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Reading Conferences, Listening, and Identity

“I’m just thinking about if I was there right now,” says fourth-grader Zaima, her eyes sparkling as she indicates the paperback on her desk, Aisha Saeed’s Amal Unbound. “It’s about this girl called Amal. She’s actually from Pakistan like me, which is why I picked up this book. Because of the story of that kind of girl.” Her teacher at the Hong Kong Peak School, Sarah Cheng, nods and asks Zaima to say more. “Well, she lives somewhere in a part of Pakistan, which I do, too. She doesn’t live in Islamabad, but she lives in Punjab, which is another province next to Islamabad. She’s not exactly like me, her village is really very small, but it’s near Islamabad”—she motions excitedly with her hands to show the distance—“and they both have the same sort of markets, like with small stalls.”

Second-grader Shaquan’s book basket is filled with picture books about artists: Radiant Child is a colorful biography of Jean-Michel Basquiat; Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos describes how the Mexican painter was inspired by her pets. Monique, Shaquan’s teacher at a Harlem, New York, charter school, asks what made him pick these books. Shaquan shyly pulls out a pile of crayon drawings from his desk. “I like these books because I want to be an artist,” he answers in a quiet voice.

Ava, an eighth-grade student at Mt. Zaagkam school in Papua, Indonesia, frowns as she discusses the YA (young adult) novel Never Fall Down with Amy Richie, her English language arts (ELA) teacher. “What the author has done, the way the ending works, is he’s resolved the external conflict of Arn surviving the cruelty of the Khmer Rouge, but then introduced an internal conflict of him trying to figure out how to deal with regular life after that, going to normal high school.” Amy asks what this makes her think about. Ava shakes her head. “It makes me think about how sometimes people never get over stuff.”

What each of these reading conferences has in common is that the identity, experience, and observations of an individual child were put front and center; the young readers were invited to recognize and extend something within themselves. Moreover, by asking the student to “think about her thinking” (Keene and Zimmermann; Heinemann) the teacher was able to call attention to a real-life purpose for reading. One is to not feel alone in the world, like Zaima’s experience reading about other Pakistani girls. Another could be to explore whom we want to become, like Shaquan did in choosing books about artists. Reading can also help us understand and empathize with lives and experiences we don’t know firsthand, as Ava felt when reading Never Fall Down.

An individual reading conference is one powerful way to teach these real-life purposes. Together with making sense of the words on the page, children learn to recognize and extend their own lines of thinking. When we feel this sort of ownership, reading feels very different than when we are told what to think about— and motivation to succeed increases exponentially. This is important for students at any level but particularly critical for children who are considered “below grade level.” When the unique perspective of an individual reader is prioritized, her self-confidence grows exponentially. As Frank Smith (1987) put it, children begin to feel themselves “members of the literacy club” and become deeper, more critical thinkers.

This is not just a poetic way of looking at comprehension. Gholdy Muhammad, in Cultivating Genius (Scholastic, 2020), recounts how in the 19th century, African Americans formed literary societies of their own in response to anti-literacy laws and policies. They defined one of their primary goals, or learning pursuits, as identity development through literacy. When we consciously balance what the words on the page say with what the reader thinks, not prioritizing one over the other, students feel more engaged and think more deeply. They also develop a sense of their own individual reading personalities. Am I the sort of reader who compares my decisions to those of the main character? Do I question the facts an author includes in an editorial before deciding on my own point of view?

The key to conferring successfully is listening to children, but in a different way than we may be used to. Naturally, it is important to assess through the lens of standards and year-end expectations—but it’s also critical to understand who each individual student is as a reader. “There are many ways for us to convey information to kids,” JoAnn Portalupi, educator and author, advises. “A conference is one place they can convey information to us.”

The not-so-subliminal message we send with this sort of listening is yes, your thoughts matter. Some of the most meaningful moments in life are when we feel understood by another person. Moreover, feeling listened to—really listened to—can help us understand ourselves in ways we didn’t before.

There are, of course, many ways to listen. I’ve found that four principles in particular open doors for students and teachers.

Four Principles of Listening in Reading Conferences
1. Concentrate on learning before you worry about teaching.

2. Be curious. Ask questions.

3. Listen for the strength, not the deficit.

4. Listen for the general in the specific.

Concentrate on learning before you worry about teaching.
One of the greatest sources of anxiety for teachers when they sit down to confer is deciding the perfect thing to teach. There are so many choices—curriculum objectives, standards for the grade, goals for specific students indicated by formal assessments. What is the most appropriate thing to address today? It’s easy to second guess our decisions and feel enormous pressure to get it right. While it’s always a good idea for a teacher to think ahead of what she knows about a particular student—strengths, struggles, possible directions—in the first couple minutes of a conference, it is wise to prioritize learning over teaching. What is this student thinking about, struggling with, excited about, in this particular moment? Is there anything I recognize as a pattern? Of course we want to address predetermined goals for individual children, but it’s important not to let these good intentions get in the way of listening to and learning from the student.

Jason Coleman, a fifth-grade teacher at the International School of Ghana, tells of the pressure he felt in his early conferences. “I was driving myself crazy worrying about finding the right thing to teach, to the point where I wasn’t even listening to the kid! So I decided to go one round with each student without teaching them anything. I just listened and took notes,” he explains. “It was amazing how much more relaxed I felt on the second round! Because of those first conferences, I had lots of ideas about possible directions and was able to really focus on what the student was saying. It was much easier to come up with meaningful teaching points.”

Be curious. Ask questions.
Most people who choose to become teachers do so, at least in part, because they are interested in the way children think. Sadly, as the realities of accountability, school and district mandates, and standardized testing take over, it’s easy to lose sight of this initial passion. With so little time and so much to cover, we understandably feel too much pressure from above to allow ourselves the luxury of curiosity.

Yet if our objective is to find the most effective entry point for individual students, being curious about what they are thinking is no luxury—it is a necessity. “Childhood has its own way of seeing, thinking, and feeling,” cautioned Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his seminal 1762 study Emile, or On Education, “and nothing is more foolish than to try to substitute ours for theirs.” In other words, children are not just miniature adults—and it’s a mistake to assume we can help them to understand without first figuring out how they understand.

In a conference, teachers have the opportunity to reclaim that fascination with children’s minds they felt when entering the field. Taking the time to be curious is a win–win. The student feels honored that a significant adult is paying attention, and the adult gets to enjoy each child’s unique perspective. (No small thing—shouldn’t this work be fun?) Formal assessments yield meaningful information about young readers and writers, but they are only half the picture; how that data does or doesn’t dovetail with what we observe up close and personal fills in the blanks. One way to channel this curiosity productively is to ask students to elaborate on their initial thinking, rather than jumping in or moving on after the first words they say. Usually when children are asked to share ideas in school, they haltingly express a thought and the teacher quickly moves on to the next volunteer. But as Ellin Keene (2012) points out, the first thing out of anyone’s mouth is rarely their best thinking. Chances are if a phrase, idea, or word choice strikes a teacher as interesting, it is worth asking the child to elaborate. A general rule of thumb is to listen for the most interesting parts of what students say and ask them to “say more about that” at least three times before leaping in with teacher content.

Listen for the strength, not the deficit.
When a teacher sits one-on-one with a child, the usual tendency is to listen for what that student can’t do. With so little time to address individual needs, doesn’t it make sense to help kids with their struggles on those rare occasions when no one else is around? Yet it’s important to keep in mind that if the usual subject of a conference is what the student does least well, that child is not going to look forward to the conversations.

The sweet spot in teaching is figuring out what a learner is just beginning to understand, but needs scaffolding in order to become independent—and then to follow that lead. Lev Vygotsky (1978) calls this the zone of proximal development— “the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance.” Carl Anderson (2019), in A Teacher’s Guide To Writing Conferences, describes this as “listening for the partial understanding.” What is the young reader starting to notice that she can’t quite put a name to? Which part of what that student said suggests a next step for teaching?

Put simply, it is more effective to confer to the strength than the deficit. This takes practice, to be sure. It’s a shift away from our usual mindset of prioritizing what the student does not know. But when teachers get in the habit of listening for a partial understanding and using it as the jumping-off point for instruction, results can be powerful and lasting.

Recognizing what a student is starting to think about, putting a name on it, and then suggesting a way to go further makes the learning (and teaching) feel like a collaborative effort. And from the child’s point of view, when the teaching point comes from something they are noticing, it creates a feeling of ownership. They begin to look forward to the next conference.

Listen for the general in the specific.
Children are concrete thinkers. “The child often sees only what he already knows,” suggests Piaget (1954). When it comes to reading, today’s lesson is only about the book we are reading at this moment. It’s easy for teachers to look through a similar lens. The problem is, when students move on to their next book, they often don’t see how the strategy from yesterday’s lesson connects to today’s work.

It’s not that there is no value in pointing out particular examples in the book we are working with today—indeed, if our teaching isn’t grounded in the specific, the student is unlikely to know what we are talking about. But the key move if we want our teaching to stick is to start with the specific and then move to the general. In other words, help students understand how what we taught them today can apply to the book they will be reading tomorrow—make the teaching point transferrable.

One way to think about this is that our priority should be to teach the reader, not the book. It’s unlikely a fourth grader will fall behind in her ability to comprehend if she misses some of the nuances in Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming; what matters is that she takes something from this reading experience to apply to the next book, and the book after that.

Listening to specifics with an eye toward the general is for many the most challenging part of conferring well. To do this effectively, a teacher must (again) listen for the partial understanding, usually something specific to today’s book—and then build on it. When articulating this teaching point, it’s important to use general, transferrable language that can apply to future reading. For example, rather than just pointing out the way E.B. White’s description of the barn creates a lonely feeling in Charlotte’s Web, we may use that as an opportunity to teach how setting can convey a mood in other books as well.

The bottom line is, when we discuss with a second grader why it’s important to notice Nate the Great’s traits, he is likely to think that’s a great thing to do when you read Nate the Great. At the age of seven, he probably won’t realize paying attention to the way characters act is helpful in understanding any story. To become skilled independent readers, students need a repertoire of strategies that can be used across many types of books. Listening for specifics in a conference with an eye toward teaching something transferrable is one powerful, personal way to help children make such connections.

Though reading conferences are, by definition, one-to-one teaching, it’s a mistake to think of them as private and confidential. When students have regular opportunities to share their perspectives with other readers in the class, they gain new ways of experiencing text and thinking about the world. Through teachers accessing the spark in each student and taking time to celebrate the class’s diversity of ideas, children widen their own comprehension repertoires and learn to appreciate other points of view. When each reader’s ideas and identity are given equal airtime in a classroom, comprehension instruction can be a democracy of thought.

Dan Feigelson is a national and international literacy consultant who has traveled the globe, leading institutes, workshops, and lab sites on the teaching of reading and writing. An early member of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, he worked for decades in New York City public schools as a teacher, staff developer, curriculum writer, principal, and local superintendent. Dan is the author of Radical Listening: Reading and Writing Conferences to Reach All Students, published by Scholastic.

Breaking the Math Language Barrier


How many teachers have overheard a frustrated student, after grappling with a concept such as adding fractions or solving algebraic equations, declare: “I’m just not a math person”?

It’s a common enough occurrence, to the point where it’s an accepted part of our culture to think that some people just aren’t as adept at learning math as others.

Yet, if we were to dig deeper into the struggles of these students, we might find it’s not actually a problem with math. Instead, it might be a language barrier. With the right approach to instruction, we can help students avoid this challenge and become confident math practitioners.

The Math Language Barrier
Math has a complex language of its own, complete with its own vocabulary (and vernacular). To some students, words like addend, divisor, quotient, factor, and denominator can seem intimidating. Not having a clear understanding of the concepts associated with these terms can serve as a barrier to math achievement. But it’s not just the terms unique to math that can trip up students. As a research article by Michael Bulaon observes, the language of math also uses familiar English-language words in different contexts from those to which students are accustomed.1 The word set, for instance, means something else altogether in the context of math.

The technical language of math can discourage some students and cause them to doubt their own abilities.

As the National Mathematics Advisory Panel has pointed out, this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, in which students struggle precisely because they believe they’re not capable of learning.2

The problem can be even more acute for English language learners, who—in addition to the actual math concepts—are trying to learn a second new language (math) within the context of a first new language (English).

Keys to Success
With the right approach, language doesn’t have to be an obstacle standing in the way of math success. Educators can borrow strategies that are familiar to language instructors to help teach math concepts. Here are three ways teachers can help students build their math vocabulary and develop a strong growth mindset.

1. Introduce math concepts without language to remove barriers to entry.
Beginning math instruction with a visual approach that relies on students’ innate spatial-temporal reasoning can make math more broadly accessible. When we remove language as a barrier to understanding, the concepts are accessible to more students, regardless of their skill level or proficiency with language. In this initial stage of learning, teachers can use manipulatives and/or visual representations of problems to help students understand new math concepts.

For instance, when learning about fractions, students might see an image of five identical boxes, three of which are open and two of which are closed. They might be tasked with recreating the same ratio of open and closed boxes. In the process, they’re learning the concept of fractions as a ratio without the meanings of these words getting in the way.

2. Honor the math understanding and language that students already possess.
Students are not blank slates. They come to us knowing a lot of math already. They might not know the formal language for describing that math, but they already grasp the underlying concept. Teachers can leverage this existing knowledge to help students expand their understanding.

For example, students who are football or basketball fans are already familiar with the words quarter and half in the context of a game. There are students who will beatbox or drum on their desks, and they’re keeping time in fractions without even being aware of this fact. They’re already working with fractions, but it’s not math to them.

We’re all mathematical beings. It’s important for students to understand they use math every day, they just don’t know it. By connecting students’ prior knowledge to key math concepts, we can deepen their understanding while showing them they’re fully capable of doing math.

3. Transition this knowledge into formal math language.
Once students have shown that they understand the underlying math concepts, teachers can introduce the formal math vocabulary for describing these operations. To return to the example of fractions, once students have demonstrated that they grasp the idea of a fraction as a part of the whole, then teachers can show them how to express this mathematically, explaining what the top and bottom numbers in a fraction are called, and so on.

A More Equitable Approach
When students claim they “can’t do math,” it affects not only their math achievement but their performance in other classes. Students start to doubt their abilities, and this can have a snowball effect on their learning. Having students master core math concepts before introducing them to the language of math, and then using this understanding to help them learn the formal language, makes math more accessible for kids. It’s a much more equitable approach to instruction that will build their confidence for deeper math learning, as well as learning across other subject areas.

Links
1. www.researchgate.net/publication/325968025_Why_is_the_language_of_mathematics_confusing_to_students

2. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED500486.pdf

Twana Young is vice president of curriculum and instruction at MIND Research Institute, whose ST Math program takes a visual approach to math instruction that is based in neuroscience. MIND’s new ST Math Immersion is a five-week summer program that reinforces math language and learning over the summer months. Prior to joining MIND, Young was a classroom teacher and district curriculum director for math, science, and instructional technology. She has more than 20 years of experience in education.

Gen Z Preferences for Post-Pandemic International Study

Gen Z international students are shifting their focus from rankings to degree outcomes when applying to universities, a global survey by INTO University Partnerships reveals.

Most Gen Z international students now place highest value on programs that will help them become successful when applying to a university. The survey conducted by the leading international education organization shows that 72% of students under 25 believe the ability of a university to give them the skills they need to succeed in the future is more important than rankings. Almost a fifth (17%) still think it is important to attend a highly ranked university, even if it is more expensive to do so. More than 1,200 Gen Z students from 93 countries participated in the survey, which was conducted in August 2021 and focused on hopes and aspirations of Gen Z students in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. China, India, Nigeria, Kenya, Japan, Australia, and Brazil were represented, among other countries.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has instilled a sense of pragmatism in Gen Z students. Rather than yearly rankings, they are looking for concrete evidence that higher education institutions will help them find long-term success in their careers and lives,” said Olivia Streatfeild, CEO of INTO University Partnerships. “The survey shows Gen Z are not just looking at outcomes for themselves but are also assessing universities on their credentials on issues they feel strongly about. This represents a generational shift—one universities and the international education sector must prepare for as we navigate into the new normal.” Millions of students leave home every year for studying abroad. In 2019 alone, 6.2 million students crossed borders for higher education. The global economic impact of international students is estimated to be in excess of US$350 billion. Gen Z make up 30% of the global population, and they constitute the largest share of the pool of prospective students. In addition to being practical, Gen Z students are more purpose-led in their pursuit of higher education abroad as a result of the pandemic. Alongside degree outcomes, 86% consider an institution’s track record on issues such as gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, and racial justice when applying to university. An overwhelming proportion (86%) seek an international degree so they can one day make the world a better place, according to the survey.

The poll also makes clear young people are opting for substance over style. Only 35% of respondents report they prefer to purchase brand-name products, while 52% report they are willing to pay more money for high-quality products regardless of brand.

“Hyperconnected as they are, Gen Z understand how the pandemic has deepened inequalities worldwide. Young people’s exposure to these challenges has galvanized them to act as catalysts of change—further proof of their resilience and resolve in the face of adversity. Helping students study abroad today means giving them the global perspective they need to address the world’s toughest problems tomorrow,” said Ms. Streatfeild.

The survey further confirms a strong activist bent among young people, 52% of whom have become more concerned about unemployment since the onset of COVID-19, with another 41% caring more about educational opportunities and 39% caring more about disease prevention. Gen Z also feel a great personal responsibility for enacting the change they want to see in the world—41% think it is down to them and their generation to solve social issues.

“I believe that as individuals, we have our own role to play in reducing the economic inequality,” said a Gen Z student from Indonesia who is studying abroad this year.

“No one person can make a change, but united we can,” said a Gen Z student from India who is studying abroad this year. “It’s everyone’s responsibility to do their bit. If people start playing their role in this world, most of the big problems will be resolved,” said a Gen Z student from Pakistan who is planning on studying abroad.

The full report of INTO University Partnerships’ Gen Z survey series can be accessed at https://media.intostudy.com/image/upload/v1643660532/INTOGlobal/Downloads/Insight%20and%20Intelligence/gen_z_impact_of_pandemic_on_outlook_on_life_and_study.pdf.

Is It Time for Us All to Learn English?

An awakening is happening in the business world in terms of language training. Companies are beginning to invest in training which helps the monolingual English speakers adapt their language while communicating with colleagues who speak English as a second language. An increasing number of “native English speakers” (a problematic term, but in this article, we’ll use it to mean monolingual English speakers) are acknowledging that they are equally responsible for clear communication and are beginning to do something about it. This actually isn’t all that surprising. Up to two billion people are estimated to speak some level of English in the world, which leaves the native speakers in the clear minority. In conversations where English is being used as a lingua franca, the native English speakers tend to present a high number of barriers to clear international communication. Our workshop for native speakers, entitled The Travel Adapter, introduces the concept by suggesting that “communication is not a one-way street, it is a dance between two or more people, and it can only work if both sides participate equally.”

The International Meeting
An oft-cited scenario that describes the modern-day reality looks like this: a group of German and Chinese colleagues are speaking together via Zoom, using English as their common language. The conversation is peppered with idiosyncratic grammar, but despite the sometimes nonstandard constructions, everyone is able to communicate clearly. All is moving along smoothly until two American teammates join the call and speak up. The virtual room falls silent. The microphones are slowly muted and the two native English speakers begin to dominate the call. Some of the German and Chinese colleagues have difficulty following along.

The native English speakers unknowingly create a series of obstacles the nonnative speakers have difficulty getting around: complex vocabulary, idioms, cultural references, acronyms, phrasal verbs… the list of obstacles is long. As the confusion grows, so does the stress, and the international participants begin to feel excluded from the conversation. This is the problem that native speakers and their managers are slowly waking up to. And the fastest way to solve this problem is to do a little training with the native English speakers in addition to the standard language training program offered to the nonnative speakers. It’s an approach that tackles the problem from both sides.

Here are five reasons more companies are deciding to include monolingual English speakers in their language programs:
1. It has a stronger ROI than training the second language speakers
Billions of dollars are spent annually in the English language training (ELT) industry. It’s an enormous investment of resources. This number often doesn’t include the hidden costs of language training for organizations. Do the employees do the training during their work hours? Are they paid their normal salary while participating? Let’s approach this from a business mindset. How many hours would it take an adult learner to reach an English level that the company considers acceptable? This number could easily reach into the hundreds. For reference: Cambridge English estimates that it would take about 600 hours of guided learning for a beginner to reach an upper-intermediate level (CEFR: B2). That’s eleven years of taking a one-hour English class per week! Now most adults do not begin their corporate language training from zero, but there is no denying that learning a language is something that requires time. The best way to speed things up, from a financial point of view, is to invite the monolingual English speakers into small workshops created specifically for them. With just a few tweaks, adaptations, and a heavy dose of language awareness, the native speakers will be able to more easily meet their colleagues in the middle of the fluency gap. A two-hour workshop is enough to get the ball rolling. A practical example: there are thousands of idioms in the English language. (We just saw one in the previous paragraph: to get the ball rolling.) How many of these do we expect our second language learners to memorize? How much time does that take? If the native speakers on the team become more aware of the language they use, they can then avoid complex expressions, rephrase them, or remember to check for understanding. The pressure on the English learner to learn all those unique idioms is suddenly removed, which means that time and energy can be spent elsewhere. After all, it is much faster to teach a native speaker adaptation strategies than to expect a learner to understand every cultural reference and idiomatic expression used in the English-speaking world.

2. It improves efficiency and helps avoid miscommunication
Poor communication leads to inefficiency. According to the Economist, poor communication can cost companies hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. When a second language speaker has difficulty understanding their native-speaking colleague, they are more likely to avoid things like answering phone calls, asking questions in presentations, or speaking up in meetings. This leads to delays, mistakes, and missed opportunities, which cost money. Far too many meetings end with the international colleagues guessing about the details of what native speakers said. Those small miscommunications can come back to haunt the group when it is later discovered something was misinterpreted or misunderstood. This is also true in written communication. Receiving easy-to-understand emails encourages a quicker response. Nobody wants to sift through a long paragraph of text searching for the message in their first language, let alone in a second language. People often set these emails aside for when they have time to sit down and process the complex English, which can create drastic delays.

3. It helps build stronger teams
Numerous studies have shown that empathy is a force for productivity, life–work integration, and positive work experiences. Listening to one’s speaking partner and adapting one’s English respectfully is a strong demonstration of empathy, which draws teams together. When the native speaker unintentionally makes the nonnative speakers feel excluded, confused, or ashamed, small cracks begin to form in the relationship. Communication may quickly move to email as people avoid virtual calls, driving the wedge between team members even deeper. Let’s not forget that everyone is dealing with internal pressures from their company that create stress— language difficulties just exacerbate these issues.

4. It generates more ideas
A survey (Business Spotlight, 2009) asking German businesspeople about their problems with native speakers highlights an interesting point: 41% of the respondents in the survey said they “found it difficult to interrupt discussions to give an opinion.” How many ideas are we missing by not hearing those opinions? When communication is difficult, the second language learner tends to blame themself. This often leads to lower self-confidence in that language as well as the possible fear of ridicule, both of which motivate people to be quiet. Clever solutions to important problems are unintentionally silenced. When the native speakers meet their colleagues in the middle by serving up easily digestible pieces of English, the doors are suddenly opened. The fear of language mistakes or the risk of not understanding is diminished, and ideas follow in their place.

5. It empowers employees (and supports diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) objectives)
Inclusion does not only have to do with skin color, sexual orientation, or gender issues. It also has to do with language, which is often used as a supposedly acceptable proxy for other types of unacceptable discrimination. Microaggressions around language and accent are reduced when the monolingual speakers learn to put themselves in the shoes of their nonnative-speaking colleagues. Through learning about how to adapt their language, the native speakers often develop a deeper understanding of why it is the fair thing to do.

The Beginnings of a New Industry?
Given the benefits that this type of training offers to corporate customers, one might wonder why it isn’t already a staple part of company training in the same way as occupational safety or diversity, equity, and inclusion. Why were classes not organized in combination with English lessons for the second language speakers? The answer to this is rather clear. Most organizers (and employees) simply assumed that native speakers were doing a good job already. Those times are changing. The combination of research, the growth of English around the world, and the push for inclusion are spurring this trend forward. Progressive organizations, health care providers, and universities are already booking workshops for their native English speakers and are showing measurable results. We are in the exciting early days of this training, but it seems that the monolingual English speakers of the world are finally acknowledging they have a part to play in clear communication.

References
Halsdorff, M. and Saunders, C. (2021). “The Travel Adapter: 23 simple lessons to help English speakers communicate successfully in global English.” https://canguroenglish.com/tta

Economist (Intelligence Unit) (2018) “Communication Barriers in the Modern Workplace.” www.lucidchart.com/pages/research/economist-report

Business Spotlight Online Survey (2009). Reported by B. Dignen (2013). “Communication for International Business,” Collins.

Matt Halsdorff has worked as a business English trainer in multinationals since 2004. He is interested in the intersection of language and culture and fights for equality in global communication. Cowriter of The Travel Adapter (2021).

Christian Saunders has been teaching English since 2010. He has more than 350,000 followers on social media as Canguro English, where he creates content about language learning and education reform. Cowriter of The Travel Adapter (2021).

Puerto Rican Writer Braschi Wins Spanish Award

Photo Credit: Laurent Eli Badessi

The North American Academy of the Spanish Language (ANLE) has bestowed its 2022 Enrique Anderson Imbert Award upon the renowned Puerto Rican writer Giannina Braschi.

This national award recognizes those who have made sustained and significant contributions to the knowledge and dissemination of the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures in the US.

“The jury unanimously selected Giannina Braschi, whose rich and bountiful career defies any simplifying classification,” announced Carlos E. Paldao, director of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language. “Her prolific career, which extends from groundbreaking research on Hispanic classics to her spectacular work as a renowned and award-winning creator, places her among the most innovative and influential voices of Hispanic letters in the United States. Braschi contributes to the dissemination of Hispanic culture and literature from the most avant-garde and invigorating perspective. She has left her imprint not only on the Spanish- but on the English-speaking world as well, given the prominence that some of her works have had in striking translations. Her writing reflects the richness of language taken to new linguistic and narrative heights by masterfully interweaving literary genres and linguistic explorations, in keeping with new forms of expression, of which she is a pioneer,” Paldao added.

Braschi expressed her elation at winning the academy’s highest honor. “It is particularly meaningful for me to receive this wonderful news on the anniversary of Cervantes’ life. My literary career begins with Cervantes. When I was 22 years old, I wrote an essay entitled ‘Five Fleeting Characters on Don Quixote’s Path,’ which centers on the Quixotic ideals: love, poetry, chivalry, liberty, and justice,” she explained. “The essay begins like this: ‘Don Quixote–Alonso Quijano, an old man: a dual creature with a cast that imprisons an intimate nucleus, a jingle bell, always restless and full of life.’ I consider this essay the beginning of my work. Now I am finishing a book entitled Putinoika, a term I’ve coined to define the era of Putin and Trump. We once had perestroika, and now we have Putinoika. We once had angels in America, as Tony Kushner said, and now we have Putinas in America. Whether I write in Spanish, Spanglish, or English, and no matter the genre, I always have these Quixotic ideals in my heart and in my mind.”

With a PhD in Hispanic literatures from the State University of New York, she taught at Rutgers University, the City University of New York, and Colgate University.

Her work represents an essential contribution to the advancement, strengthening, and expansion of the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures in the US, in addition to being highly innovative and of extraordinary intellectual value. She occupies a prominent place among Latin American intellectuals for her critical stance against American colonialism and for alternating the use of Spanish, Spanglish, and English in her work.

An amalgam of poetry, theater, and philosophy, Braschi’s best-known titles include Empire of Dreams (1988), about her sociopolitical, cultural, and linguistic relationship with New York City; Yo-Yo Boing! (1998), a work written in Spanglish that delves into such themes as racism, colonialism, and domestic violence; and United States of Banana (2011), a geopolitical tragicomedy that satirizes the fall of the American empire and the liberation of Puerto Rico.

Her publications have garnered considerable national and pan-Hispanic prominence and are widely taught in colleges and universities internationally. She is the subject of an extensive and ever-expanding critical bibliography, including a recent anthology edited by Frederick Luis Aldama and Tess O’Dwyer, Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi.

Braschi’s work has inspired countless cultural adaptations, from the musical compositions of Puerto Rican composer Gabriel Bouche Caro to the graphic novel version of United States of Banana by Swedish cartoonist Joakim Lindengren. She recently won the Cambiemos Award from the Spanish magazine Cambio 16.

“The decision of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language to select Giannina Braschi for the 2022 Enrique Anderson Imbert Award not only augments the international recognition of this distinguished Puerto Rican writer but also marks a milestone in pan-Hispanic openness to works that question—with masterful precision and without ideological clichés—the boundaries between genres and languages, articulating a polyphonic, philosophical, and poetic vision of the tragicomedy of postmodern globalism,” noted José Luis Vega, director of the Puerto Rican Academy of the Spanish Language. “Cervantes, whose memory is revered this week, would have certainly concurred with the jury’s decision. Congratulations, Giannina Braschi!”

Learn Local, Think Global


Our concept of global education needs to adapt more quickly to the reality of our increasingly interconnected societies, where kids play and chat online with friends all over the world, events oceans away have real consequences on Main Street, and new neighbors often speak a language we may have never heard. No longer should international education be the privilege of the few; it should permeate the curriculum so that different cultures and languages are no longer “foreign” to our children but fascinate and enthuse them.

For anyone who still thinks that American kids should only focus on their own country and that isolationism is even an option, just consider the current and obvious example of how the conflict in Ukraine has had such a wide range of worldwide repercussions, which in turn have had implications for daily life around the world. Our “pain at the pump” and other increased energy costs may be the most obvious consequence of sanctions against Russia, but you can add to them the effects of poor wheat production in Ukraine, which is causing shortages and strife in the Middle East and Africa, and the steady flow of Ukrainian refugees crossing into the US from Mexico. And, if that’s not enough, think about the greatest challenge that our children will face—the stabilization and maintenance of our environment, and how on earth that can be accomplished without understanding of and compromise with different cultures and societies.

Although we immediately think of study abroad as the classic mode of international education, it’s only the icing on the cake realistically. Global education can start in kindergarten, or even earlier, with the introduction of words from different languages, appreciation of international foods and customs, and understanding of different belief systems. Cosmopolitan schools have the advantage of students being able to share their cultures, but teachers in more monocultural schools can be creative to give them a more culturally diverse education. Dual language schools can be the perfect environment, but even there, educators may feel that teaching beyond the twin cultures may be too much when it might actually be exactly what is needed to help kids put their learning into context.

The enforced isolationism of school shutdowns has ironically given us an enormous opportunity to globalize our learning through the sudden adoption of remote learning practices. Now, through the use of Zoom, Google Docs, and other everyday programs, the idea of two classes of third graders on opposite sides of an ocean collaborating on a project while learning about each other’s cultures and languages seems completely feasible. Such projects need to become the norm rather than the exception. Despite the conservative backlash against the modernization of education to suit 21st-century goals, now we have the technology and skills to globalize our classrooms and curricula. Teaching tolerance is not enough, but fortunately our children can learn to understand, appreciate, and cherish the diversity of this world and its peoples before our lack of tolerance leaves it beyond repair.

Improving Language Equity for the Seals of Biliteracy

Heritage language learners add to the rich variety of the U.S.’s languages, yet all too often those very students are denied the recognition they deserve. The Seal of Biliteracy movement, which recognizes students who demonstrate proficiency in two languages, has swept across the U.S. like wildfire. The movement began in California in 2011, and now 43 states and the District of Columbia offer a State Seal of Biliteracy to qualified high school seniors. The original objective of Californians Together, the group that successfully campaigned for the first Seal, was to value multilingualism and “the high level of academic achievement associated with attaining literacy in multiple languages.” Yet too often these high school heritage learners are being denied access to the Seal of Biliteracy, just as are the thousands of bilingual learners in community-based heritage language schools. The Seal provides the perfect opportunity for educators in bilingual, English language, and world language contexts to come together and collaborate to give recognition to the language accomplishments of all these learners, who are striving to develop the language skills that are so critical to their success in life.

In some states, that original mission of recognizing heritage languages faces challenges. With notable exceptions, such as the Chicago Public Schools, which provides a majority of its Seals to heritage language learners, the bulk of State Seals are being awarded to native-English-speaking second language learners rather than bilingual heritage learners. Rules designed to provide rigor and credibility have had the undesired effect of creating disproportionate barriers to heritage learners that limit equitable access to this valuable award. Rather than fulfill the Seal’s original mission, the program has often deprived both individual students and their communities of affirming recognition and opportunity. It also devalues the language skills that are critically important to the economy, security, and cultural richness of these communities and the nation. Making the State Seals equally accessible to all students with language skills is essential if we are to be true to the American Dream.

Unintentional Inequity in Language Proficiency Testing
Earning a State Seal is not easy, and it shouldn’t be. Each individual state sets its own criteria for earning a Seal, generally ranging between intermediate-mid and advanced-low. Most states require a level of rigor in language testing to qualify for the award. As so often happens, discrimination is embedded in the details of regulations, even when the intentions of the regulations are good. For the 15 or so languages that are widely taught, multiple tests are available that assess all four skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) that make up biliteracy. The challenge comes for the many so-called less commonly taught languages, where four-skill tests are not commercially available, even if for many of these languages two-skill tests of speaking and writing are. In an attempt to create rigor, rather than accept the results of these two-skill tests, many states require that students with these less commonly taught languages (who are almost exclusively heritage speakers) create a portfolio of writing and speaking samples and some evidence of reading and listening skills intended to demonstrate proficiency in all four skills. Unfortunately, due to a lack of qualifying four-skill tests, coupled with the complexity and cost of creating portfolios, many of these students are simply excluded from earning a State Seal of Biliteracy.

The portfolio option, which generally requires samples in all four skills but is otherwise undefined, not only creates additional discriminatory barriers to heritage speakers but may actually reduce rigor. In contrast to commercial two-skill tests that undergo rigorous quality control, portfolios can be wildly inconsistent in terms of their requirements, inter-rater reliability, and cost. Moreover, recent research conducted by Avant Assessment, one of the providers of the two-skill tests, shows that students’ proficiency scores in the productive skills of speaking and writing are a highly reliable indicator of the minimum score those same students achieve on the receptive skills of listening and reading, respectively. Based on real proficiency data from over 15,000 recent test takers across seven representative languages who took Avant’s four-skill STAMP™ proficiency test and achieved at least an intermediate-mid score on the productive skills, their achieved receptive skill proficiency was at least as high as (and quite often higher than) their speaking and writing proficiency in approximately 93.5% of the cases. These data make a strong case that students who score at a proficiency level of at least intermediate-mid (STAMP™ Level 5) in the two-skill writing and speaking tests will also score at least at that level if tested on reading and listening (Egnatz and Santos, p. 26).

Two-Skill Language Testing Creates Opportunity for Advancement
In five states, recipients of the State Seal qualify for college credit. In other states, recipients can use their State Seals to fulfill a high school language requirement, whether they learned the language in school, at home, or in a community heritage language school. In Gates Foundation-funded research in seven districts in the Seattle area, heritage language students were given the chance to earn credits for their language skills with four-skill tests, or two-skill speaking and writing tests if a four-skill test was unavailable. Thanks to the testing, 21% of the participants earned the credits they needed to graduate from high school, and 10% were able to meet college entrance requirements who otherwise would not have had access to a four-year university (https://avantassessment.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/EducationNorthwest-ImpactofCompetencyBasedCredits.pdf).

Massachusetts recently changed its regulations to allow districts to accept results from commercially available two-skill tests to qualify students for the State Seal, and Michigan is working toward this change. With the combination of tests available from three testing companies, this change will enable speakers of 85 additional languages to qualify for the Seal through valid testing.

Such an approach goes a long way toward leveling the playing field and removing barriers to earning the State Seal, while increasing the consistency of the level of rigor for the Seals. If we are serious as a nation about equitable access to education, all states should follow the examples of Massachusetts and Michigan.

References: Egnatz, L. and Santos, V. (2021). Manuscript submitted for publication.

Angela Sherman is World Language Program supervisor at Detroit Public Schools Community District, Michigan.

Cornelius Godfrey is supervisor of educational equity, inclusion, and community relationships at Troy, Michigan School District.

Lini Athavale is at Marathi School of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

David Bong is CEO and co-founder of Avant Assessment.

New Key to Fluctuating Language Ability?

For years, the brain has been thought of as a biological computer that processes information through traditional circuits, whereby data zips straight from one cell to another. While that model is still accurate, a new study led by Salk Institute professor Thomas Albright and staff scientist Sergei Gepshtein shows that there’s also a second, very different way that the brain parses information: through the interactions of waves of neural activity. The findings, published in Science Advances last month, help researchers better understand how the brain processes information, including language.

“We now have a new understanding of how the computational machinery of the brain is working,” says Albright, the Conrad T. Prebys chair in vision research and director of Salk’s Vision Center Laboratory. “The model helps explain how the brain’s underlying state can change, affecting people’s attention, focus, or ability to process information.”

Researchers have long known that waves of electrical activity exist in the brain, during both sleep and wakefulness. But the underlying theories as to how the brain processes information—particularly sensory information, like the sight of a light or sounds—have revolved around information being detected by specialized brain cells and then shuttled from one neuron to the next like a relay.

This traditional model of the brain, however, couldn’t explain how a single sensory cell can react so differently to the same thing under different conditions. A cell, for instance, might become activated in response to a quick flash of light when an animal is particularly alert but remain inactive in response to the same light if the animal’s attention is focused on something else.

Gepshtein likens the new understanding to wave–particle duality in physics and chemistry—the idea that light and matter have properties of both particles and waves. In some situations, light behaves as if it is a particle (also known as a photon). In other situations, it behaves as if it is a wave. Particles are confined to a specific location, and waves are distributed across many locations. Both views of light are needed to explain its complex behavior.

Some sensory cell properties observed in the past were not easy to explain given the “particle” approach to the brain. In the new study, the team observed the activity of 139 neurons in an animal model to better understand how the cells coordinated their response to visual information. In collaboration with physicist Sergey Savel’ev of Loughborough University, they created a mathematical framework to interpret the activity of neurons and to predict new phenomena. The best way to explain how the neurons were behaving, they discovered, was through interaction of microscopic waves of activity rather than interaction of individual neurons. Rather than a flash of light activating specialized sensory cells, the researchers showed how it creates distributed patterns: waves of activity across many neighboring cells, with alternating peaks and troughs of activation—like ocean waves.

The researchers hypothesize that the same kinds of waves are being generated—and interacting with each other—in every part of the brain’s cortex, not just the part responsible for the analysis of visual information. That means waves generated by the brain itself, by subtle cues in the environment or internal moods, can change the waves generated by sensory inputs.

This may explain how the brain’s response to something can shift from day to day, the researchers say.

Make the School Day Longer?


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Will extra time in school help children make up for instruction lost because of the pandemic? The research is not encouraging: studies show that extending school time has no effect or a very small effect on learning (Patall, Cooper, and Allen, 2010; Kidron and Lindsay, 2014). Blad (2022) noted that one elementary school in Atlanta had positive effects from adding 30 minutes to the school day, but the school made extraordinary efforts, e.g., two adults in every classroom, tracking, and ongoing analysis of test scores.

Increasing instruction time by increasing homework is clearly not the answer. In fact, homework may not help at all. Based on his review of the research, Kohn (2007) concluded that “there is absolutely no evidence of any academic benefit from assigning homework in elementary or middle school. At the high school level, the correlation is weak and tends to disappear when more sophisticated statistical measures are applied.”

I suggest we try a different path: decrease school pressure and encourage pleasure reading.

In Stanovich and Cunningham (1993), college students who were more familiar with popular literature did better on a variety of tests of subject matter, including science, social studies, technology, and cultural knowledge, suggesting that those who read more know more. In fact, familiarity with popular literature (including books and magazines but not TV) was a better predictor of performance on subject-matter tests than high school grades.

(Of great interest is that those familiar with popular literature knew more about practical matters as well, knowledge relevant to everyday living, e.g., how a carburetor works, how many teaspoons are equivalent to a tablespoon.)

It is reasonable to hypothesize that knowledge we absorb from reading that we select ourselves lasts longer than what we learn from study. This was Plato’s view: “Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.”

Let’s try providing more access to interesting reading material by investing more in libraries and librarians, and let’s try giving young people more time to read for pleasure by reducing homework. As Kohn (2006) has pointed out, “authentic reading is one of the casualties of homework” (p. 175).

Sources
Blad, E. (2022). “Why Schools See Extra Time as the Solution for Making Up for Lost Instruction.” Education Week. www.edweek.org/leadership/why-schools-see-extra-time-as-the-solution-to-making-up-for-lost-instruction/2022/03
Kidron, Y., and Lindsay, J. (2014). “The Effects of Increased Learning Time on Student Academic and Nonacademic Outcomes: Findings from a meta-analytic review.” US Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory Appalachia. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs
Kohn, A. (2006). The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press.
Kohn, A. (2007). “Rethinking Homework.” www.alfiekohn.org/article/rethinking-homework/2007
Patall, E., Cooper, H., and Allen, A. (2010). “Extending the School Day or School Year: A systematic review of research (1985–2009).” Review of Educational Research, 80(3), 401–436. DOI:10.3102/0034654310377086
Stanovich, K., and Cunningham, A. (1993). “Where Does Knowledge Come From?” Journal of Educational Psychology, 85(2), 211–229.

Stephen Krashen is professor emeritus, University of Southern California. He is active in language acquisition, bilingual education, literacy, and heritage language development.

UN Celebrates Chic Chinese

On April 20, the United Nations (UN) Chinese Language Day and the second CMG Overseas Chinese Language Video Festival were celebrated with the theme of “China chic.” China chic, or guochao (国潮), started with the creation of trendy designs mixed with elements from traditional Chinese culture. It became widely known after the sportswear brand Li-Ning took the fashion world by storm with its Eastern-style designs at New York Fashion Week in 2018. That led to a growing number of Chinese brands creating a wave of China chic. “When we talked about China chic several years ago, it was just a kind of consumption trend created by brands. However, it has evolved into a cultural phenomenon favored by young people, a group proud of their culture,” said Ji Fangfang, associate professor with the Institute of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Tatiana Valovaya, director-general of the UN Office at Geneva, said that for over a decade, Language Days have been celebrated to encourage cultural diversity and strengthen multilingualism, and that the UN in Geneva sees the importance of supporting multilingualism as a key component in advancing its agenda of Sustainable Development Goals, adding that Chinese is one of the world’s oldest languages and so the legacy and wisdom it carries are an essential part of our collective humanity.

The festival highlighted China’s ancient culture and China chic—a modern take on traditional Chinese heritage is an opportunity to promote Chinese cultural diversity among the younger generation and to empower those for whom Chinese is not a first language. Mr. Shen Haixiong, president and editor-in-chief of China Media Group, said that Chinese Language Day is designed to celebrate the diversity of both language and culture, thus promoting multilateralism. He added that, as the flagship state media organization, China Media Group will continue to work to break down barriers and promote mutual understanding, creating a more peaceful world and building a community with a shared future for humankind. Haixiong believes that by bringing together thought, art, and technology, the festival can better share how traditional Chinese culture has developed and continues to innovate.

H. E. Mr. Chen Xu, ambassador extraordinary and permanent representative of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva, said in his speech that without understanding the splendid Chinese culture, it was hard to really understand the unique spiritual world of the Chinese people, and similarly, without understanding the developing trends of modern China, it was difficult to understand China’s present and future. The video festival showed original video works from nonnative Chinese speakers under the China chic theme, with a video contest called “Foreigners Look at China Chic” and an awards ceremony.

Nearly a thousand video entries from 45 countries and regions were received, and 14 works were selected for nine awards by a jury composed of people with various backgrounds in China and abroad.

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