Training English Word-final Palatals to Korean Speakers of English

Yeon 2008

Trained Korean ESL students who came to the US after critical period in ending syllables in "sh" and "ch." FOund that intensive training and focused learning helped production and perception.

1. The article is based on a connectionist theory of SLA. Yeon based his or her treatment on the assumption that repeated exposure to the target forms and frequent practice with perceiving and producing these forms might improve the learners; production and production of the forms. While Yeon does not mention the neural networks which might be strengthened by the training, the underlying assumption is that frequent and intensive practice is necessary for the acquisition of rule-governed behavior.

2. The article addresses transition theory, as it attempts to identify classroom tasks that can aid in listening and speaking activities for Korean English language learners.

3. The most significant aspect of this study is that all the learners “had come to the US after critical period” (53) and yet benefitted from the intensive perception training. Yeon has found not only that the critical period is not necessarily the “cut-off for language learning,” but also has identified a classroom activity for Korean ELLs that can eradicate this common error.

Working with ESL Writers

ch 9

NNS don't just come to get their grammar checked, they don't need more basics, you should work on higher-order concerns below later-level concerns, you should have a rulebook handy, and you can teach anything.

Bilingual Education

by Nessa Wolfson

1988

Many Americans do not speak English as a mother tongue. We have always been a pluralistic society. Bilingual education is a political issue.

Bilingual education was widespread in America until World War I, when English-only became a nationalistic policy point.

In 1963 middle-class Cuban refugees flooded Dade COunty, Florida. Their teachers taught them in Spanish. At Coral Way school, 50% Anglo and 50% Cuban, half the instruction was in each language. Both groups came out bilingual and biliterate. At this time the civil rights movement made being ethnic a point of pride and contributed to the political pressure to educate bilingual children fairly.

The federal govt passed laws intended to help bilingual children receive the schooling they needed. Unfortunately, the laws are vague.

There are different ideas as to what should constitute bilingual education:

1. Submersion. They should be taught only in English. They'll catch on, as "millions" of people did in the early years of teh twentieth century.
2. ESL. Instruction in English as a Second Language, although Lau v. Nichols found that ESL by itself could not be considered adequate. "Pull-out" classes stigmatize students.
3. Immersion. Early grades: target language. As fluency in English increases, instruction in mother tongue introduced. First was St. Lambert experiment in Canada: parents voluntarily pt their English-speaking children in French immersion program. Very successful. Unfortunately, doesn't work in America very well.
   
4. Transitional Bilingual Education. Instruction in the mother tongue during early years, with gradual increase of instruction in English. The hope is to "mainstream" ESL students by high school. The problem is that it's hard to find teachers who can teach in the native language of EVERY minority group. Also, some groups, like the Hmong, have no background in formal schooling.
   
5. Maintenance Bilingual Education. Purpose of bilingual education is to maintain ethnic identity, language and culture. Often inspires fear and anger in conservative people who fear minority succession.
   

While opponents of bilingual education are quite vocal, the majority of Americans support bilingual education. Opponents are usually older people.

The AIR report found that bilingual education did not change students' scores in language and math. There are numerous problems with methodology, however. Test scores themselves are not a measure of whether bilingual education lessened drop-out rates or helped students get jobs after schooling. It measures academic ability and not interpersonal language skills.

TESOL will always play an important part in bilingual education.

English faux amis for francophones learning english

robert sheen
http://www.volterre-fr.com/sheen.html
retrieved January 19, 2009
Volterre-Fr, English and French Language Resources

There are "tens of hundreds" of faux amis. Venn diagrams can be useful in teaching francophones about faux amis. Absolute faux amis are represented by two circles which do not overlap; partial faux amis can be represented by a smaller circle inside a larger one, or by overlapping circles.