisition of the target language. Important among a multitude of the concerns are problems these learners encounter when they have to process the morphological features of individual words, particularly in the acquisition of literacy skills. Nevertheless, for students who learn English as a foreign of second language for academic purposes, one of the biggest challenges in their advanced study is how they can effectively remember, retain, and retrieve the colossal number of newly learnt English vocabulary, including adjectival lexicons, to enhance their academic success. Results from the present report on the effects of metamorphological awareness of 65 adult Chinese EFL learners' memory, retention, and retrieval of adjectival lexicons show that, although the subjects in the two groups did not differ significantly in their performance on a pretest designed to check their lexical knowledge and no sex difference was observed, statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in both conditions (immediate and delayed retrievals) on a posttest. The experimental group and women predominantly performed better in the memory-retention-retrieval tasks assigned to them. Implications for educational research and practices are also discussed.


Author(s):  
Stephen Fafulas

AbstractThis research documents the acquisition of a range of progressive constructions and their associated predictors of use by English-speaking learners of Spanish in the United States. The few existing studies on acquisition of the Spanish progressive by adult second language learners analyze only the


Languages ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Yuhyeon Seo ◽  
Olga Dmitrieva ◽  
Alejandro Cuza

The present study examines the extent of crosslinguistic influence from English as a dominant language in the perception of the Korean lenis–aspirated contrast among Korean heritage speakers in the United States (N = 20) and English-speaking learners of Korean as a second language (N = 20), as compared to native speakers of Korean immersed in the first language environment (N = 20), by using an AX discrimination task. In addition, we sought to determine whether significant dependencies could be observed between participants’ linguistic background and experiences and their perceptual accuracy in the discrimination task. Results of a mixed-effects logistic regression model demonstrated that heritage speakers outperformed second language learners with 85% vs. 63% accurate discrimination, while no significant difference was detected between heritage speakers and first language-immersed native speakers (85% vs. 88% correct). Furthermore, higher verbal fluency was significantly predictive of greater perceptual accuracy for the heritage speakers. The results are compatible with the interpretation that the influence of English on the discrimination of the Korean laryngeal contrast was stronger for second language learners of Korean than for heritage speakers, while heritage speakers were not apparently affected by dominance in English in their discrimination of Korean lenis and aspirated stops.


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