As TESOL instructors we can use native language and culture to connect and transfer, native language to English language ideas, concepts, and discussions. Shannon (1999) discusses the importance of building on writing skills that exercise language rights and privileges that incorporate heritage language while working on language acquisition.
Responsive and extensive writing assessments described in Dr. Washington’s, Module 6 PowerPoint, are very helpful in describing the prompting tools provided by teachers that guide ESL students to finding the correct concepts for writing exercises. Following Brown, Washington, Shannon, and your own experiences can lead you to an ethical assessment standard that incorporates adequate amounts of heritage culture and language knowledge.
“A test administrator poses a series of questions that essentially serve as an outline as the emergent format written text (Brown, 2004).
Focus on assessment guidelines that incorporate heritage culture is a priority for many TESOL instructors. This is because we, as teachers, do not want to oppress student culture, but rather use English language to help student express opinions, idea, and traditions of their native culture to English speakers. I this incorporation of heritage culture is very important to student expression, which is usually conveyed through their writing practices. Important note; we want to avoid penalizing students for grammatical errors while trying to express abstract ideas through language that is not learned yet. To set our students up for success, we can use the responsive and expressive wring models to lead student to correct language and grammar expectations. We can roll model this through writing examples, key vocabulary, and lesson build.
For example, comparing and contrasting student holidays, and how they are celebrated in their Native country/culture. Lets say we write about Thanksgiving. Teachers can build a lesson that uses English vocabulary and visuals to describe food that is recognizable to student’s native traditions. Then, teacher can share writing examples from the similar English level students. Teachers can explain rubrics which share where points are gained and lost in writing. The rubric should ONLY setup expectations that have been reviewed, practices, and discussed in class. Writing prompts such as Thanksgiving traditions, helps preserve heritage and build connection between two different cultures that can be used in many different areas, social settings, writing, and speaking events inside and out of the classroom. Students can share this information with their family, which helps them connect their native culture to their non-native culture.
This lesson build helps student s generalize, and focus in on the content and then provide their own ideas around a topic. The students I work with are diagnosed with Autism, ASD. We AWLAYS do baseline assessment before creating an individualized education program, IEP goals for the year. Side note; most ESL students in public schools have IEPs. We use the John Woodcock assessment for reading comprehension and writing baseline. Baseline means there is no teacher guidance, except instruction. Once we have our writing baseline from standardized testing, we then add in other responsive, and extensive writing assessment that we as teachers have observed, which basically means we decide if content is relative and transferable to learner life for comprehension. One strategy I want to share is positive impact of picture visual, response on language acquisition. We show a picture of student and ask who, what, when, where questions. You guys should check out the app Pictello, some students use this app to transfer pictures, and then write into a story, with voiceover reading, that is saved on their Ipad devices that can be reviewed later.
References:
Brown, H. D., & Abeywickrama, P. (2010). Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices. Pearson Education. White Plains, NY.
Shannon, S. M. (1999). Language Rights or Language Privileges? TESOL Journal, 8(3), 23-28.
Washington, B. (2015). Module 6: Testing communication skills, Part II: Writing and evaluation [PowerPoint Document]. Retrieved from http://oed.usfca.edu/soe/matesol/ime634/m6/index.html
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