Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching Second Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom

• Main Author: Gibbons, Pauline
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Heinemann 2002
• Subjects: Content Area Teaching; Diversity (Student); Elementary Education; English (Second Language); Integrated Curriculum; Language Minorities; Listening Skills; Mainstreaming; Reading Skills; Scaffolding; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Writing Skills
• ISBN: 0325003661; 9780325003665

This book explains that mainstream elementary classroom teachers with little or no English-as-a-Second-Language training can meet the needs of linguistically diverse students by integrating the teaching of English with the content areas of the regular curriculum. It begins with a strong theoretical underpinning for this practice, drawing on a functional model of language, sociocultural theories of learning, and current research on second language development. It demonstrates the ways in which content areas provide a context for teaching English skills, from speaking and listening to reading and writing. This integration is illustrated with a wide range of teaching and learning activities across the curriculum, supplemented with programming and assessment formats and checklists. Seven chapters focus on (1) "Scaffolding Language and Learning"; (2) "Classroom Talk: Creating Contexts for Language Learning"; (3) "From Speaking to Writing in the Content Classroom"; (4) "Writing in a Second Language across the Curriculum: An Integrated Approach"; (5) "Reading in a Second Language"; (6) "Listening: An Active and Thinking Process"; and (7) "Learning Language, Learning through Language, and Learning about Language: Developing an Integrated Curriculum." A glossary of teaching activities is included. (Contains 97 references.) (SM)