**FTS-HHS ACF**

**Moderator: Christine Cox**

**May 14, 2008**

**1:00 pm CT**

Operator: Good afternoon and thank you for standing by. All lines will
be in a listen-only mode until the question and answer session. To ask a
question, please press star 1. Today's conference is being recorded. If
anyone has any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Now I'll
turn the meeting over to Ms. Christine Cox. You may begin.

Christine Cox: Hi, this is (Christy) Cox here in Seattle, Washington.
Welcome to the Region 10 conference call for May. We are discussing
supporting English learning -- English language learners. And I'm here
today with my colleague, (John ). (John), do you want to say hi?

(John Borrero): Hello everyone.

Christine Cox: (John) is my colleague from Region 2 so he's over in New
York. So today we're going to be introducing the -- some concepts, some
information, and especially some resources and tools around supporting
English language learners. And the general goal of the call I'm hoping
is awareness raising, not only around the topic but also around these
tools and resources that we're going to highlight.

(John ): One -- for those people who want to follow along using their
Power Point, we're going to move on to the agenda, the second -- page 1.
The agenda for today -- our goal for today really is to bring the group
from -- to talk about English language, starting with the research and
moving into practice which is often I'll in Head Start.

So what we really want to do is to clarify ways in which our work is
informed by the academic research community, the community outside of
our Head Start program.

So going through the bullets here -- we want to start off with some
(cameos) so we have some people from your region that are going to
contribute some of what their experiences are and then we're going to go
from there to frame that in Head Start, talk about some Head Start
mandates that apply to some information received.

We're going to start with some -- and then we're going to continue on
from there, talk about some research that's relevant to this topic, then
(Christy) and I want to stop and we want to take some questions and
comments from the group.

This is going to be our opportunity to really check in with the group
and see how everyone's doing, see if there're any points in which we may
have lost a bunch of people and if there are any ways in which the group
would like to help us clarify our discussion from there on.

And after that we'll go back and continue -- the group will go back into
listener mode and we'll talk about some best practices. So there we
start to go into the practice mode.

From best practices, and hopefully at this time this is all very
optimistic. We're hoping that after we get to best practices we do have
time to go into systemic approach. We've got a very full agenda and
we've got a lot to share with you so we're going to try and get through
the whole thing.

But as we get towards the end we realize the chance of not getting into
is higher. But so we'll get to systemic approach. We'll talk about how
to take these lessons back with us and really apply them to the larger
system. And then we'll share some resources with you and if we have time
at the end, opening it up again for some questions and comments.

Christine Cox: Great, thank you so much (John).

(John ): Sure.

Christine Cox: Let's go ahead and we are going to ask the conference
coordinator if she will open up the lines just for questions, or for our
cameo appearances. If we could hear from (Tammy McEnroe), (Kim
Baumgart), (Jane Davies) and (Joan Youngquist) and on our Power Point
slide we're on slide 2.

So these are the folks that are going to just take a couple of minutes
and share some information about not only their programs but their
interest in the topic of supporting English language learners.

Operator: Okay, and if your name was called, please press star 1. Okay,
(Jane Davies), your line is open.

(Jane Davies): Hi, I'm (Jane Davies). I'm from Seattle and this is a
very interesting topic for us because we have a very diverse program.
Our model is early Head Start and Head Start with three sites and a home
base program. We are in central and south Seattle and we partner with
one child care center.

Most classes are half day. We serve 264 children and these are the
percentages as far as break down in nationality or ethnicity. Twenty
percent are African American, 28% are Latino, 20% are Vietnamese and 32%
are other ethnicities with about 20% of that being East African.

Our home languages are 35% English, 28% Spanish, 16% Vietnamese, and 20%
other -- 21% other. We have a diverse staff and we hire people who are
of the ethnicity of our children. Our centers tend to be a mixture which
is very rich for our children to learn other ethnicities.

Our challenges are finding qualified staff that reflects the cultures of
the children. Also many of our parents are not proficient in English nor
are they proficient in their home language. Many parents have little
time for ELL classes. It's hard for us to find bilingual books for staff
and families especially like Somali books or (Mauro), Vietnamese are
three that are problems for this.

But a highlight for us is that next fall, we're going to be using the
National Head Start Family Literacy Center to do some training for our
staff and families on (due) a language. So that's my presentation.

Christine Cox: Thank you so much (Jane). I appreciate you sharing your
challenges and also program information.

(Jane Davies): You're welcome.

(Tammy McEnroe): (Tammy McEnroe), your line is open.

(Tammy McEnroe): Hi, this is (Tammy McEnroe) and I'm from eastern Oregon
Head Start and we're located in northeast Oregon. We cover two counties.
It's a rural area of Oregon. We serve 167 children. We have four centers
with nine classrooms. And our model is center based with co-teachers so
we have two teachers -- two qualified teachers in each classroom who do
both the education and the family services piece.

So we have a single point of contact for our families. They always have
the teacher as their contact for all home visits. I would say the
barrier that we come across is similar to what (Jane) said. It's finding
qualified staff. We serve mainly Caucasian children. We have a high
number, increasing number, of Hispanic children but it's like we try to
put them in just one classroom so that we can have at least one teacher
that can work with those ESL children.

And we don't really want to keep them in just one classroom. We'd like
to spread them throughout all the classrooms and higher the staff or
interpreter financially or finding a qualified person can become a
burden.

And then also using, I would say, an interpreter the correct way. I
think that more training in that area would be very helpful. So that's
basically what our program is.

(Joan Youngquist): (Joan Youngquist), your line is open.

(Joan Youngquist): Thank you. This is (Joan Youngquist). I'm with Skagit
Island Head Start. We have -- provided Head Start and Early Head Start
services to Padgett Island and San Juan counties in western Washington.
I have to think of my directions there. We're north of Seattle, about 80
miles.

We have 83 Early Head Start and 348 preschool start enrollees. Sixty
percent are Latino and 40%, though, speak Spanish as their primary
language. We have other languages in the program, including the Misteco,
Russian, Ukrainian and some Asian languages, but predominately it's
English or Spanish.

We have been implementing a dual language or bilingual curriculum
approach for the last four years in our centers that have a high
population of Spanish speaking children, and found it very successful.
The children, according to our assessments, have increased their
literacy skills pretty dramatically.

By doing this approach, our challenges are training new staff to come on
board to understand the dual language, bilingual curriculum approach,
staff who do not have bilingual skills helping them to develop
strategies to support that primary language, and finding qualified
staff. That also is a challenge.

Christine Cox: Great, thank you so much (Joan).

Operator: Thank you. Ms. Cox, was there one more line you needed open.

Christine Cox: I was hoping to hear from (Kim Baumgart).

Operator: And if you could just please press star 1.

(John Borrero): Maybe she couldn't make it today.

Christine Cox: Yes. I can go ahead. I'd like to actually speak for (Kim)
briefly. She sent me her information. She wanted to let you know she was
-- sent the information and she has a very rural program in the sense
that she is in eastern Idaho. She has different -- about 186 children
and families that they're serving, about 11% Native American, 6%
bi-racial, 6% African American, and 76% white.

And it's typical for -- she said, about 100% of their first languages to
be English. And so she's coming from a place where she's rarely dealing
with the challenge of having a second language or -- second language
acquisition as a major challenge. However, they do have -- occasionally
have children come into their program and this is one of the ways that
she -- she's interested in this topic because she wants to keep on top
of it just to make sure they have the skills that they need when they do
have a student come in and that they do have Spanish speaking staff
which is generally the language other then English that shows itself in
their region.

So I would just like to thank everybody for sharing their cameos. I
think it does a nice job of putting a face to the programs that are --
and the different and diversity of challenges and opportunities that
folks have in our region.

(John Borrero): And I think it also shows, yes, it shows the diversity.
It also shows that the variety of approaches, not all are going to be
dif -- not all are going to be the same, they're going to be different.
There's going to be a wide range of how people respond to the needs of
the English language learners.

And no one answer for any group. I think that's something that I'm
hearing from each of these four scenarios.

Christine Cox: Right.

(John Borrero): Well if that's -- I feel like I benefited from that. I'd
like to take a moment then and really frame it and give it a head start
so that we can start talking a little bit about research and tools. But
that is the say that one of -- it's not one of our goals today to
really, you know, to give everyone the answer to every question that
might come up or every scenario, how to respond to every scenario,
really more to give the group some tools that hopefully will help them
when they make decisions about how to respond to the scenarios that they
encounter.

So I'm going to be on slide 3. And I'm going to do this very briefly
actually and I'm thinking about time. And I just wanted to call your
attention to a handout that you received that has the Head Start
Readiness Act, School Readiness Act and the performance standards cited
which will show you the basis for this.

And basically here's the bottom line for you. The bottom line is that
Head Start supports our acknowledgement of children's home language and
acknowledgment of a child's culture and encourages us to incorporate
that into our view of the child and into our -- into how we plan for the
child's learning.

So that it really doesn't end up being an option for Head Start programs
to try and have children just speak English. It really is encouraged by
Head Start to have us respect where the child is coming from, to start
where they are.

And that's a lot of what we get from reading the performance standards
and the Act and how it comes together. And then the framework really
gives us more of a sense of how to do that, the specifics of how to do
that. I think -- and I think that leads us nicely into our next slide
which talks about research.

We've put together a list of several vocabulary terms, some of which
have already been used in our cameos, which is great. But I thought I'd
just go over a very few of them just in case there were some terms that
are not familiar to people.

I want to acknowledge also that people come from a variety of experience
so that if there are people on the call who haven't really had a lot of
experience with these terms, I want them to also sort of be caught up to
where we are.

So I thought I'd define a few terms. English language learner, which
we'll use frequently basically means that --the English language learner
is someone who speaks a language other then English who is in the
process of learning English from your classroom setting.

Dual language -- someone referred to dual language just now. Dual
language is -- it's also called emergent or it's also called two-way
emergent or two-way bilingual. A dual language program is one where more
then one language is taught simultaneously. So in this situation you
might have -- if it's English Spanish, if English and Spanish would be
two dominant languages, you might have Spanish language instruction
happening in the classroom as well as English language instruction.

These work really well in situations. And Joan mentioned it, where we
might have parents who don't necessarily have strong skills it the home
language so that although a child comes with another language, they may
not be able to have full support of that language in just the home
environment and bringing that out in the school environment really helps
us acknowledge the steps that really brought them to our doors and helps
them strengthen the communication with their family and their home
culture.

Then the final term that I really want to acknowledge was home language,
and that's very simply the language that they speak before they come to
you, when they're first learning, their home environment. And the reason
this is important, if we consider one of the basic elements of any sort
of service model or social service model is meeting the client or the
child where they are.

And so this -- knowing the home language is really knowing where the
child starts, where they -- where we can start to really serve them. So
we've included the resource in your handouts that has the definitions
for all of these terms so that you can also look these up in the future
and sort of strengthen your own knowledge.

So we want you to start off with these because these are going to come
up today. I think that's good. (Christy).

Christine Cox: Great, thanks so much (John). Okay, well we are going to
start, flip over to slide 5. So and this is sort of a new type project
for me which is using this idea about myths and misconceptions to help
to illuminate some of the roles and research around second language
acquisition, around bilingualism, and around language learning in
general.

So we boiled it down and it took awhile. (John) and I boiled this down
to these four myths or misconchep -- misconceptions and I\...

(John Borrero): I like mishconception.

Christine Cox: I know. Misconceptions and myths. I like that too. So
we're going to take some time and I'm going to walk through each of
these four and I'm going to try to highlight some of the research that
either will shed some light on this myth or dispel some myths
completely.

So let's start with number one. So it reads, "Young children learn a
second language more easily and faster then adolescents and adults." And
this is one of those pervasive myths I hear people, both in the field of
education and outside of the field of education say this and truly
believe it.

And I was talking with one of my colleagues here in Region 10 and this
is her favorite myths, a misconception to talk about because she
believed it so firmly for such a long time. But what research is showing
us around age and second language acquisition is that the opposite tends
to be true.

And that is when scientists put children and adults in a similar
learning situation, for example, if you and your family move to Italy
and you, as an adult, started attending school and living there and
making Italian friends and associating with others who spoke Italian,
you as an adult would learn much more quickly then a child who is in
that same situation.

Why? So what's going on here? Well one of the biggest pieces, one of the
advantages -- cognitive advantages -- that adults have that these young
children lack is that you are already very strong and competent in your
first language skills. You're oral language and your first language are
completely developed, very mature, and that you\'re often literate in
your first language, so you have that as a tool and resource to turn to
that our preschool children do not have yet.

Also as an adult you have study skills, you have memory or mnemonic
devices that you can use and all of these things add up to adults and
older adolescents being actually able to speed their second language
acquisition. So that's one -- there's one myth hopefully at least shed
some light on if not dispelled.

One of the pieces that I want to highlight before turning to number 2 is
also just some general guidelines in terms of the length of time that it
takes for oral proficiency to come online for second language learners
and keeping this number in mind will be helpful I think in terms of
having expectations that are realistic is that it can take up to three
years for oral proficiency to come up to speed or to be at age level.

So that's up to three years of a child being in your programs. And then
talking next not just about oral language proficiency, but about
academic and literacy proficiency in a second language can take up to
seven years.

So those are some guidelines and those are some upper limits on the
guidelines but just keep those in mind as you're thinking about
expectations for your -- the children in your programs and for the
families that you're working with. How did that do (John)?

(John Borrero): No, that was great. You know, I think one of the reasons
why we often think children learn faster is bec -- there's -- for
several reasons. I think we watch them so much more closely and therefor
-- when we watch children develop language in such a remarkable process,
we're watching them go from nothing, from babbling, so that any word
that they develop seems so remarkable to us that it seems as if it
happens so quickly to talk about how fast children develop language and
how quickly they develop their first, you know, 100 words. But I think
that contributes to why we have that perception.

Christine Cox: Absolutely, and also along those same lines, is like why
is this a pervasive and long lasting myth is that most of the time
adults are not in a preschool like setting. Most of the time adults have
really low context situations- like imagine you're high school foreign
language class, for example, where you have a lot of skill and drill and
low context. Or you're in a really complicated setting right off the
bat, like a job setting, where you're being asked to use your second
language.

So a lot of times those things add to that myth that it's harder as an
adult, well in fact, maybe just the context is just a lot harder as an
adult.

(John Borrero): Right, and the way we conceptualize it for children
makes it -- idealizing the environment makes it an ideal environment for
them to learn that much.

Christine Cox: Right.

(John Borrero): To do it well.

Christine Cox: Right. Okay, let's go on to number 2. So number 2, the
idea that immersion and if we think of immersion as being a sort of an
English only or with only English language support or very minimal
support in the second language. "Emersion in English speaking classrooms
is the fastest way to learn."

Okay, so let's take a look at this as a myth or misconception. The
common sense answer would be yes, of course, the more time that we have
on task the faster that someone will acquire a language. Well in fact,
it -- research shows something different. Research shows us that
children that are in dual language or bi-language programs become
proficient at the same rate or a faster rate then children who are in
English immersion or English only programs.

That there's no faster -- just by having English only does not increase
the rate. And not only that, that there is --this is the preach to the
choir comment, but there are so many other benefits to dual language or
bilingual programming: continued support in the home language, so you
end up with a student or a person in our society that's a balance
bilingual, having those first and second language skills and literacy
skills, that the home ties are strengthened and maintained and that
social emotional well being and identity is a priority in that it's
honored.

One of the pieces that I wanted to talk about in relation to immersion,
because immersion is a program strategy or a program decision is another
program decision and that is when you have the option to use first
language in classrooms. So, you have a Spanish speaker who works in the
classroom or you have a Vietnamese grandparent volunteer or you have
someone from the community that's coming in and reading to children in
Somali, that you take a careful look at how best to use those native
speakers in the classroom.

One practice that I think a lot of programs use is the simultaneous
translation. For example, if you're reading a book in English, that is,
you're a native English speaker is reading a book to a group of children
and then you have perhaps your Spanish speaking staff person translating
the book page-by-page as you go, this is not optimal for a number of
reasons.

One of the reasons that this is not optimal is that children and adults
will just tune out, and stop listening for the non-dominant language
because if they know that the dominant language is coming up next then
their attention falls when they're listening to the second language.

The second reason that this is not optimal, that we really want to
provide children with sustained, language-rich experiences. We don't
want to just be providing sound bites because those don't include the
richness of language, the vocabulary, the grammar structure, the more
complicated syntax that happens when we're talking in a sustained way
versus in a sound-bit way or a translation mode.

And then finally the cognitive demands on children and translators for
going back and forth quickly is very high. So I would just encourage you
to think about your scheduling and thinking about sustained time and
focus on home language and sustained time and focus on second language
or English.

(John Borrero): That makes sense to me. Having languages occur
separately in the classroom really will encourage children to
compartmentalize the knowledge of those languages. And it's not really
consistent with how they experience those in the world.

Christine Cox: Right.

(John Borrero): Because we're really trying to prepare them for the
world beyond their preschool experience and this is what we really want
to encourage. We want to really model that for them.

Christine Cox: Absolutely. Great, okay so here we go on to number 3. And
this is a question that (John) and I both have had and have addressed in
different situations and it's this idea that parents should really be
encouraged, these are not English speaking parents but English as a
Second Language parents, should be encouraged to use English at home.

So I would just go ahead and kind of as a rephrasing of that, instead I
would say that parents and caregivers should be encouraged to use their
home language as much and as often as possible with their children. So
one of the reasons that I would encourage home language use over English
language use is that first language loss is -- can be a social emotional
trauma for children.

First language loss breaks down family ties and in fact, first language
loss actually leads to a decrease or a lack of success in academics and
schooling. One thing that Head Start programs have is that they have
this opportunity and they play this critical role in parent education
and they can share the benefits of home language maintenance.

So I used to teach in a classroom where the majority of my students were
learning English as a second or third language and a lot of times the
families would come to me and they would just be lamenting, they'd say,
"Miss Christy, we're so sorry. We're feeling bad because we don't speak
English and not only do we not speak it but we don't read it very well
either."

And one of the things that I always shared with them was to speak in the
language that they know best and are most confident in and for parents
that have low literacy rates I would regularly send home word lists or
picture books for them so that they could use their home language just
to narrate the situation or narrate the pictures.

One other -- along with encouraging home language maintenance, I know
that a lot of programs in our regions and in other regions go to good
lengths, great lengths to partner with community agencies in providing
parents with ESL courses and adult literacy opportunities. And I would
encourage all of you to think about that and think about who your
partnerships are and the kind of opportunities that you might already
provide or could look to provide for parents.

English is the language of power. We live in the United States and these
are the realities of our social times. But what we want to do is we want
to make sure that we empower the children and families that we serve to
speak both first and second languages, to walk in both worlds.

(John Borrero): Yes, it's always been part of the Head Start philosophy
from the very beginning to have parents walk alongside with us as we
educate their children, not sort of be observers. We want them to be
active participants and often that's going to mean, really how can they
change home language and the home culture.

Christine Cox: And finally this last piece, this idea that it's
detrimental that there're detriments to children learning more then one
language. I just wanted to dispel that right off the bat. There's more
then enough information and research not only for preschoolers but also
around infants and toddlers that early dual language exposure does not
delay development in either language.

In fact, when we start looking at school age students and their skills
and abilities, we find that children that have strong skills in both of
their first and second languages, so that's maintaining their first
language and growing their first language and supporting their second
language, their English development, that these children tend to
actually have cognitive advantages, that they test better in the domain
of, especially, language.

And there's one small exception to that that I want to take note of, and
it's going to lead us into the next point that I have. One small
exception and that would be vocabulary size. So if you're looking at a
bilingual child and you might be doing the PPVT or doing a test of
vocabulary size, the vocabulary size of a bilingual child might be
slightly smaller than of a monolingual child who's of the same age.

But if you combined the Spanish and English or the English and Somali,
if you combine the *two* vocabularies, they will end up in the normal
range. So it just -- it makes sense. It takes a little bit more time
because they're having to learn twice as many words as a monolingual
child learns.

So that kind of leads us into this idea, so if we have this smaller
vocabulary size, that could be misinterpreted. So we don't want our
English language learners being over identified or under identified for
that matter, for special education.

We want to make sure that as a staff and as a program that we're aware
of second language development. For example, the vocabulary size
difference. For example, concerns around code switching which might be
mistaken as a disability. Code switching meaning this child might mix
two languages together. Like, I went to mi casa, or (Yo fui a) my house.
So that's actually common.

Code switching is a normal occurrence in bilingual individuals, in
bilingual families, and in communities as well. So we want to make sure
that as professionals, as education professionals that we are careful to
neither over or under identify for language delays and that -- for more
information there're two resources that we've noted.

One is a Washington State OSPI document that is at the end of the Power
Point, as well as a book called, "Dual Language Development and
Disorders," which is also referenced at the end of the Power Point.

(John Borrero): Wonderful. Maybe -- I can't help but notice the time so
I'm wondering if we should start looking towards some questions or
comments from our group.

Christine Cox: Absolutely.

(John Borrero): At the same time check in. This'll be our way of hearing
from people and hearing how we're doing and seeing whether or not
there's a directive that we need to be looking at.

Christine Cox: Great thanks. So (Stephanda) could you open up our lines
for questions?

Operator: Thank you. At this time if you'd like to ask a question,
please press star 1. You will be announced prior to asking your
question. To withdraw your question, press star 2. Once again, to ask
your question, please press star 1. (John Waylan), you may ask your
question.

(John Waylan): Hi. This is (John) from Neighborhood House in Seattle.

Christine Cox: Hi (John).

(John Waylan): Hey, hi (Christy), hi (John). The - this is relating to a
combination of the first and fourth myth to misconceptions. The way you
stated number one that young children learn a second language more
easily and faster then adolescents and adults -- okay fair enough. What
about -- and then actually then the third or the fourth one is it's
detrimental to have children learn more then one language. And you spoke
very well about both of those.

My question is around concerning a dual language or dual language
learning versus multiple language learning. Do you have any evidence or
research that states that for young children, particularly in preschool
and early education programs that multiple language exposure in, say, a
classroom setting is harmful or less productive for the children?

You know, we've got a classroom that has, you know, Vietnamese, Latino,
East African, which is multiple dialects. We have staff in all of our
classrooms that speak multiple languages and some of the, like the
Somali speaking staff with speak some English and some Somali with the
children and then they also might hear Vietnamese from a third teacher.
Do you have evidence that suggests this is a detrimental thing?

Christine Cox: (John), do you want me to take that one?

(John Borrero): Sure.

Christine Cox: Okay well I would go ahead and I would reference the Dual
Language Development and Disorders book by (Fred Genesee) and (Johanne
Paradis) and (Martha Crago). I don't know if that's a book that's you're
familiar with (John).

(John Borrero): No not yet.

Christine Cox: I would totally recommend it and just from my reading of
it -- I haven't studied the book but of having read it -- is that I
don't see anything there that talks about multiple language being a
detriment. I have one comment that would be around making sure that
there are strong language models within the classroom.

(John Waylan): And define what you call strong language models.

Christine Cox: So strong language models would be someone who is either
a native or fluent in the language that you're hoping for children to be
developing.

(John Waylan): Oh, of course. Okay.

(John Borrero): And to add to that I was -- what I was going to offer
that if you want to support more then one language in a classroom that
you be sure to support each one fully if you want children to gain as
full an understanding of them as possible.

I don't know of any research that said there was any detriment either. I
wonder what your concerns specifically would be around having children
-- I know that what we might expect is that if -- talk about young
children and acquiring language, we might expect that if we're not -- if
we're assessing children's language development and we're not familiar
with all the languages, that we might not be able to -- we might not be
aware of how well they're developing or how much language they're
developing. It might be more difficult for assessment.

(John Waylan): Right.

(John Borrero): I can't think of another way in which there would be a
detriment for the child in their development.

(John Waylan): Okay, the point I brought -- the reason I'm bringing this
up is that my -- it was similar -- I actually bounced off that first
message that my experience has been similar and actually I'm realizing
that it's not so much that children learn faster and easier then
adolescents and adults but that they are capable of picking up and being
comfortable hearing multiple languages and identifying, you know,
similar, you know meaning from a Spanish statement, an English
statement, and possibly a Vietnamese if it's used within a context.

But there are some and I think (Aggie Coats) might be a name that's
talked about and I only mention that because that might\...

Christine Cox: Oh, (John). Did I just get cut off? Hello?

Operator: Okay, one moment.

Operator: Okay, Mr. (Waylan), your line is open again.

(John Waylan): Great. So anyway, it was -- some people have been given
the impression that hearing multiple languages, more then two even,
becomes confusing. And I think it relates to what you were saying,
Christine, about the cognitive stress, that the children don't have --
the demand is higher to be coding between multiple languages like that.

And I thought -- my impression is -- or my understanding, it's been --
the experience was a richer experience although you're not working on
developing fully any single language other then English. That's our
primary development but that using these other languages sort of
enriches the situation for the children and gives them more of an
understanding that, you know, multiple languages have similar meanings,
et cetera. That was the basis of my comment.

Christine Cox: Right, thanks (John). I hope we got to your question and
thanks for the (Aggie Coats) comment.

Operator: (Deborah Ashton), you may ask your question.

Christine Cox: Hi (Deborah).

(Deborah Ashton): \...from Oregon from (Kid Co) Head Start. I was
wanting to hear a little bit more about the early exposure to dual
languages and the impact it has on dual performance. When you're talking
about early lang -- early dual language exposure, are you talking about
like infancy and toddler or when a child isn't exposed to any English,
say until like four years old, are their tests scores still going to be
actually better then if they were exposed at an early age or -- do you
kind of understand what I'm saying or am I not making sense?

Christine Cox: You're doing great (Deborah).

(Deborah Ashton): Okay.

Christine Cox: I was just wanting to make sure I heard your whole
question. So thanks (Deborah). I am actually referring to research that
suggests both, that -- and that would be one of the terms we talked
about simult -- that was on your list and that's simultaneous
acquisition and -- what's the other one (John)? Simultaneous and\...?

(John Borrero): She's talking about -- are you talking about dual
immesion or?

Christine Cox: Well I think she's talking about simultaneous acquisition
versus sequential acquisition.

(John Borrero): Sequential acquisition, okay.

Christine Cox: So in thinking about that, the answer to your question I
think simply is that it's in reference to both, that as long as -- and
this is the caveat --as long as there really is kind of a balanced
bilingualism that there is a strong first and strong second language
support and that both of those languages are being supported as equally
as possible or as much as possible that the outcomes are positive for
both types of second language acquisition.

(Deborah Ashton): Yes, that makes sense. Okay thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Once again to ask a question, please press star 1.

Christine Cox: Okay, if there aren't any more at the time, I think we
better move on.

(John Borrero): Time is ticking away regardless.

Christine Cox: Right, but actually (Deborah) and (John), thanks so much
for stepping up. It's sometimes hard to press star 1 and get on line
like that. So we appreciate you sharing your comments and questions.

(John Borrero): And if there -- and if people on the group have
questions after this, you shouldn't feel as if this is the only
opportunity to ask because you do have your TA team and (Christy's)
contact information is on the Power Point as well as the call in email.
You could always feel free to connect. Right (Christy)?

Christine Cox: Absolutely, any time. All the time. I love this topic and
I'm always happy to talk about it and share resources and training.

(John Borrero): And she's very passionate about it. I'm going to move on
to slide 7.

Christine Cox: Great.

(John Borrero): To sort of talk about practices. And to introduce some
and to remind others of the (consult) that there is. We do have a sense
-- we do have guidelines on how language is acquired, sequential
language is acquired and how children do acquire a second language.

And so we have -- we have two resources that we're putting forward and
one is the Head Start English language learner tool kit on slide 7 and
the developmental continuum, the framework for the this instruction and
assessment.

So from the first one -- from the first reference which is available
online through the ECLKC. We're giving four stages of second language
development -- home language, receptive, silent or non-verbal,
telegraphic or formulaic speech and productive.

And this is -- I see this as a continuum. It's a progression which is
really nice for those of us who work in the classroom to use. You can
take this knowledge and you can use it when you're conducting your
assessments in the classroom.

And this is really sort of a general guideline for using. The home
language is really what they start with. This is a starting point where
we meet them when we first find them. When a child enters a classroom
setting and discovers that the language that's being used is different
from what their home language is, they often enter what's called a
silent period where -- and this is often where we have teachers present
concerns about children in the classroom.

So and so's not speaking. I'm concerned because they're not very social
or because they're not really utilizing their language. This is a normal
part of second language development.

Then they start to use language. As much as young children start to use
language with some accuracy, with some needs for improvement and
there'll be some blending. There'll be -- if the second language is
Spanish -- English -- for example and Spanish is the home language, you
might see small sentences of two words -- two word phrases with one word
in English and one word in Spanish.

So this is an experimental period where they're really trying to get a
sense of what's going on with the language, which leads to productive
use which is really taking steps toward fluency. The resource that I
want to call your attention to, it's one of your handouts. And this is
the Second Language, Listening and Speaking Continuum.

We -- (Christy) and I were looking over this resource and it was
developed by -- it was developed by (Bonnie Campbell Hill) and it's a
wonderful resource for observations and one of the ways that I recommend
it could be used, taking this into practice is that for those of you who
are in a classroom, wherever you decide to make observations or record
your observations for the classroom.

You could have this kind of resource with you and it could guide you in
viewing your children and really getting a full sense of how their
developing and how their language is developing. And what I really like
about it is that how in addition to having bullets on what you should
see, it really -- it separates them down into listening, vocabulary,
fluency, grammar and attitude.

So you can really pinpoint the areas for instruction. You can really
talk about individualizing for your children and what changes might need
to be made and what might need to be added into your activities to
incorporate these changes.

Christine Cox: Great, yes\...

(John Borrero): Back to you (Christy).

Christine Cox: Yes, this is (Christy). I just wanted to talk about that
just in terms of leading into slide number 8 and that we are in the
section kind of the presentation of best practices.

And I think when we think of best practices, is a lot of times we're
thinking of maybe more specific activities with children and I just go
ahead and I want to just reiterate and just emphasize my strong feeling
and belief that ongoing child assessment and knowing a lot about the
development of second language and stages as well as what to expect and
look for.

That in itself is in fact a best practice. So the more that we know
about the topic the better that we can serve and plan for our children.
So it may not be a specific activity that we would do with children but
it is what is going to guide our choices for activities or guide the
choices that we make when we make interactions or have interactions with
children and families.

That's why it's in this section of best practices and I used the
continuum such as the one (John) was referencing. I actually kept one
for each of my second language learners in my classroom, so practically
everyone had one. It was my assessment and my tool for all the kids that
were learning English.

Okay slide 8. So actually (Jane Davies) from FAME, she had commented
about the National Head Start Family Literacy Center coming to do some
work with her program in second language learning or dual language
acquisition and this resource that I want to share about meaningful
language interaction comes from a document that they are distributing.

It comes from a training tool called, "Language is the Key." And I'm
just going to pull out -- these are the highlights I believe from that
document. So within this meaningful language interaction slide, you see
the top that says, "Language is the key. Talking and playing and
talking, and books." And there's a little acronym in blue called -- this
says 'Follow the CAR.'

And so what this is trying to do, it's trying to actually give you
concrete -- you, meaning the adult or the caregiver -- some concrete
guidance in extending children's language, in creating more meaningful
language interactions, in creating richer -- we were talking about
richness -- rich interactions with children that are language based.

And this could be either when you're playing with a child or when you're
using books. And another way of thinking about the 'talking and books'
section would be the research around dialogic reading.

So if we Follow the CAR that means that we are following the child's
lead. So if a child's playing with a little car, you would talk about
the car. You might -- in terms of the actual things that you would say
is you might make a comment like 'the car has polka dots on it', and
then wait five seconds for the child to respond.

You might ask a question like 'where's your car going' or 'what color is
your car?' And then wait five seconds for the child to respond. Or if
the child says something like 'vroom vroom', you might respond to that
by adding a little bit more saying, "Wow, vroom, vroom, your car's going
really fast." And then waiting again for the child to respond.

So this is extremely simple which is one of the reasons why I love it.
It's based in research. It's based in the research that tells us that
the more language exposure and the richness of language exposure that
children have, regardless if it's their first language or their second
language, that these techniques help them development, help vocabulary
growth, help them understand and gain complex syntax.

And then I included (Laura Heulitt's) contact information there on this
slide. So it's (Laura Heulitt) at the National Head Start Family
Literacy Center. If this is of interest to you, you can get one of these
books from that group for free but they're also available for training.
So if that's something of interest to you that you think that you could
use, please contact her. She's very open to coming to Region 10 and
she's free, so. (John), any add ons on that one?

(John Borrero): No, it's wonderful. I can only sing praises. I think
they're a great agency.

Christine Cox: Do you want to do the Spanish one just because you have
such nice Spanish?

(John Borrero): Do I want to read a few?

Christine Cox: Yes.

(John Borrero): (Spanish spoken). So in Spanish it's a little bit
different which is actually kind of cool that they were able to say
Follow the CAR in Spanish and still have the same -- still have the
acronym spell the word in Spanish for car. (Spanish spoken) the home
language.

Christine Cox: Thanks. That's beautiful. Okay so we're moving on to
slide 9. Slide 9 is really just a show and tell. It's an area that I'm
gaining interest in and that I feel like a little bit novel in terms of
thinking about work with second language learners. I think that we think
of puppetry as used for -- as a general early childhood tool, but
there's some research that's coming out that's more specifically around
using puppets and supporting second language or English language
learners that are coming in to our school system.

One, not only is the promotion of language there, the first or second
language promotion, but also there's a social and emotional component
that's really strong. In my friend (Vida Zuljevik), who actually used
puppets in her kindergarten English and Russian dual language classroom
and she used -- her little doll's name was (Anna) and (Anna) was also
learning English.

So she was an English language learner just like the students were and
it really connected with kids. Kids loved her, made them feel welcome
and that they were a part of the community right away.

And then also I'm not going to read through it, but I just wanted to
highlight the instant puppetry activity that (Vida) used many times with
lots of different ages of kids and then she attached an article that
she's written on the Thinking Classrooms Web site and the Puppetry Tool
Web site that she really loves. And she's open to further communication
or comments. If you want to talk more about this with her, she'd welcome
emails from you. (John)?

(John Borrero): I like these resources as well. And I was just -- I was
looking over the article that we have from her. I think they're
wonderful.

So the next thing will be best practices -- ten things you can do. My
goal in doing this, and I'll give you a little bit of a background in a
ten second nut here is that I was a classroom training CDA trainer for
ten years before coming here.

And so one of the things that I would at least try to develop in my work
are these sort of quick sheets that teaches you because I know how this
happens. We get these big curriculum guides and they're really
beautifully packed and beautifully displayed and they're in, like --11
small binders on your shelf and the teacher have them on their shelves
and never used them.

So in every workshop I try to develop some sort of resource such as this
one -- the Ten Things You Can Do list. And this is meant to really sort
of have a place on a wall somewhere in a classroom, teachers can refer
back to them and they can be reminders for us in our practice, and
that's what this is.

And I won't read through them because you have them and you can read
through them but they should be concepts that are familiar and these are
concepts that came out today. And then additional ones that may be --
that may speak to further practice such as designing a language rich
classroom. So I'm hoping that these will be of help to people.

And that's a way to start the conversation once you leave here today,
once you leave this call, to start this conversation with people back at
your -- the rest of your programs, how to move forward. (Christy).

Christine Cox: Oh yes, ditto.

(John Borrero): And I'm noting the time. I'm going to say it as 2:53, so
I'm thinking here we're going to think out loud in front of the group
and say that we've got about -- we've got a few slides left to do and
about seven minutes to do them in. So I'm wondering, maybe we want to
still go through them all but we may not to go through them all in
detail.

Christine Cox: Right, so I think let's go ahead and highlight especially
the systems documents so that people have that as a resource.

(John Borrero): And then we may need people to read through the
resources pages.

Christine Cox: Yes, I think it'd be good to open it up for questions one
more time before we head out.

(John Borrero): Yes, I think that would be great too.

Christine Cox: Okay. So when the resource -- we're on slide 9 here --
around that says system approach, and we just really want to
acknowledge, this is like tier 2 training. This is a whole other phone
call but for those folks that are at that tier 2 and thinking about
their support of English language learners, that they have something to
go to, that this is a document that was attached.

It is called, the Head Start English Language Learner Systems and
Services Grid that was created by a colleague in Region 5. And it's just
a way to get the conversation going and I just -- I want to give a
holler out to (Oly CAP) because Crescent (Bryerly) has been using this,
and she would recommend that you start small and plan to use this tool
over a long period of time not over a short period of time because if
you have the document in front of you, you'll see it's kind of a
two-sided document that comprehensively asks questions around all the
systems that you might have in your program. So, a great tool, but I
would say take it into chunks and really think of it as a long term
planning tool not as a short term activity.

(John Borrero): Right and I agree and I would encourage you to use it by
first starting to look at the systems you have in place, the systems
specific to your program and area that you want to focus on, and then
look back at the grid. For example, if you're a our Head Start program
and one of your -- and one of the areas that you're really focusing on
right now is services to pregnant women and bringing them into your
programs and having them be involved in your programs, and that's where
you want to apply your knowledge of English language.

Then you really -- then that's the specific early Head Start system that
you can focus on today and not look at the entire -- you're not looking
at every single element of this grid. You're going to look at parent
involvement for example, so just with the specific needs that you have
and to branch out from there is one bit of a the grid.

Christine Cox: Great, thank you.

(John Borrero): Then one other thing that I wanted to mention here,
along the lines of taking this in and not feeling overwhelmed, is that I
mentioned before that I was a CDA trainer and I want to point out that
for those of you who -- by show of hands how many people are in CDA?

I want to point out that a lot of the systems that we see, a lot of the
approaches and a lot of the guidelines are a reflected -- reflected as
well in CDA so that we're not operating in a vacuum and not reinventing
the wheel. We're adding spokes to a wheel that we already have so that
this is -- the CDA really guides us as well in supporting English
language matters and give us very specific examples if you -- for those
of you who are familiar with CDA, if you look at CDA, you look at
communication, you look at self, you look at cognitive, these three
competency areas.

They really go into depth in talking about English language learners and
how we should support them and magically the ways in which CDA
recommends that we support the English language learners are consistent
in which the ways in which Head Start recommends that we support them.

So you're not starting fresh and you're not having to reinvent. You're
just using what we have and adding to it and making it -- making our
knowledge deeper.

Christine Cox: Great. And intentional.

(John Borrero): Intentional -- I love that word.

Christine Cox: So the last thing we're going to do -- go ahead and we're
going to flick though slides 12, 13 and 14. Slide 12, all those
resources are Head Start resources that are available either on the
Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center Web site that is listed
there or on the Head Start Info.org page. Those are all free to you.
Those are all items that you can order or download instantly.

Page 13 -- it's broken up into articles or papers. The two first ones
are the myths articles -- start out there. If you want a reading, both
of those are great. They're short and sweet but they have a lot of info
packed into them. The Bilingual Infant and Toddlers are for Early Head
Start folks, Making a Difference is related more to Head Start age
children.

And then if you're looking specifically for children's info about
children with special needs or disabilities that fourth article around
Evaluation Assessment and Early Childhood Special Ed is wonderful. It's
a free document from OSPI here in Washington state. And then the book by
(Fred Genessee, Paradis and Crago), Dual Language Development and
Disorders, is a great recent research overview.

And then finally the last page just has a few other resources that are
listed there for -- that were mentioned in this article besides Colorin,
Colorado which is a online reference and a great Web site for parents
and teachers.

(John Borrero): That's a wonderful Web site, yes. And it's completely
bilingual -- it's in English and Spanish, both of them.

Christine Cox: Okay so we are -- it looks to me like we have about a
minute, but I'm going to invite people -- we have the line for longer
then 12:00, so I'm going to invite people to stay on if they have
questions. So could we open the lines (Stephonda) for any additional
questions?

Operator: Sure, at this time, once again to ask a question, it is
star 1. And again, you will be announced prior to asking your question.
Once again, it is star 1 for your question. One moment for the first
question. (Mary Gibson), you may ask your question.

(Holly Norton): Actually this is (Holly). I work with the rural
preschools in Alaska, and my question is when you have a classroom full
of children, some of them -- their dominant language is their native
language and some of them their dominant language is English, but the
classroom is promoting the learning of both languages.

Is it better to have one teacher that speaks only the native language
and the other teacher that speaks only English or does it matter if they
both speak both languages?

(John Borrero): It doesn't matter.

Christine Cox: I have a really quick response to that.

(John Borrero): Okay go ahead.

Christine Cox: This is (Christy). My quick response to that is that it
doesn't matter so much about your teachers. I think the fact that you
have two teachers that are bilingual is amazing and a wonderful asset. I
might spend more time looking maybe at the way that you schedule your
time during the day and think about, you know -- making sure you have
extended periods of time in English and extended periods of time in the
native language.

(Holly Norton): Okay, thank you.

Operator: (Deborah Ashton), your line is open.

(Deborah Ashton): Thank you. I don't have a question but I just want to
thank you both. I appreciate the opportunity to get more information
about this and looking forward to diving into it in our program. Thanks
again.

(John Borrero): That's awesome. Thanks so much for that.

Christine Cox: Thanks so much for the feedback (Deborah). Give me a call
if you want to talk about it more. I'm really open to supporting your
efforts.

(Deborah Ashton): You'll be hearing from me for sure.

Christine Cox: Okay, take care.

(John Borrero): I wish we had more time today to cover so much in one
hour.

Christine Cox: Yes. Thanks again guys.

(Deborah Ashton): Thank you.

Operator: (Tammy McEnroe), you may ask your question.

(Tammy McEnroe): Hi (Christine). This is (Tammy).

Christine Cox: Hey.

(Tammy McEnroe): Hey, I was just trying to download the Making a
Difference, a framework for supporting first and second language
development in the preschool children piece in English and it's not
available.

Christine Cox: Okay.

(Tammy McEnroe): Can you check that out for me and see?

Christine Cox: Why don't I just go ahead and I will send it out. I have
it as a pdf and I will just send it out to this --the mailing list so
that you have it.

(Tammy McEnroe): Perfect.

Operator: (John Waylan), you may ask your question.

(John Waylan): Hi, thanks. Actually I have two -- one is referring to
your Follow the CAR. And (John), when you were reading the Spanish
language one, the second R was repeat again in the home language. Do I
understand that correctly?

(John Borrero): Yes, correct, yes.

(John Waylan): So now -- so the whole process that I -- that you walked
through, if I was doing that with say a Vietnamese speaking child, and I
happen to know -- I could -- I happen to, you know, have some of that
language, you know, the appropriate kind of structure.

Would I be asking those questions in English or would I be asking them
in the home language, all three? You know, follow the lead, watch the
kid, ask questions about what they're doing. Or would I -- for my -- my
understanding was that I would put those questions in English for the
child and then maybe the second repetition at the end might be in the
home language. Is that appropriate or?

(John Borrero): The home language. I would -- I hear it the same for
both. And I think if you have the knowledge of both of them that's
wonderful as well. I think what it does is it gives us a system for
managing it as well as we can, given that we know we have limited
resources.

But if you're saying that you have the capabilities to do this in
multiple languages, I think that's wonderful and you can utilize it.

Christine Cox: Yes, I think -- I agree with what (John's) saying and
that is that this is a tool to use in whichever language you're focusing
on at the time with the child. So if you were -- you have a Vietnamese
speaker that's working with Vietnamese children then you would use those
steps or those suggestions or those strategies in Vietnamese.

(John Waylan): Okay.

Christine Cox: And the O in (otra vez) is like saying it again in the
home language, is if you're speaking in a moment of -- a Vietnamese
immersion moment where you're speaking only Vietnamese, and the child
says the word in English instead of Vietnamese, you would want to repeat
it for the child in the home language or in whatever language you are
actually working in at that time.

(John Waylan): I see, okay. And then I just wanted to make a comment
about somebody else's question about the bilingual classroom, is that
(Sharon) Cronin here in Seattle teaches a class and one of the things
that she was talking about a classroom model was it's a dual language
program, and they actually scheduled specific portions of the day, you
know, the morning circle would be in English. The afternoon circle would
be in Spanish. And she would be somebody else with another resource to
check out. (Sharon) Cronin, C-r-o-n-i-n.

Christine Cox: Awesome, thank you.

(John Borrero): Wonderful. Thank you.

(John Waylan): And thank you both actually. This is really good.

Christine Cox: Oh thanks (John). Thanks for attending.

(John Borrero): I can\'t believe we got through the whole thing.

Christine Cox: We did really good. Congratulations, John.

Operator: (Holly Porter), you may ask your question.

(Holly Porter): Hi Christine and hi John.

Christine Cox: Hi Holly.

(Holly Porter): I just wanted to hop on and say that Sharon Cronin wrote
a book called, Soy Bilingüe, I am Bilingual but unfortunately it is not
available anymore, but it is a great resource if you can find it.

Christine Cox: Well thanks Holly.

(John Waylan): Look at like a used bookstore.

(Holly Porter): Yeah.

Also, that we\'re also using the systems grid on an ongoing basis to
kind of check in and see what changes need to occur as we go along,
because we\'re finding what is that we want to continue to sound on.

Christine Cox: Great, yeah. How - you\'ve been using that now for a
couple of years, is that right?

(Holly Porter): Yeah. You started with us on that summer committee that
we started with, so, yeah.

Christine Cox: It\'s a long term project, it\'s not a two week question
and answer survey.

(Holly Porter): Exactly.

(John Borrero) You know, I just happened to go online to look up
(unintelligible) by Cronin\...

(John Borrero): I just did a quick search on it and I found it at an
online educational resource.

Christine Cox: Okay. I think we could wrap it up, John.

(John Borrero): Yes. Thank you everyone for attending.

Christine Cox: Yeah. Thanks very much. An again, please, this is
Christine, please email, please call. I\'m very happy to not only
discuss some of these things but I have come out to programs and done
some on-site support or if we wanted to create a cluster to talk more
about this or to do some training on this - my pleasure, I\'d be more
than happy and very interested in helping you further you efforts to
supporting to English language learners.

(John Borrero): Wonderful.

Christine Cox: Thank you. Bye everybody.

(John Borrero): Bye bye.

END