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Session 2. Supporting Learners in a Second Language
Objective. Make one short text reachable for a pupil who is still learning the language of the lesson, using at least four supports, and plan one safe use of the pupil's other languages.
A pupil who is new to the language of the lesson is working twice as hard: learning the subject and learning the language at the same moment. Without support, the language wins and the subject is lost. With the right support the pupil can follow the lesson from the first week, while the language grows alongside. This session gives you a small set of supports that cost almost nothing, and shows how to use the languages pupils already know without losing the lesson language.
Key ideas
Understanding comes before speaking
- A pupil new to a language usually understands more than he or she can say. Silence is not the same as not knowing.
- Accept short answers at first: a word, a gesture, a drawing, a number.
- Move step by step from pointing, to words, to phrases, to full sentences. Do not demand the last step on day one.
Make the language understandable, not the idea easier
- Speak a little slower, use shorter sentences, repeat key words, and pause. Do not change “evaporation” into a different idea.
- Use pictures, real objects, gestures, diagrams and the board. A drawn arrow can carry what a long sentence cannot.
- Write the key words where everyone can see them, and keep them there for the whole lesson.
Translanguaging as a scaffold
- Translanguaging means planned use of all a pupil's languages to understand and think. Examples: talk in Uzbek or Russian with a partner, then report in the lesson language; read in one language and write in another.
- You do not need to speak every language. Pupils, partners and word lists can carry the other languages.
- It is a scaffold, so it has a plan and an end: the lesson language is still the goal for the final product.
Talk first, then write, with frames
- Give pupils time to rehearse an answer with a partner before it is said to the class.
- Sentence frames such as “First ..., then ..., so ...” give the shape of an answer while the pupil supplies the idea.
- When a pupil makes a mistake, repeat the sentence correctly and move on, instead of stopping to correct.
A pupil's path to full sentences
How much new is the right amount
Pupils learn from language they mostly understand, with a little that is new. If every word is new, nothing sticks. If nothing is new, there is no growth. Aim for the middle: familiar context, familiar words around two or three new ones, and the new ones supported by a picture, an object or a gesture.
Check understanding by asking pupils to do something, not by asking “Do you understand?” Most will say yes. Ask them to point to the picture, draw the next step, or show with their hands what happens. These answers need almost no language, so a pupil who is new to the language can still answer, and you see what the pupil really knows.
Translanguaging: what it looks like and where it stops
The CUNY-NYSIEB guide treats a bilingual pupil's full range of language practices as a resource for learning. In a classroom this can be small things: a pair talks in Uzbek or Russian for two minutes before reporting in the lesson language; pupils keep a bilingual word list; a text is read in one language and discussed in another; a first draft is made in the home language and then rewritten.
Translanguaging has a plan and an end. You decide the stage, the minutes and the final product, and the final product is in the lesson language. You do not need to know every language in the room. Partners, families and word lists carry the other languages, and your job is to keep the thinking going.
Examples from the classroom
Bean seeds in Grade 3
Scene. Malika teaches Grade 3 in an Uzbek-medium school in Samarkand. Jasur speaks Tajik at home and is new to Uzbek. In a lesson on germination she brings real bean seeds and a four-picture strip: seed, root, shoot, leaf. Jasur arranges the pictures in order and points as she says each word. The next day he says “root” and “leaf” himself.
Insight. Real objects and an answer that needs no words let a new learner join the lesson on day one.
Two minutes in two languages
Scene. Dilnoza teaches Grade 8 biology in a Russian-medium school in Tashkent. Before asking why leaves are green, she lets pairs talk for two minutes in Uzbek or Russian. Then each pair gives one sentence in Russian from a frame on the board: “Leaves are green because ...”. Every pair has something to say, including the three pupils who usually stay silent.
Insight. Thinking in the home language first made the lesson-language answer possible.
A gentle correction
Scene. Aziz teaches Grade 5 natural science in Fergana. A pupil says, “Water go up.” Aziz does not stop the lesson. He repeats, “Yes, the water goes up,” and asks, “And then?” The pupil adds, “Water cold.” Aziz writes both short sentences on the board with the correct forms and asks the class to read them together.
Insight. Repeating a sentence correctly keeps the pupil talking and shows the right form without shame.
Common pitfalls
- Asking “Do you understand?” and treating a nod as proof.
- Making the ideas simpler instead of making the language clearer, so that the pupil gets a weaker lesson.
- Allowing home languages with no plan, so that nobody knows when the lesson language will be used.
- Correcting every mistake aloud until the pupil stops speaking.
Make One Text Reachable
- Read the short Navruz text and the support menu in your Activity Kit. The pupil, Feruza, is new to Uzbek and speaks Karakalpak at home.
- In pairs (15 min): choose at least four supports from the menu and write exactly how each will be used with this text, with a minute mark in a 10-minute reading stage.
- In pairs (10 min): write one sentence frame for the answer “What do families do at Navruz?” and a six-word list with the home-language word next to each.
- As a group (10 min): practice your translanguaging plan as a role play in threes, with one pupil, one partner and one observer. Change roles once.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which supports changed the language and which accidentally changed the idea?
- When the pupil talked in a home language first, what was she able to say that she could not say in the lesson language?
- Which support will you try in your next lesson, and for which pupil?
Reflect
- Which of your pupils may understand more than they say?
- Where in your lessons do you already use pictures or gestures to carry meaning?
- What would worry you about letting pupils talk in a home language, and what plan could reduce the worry?
Try it tomorrow
- Replace “Do you understand?” with a task that needs a point, a drawing or one word.
- Prepare one sentence frame for the main question of your next lesson and write it on the board.
- Plan one pair-talk moment of two minutes, say which languages are allowed, and say in which language the report will be given.
Further reading and links
Make the language understandable, keep the idea whole, and plan how pupils use all their languages on the way to the lesson language.