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Print ED356672.TIF DOCUMENT RESUME ED 356 672 FL 021 198 AUTHOR Muller, Kurt E., Ed. TITLE Languages in Elementary Schools. International Education Series. INSTITUTION American Forum, New York, NY. SPONS AGENCY Department of Education, Washington, DC. REPORT NO ISBN-0-944675-41-7 PUB DATE 89 NOTE 249p. AVAILABLE FROMAmerican Forum, 45 John Street, Suite 1200, New York, NY 10038. PUB TYPE Collected Works General (020) Books (010) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC10 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Age Differences; Classroom Environment; Curriculum Design; Disabilities; Educational Policy; Educational Strategies; Elementary Education; *FLES; *Language Tests; *Learning Processes; Low Achievement; Policy Formation; *Program Administration; Program Design; School Districts; *Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Teaching Methods; Testing IDENTIFIERS *Content Area Teaching ABSTRACT Ten essays address aspects of second language instruction at the elementary school level: "Elementary School Foreign Languages: Perspectives, Practices, and Promises" (Carol Ann Pesola, Helena Anderson Curtain); "The Integrated Curriculum: Rethinking the Elementary School Foreign Language Program for the '90s" (Virginia Garibaldi Allen); "The Ages and Learning Stages of Children and Their Implications for Foreign Language Learning" (Myriam Chapman, Elizabeth Grob, Mari Haas); "Learning Language through Content: Learning Content through Language" (Myriam Met); "Creating Effective Foreign Language Learning Environments in Elementary Classrooms" (Eileen B. Lorenz, Sarah Rice); "School-District Perspectives on Elementary-School Language Programs" (R. Stephen Tegarden, Christine L. Brown); "Testing and Elementary School Foreign Language Programs" (John W. 011er, Jr.); "Mother Tongue and Father Grammar, or, Why Should Children Learn a Second Language?" (Donald G. Marshall); "Two Languages for All Children: Expanding to Low Achievers and the Handicapped" (Carolyn Andrade, Richard R. Kretschmer, Jr., Laura W. Kretschmer); and "Policy and Curricular Implications of Expanding Language Education in Elementary Schools" (Kurt E. Muller). (MSE) ********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** 5 a 5- 5 ...A..L°-s EgES5 am ttelicoli 3 I 0 II 4,:12 0 74i»9 1:4o s 71 Mb 71, * fn i 7.. IPIt a a 41 41 2e,E -0a) F.77 -* Z °S '10 Ia e 0 U r- U 8 DEPARTMENT Of EDUCATION Oftec of Educabonal Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER 1ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from he person or organuation originateng et Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view or opi mons stated en tries docu- ment do not nacessarely 'comment official OERI position or policy 7 -n hi a IP Es U nrtil PAP( AVA11 ABLE Languages in Elementary Schools edited by Kurt E. Muller ffirmararawerautl The American Forum 45 John Street, Suite 1200, New York, New York 10038 r-, 1 I The American Forum is grateful to the Intetnational Research and Studies Program of the U.S. Department of Education for its support of the project from which this book emerged. Proposed by the National Council on Foreign Language and International Studies, this project is supported by Title VI of the Higher Education Act. ISBN 0- 944675 -41 -7 This volume is the fourth in the International Education Series. ()The American Forum, 1989 Contents Preface Kurt E. Muller vii Acknowledgements xiii Elementary School Foreign Languages: Perspectives, Practices, and Promises Carol Ann Pesola and Helena Anderson Curtain Goals and Rationale for U.S. Elementary School Foreign Language Programs 2 Characteristics of the Child Learner 4 Second Language Acquisition by Children 4 Elementary School Foreign Language Program Models 5 Implications of Program Choice for the Foreign Language Sequence .9 Lessons from Immersion Classrooms 10 Teaching Culture and Global Education 11 Testing and Evaluation of Elementary School Foreign Languages 11 Immediate Challenges for the Profession 12 The Integrated Curr!culum: Rethinking Elementary School Foreign Language Programs for the '90s Virginia Garibaldi Allen 14 The Ages and Learning Stages of Children and Their Implications for Foreign Language Learning Myriam Chapman, Elizabeth Grob, and Mari Haas 27 The Theory of Cognitive Development, Jean Piaget 28 The Four and Five Year Old 28 The Six and Seven Year Old 30 The Eight, Nine, and Ten Year Old 33 The Ten, Eleven, and Twelve Year Old 37 iii J Languages in Elementary Schools Learning Language through Content: Learning Content through Language Myriam Met 43 What Is Content-Based Foreign Language Instruction? 43 Content-Based Instruction: An Historical Perspective 44 A Rationale for a Content-Based Approach 45 How Is Content Integrated in Elementary School Foreign Language Programs? 47 Developing a Content-Based Curriculum 48 Developing Foreign Language Skills through the Content Areas 51 Creating Effective Foreign Language Learning Environments in Elementary Classrooms Eileen B. Lorenz and Sarah Rice 65 Program Models for Foreign Language Learning 65 The Psychological Atmosphere 66 The Physical Environment 68 Instructional Organization 72 School-District Perspectives on Elementary-School Language Programs R. Stephen Tegarden and Christine L. Brown 79 Why Implement a K-12 Program? 80 Who Is Responsible for Program Implementation? 84 What Questions Will Be Asked? 89 Appendix A Useful Addresses for Additional Information 92 Appendix B. Graduates' Questionnaire 93 Appendix C. Parent Questionnaire 97 Testing and Elementary School Foreign Language Programs John W. Oiler, Jr. 99 1. Testing in Elementary School Language Programs: Defining the State of the Art 99 2. What Is FL Testing? 101 3. Language as Means as Well as End 105 4. Theory and Research in Language Testing 111 5. Teacher-Made and Standardized Tests 125 Mother Tongue and Father Grammar, or, Why Should Children Learn a Second Language? Donald G. Marshall 157 r-, iv Contents Two Languages for All Children: Expanding to Low Achievers and the Handicapped Carolyn Andrade, Richard R. Kretschmer,Jr., and Laura W. Kretschmer 177 Part I. Two Languages for Children in Cincinnati 178 Part II. Second Language Teaching and the Handicapped Child . 187 Policy and Curricular Implications of Expanding Language Education in Elementary Schools Kurt E. Muller 204 The Mandate for Language Education 204 Program Goals and Priorities 206 Native-Language Development in the Broader Context of Education 208 A Hierarchy of Foreign Language Proficiency Descriptors 211 Expectations for Language Development when Children Are Taught Twc Languages 217 Language and the Low Achiever 223 Preface For over a century the study of languages in the United States has vacillated between public support for transmitting the heritage of our ancestors to hostility toward ethnic groups other than the dominant one. When public support was widespread, language study was offered quite broadly; when attitudes were isolationist or assimiiationist, language study was restricted to elites, who would need the access to other societies that language competence confers Over the past decade the pendulum of public support has swung toward expanding languages at all levels of education. During the life of the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies (Perkins Commission), the University of Michigan Survey Research Center found that 76% of the college-educated public supported offering languages in elementary schools. Subsequent national reports have continued to call for expanded language study. In its 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, the National Commission on Excellence in Education wrote Achieving proficiency in aforeign languageordinarily requires from 4-6 yeas of study and should, therefore, be started in the elementary grades. We believe it is desirable that students achieve such proficiency because study of a foreign language introduces students to non-English-speaking cultures, heightens awareness and comprehension of one's native tongue, and serves the Nation's needs in commerce, diplomacy, defense, and education. At the end of 1983, the National Advisory Board on International Education Programs (Holderman Board), wrote of international education: The groundwork must be laid in the elementary schools. Unfortunately the majority of our elementary schools do not offer any foreign language instruc- tion We believe that foreign language instruction should be offered to all students (p. 6). Since the Holderman Board's task was oriented toward higher education, it is significant that its first recommendation was directed at elementary education: Local school districts should provide every student with the opportunity to begin the study of a foreign language in the earliest years of formal education and to vii .. Kurt E. Muller continue study of the same language until a functionally useful level of measured proficiency has been achieved (p. 9). In his 1983 report on secondary education in America, Ernest L. Boyer, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, recommends, "language study should begin earlyby the fourth grade and preferably beforeand it should be sustained" (p. 100). As the decade progressed, public opinion became ever more supportive of early language instruction. A 1986 Media General-Associated Press poll found that 84% of the public agreed that anglophone children should
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