Dual Language Class: Literacy Skills in English and Chinese

Background:
The subject of this investigation is a first-grade student who is in room 118 of Henry Longfellow—Public School 94 (PS94)—located in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The author has had the opportunity of observing this student throughout an entire academic semester. Room 118 is a dual language class, with literacy skills developed in both English and Chinese. Students receive instruction in these languages on an alternating weekly basis, with one week of exclusively English instruction followed by one of Chinese. This system aids in the development of literacy in both languages.
My target student’s name is Nina Lin. Currently aged six, Nina is due to turn seven in March and has been attending PS94 since she was five. She is Asian, identifies as Chinese, and speaks English, Chinese Mandarin, and a little Fuzhounese— a local dialect in China. Although born in the United States, Nina was sent to China by her family when she was still very young. There she attended a day care center, later returning to the United States for kindergarten. At home, she speaks Mandarin. She lives in the Sunset Park neighborhood with her mother and younger brother, who is four years old and currently attends a daycare center. Her father works outside New York State as a chef, and is rarely at home. Nina and her brother are dropped off at school each day by her mother, who then attends language school where she is learning English. The remainder of her day is spent on domestic responsibilities. Both parents speak Mandarin and Fuzhounese. When conversing with each other, they speak Fuzhounese, but to Nina they usually speak Mandarin although occasionally, Nina’s mother communicates with her in English.
Nina enjoys playing magnet tiles and toy cars with her younger brother at home. She is a great role model for him, according to her mother, constantly taking care of him, helping him with his homework, and assisting him in tidying up the toys. Nina loves all the colors of the rainbow. She enjoys eating steamed buns. YUM!!!!!!Nina also likes dancing, attending dancing class every Saturday from 11:00am to 1:00pm. On school days, she also attends an after-school program at the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) where she does her homework and engages in crafts, producing numerous craft items. Nina would like to be a doctor when she grows up, as she enjoys taking care of people.
Nina’s teachers think highly of her, considering her to be a very hardworking student. She is attentive in class, and seeks assistance when she encounters problems by raising her hand to ask a question. Nina also has good relationships with her classmates, going out of her way to help her friends. She is always the first to help her tablemates when they experience difficulties. A highly organized girl, Nina is capable of careful planning, maintaining a tidy environment and working effectively.
Four Domains of English Language:
* Listening and Speaking
T-Teacher C-Classmate N-Nina
T:

Alright, everyone, today we are going to some blend words. We are going to focus on “st-, sw-, and sp-”.


(Teacher is teaching the lesson about blend word.)


(After lesson)

T:

Can anybody, give me a word that begin with “st-”?

C:

Sweet!

T:

Nice try! Who has a different idea?


(Nina is raising her hand)

T:

Nina, Does the word “sweet” belong to “st-” family?

N:

No! The word “sweet” does not begin with “st-”, and its beginning sound is “sw-”, so “sweet” belongs to the “sw-” family.

T:

Good job Nina, can you help your classmate to think of a “st-” word?

N:

Sure! Oh, I got one. Star! We can see stars at night.

T:

Excellent!

This dialogue was conducted between Nina and the teacher during class time. It involved both listening and speaking skills. During this exchange, Nina could understand everything said by her teacher and classmates. She could also identify the beginning sounds of “st”, “sw”, and “sp” and could answer the question orally—her spoken English was fluent. Furthermore, Nina was able to provide an example of a word beginning with the “st” sound, and to articulate a sentence utilizing the example word she had identified.
* Reading
i-Ready is an online program for reading and mathematics which supports teachers in identifying the needs of their students. PS 94 uses i-Ready for personalized student learning and also for progress monitoring during the school year.
i-Ready data regarding reading skills indicates that Nina has achieved a score of 464 on the reading scale, which places her in the middle rankings of the first grade (Mid-1st Level). She is placed in the top five of her classmates at PS94. A deeper analysis of the data reveals that for phonological awareness and high-frequency words, Nina achieved the maximum score, thus demonstrating a level of phonics equivalent to early first grade level. .She also achieved a mid-first grade score for comprehension of informational text. However, in terms of vocabulary and comprehension, she remains at kindergarten level in measurements relating to literacy CITATION Stu02 \l 1033 (Sturm & Rankin-Erickson , 2002). According to the author’s observations, Nina is capable of reading level G books, and the majority of the books in her book bag are at this level. She is assigned reading homework every day and is required to complete a reading log when she has finished the daily reading task.
Support Activities:
The “read aloud” method would be an appropriate means of supporting the expansion of Nina’s vocabulary. This is a highly effective approach to extending the vocabulary which involves the explanation of targeted words in their context, utilizing clear and simple language supported by reference to images which may help to clarify the definition of each word. Texts are read and re-read on successive days, and teachers utilize questioning to prompt discussion of the meanings of words and of the text in its entirety.
An additional technique which may be helpful is the teaching of meaningful word parts. One very effective means of extending student vocabulary is the learning of prefixes and suffixes and the manner in which these alter the meaning of base and root words CITATION Zha20 \l 1033 (Zhao & Hu, 2020). Working with Nina, the teacher can teach or review the meanings of the prefixes “pre”, “un-”, and “re-” and the suffixes “-ful” and “less”. The teacher can subsequently provide instruction and practice in identifying base words, which will enhance Nina’s vocabulary.
To improve comprehension, the teacher can adopt a range of strategies. These might include research-based comprehension strategies such as activating prior knowledge; predicting; questioning; monitoring and clarifying; drawing inferences; and summarizing. all good! In advance of the lesson, texts should be selected that are appropriately accessible for the student’s instructional level. Teachers should then provide explicit instruction and think-aloud to model each of the strategies CITATION Stu02 \l 1033 (Sturm & Rankin-Erickson , 2002). Subsequently, they should guide students as they start to practice the technique, following a process of "gradual release of responsibility." This involves providing maximum support when initially teaching and modeling a strategy, and subsequently decreasing the amount of teacher input as the students gradually increase their level of independence CITATION Whi01 \l 1033 (Whitehurst & Lonigan , 2001). The discussion of shared experience is fundamental to the development of strategies which students can apply while reading independently and it is therefore critically important that teachers engage in full discussion of the texts with their students.
* Writing
Nina’s favorite subject is writing, and she has informed the author that she loves to see her writing displayed on the class wall. Students write their own stories based on a topic supplied by the teacher, with the topic changing every twenty days. The topic of the sample presented above is a narrative, or story.
Nina wrote about her experience of going to the barber’s shop with her mother and younger brother. Her story is five pages long, with no typos. Good for her…..However her writing reveals that she consistently overlooked the need to leave a space between each word. This leads to misunderstanding by readers and will have an adverse effect on Nina’s future writing habits. Correct spacing makes an important contribution to addressing issues concerning letter size. It should be noted that the sizing of letters is equally as important as the correct use of lines CITATION Nat10 \l 1033 (National council of teachers of English, 2010). When sizing is incorrect or inconsistent, children may fill the entire available space with their letters, making all the letters the same size. They may alternatively—or additionally— ad...