SUBSCRIBE

Acting UP


When I signed up for an improv theater class, I never thought to combine my passion for theater with my passion for teaching. But once I applied those techniques to my classroom, everything changed—my students’ energy, creativity, and motivation soared.
You may think, “I’m not an actor, I’m an educator. I can’t do improv.” I’ll admit I was skeptical, too, walking into my first class. While I had done theater and stand-up comedy before, creating dialogue on the spot—and in my second language—was intimidating. But I quickly learned improv is for everyone willing to unleash their creativity and have fun.

What Is Improv Theater, and How Can I Use It as a Teacher?
Improv theater is a performance that is unplanned and unscripted, in which the story, characters, and dialogue are created on the spot by the performers. This exercise is an engaging, dynamic way to develop essential skills like creativity, teamwork, and communication. Here are some of the basic principles to keep in mind:
Yes, and… This is the most important rule of improv. Accept what your scene partner has offered and add to it. This keeps the scene moving forward and creates something new and unexpected.

As a teacher, this looks like building upon a student’s idea and helping them develop it further, pushing their creativity. This shows that you’re interested in what they have to say and that you value their contributions.

Listen actively. Improv is all about listening to your scene partner(s) and responding to what they’re saying or doing with relevant material that builds on the scene they’re creating. This collaboration helps keep the story connected.

Give students your undivided attention, and take it one step further by asking clarifying questions and summarizing what they’ve said to demonstrate understanding.

Be present. Improv requires you to be entirely focused on what’s happening right now to keep up with the spontaneity of the exercise.

Paying attention to what is happening in your classroom allows you to respond to your students’ needs and be flexible if necessary.

Trust yourself and your scene partners. Improv is a collaborative art form, so trust is a key component in building the world and telling the story of the scene you’re performing.

Trust yourself, your teaching abilities, and your students to be capable learners.
These principles have proved extremely valuable to me as a teacher because you have to embrace the unexpected in the classroom. Students may ask difficult questions, have off days, act out, or surprise you. When I’m teaching, I need to be able to think on my feet and come up with creative solutions to these challenges. Improv has helped me develop these skills; I’m a better teacher because of them.

Five Improv Games That You Can Use Today
Ready to unleash the power of improv with your students? Incorporating improv techniques into your world language classroom fosters creativity, confidence, and effective communication skills in students, regardless of the language being taught. It creates an engaging and dynamic learning environment in which students can actively apply linguistic knowledge in real-time scenarios. Your students may be hesitant at first—you have to be open to some potential ridiculousness—but trust me, seeing your students laughing and learning is so rewarding.
Here are my top five games that I have used in my own language classroom that are adaptable to your students’ target language and proficiency level.

Freeze Frame
Student Outcomes: Improve vocabulary, encourage creativity, and practice active listening and teamwork
How to Play: Have students stand in a circle. One student starts by saying a sentence and freezing in place. The next student says a sentence that builds on the first student’s sentence and freezes in place. Continue until everyone in the circle has had a turn. At the end, unfreeze the circle and have students share what they like about the game.

Emotion Cards
Student Outcomes: Help students express themselves and use appropriate vocabulary in different situations.
How to Play: Prepare cards with various emotions (e.g., happy, angry, sad, surprised) and scenario cards (e.g., at a party, in a library, at a funeral). Students draw one emotion card and one scenario card, and they must act out a short scene in the target language, incorporating the assigned emotion into the scenario.

Sound Effects Storytelling
Student Outcomes: Enhance students’ ability to listen and describe events and situations using onomatopoeia and descriptive language.
How to Play: Divide the class into pairs. One student narrates a story in the target language while the other provides sound effects using their voice or objects (e.g., tapping a table for rain, clapping hands for applause).

Reverse Charades
Student Outcomes: Encourage teamwork and improve vocabulary and nonverbal communication skills.
How to Play: In this variation of charades, one student stands in front of the class while their team silently acts out a word or phrase drawn from a hat. The student at the front must guess the word or phrase based on their team’s gestures and actions while speaking in the target language.

News Reporter
Outcomes: Improve students’ formal and conversational speaking and storytelling abilities.
How to Play: Assign students roles as news anchors and reporters. Provide them with a headline or a news topic related to the current lesson or a recent event. The news anchors must interview the reporters, who share their findings or opinions in the target language.

Natalia Álvarez-Morillo is a content marketing specialist at Carnegie Learning and a former Spanish teacher based in Columbia, MD. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish language and literature from la Universidad del Zulia and a master’s in Spanish linguistics from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her interests include SEL education in the world language classroom, theater, and how to make the world a less scary place.
Join her at ACTFL 2023 Convention and World Languages Expo. She’ll be hosting an interactive session titled “Yes And: Unlocking Creative Teaching Strategies with Improv Theater” on Sunday, November 19, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. CST at McCormick Place – West Building, room W196c. Uncover the exciting world of improv theater and its invaluable contributions to language education.

No Sabo


One day while at work, I was speaking with one of our English teachers about Spanish, and he mentioned that he had a working ability in Spanish and, while not fluent, he considered himself a yo sabo person. While I recognized the error, I didn’t correct him. A few days later I saw a news headline about “No Sabo Kids.” Remembering what my colleague had said, I decided to read the article. Upon further discussion with my colleague, he said he knew the correct form but had been overthinking it and hadn’t realized he had made the error. Either way, thank you, Sean, for unintentionally bringing a new term to my attention and for being the inspiration for this article.

No sabo is a grammatically incorrect translation of “I don’t know” (compared with the correct form of yo sé). This mistake is common among US Latinos who either haven’t had a formal Spanish class or were raised in a household where speaking Spanish was discouraged by their parents but who have some knowledge of the language in order to communicate with grandparents, local business owners, etc.

Typically, calling someone a no sabo is a pejorative way to poke fun at Latinos who don’t speak “proper” Spanish. The worst part of this is that it is used by other Latinos as if to indicate their Latinidad is somehow diminished as a result (similar to the term pocho, used to describe Latinos whose personalities appear to be more in line with those of the White European than the Latin American). Today’s US Latino youth are not feeling shamed but are embracing no sabo as a sense of identity with the hope that linguistic ability will no longer be used as a measuring stick for cultural identity.

One common misconception about Latinos is that they are a homogenous group all with similar identities. However, as discussed in Voces: Latino Students on Life in the United States (Carreira and Beeman, 2104), they have diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. There are over 20 Spanish-speaking countries in the world, including the US, the dominant cultures of which have been greatly influenced by European colonists, transported African slaves, and Indigenous peoples. In many of these countries, Spanish is not the only language spoken—some of these countries have adopted one or more Indigenous languages as official languages in addition to Spanish. And while Spanish is prominently spoken in these countries, there are different varieties, similar to English. Just like many other languages, the Spanish spoken in Spain is different from that of the Americas, and there are various dialects and varieties of Spanish among countries in the Americas. Even the Spanish spoken in the southwestern US is different from that spoken in Florida—or even northwestern Mexico, despite the geographical proximity and constant contact. To understand the no sabo term and generation, it’s important to first lay out some linguistic background on this Spanish variation.

According to Aspectos lingüísticos del español en Los Ángeles (Silva-Corvalán, 2001), the Spanish spoken in Southern California (which has come to be known as Español Vernacular de Los Ángeles, or EVLA) is a nonstandard oral variety based on Mexican Spanish. Some features of EVLA include the following: regularization of gender (such as all words ending in -a taking on feminine form, e.g., el problema ? la problema), regularization of verbal forms, loss of stem change and of irregular preterit by following regular verbal paradigms, and use of Spanglish (hybrid of English words changed to fit Spanish phonology)—hence why no sé has become no sabo. Although on the surface this appears to be due to lack of knowledge of Spanish, linguistically speaking it isn’t. Speakers of this dialect have a working knowledge of the rules of the language in that they know that first-person singular verbs remove the infinitive case marking and replace it with an -o. It is not surprising they have difficulty with the yo sé form, as it is irregular, similar to saying “gooses” in English as opposed to “geese.”

The following quote from a recent NPR publication provides an example of no sabo:
“After Mexico’s men’s soccer team won the Gold Cup this month, an ESPN Deportes reporter in Inglewood, Calif., approached fans dressed in Mexico’s green jersey. He started interviewing a little boy who was wearing one, too, and introduced him in Spanish by saying, ‘Here is the future of Mexico. Come here, kid.’ The boy seemed confused, and the studio anchors commented that he doesn’t understand. It’s a generation that no longer speaks Spanish, they said. A Twitter post of the video went viral, saying, raise your kids not to be yo no sabo…”

The boy was interviewed in Spanish but appeared to not understand the reporter when asked his name. The boy probably comes from a household in which his parents encourage him to speak English and are not teaching him Spanish. While this practice is less common today, since there has been an increased value placed on bilingualism, this was not always the case. Parents who migrated to the US as youths in the 1970s and 1980s felt pressured to assimilate into the US culture, which often resulted in the loss of their native language (Rivera Mercado, 2023).
Parents were judged for their accents and often struggled academically because as children they weren’t scholastically fluent in either language. Rather than deal with the criticism from family or from teachers, college professors particularly, for not being proficient enough, they opted to drop Spanish altogether in favor of English.

I spoke with the parent of one such student, and she said she was called a pocha growing up. Kids would tease her for not being fluent in Spanish (she grew up in a household where English was the primary language and Spanish was only used to communicate with relatives in Mexico), and she focused her efforts on learning proper English and neglected her Spanish. It was only as an adult that she became more motivated to improve her Spanish so she could communicate better with the Spanish-speaking members of her church. Her son feels embarrassed that he grew up knowing very little Spanish and ended up signing more than speaking because his relatives have a hard time understanding what he is saying. Of course, being family, they are very forgiving and understanding and are not likely to poke fun at him. A former student of mine said they would misconjugate verbs and, because of mistakes and embarrassment, they got to a point where they stopped trying. However, now that they are in college and studying Spanish more formally, their Spanish is improving, and they’re feeling more confident in their abilities and more willing to try to speak it.

Since the late 1990s, bilingualism has become increasingly accepted and even encouraged as the population of Spanish-speaking immigrants has increased. With this surge has come a battle over what is considered bilingual and what is considered acceptable Spanish. This divide has become especially prominent within the Latino community, as those who speak a more formal, scholastic form of Spanish frown upon speakers of other versions of Spanish, making them feel that their Latinidad is diminished and resulting in calling people names such as pocho and no sabo. Rather than allowing this to discourage them, they are using their resiliency to embrace it and are proud to call themselves no sabo kids or the no sabo generation. As a result of this, these students consider themselves to be generation 1.5 and feel a sense of loss and confusion, as they are ni de aqui ni de allí (neither from here nor there).

Based on (nonscientific) research I’ve seen online and from the interviews I’ve conducted, there seems to be a common theme that heritage language speakers don’t think of their Spanish as being that bad until they travel to a Spanish-speaking country outside the US. Even in an episode of the 1970s bilingual sitcom ¿Qué Pasa, USA?, the character of Joe, a 17-year-old high school student in Miami, tells his mom that despite being made fun of by his family, he speaks Spanish better than anyone else at his school. It is often through interactions with Spanish speakers in other countries that people’s linguistic insecurities start to develop. According to a piece written by Jacqueline Delgadillo, she hadn’t questioned her level of fluency in Spanish until a taxi driver in Mexico asked her, “Where are you really from? You sound like a gringa.” But Latinos are no longer being shamed by being called no sabo. They are using that term as a means of empowering themselves and of self-identity.

Latino youth today are proud of being bilingual, and despite their Spanish not being perfect, they are still able to effectively communicate. Isn’t that the goal we tell our nonnative speakers? That while fluency is great, communicative competence is the objective? To them, being no sabo kids means identifying themselves as US Latinos as opposed to Latinos from elsewhere. According to Telemundo, #nosabo has 647.6 million views and #nosabokids has 398.5 million views. The online store Hija de Tu Madre identifies itself as being pro-no sabo and sells merchandise specifically geared toward this population of Latinos. A family of Latino youth from Southern California went so far as to create a card game called Yo Sabo that is for sale online. In a recent podcast, they said they created the game because they were driving down the freeway to where the Goodyear Blimp is moored and they couldn’t remember the word for blimp in Spanish. They realized that because they are mainly around English speakers, their Spanish isn’t that great, and that this would be a fun way to reconnect with the language of their heritage.

As language educators, we need to also be cognizant of the uniqueness of these speakers. My colleague and fellow Spanish teacher Kate Hallock discusses this issue in her classes. She talks about how harmful this is to people who lack either practice or education in language. She reminds them that they should be respectful to all people who are learning a language. As my other colleague and Spanish teacher Brian LaMay commented, we all talk much more informally at home. We say things like “I ain’t got no beer in the fridge,” so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that this occurs in Spanish as well.

While many college professors are aware of the difference between a native speaker and a heritage language learner, many K–12 educators are not. A native speaker is someone who was born in a Spanish-speaking country where they grew up speaking Spanish as their first language and studying Spanish in school as their language arts course. A heritage language learner is someone who was born in the US and grew up either in a bilingual household or a household that was English dominant. They speak just enough Spanish to be able to communicate with non-English-speaking relatives. We need to avoid judging them because they don’t speak academic Spanish. Instead, we need to understand how they speak and why, and by doing so we can then help them learn to understand the mistakes they are making, why they are making them, and how to correct them so they can succeed in an academic course.
In a recent interview with NBC News, the co-founder of the website Spanish Sin Penas Jackie Rodríguez said, “I love Spanglish and I’m going to speak it for life and I’m not ashamed about that. A language isn’t going to make me any less Latina. It’s in my blood. It’s in my hips. It’s in my sazón (seasoning) when I’m cooking.” In that same article, Yo Sabo game co-founder Carlos Torres was quoted as saying, “Language is so fluid. It doesn’t matter how much you know or how little you know—we’re all in this really together, just learning… We need to stop being our harshest critics.” That is the motivation for the #nosabo/#yosabo movement. Rather than being ashamed that their Spanish isn’t perfect or academic, they are proud of their linguistic skills. To them, this is their version of Spanish, no different than acceptable variations from different Spanish-speaking countries that already exist. So, the next time you come in contact with a no sabo Latino, embrace them and the way they speak. They are no less Latino, just as those who speak varieties of US English are no less American.

References
Carreira, M. M., and Beeman, T. (2014). Voces: Latino Students on Life in the United States. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Delgadillo, J. (2002). “We’re Redefining What It Means to Be a ‘No Sabo’ Kid.” Refinery29.
Flores, E., and Brown, M. (2023). “The ‘No Sabo Kids’ Are Pushing Back on Spanish-Language Shaming.” NBC News. www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latino-no-sabo-kids-push-back-spanish-language-shaming-rcna105170
Hallock, K. (2023). Personal interview. Sept. 22.
Jóvenes Latinos Tienen Dificultad Con El Idioma (2023). Noticias Telemundo. www.telemundo.com/noticias/edicion-noticias-telemundo/hispanos-en-eeuu/video/dicen-que-yo-soy-un-no-sabo-como-jovenes-latinos-que-crecieron-en-ingles-enfrentan-tmvo12413169.
La Familia Podcast (2023). “La Familia x You Sabo the Game!” YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdrCq2cltBk
LaMay, B. (2023). Personal interview. Sept. 26.
Martinez, A. (2023). “What It Means to Be ‘No Sabo.’” National Public Radio. www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190427959/what-it-means-to-be-no-sabo.
Rivera Mercado, A. (2023). “‘No Sabo’ Is a Slur, Fight Me On It.” Luz Media. https://luzmedia.co/no-sabo-is-a-slur.
Schwanz, A. (2023). Personal interview. Sept. 26.
Schwanz, J. (2023). Personal interview. Sept. 26.
Soto, E. (2023). Personal interview. Sept. 26.
Silva-Corvalán, C. (2001). Aspectos lingüísticos del español en Los Ángeles. Centro Virtual Cervantes, 2001–2002.

Tom Beeman is a high school Spanish teacher at the California Virtual Academies, where he has also been involved with Advanced Placement and dual enrollment programs. He has been active in state and national language advocacy and is co-author of the book Voces: Latino Students on Life in the United States.

California Bill to Battle Bilingual Teacher Shortage


Working to support bilingual students in one of the most multicultural states in the country, California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed AB 1127, an act which amends section 52202 of the Education Code. 

This legislation specifically focuses on enhancing the Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program (BTPDP), and improving eligibility criteria for teachers seeking support in bilingual and multilingual learning environments. 

Currently, California state law specifies that the Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program works in conjunction with the Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

The scheme provides development services to education professionals who meet specific requirements. Under the amended act of AB 1127, the scope of eligibility for professional development services will be expanded for currently exempted professionals, in a range of languages including: Spanish, Arabic, Tagalog, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Vietnamese. 

Majority Leader Eloise Gómez Reyes introduced AB 1127 to address California’s growing need for bilingual teachers in these languages.

“Bilingualism and multiculturalism bring incredible value to our students and our broader communities” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, whoc copsonsored AB1127. “The bill will support schools by investing in bilingual teacher pipeline programs. It will offer richer engagement opportunities for students and families and support for expanding dual language immersion programs in California.”

Education professional development services aim to support teachers with up-to-date knowledge and skills for their learning environments. By amending AB 1127 in particular, California aims to bridge a gap between the demand for bilingual education teachers and the current availability of qualified professionals, while also improving the quality of curricula and instruction.

The State Department of Education has announced that it will fund the amendment by the distribution of grants to various local educational agencies. These will include: school districts, charter schools, county education offices and eligible independent education agencies. Grant recipients are permitted to partner with community colleges, four year institutions of higher education and those with a focus on English learner education.

The changes will be implemented steadily. Grant applicants must submit their eligibility paperwork by July 1st 2026 and a final report must be filed by January 1st 2030. 

AB 1127 represents the State of California’s dedication and commitment to supporting a multicultural and multilingual society. It continues to maintain and improve the quality of learning resources for bilingual and multilingual students and teachers, and most importantly ensures English learners are entitled to instruction in their native language.

Cambridge to Install Indigenous Street Signs

Cambridge Massachusetts, home to Harvard University, , is erecting signs displaying street names in the native language of the Massachusett Tribe are going up. This is a first step in officially recognizing the native people of the region, the Anmoughcawgen.

The idea was conceived by Sage Brook Carbone, a Cambridge resident of Italian and Native ancestry. Sage is a member of the Northern Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island, and is a descendant of Nipmuc, Massachusett, and Mi’kmaq peoples.

She contacted local authorities after noticing that several names and places in the local Greater Boston area acknowledged her Italian heritage, yet hardly any were dedicated to Native American heritage.

Carbone told GBH news “There are no streets named after Native people in Cambridge,” – “To my knowledge, there are no squares commemorating Indigenous people. There are no distinctive markers of historical nature.” 

The state of Massachusetts was the first in the newly formed U.S. nation that colonizers chose to recognize with an Indian name. Massachusett translates to “great hill small place” in the Indigenous Algonquian language spoken by the Massachusett people.

Today, the city of Cambridge sits on land belonging to the Massachusett Tribe. The plan to install street signs in their language intends to recognize the Native people who lived on the land long before European traders and settlers, along with the few descendants who are still residents today. Census figures show that only 0.1% of the city’s residents identify as Native American only. It is believed that the move is the first of its kind in the state.

Sarah Burks, preservation planner at the Cambridge Historical Commission explains ”It’s about visibility and normalizing, seeing Indigenous language in its written form on everyday infrastructure in our urban environment,” – “On street signs, it’s going to be something that will make people stop and think.”

The first signs will be made for streets First to Eighth, with the exception of Fourth Street – which is already dedicated to World War II Pvt. Nicholas Sciarappato, according to city officials.

To translate the street names as accurately as possible, Carbone has been working with members of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag. “The project is beginning with … translating numerical names of the streets because it’s something that is universally recognized,” she said.

There are hopes for later phases of the project to include the addition of historical markers to significant Indigenous sites, and updates to signs at city properties to include Native languages.

Carbone’s pitch was merged with another, proposing a replacement of historic markers on the existing African American Heritage Trail. The new markers would identify a series of 20 locations around Cambridge, where important figures in the city’s Black history lived and worked. The combined project was approved with a budget of $180,000.

David Shane Lowry, a Cambridge resident and an member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, says he hopes this effort will be the start of greater recognition of Indigenous peoples. “We always look for small steps because we know, as with a baby, small steps equal eventually to running and, you know, doing all kinds of other big stuff.” 

He added “…we as the colonial enterprise called Cambridge … continue to correct our presence by continuing to not only rename but to situate American Indian, Native American people in the center of what we do.” 

Carbone explained, part of the goal of the signage project is to elevate Native American visibility. “We all have a right to see ourselves in the places that we live,” she said. 

She hopes to bring awareness to the way in which history is told – who is included, and who has been excluded.

“The bigger purpose,” she said, “is really just to have people think more about what the signs are around them. You know, what do these things say? Who decided what they say?”

The Art of Writing?


It’s been a rough few years for elementary teaching and learning. Concerns remain about the progress (or lack thereof) that US students are making in literacy, and there’s no one cause hindering this progress. Many factors have contributed to lower test scores, from the amount of money individual districts invest in their students to teacher shortages to pandemic-related learning loss.

And we must remember that even before the pandemic, scores were declining. According to some experts, the pandemic simply made a bad situation worse. Has the global health crisis left lingering effects? Absolutely. According to a McKinsey report, compared to pre-2020 scores, students were about four months behind in reading in 2021.1

In comparing schools with higher-versus lower-income demographics, the Brookings Institute found students attending impoverished schools were 15% more likely to have reading proficiency gaps.2

These numbers merely highlight the recognition that to improve students’ literacy skills, we need to improve reading and writing instruction, starting in the earliest elementary grades.

Enter the science of reading. We know the value that evidence-based instructional practices—those indicated by the body of research that comprises the science of reading—can provide. In fact, over 50% of US states have passed laws/policies mandating a science of reading approach to teaching literacy.3

However, the buzz around the science of reading can mean that a focus on writing instruction becomes lost in the mix. The term science of reading has telescoped to a narrow definition often used as shorthand for phonics. But the science of reading isn’t just about foundational skills; it also encompasses best practices for comprehension, making meaning from text, and communicating ideas.4

Perhaps it’s time for a new name. Instead of the science of reading, maybe we should refer to it as the science of literacy. Why? Because the processes of reading and writing are connected, and we should be thinking about how we teach reading and writing in a connected way in the classroom.

Reading is receptive and writing is generative, and these skills work hand in hand when we receive, process, and communicate ideas. We don’t separate them in the “real world,” so why separate them in the classroom? That would be an artificial separation.

The Reading–Writing Connection: A Missed Opportunity
We have significant evidence that reading and writing are connected processes and highly related to each other. Interventions focused on skills transfer show that writing instruction positively affects reading—just as reading instruction positively affects writing.

We know that transfer and benefits exist between the two areas, but the trick? Teachers must make the connections explicit during instruction to pay off.

Studies note that while reading and writing rely on a similar knowledge base, the processes are neither identical nor reversible—and they activate overlapping brain regions. Teaching reading or writing independently of the other doesn’t mean those learnings will automatically apply in the context of teaching (and learning) the other skill. So, it follows that instruction should be explicitly making those connections. Reading and writing must be brought together by the teacher in meaningful ways to realize the mutually beneficial returns to each domain.

What can this connection look like in a student’s learning progression? When students write about what they’ve read and learned, their reading comprehension improves because they’ve had to think more deeply and communicate their thoughts in written format.

Writing instruction improves reading fluency, too, because when students are forced to stop and think about spelling patterns and word choice, they make a stronger connection in their brains, improving their ability to recall those same sound–spelling patterns when they read.

Written language represents spoken code. The more students engage with that code through the act of writing, the more their skills grow in understanding the same code in reading.

Writing also improves reading comprehension as students become more adept at formatting their writing, using the same thoughtful text structures they analyze when reading. Think of reading as the inhale and writing as the exhale. But students must be taught to breathe properly.

However, despite clear evidence of the reading–writing connection, instructional practices leveraging the relationships between the two domains often aren’t firmly in place in classrooms. This lack may be in part because our alarm bells have been going off about reading based on what studies and test scores are telling us, and from what teachers are seeing firsthand in the classroom.

Additionally, we expect much of students’ information and learning experience to come from reading, which makes reading issues readily apparent to teachers. But in the younger grades especially, writing doesn’t come under as much scrutiny, since we often expect student responses to be verbal. This means that writing doesn’t necessarily surface as a concern as early as reading does.

And, historically, time for writing instruction and practice in classrooms has gotten short shrift, for several reasons.
• The time crunch. Elementary teachers are generalists tasked with covering multiple subjects each day. Add in lunch, recess, and specials, and the time shrinks considerably. With many standardized tests not requiring students to generate their own writing, class time can shift to those skills that educators and administrators know are going to be tested.
• Insufficient teacher training. Few college courses are explicitly geared toward preparing early elementary teachers with methodology to teach writing. A lack of adequate strategies could have less-experienced teachers shying away from teaching a subject they’re uncomfortable with.
• Writing can just plain feel difficult, even to adults. Many teachers have less confidence in their own writing, and their focus can gravitate toward teaching reading because it’s a more comfortable space.

Prime the Pump by Incorporating Meaningful Opportunities to Write in the Classroom
We can lean on the science of literacy to develop teaching practices that elevate all aspects of literacy in tandem, where instruction and practice support the end goal of guiding students to become excellent communicators both in and out of the classroom—reading, writing, listening, and speaking in thoughtful ways.

Here are some tips and tricks that elementary teachers can add to their toolboxes to incorporate additional opportunities to write and enhance reading skills and comprehension.
• Incorporate reading response, encouraging students to write responses to texts focused on their opinions or feelings. Younger students can include pictures or use sentence frames to help convey meaning.
• Teach writing skills in a way that mirrors the reading skills practiced during text analysis. For example, when looking at text structures together in a read-aloud, find opportunities for students to apply those structures to organize the ideas in their own writing.
• Encourage students to write in their own voices, using modeling to demonstrate how, and then inviting students to share their work.
• When teaching about plot in literature, have students try their hands at creating a new story ending that still makes sense given the setting, characters, and problem to be solved.
• Use sentence stems and scaffolding to set students on a path to success with independent writing.
• Create writing partners or groups, which empower students to collaborate, discuss their writing, and share their voices.

Leverage the Connection between Foundational Skills and Writing
In the younger grades, don’t overlook encoding, which can be underrepresented in early literacy instruction. Following the research, phonics instruction focuses heavily on decoding as students learn to map sounds onto graphemes to read printed text. Decodable texts, an essential part of a science of reading–informed classroom, then allow students to apply the specific, targeted phonics skills they’ve learned as they read.

But decodables can be valuable tools for developing writing skills, too. Writing, after all, has its equivalent of foundational skills—spelling and transcription, which are both natural extensions to the process of encoding. What might that look like? “Wordless decodables” can be an effective way to integrate decoding, encoding, spelling, and transcription skills. Consider a scenario in which students:
• Read a decodable to practice decoding words with their newly learned phonics skills.
• Receive the same decodable but without the text, and create a blank, or wordless, decodable featuring only the images.
• Write a story—as a whole class, in small groups, or individually—using their target phonics skills. During this step, students orally segment a word to identify its phonemes. Then, they map the phonemes to the letter representations and write them onto the page to spell the word.

This three-step process creates a natural bridge from printed text to sounds and back from sounds to printed text.

Class Dismissed!
With so many ways to connect literacy skills—and knowing the inherent benefits of doing so—we must expand our view of what the science of reading really supports: evidence-based practices designed to improve the full spectrum of literacy skills.

Elementary students need a strong foundation in reading and writing. Evidence-based instructional practices employing a holistic approach to literacy education—including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocab, comprehension, writing, speaking, and listening—establish that foundation in reading and writing.

By building a literacy program informed by the research behind the science of reading and using a balanced approach to teaching reading and writing, teachers empower their students to understand and process information and communicate their ideas clearly and effectively.

Links
1. www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/our-insights/covid-19-and-education-the-lingering-effects-of-unfinished-learning
2. www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2022/03/03/the-pandemic-has-had-devastating-impacts-on-learning-what-will-it-take-to-help-students-catch-up
3. www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/which-states-have-passed-science-of-reading-laws-whats-in-them/2022/07
4. www.thereadingleague.org/what-is-the-science-of-reading

Laura Fischer is the VP of learning design and content development at Learning A–Z. With over 20 years of experience in educational publishing, edtech, and classroom teaching, Laura leads the strategic vision, design efforts, and execution for content across Learning A–Z’s products. Driven by research and pedagogical best practices, she strives to ensure learning experiences that support all students where they are, in ways that are meaningful to them, to improve learning outcomes.

Weaving Feeling into Learning


Teaching students social–emotional skills like collaboration, communication, decision-making, and confidence sets them up for success in endless everyday scenarios. These skills especially help students who may have experienced a delay in social and emotional learning during the pandemic.

Students with well-developed social–emotional skills (SEL)1 are more likely to have:
• Increased academic achievement;
• Improved prosocial attitudes and behaviors;
• A greater understanding of themselves and ability to empathize with others;
• Reduced emotional stress.

Students reap the highest rewards when you embed SEL into your curriculum and instruction thoughtfully and intentionally—and not as a standalone lesson or program. SEL empowers all students to learn skills beyond core school subjects to identify their feelings, make empathetic decisions, communicate with others, and build strong relationships. You can implement the following four strategies to create opportunities for SEL in the classroom.

1. Fostering Positive Learner Identity
Learner identity encompasses the habits and attitudes influencing the learning process and how children understand themselves as learners. You help build identities that will serve students positively throughout their educational journeys. When teachers use modeling and classroom activities to invite and encourage students to foster positive learning identities, magic happens. Students grow to become more comfortable:

• Persevering amid challenges and setbacks in the classroom—Students focus on strategies to overcome challenges rather than entering a cycle of negative thinking that undermines their competence. Tell your students it’s okay not to have all the answers. Errors and misunderstandings are part of the learning process for everyone. When students ask for help and persevere during challenges, they embrace learning resiliency.

• Actively engaging in the learning process—Student engagement positively affects their growth across all subjects.2 Engaged students care about what they’re learning. They feel motivated and excited to learn and take ownership of their learning. You can measure engagement through observable behaviors (are students listening attentively, turning homework in on time, and participating in discussions?) or internal states (do students demonstrate curiosity, enthusiasm, and interest?).

• Feeling a sense of agency—Students take leadership roles in their learning and development. For example, offer students the choice of what to read. Give options for tasks or assignments. Small decisions become extremely meaningful as learning tools because they empower students to learn responsibility and cultivate autonomy in positive ways.

When students develop positive learner identities, their self-efficacy and self-esteem increase and they see more success in the classroom.3 You can foster this development by personalizing learning experiences. Educators can use education technology to personalize content and match each student to tasks within their own zone of proximal development—the space between what a student can do without assistance and what a student requires teacher guidance or peer collaboration to complete. Incorporating a “productive struggle” helps students learn to persist in the face of a challenge.

Personalization isn’t just a strategy for giving students access to knowledge—it’s also about giving students access to success and a love of learning. The more often you can turn on light bulbs for students, making them feel like successful learners, the more you’ll see improved academic outcomes and behaviors.

2. Developing Executive Function Skills
Executive function refers to skills like time management, planning, and creative problem-solving that allow students to concentrate, organize, complete tasks, and work toward goals. These skills increase students’ success with academic tasks and assist students in managing other complex life challenges. Learning executive function skills is also a huge step toward maturity for kids.

Executive function skills begin to develop from birth and don’t fully develop until early adulthood, when the brain’s prefrontal cortex reaches maturity. Executive functioning doesn’t refer to a single ability, and skills don’t develop linearly. The major components of executive function, which mature at different rates, include:
• Inhibitory control—An ability to control impulses, like a child staying seated on a rug during story time and focusing on the book a teacher is reading.
• Working memory—A short-term memory that temporarily stores and manipulates information, like learning new routines at the beginning of the school year until the new routines just become habit.
• Cognitive flexibility—The ability to switch between thinking about different topics, like how teachers help students transition from one subject to another throughout the school day.

Environmental factors like early childhood stress resulting from challenging family situations or health issues can hinder the development of executive function.

But executive function skills can improve. Educators can teach executive function skills and create opportunities for students to learn and practice them alone and in group settings.

Post a daily schedule to offer structure to students and help them learn time management, or encourage active listening to help students regulate their impulses to speak when others are talking.

Teaching executive function skills helps students transition toward independence. And these skills don’t just help in school. The executive function skills students learn in the classroom help them succeed outside the school environment and, eventually, beyond graduation as they become productive community members.

3. Introducing Windows and Mirrors
Mirrors enable students to see themselves positively reflected in the content. Students look for people like themselves in the stories they read and feel a better sense of connection to the curriculum when they find relatable characters. Mirrors validate a student’s perspective, supporting their identity and boosting their feelings of self-worth.

Windows are stories and lessons about life from a different perspective unfamiliar to the student. This content gives students exposure and helps them gain more empathy and a deeper understanding and appreciation of others’ experiences and feelings.

In a global community, this windows and mirrors approach reminds students they’re not alone while also teaching tolerance and appreciation for those who are similar to them and different from them. Schools should work together with their staff, parents, and others in the community to choose content best suited to a diverse student population.

4. Modeling Prosocial Behavior
Students learn from watching their parents, other family members, and role models—including teachers. The content you use with students should model prosocial behaviors, like acts of kindness, compassion, empathy, generosity, and honesty.

But understanding and managing emotions poses a challenge for everyone, especially younger students, so model those positive behaviors. When students see you modeling positive relationships and healthy interactions, they’ll begin to emulate those behaviors independently. On top of modeling prosocial behaviors, give students tools to practice and apply those behaviors in the classroom. For example, take the time to teach your class about feelings and emotions. Ensuring your students have the right vocabulary to express themselves helps them better empathize and communicate with others. Through practice and conversations, students learn to act empathetically and improve their self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and decision-making processes. SEL isn’t limited to a monthly guidance counselor session—this learning happens every minute students are in school. Model SEL skills and remain attentive to your impact on kids during each school day to watch students’ social-emotional development thrive.4 Cultivating SEL builds academic confidence, promotes prosocial behavior, and increases students’ ability to succeed in school and life.

Links
1. www.learninga-z.com/site/resources/breakroom-blog/fostering-social-emotional-learning
2. www.gallup.com/education/267521/focus-student-engagement-better-academic-outcomes.aspx
3. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9384863
4. www.learninga-z.com/site/resources/breakroom-blog/social-emotional-learning-guide

Lisa O’Masta is the president of Learning A–Z (www.learninga-z.com), an educational technology company that’s delivering digital learning resources to thousands of teachers and students across the world through its robust technology platform offerings. As an innovative change agent and leader in the K–20 education market, Lisa brings over 20 years of leadership experience in product management, marketing, product development, team development, P&L management, customer experience, and operational excellence to dynamic organizations seeking to change and grow.

Russian Schools Begin to Offer Swahili and Amharic

In Russia’s capital Moscow, three schools have introduced the teaching of either Swahili or Amharic as a second foreign language this fall.

According to Sputnik Africa, the new step in language education for young Russians is key for building economic, diplomatic, and cultural ties with the African continent.  

Alexandre Solomassov, principal of the Moscow school № 1522, explained why learning Amharic, the most widely-spoken language in Ethiopia, is an asset for young Russians.

“Our country’s cooperation with African countries is developing rapidly and one of our main tasks as a school is to create all the conditions for our students to start preparing for the professions and the new challenges of tomorrow today,” he said.

The African continent is perceived as one of the fastest growing business markets in the world, and knowledge of local languages is regarded as beneficial for investment, business, and international relations, Solomassov explained to Sputnik News.

At Solomassov’s school, Amharic is taught by two students from the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Amharic teacher Milena Koniaeva, explained that the demand for Amharic language education has risen since Ethiopia was invited to join the BRICS countries, making it “more relevant than ever.”

Konieva added, “Ethiopia has one of the most cordial relationships with Russia. Amharic is the lingua franca spoken by most, if not all, Ethiopians. And to establish a diplomatic dialogue or economic ties, the Amharic language can certainly become a key factor.”

Sophia Zamessina, another teacher at the school, affirms that the cultural understandings sparked by Amharic language education are fundamental to building a relationship between the two countries. 

“Language is the key to the African heart, the key to the human heart in general. If you talk to someone in their native language, it breaks down a lot more borders. And Africans also have great confidence in a person who speaks the same language as them,” Zamessina added.

According to the press service of the Department of Education and Science of Moscow, the study of African languages started in three schools from the new academic year, on September 1 2023. It is hoped that more schools will follow.

Campaign for Official Recognition of Catalan

The Catalan government has launched a Europe-wide PR campaign in the midst of negotiations to reform the list of official European Union (EU) languages.  

The campaign, lasting for eight days across all 27 EU countries and in 24 languages, consisted of large scale adverts in public spaces, broadcast media airtime, and social media posts to increase international public awareness of the demand for Catalan language recognition. 

Catalan is a romance language spoken primarily in the autonomous Eastern Spanish communities of Catalunya and the Balearic Islands, and it is the official language of the Principality of Andorra. As of 2021, Catalan speakers were approximated at around 9 million.

Catalan Foreign Affairs Minister, Meritxell Serret told Euractiv news “We want to explain that we seek this officialdom in an empathetic way, that they [EU citizens] see it in a positive way, and that they see that it is to reinforce this European project, to reinforce this richness and this diversity that is essential”. 

Minister Serret added that rather than focusing on only Catalan, the initiative is “in defense and praise of all languages.” After the Spanish general election in July, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares formally requested that the EU council begin to add Catalan, Basque, and Galician into the roster of official EU languages.

This was deemed as the first step by Catalan independence parties to secure mass support into forming a socialist government, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. 

The process was met with a mixed reception, as Spain urged other EU countries to come to a final decision by September 19. Concerns were raised over budget, practicalities, and what the decision could mean for other minority languages in Europe. 

Set for discussion again in the final weeks of October, Minister Serrtet notes that the proposal is still on track for steady progress. She stated “things are moving” and the overall position has not changed. She added “There may be questions that still require us to continue working to give them this certainty,” adding that the final dossier will not be approved until there is “technical and juridical” clarity.

Mandarin Learning Boom in Rwanda

As relations between China and many African countries strengthen, a Mandarin learning is booming all over the continent. 

In Rwanda, Chinese languages are gaining prominence as business and economic relations between the two countries grow. Mandarin is viewed as a practical language, invaluable for boosting business ties.

The Confucius Institute in Kingali, Rwanda’s capital, has become a central hub for Chinese language studies in the country. Students are offered the opportunity to compete for scholarships to study in China, with many returning to Rwanda to continue their careers as language teachers. 

Last month, Kingali hosted the East African Community (EAC) symposium on Chinese language education to discuss the development of cultural ties between the two countries and how it impacts Chinese language education across East Africa. 

The one-day event was organized by the College of Liberal Arts at Chongqing Normal University, in partnership with the Confucius Institute at the University of Rwanda and united  Rwandan government officials and scholars, as well as education professionals from Rwanda, China and the East African region.

Florien Nsanganwimana, principal of the University of Rwanda’s College of Education said at the event “The purpose of this symposium is to take Chinese language education in Rwanda to the next level because we are committed to raising the bar in Chinese language education…We aim to make Chinese language education more accessible to a broader audience in Rwanda and the East African region.”

Nsanganwimana added that the event was testament to the solid partnership between the two universities, and a momentous occasion to signify the progress in Chinese language education in Africa and cultural exchange. 

“As we deliberate on the development of Chinese language education in Rwanda and the broader East African region, let us not only celebrate our achievements but also look ahead to the exciting opportunities and challenges that await us. Together, we can continue to bridge cultures and foster mutual understanding,” he later said.

Deputy director of the College of Liberal Arts at Chongqing Normal University, Shui Qiang tuned into the event via video link and expressed how much the Chinese university looks forward to providing more support for the development of Chinese language education in Africa over the coming years. 

Shui added, “We are willing to share resources and experiences in the field of international Chinese language education with East African countries, jointly promoting cooperation and exchange in language, culture, and education.”

Kinyarwanda is spoken by most of the Rwandan population, with much of the youth mixing in some French with Kinyarwanda in a pidgin like way. in 2008, the government changed the medium of education from French to English.

Latinos’ View of Spanish in the USA


Last month, the Pew Research Center released the findings of its study “Latinos’ Views of and Experiences with the Spanish Language,” which confirmed the growing importance of Spanish in the U.S. and anticipates the probability of a majority bilingual nation. The study finds that most U.S. Latinos speak Spanish—75% say they are able to carry on a conversation in Spanish pretty well or very well. And most Latinos (85%) say it is at least somewhat important for future generations of Latinos in the U.S. to speak Spanish. However, not all Hispanics are Spanish speakers, and about half (54%) of non-Spanish-speaking Hispanics have been shamed by other Hispanics for not speaking Spanish. At the same time, 78% of U.S. Hispanics say it is not necessary to speak Spanish in order to be considered Hispanic.

Key findings of the report include:

While most U.S. Latinos speak Spanish, not all do. 24% of all Latino adults say they can only carry on a conversation in Spanish a little or not at all. Among third- or higher-generation Latinos, a much higher share are not Spanish speakers: Close to two-thirds (65%) of third- or higher-generation Latinos say they cannot carry on a conversation well in Spanish.
About half of U.S. Hispanics who do not speak Spanish have been shamed because of it. 54% of Hispanics who say they speak no more than a little Spanish say another Hispanic person has made them feel bad for it.
Some Hispanics make jokes about those who do not speak Spanish. Four-in-ten Hispanic adults say they hear other Hispanics make jokes, extremely often or often, about Hispanics who do not speak Spanish or don’t speak it well.
Spanglish use is widespread among U.S. Hispanics. A majority of U.S. Latinos (63%) say they use Spanglish at least sometimes, including 40% who say they do so often.
Personal Hispanic identity is related to views about Spanish. U.S. Hispanics who consider their Hispanic identity to be extremely or very important to how they think about themselves are more likely than other Hispanics to say it’s important for future generations to speak Spanish. They are also more likely to say it is necessary for someone to speak Spanish in order to be considered Hispanic.

For this report, Pew Research Center surveyed a nationally representative sample of 3,029 U.S. Latino adults, in English and Spanish, from Aug. 1 to 14, 2022. Findings among the sample often differ by nativity, immigrant generation, age, educational attainment and language use.
Pew Research Center, September 2023, “Latinos’ Views of and Experiences With the Spanish Language” (https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/2023/09/20/latinos-views-of-and-experiences-with-the-spanish-language/)

1...192021...332Page 20 of 332

Subscribe for exclusive content

Language Magazine is a monthly print and online publication that provides cutting-edge information for language learners, educators, and professionals around the world.

Subscribe

LanguageMagazine 2023

Language Magazine