Educating Language-Minority Children (1998) / Chapter Skim
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3 Cognitive Aspects of School Learning: Literacy Development and Content Learning
3 Cognitive Aspects of School Learning: Literacy Development and Content Learning
Pages 21-32
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From page 21... ...
Whereas the previous chapter focused primarily on acquisition of oral language skills, the focus in this chapter is on reading, writing, and subject matter knowledge. The emphasis is on research on the cognitive nature of the challenges inherent in learning to read or learning subjects such as math or history, and on the factors that facilitate success in learning.
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From page 22... ...
. The mixed findings may well reflect differences in oral language proficiency measures used across the various studies and in conditions for literacy acquisition.
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From page 23... ...
, phonics/direct instruction methods, or whole-language methods (shall, 1967, 1983; Adams, 1990~.~ While one can cite research findings in support of the value of certain of these practices over others, only recently has anyone officially sanctioned a mixed method of teaching reading embedding direct instruction In component processes into meaningful, communicative, literate act~v~ties that many experienced and successful teachers are in fact implementing in their classrooms (Adams and Bruck, 1995; Purcell-Gates, 1996~. With regard to reading instruction in a second language, there is remarkably little directly relevant research.
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From page 24... ...
Reading as a Developmental Process There are rather different tasks and skills involved in reading at various points in the acquisition of skilled reading: learning about print versus nonprint, typically accomplished in the preschool years; learning to recognize and write letters; learning to decode words, which involves synthesizing phonological from graphemic sequences; reading relatively simple texts fluently; reading for comprehension texts that include new information and unknown lexical items; reading strategically, for specific information or purposes such as relaxation; and reading critically, to examine and compare the claims and arguments of different authors. The essential idea here is that the nature of reading skill needs to be defined somewhat differently at different points in its development, and thus that acquisition of prior skills does not always predict continued growth in reading ability; there are several points in development where novel skills need to be acquired.
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From page 25... ...
Skilled readers can tolerate a small proportion of unknown words in texts without disruption of comprehension and can even infer the meanings of those words from sufficiently rich contexts, but if the proportion of unknown words is too high, comprehension is disrupted. Word knowledge no doubt relates to reading comprehension both because encountering many unknown words slows processing and because lack of word
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From page 26... ...
But the learning of school subject matter and work skills involves building intricate networks of concept relations, structuring and restructuring understandings, connecting them to other understandings, and practicing multiple skills in multiple environments. Therefore, more complex questions might fruitfully be asked about the nature of second-language students' learning, knowledge, and understanding of complex subject matter domains.
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From page 27... ...
For example, understanding and learning about earth science or social studies requires the general ability to read, to construct meaning, and to understand and follow oral discussion in the language of instruction. It also requires general capabilities of inferencing, placing examples into overarching constructs, and building causal chains.2 Knowledge varies both across and within subject matter areas: it varies across because subjects have different arrangements of facts, concepts, notations, and patterns of reasoning; it varies within because some academic subjects have elaborate and importantly constraining notational systems (for example, algebraic and graphic systems)
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From page 28... ...
We do not know what the advantages or complications are for English-language learners trying to learn the various disciplines themselves. However, we do suggest that it would be useful to learn how general language proficiencies interact with specific academic language proficiencies and with specific subject matter content.
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From page 29... ...
A student may know what a long division problem is, but not know how to solve it. The development of deep, interconnected, generative knowledge instead of shallow, fragmented, inert knowledge needs to be a continuous process for both teachers and their students, with the interaction between the two forms of knowledge being explicitly taught.
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From page 30... ...
IMPLICATIONS Educational Many of the findings regarding effective instruction and risk factors associated with reading for English-only students can be applied to English-language learners. An example is the benefit of a mixed method of teaching reading embedding direct instruction of component processes into meaningful, communicative, literate activities.
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From page 31... ...
prior knowledge plays a significant role in learning in terms not only of where to start, but also of the actual meanings attached to new information. Although most of this research has not been conducted with English-language learners, we can reasonably assume until proven otherwise that it applies to these students and points to the importance of understanding their acquisition of content knowledge.
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