UNIVERSITAT DE VALÈNCIA Facultat de Filologia Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING: AN APPLIED READING EXPERIMENT IN USA TESIS DOCTORAL Autor: Efrén Obeso Izquierdo Directora: Dra. Antonia Sánchez Macarro Valencia 2014 ii UNIVERSITAT DE VALÈNCIA Facultat de Filologia Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING: AN APPLIED READING EXPERIMENT IN USA TESIS DOCTORAL Autor: Efrén Obeso Izquierdo Directora: Dra. Antonia Sánchez Macarro Valencia 2014 iii To my friends and family iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Antonia Sánchez Macarro, for her valuable advice and constant understanding and respect towards the difficulties that I encountered when writing this dissertation. Professors Dr. Nicolás Estevez, Dr. Miguel Fuster Márquez and Dr. Juan Jose Calvo García De Leonardo have all my gratitude for helping me by pointing at the right directions, inspiring me to embark on paths that had not been considered prior to their mentoring. I would like to thank Paul Yankee, former Head of the Bilingual Department of the 205 Rockford Public School District, for hosting me the very first days I spent in Illinois, enabling me to get settled prior to my teaching experience in the district, and caring about my wellness for the whole three years of my stay, being a definite asset regarding the outcome of my adventure overseas. I would also like to thank Raul Menchaca, who was the Bilingual Director at the Rockford Public School District at the time I applied for the opening as visiting teacher in the USA, for selecting me for the teaching position back in 2005, giving me the possibility of experiencing what ended up changing my life and my professional career, letting me grow and fulfilling every expectation I could think of by the end of my three years commitment. I thank Dawn Wieggan, Ray Owens and Stephen Francisco, principals at Walker Elementary School and Nelson Elementary School in Rockford, for supporting me on a daily basis, mentoring me as I experienced teaching bilingual students placed in the transitional bilingual program at the schools they led. v My gratitude goes to every single one of my former American colleagues back at the aforementioned Rockfordian schools, for giving me strength when I was weak in my eventual periods of homesickness, for understanding me and making me feel proud of myself by recognizing my constant effort as a bilingual teacher. It is also worth mentioning the help received from the ASV institution in general, its readiness and willingness to provide me with the information I requested, and from Julianne Stall and Kristy Beam in particular, who accepted being interviewed, being their insight thoughts part of this research as at the time the interviews were conducted they were both principals at ASV. The person I have become today results from the food for thought received from some great teachers I personally studied under along my academic years both in Valencia and in Liverpool, because they widened my views on both the world and myself, playing a key role in my life the way only teachers are capable of. It would have been absolutely impossible for me to accomplish the goal of giving shape to my thoughts and experiences through this dissertation without the constant support of my family. I value the sacrifice, support and unconditional love of every single member of my family much more than what words can express. vi CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv ABBREVIATIONS xii 1.INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Introduction to early second language teaching in Spain…………………………......1 1.2 Introduction to IT applied language study……………………..………………...........3 1.3 Introductory notes to the present study………………………………….......………...6 1.4 Sequencing…………………………...………………………………..…………......13 2. STATE OF THE ART: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE AND INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY 17 2.1 Review of studies…………………………………………………………………….17 2.2 Etymology…………………………………………………………………………....20 2.3 Aims of teaching languages both then and now…………………………………......22 2.4 Cross-curricular studies……………………………………………………………...23 2.5 Recent developments………………………………………………………………...25 vii 3. THEORETICAL AND ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK 29 3.1 Research objectives…………………………..……………………………………....29 3.2 Procedures followed for the individual analysis in each chapter…………………….30 3.3 Corpus analyzed………………………………………………………………...…....33 4. METHODOLOGY 36 4.1 The descriptive paradigm……………………….…………………………………....36 4.2 Description of the study…………………………...………………………………....38 4.3 The creation of a research statement…………………………...……………….…....39 4.4 Data gathering and analyzing………...……………………………………………....40 4.5 Writing the thesis…………………….……………………………………………....42 5. THE CONTEXT OF THE STUDY 45 5.1 American teaching experience……………...…..…………………………………....45 5.2 School…………………………………………………………………………...…...46 5.3 Courses and classes………………………………………………………………......48 5.4 Classrooms…………………………………………………………………………...48 5.5 Students……………………………………………………………………………....49 5.6 Teachers……………………………………………………………………………...50 5.7 Selection of sites and participants…………………………………………………....50 viii 5.8 Summary……………………………………………………………………...……...51 6. LEGAL FRAMEWORK REGARDING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 53 6.1 International views...……………………………………………………………........54 6.2 American situation……...…………………………………………………………....58 6.3 Spanish situation…………………………………………………………………......62 6.4 Implanting Americanized schools in Valencia: Nelson vs. ASV……………….…....64 7. SITUATION OF IT APPLIED LANGUAGE LEARNING 83 7.1 Origins…………………………………………………………………………..........88 7.2 Barriers………………………………………………………………………….........94 7.3 Training…………………………………………………………………………........99 7.4 Multimedia……………………………………………………………………..…...102 7.5 From paper books to electronic books……………………………………………...112 7.6 Tablets……………………………………………………………………………....118 7.7 Software…………………………………………………………………………….122 7.8 Social and economic background………………………………………………......123 7.9 Technoliteracy…………………………………………………………………........125 7.10 Implementation…………………………………………………………………....126 ix 8. LANGUAGE LEARNING METHODOLOGY OVERVIEW 137 8.1 Classic methodologies……………………………………………………………...146 8.1.1 Grammar-Translation…………………………………………………......147 8.1.2 Reform Movement……………………………………………………......149 8.1.3 Direct Method…………………………………………………………….152 8.2 20th Century methodologies………………………………………………………...154 8.2.1 Basic English…………………………………………………………......154 8.2.2 Berlitz School…………………………………………………………......157 8.2.3 Behaviourism…………………………………………………………......158 8.2.4 Transformational generative grammar…………………………………....160 8.3 Communicative methodologies………………….………………………………....162 8.3.1 Notional-functional……………………………………………………….163 8.3.2 Communicative approach………………………………………………...164 8.4 Modern methodologies…………………………………………………………......167 8.4.1 Tandem…………………………………………………………………....167 8.4.2 Task-based approach……………………………………………………...168 8.4.3 Lexical approach………………………………………………………….169 8.4.4 MALL & CALL………………………………………………………......170 8.4.5 Total physical response…………………………………………………...172 8.4.6 Neuro-linguistic program………………………………………………....173 x 8.4.7 Audio-lingual approach……………………………………………….......174 8.4.8 The silent way…………………………………………………………….174 9. GUIDED READING 176 9.1 Management………………………………………………………………………...182 9.2 Vocabulary………………………………………………………………………….184 9.3 Reading…………………………………………………………………………......187 9.4 Writing……………………………………………………………………………...190 10. BILINGUALISM 192 10.1 Spanglish………………………………………………………………………......195 10.2 Bilingual Education…….………………………………………………………....198 10.3 Cognitive effects………………………………………………………………......222 10.4 Social effects……………………………………………………………………....223 10.5 Academics...……………………………………………………………………….225 10.6 Language usage…………………………………………………………………....227 11. INTEGRATIVE IT ESL METHOD 230 11.1 Curriculum………………………………………………………………………...236 11.2 Methodology……………………………………………………………………....239 11.3 Computing………………………………………………………………….……...245 xi 12. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS 259 12.1 Why implementing Guided Reading in Spanish Elementary Schools?...................259 12.2 Guided Reading criticism…………………………………………………….…...260 12.3 The interviewing process………………………………………………………….261 12.4 Analysis and results…………………………………………………...…………...263 12.4.1 Nelson 2007-2008 bilingual third graders………………………….…...266 12.4.2 ASV 2012-2013 monolingual third graders…………………………......271 12.5 Discussion………………………………………………………………………....276 13. CONCLUSION 279 13.1 Review of the principal aspects of the study………………………………….......279 13.2 Summarize findings……………………………………………………………….279 13.3 Aim………………………………………………………………………………...280 13.4 Evaluation of each chapter………………………………………………………...281 13.5 Implications for further research………………………………………………......284 14. REFERENCES 285 15. APPENDIX 298 xii ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS THESIS ASTP: Army Specialized Training Program ASV: American School of Valencia AEWS: Academic Early Warning Status AWS: Academic Warning Status AYP: Adequate Yearly Progress BASIC: British American Scientific International Commercial BOCAIB: Boletín Oficial de las Islas Baleares CALL: Computer Assisted Language Learning CATS: Civil Affairs Training Schools CLIL: Content Language Integrated Learning CRTVG: Compañía de Radio/Televisión de Galicia ELL: English Language Learner ESL: English as a Second Language ETB: Euskal Telebista FAST: Family And School Together FL: Foreign Language GB: Gigabyte GHZ: Gigahertz GPA: Grade Point Average IB: International Baccalaureate IQ: Intelligence Quotient ISAT: Illinois Standard Achievement Test xiii