1. Scaffolding L2 Mastery in Subject- Specific Academic Literacy Interventions for Linguistically Diverse Student Groups
Adelia Carstens
18 June 2016

2. Overview
Background and context: Struggles of studying at university through a second language (English)
Two lenses for looking at learning through a second language
Roles of languages present in the classroom
Types of support: ‘scaffolding’
Conclusion

3. Background and context: Studying at university through a second language
World-wide trend: Struggles of university students who have to study though L2
University of Pretoria
L1 speakers of English who studied through medium of English for 12+ years (Model C and private schools)
L2 speakers of English with various mother tongues: studied through English for 12+ years (private schools)
L2 speakers of English with Afrikaans as their mother tongue: studied through Afrikaans for 12 years; English only one subject (Model C schools)
L2 speakers of English with an African language as their mother tongue: studied through English from Grade 4 (township and rural schools)
Credit-bearing Academic Literacy modules to mitigate risks
Mostly subject-specific (range from wide- to narrow-angled)
Academic Literacy lecturers
Monolingual English
Bilingual Afrikaans-English
Multilingual: English + 2 or more than African languages
20 September 2018

4. Two lenses for looking at learning through an L2:
Roles of languages present in the classroom
Types of support (scaffolding)

5. Roles of languages present in the classroom
Monolingual approaches
Target language should be only language in the classroom
Rationale: The more students are exposed to the target language the greater the possibility of internalisation
Direct method
Audiolingual method
Natural approach
Total physical response
Communicative language teaching
Recent versions more tolerant, e.g. CBI, CLIL
20 September 2018

6. Bi-/multilingual approaches
No compelling reason why the L1 should be banned from the classroom
Rationale: Languages do not operate separately in learners' minds; use of L1 is a normal process to support learning in another language (translanguaging)
Grammar-translation method
Community language learning
New concurrent method
'Critical' multilingual pedagogies: Translanguaging (systematically using 2 or more languages in the same lesson)
20 September 2018

7. Language support: scaffolding
Sociocultural Theory (Vygotsky 1978)
Language is the main vehicle of thought: Starts as dialogue (Bakhtin 1981)
Mediation is central to learning: Language = most powerful mediation tool
Social interaction facilitates learning and development: All learning is co-constructed
Learning is a process of apprenticeship and internalisation: Skills and knowledge are transformed from the social to the cognitive
ZPD a central construct
Distance between independent problem-solving and potential development under adult guidance or in collaboration with more competent peers

8. What is scaffolding?
CURRICULUM DESIGN
Circumstances under which the ZPD operates (as metaphor)
Process of creating space for facilitating access to the learner, and then gradually removing support as the learner becomes skilled enough to manage the task independently (Bruner 1983:163; Donato 1994:40):
Tripartite pedagogical structure (diagram)
Does not always move from top to bottom (Gibbons 2003): Students may alter/transform scaffolds at the top
PROCEDURES USED IN PARTICULAR ACTIVITY
COLLABORATIVE PROCESS OF INTERACTION: MOMENT TO MOMENT SUPPORT
20 September 2018

9. Expanded ZPD (Van Lier 2004)
Scaffolding, modelling
Discovery, joint construction
Assistance from more capable peers or adults
Interaction with equal peers
Inner resources: knowledge, experience, memory, investment
Interaction with less capable peers
Resourceful-ness, self access
Learning by teaching
20 September 2018

10. Types of scaffolding (suitable for learning subject content in an L2)
Learning/learner centred (Walqui 2006)
Monolingual, Bilingual or Multilingual focus
Lecturer/instruction-centred (Fennema-Bloom 2009/10; Cook 2001)
Bilingual focus (lecturer conversant in students' L1) ("code scaffolding")
Modelling
Bridging
Schema-building
Contextualisation
Re-presenting text
Developing metacognition
A linguistic shift used to
Scaffold further content acquisition
Check and sustain comprehension
Explain difficult linguistic elements of the L2
Increase participation among students
Manage the class
20 September 2018

11. Modelling Providing students with clear examples of what is expected of them, for imitation
Multilingual dimensions
As a monolingual strategy
Central element of genre approaches
Examples of whole texts
Partially ‘contrived’ examples (???)
Examples of previous students' work
Examples of appropriate language use for particular functions: describing, comparing, evaluating
Handouts with information on how to complete a task; with examples of phrases and terminology on the reverse side
Parallel texts
Multilingual glossaries with key terms and definitions
20 September 2018

12. Bridging Valuing and validating students' prior knowledge and literacies
As a monolingual strategy
Multilingual dimensions
Activate/engage prior knowledge:
Anticipatory guides (what students know & what they expect of a new topic)
Show how materials are relevant to own lives and other subjects
Share personal experiences related to the theme
Use personal experience to build confidence: narratives
Reading literacy; science literacy; digital footprint (IT) (Carstens 2015)
Reflecting on the narrative of a peer from a different cultural group
Allow translanguaging during peer collaboration (Garcia 2009; Brooks & Donato 1994; Carstens 2016) – bottom-up scaffolding
Allowing 'code-meshing':
"developing a critical awareness of the choices that are rhetorically more effective" (Canagarjah 2011:402)
20 September 2018

13. Schema-building Building on learners' structured processes to store and retrieve knowledge and experience
As a monolingual strategy
Multilingual dimensions
Learners skimming and scanning a text (building a preliminary schema)
Lecturer starting a lecture with an advance organiser
Using concept mapping as an organiser of conceptual schemas (Novak & Cañas 2009; Van Boxtel et al 2002): Lecturer or student- generated
Presenting an advance organiser in more than one language
Multilingual concept maps with definitions (Carstens 2016) – lecturer-generated or student generated
20 September 2018

14. Contextualisation Academic language is situation-dependent and dense
As a monolingual strategy
Multilingual and multimodal dimensions
Textbooks and articles: Embed context-independent language in a sensory context using metaphors and analogies based on students’ experiences.
Use pictures, film objects, etc. as 'multisemiotic scaffolding'
Can function bottom-up through students' own multimodal reconstruction of meaning
20 September 2018

15. Re-presenting text 'Translating' text: into another genre; text type with a different purpose, style, register; structure; language
Monolingual
Multilingual
Multimodal
‘Transgenring’: e.g. an eye- witness account into a formal incident report
Changing the text type: e.g. instructions to a description, or vice versa
Translation: L2 learners use translation as a mental activity when reading or writing in the L2
Potential to facilitate schema-building (Pellatt 2009:34
Transmodalisation /transmediation: Converting a visual text into a verbal text, and vice versa; or using a combination of modes
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16. Developing metacognition When students learn to monitor and evaluate the adequacy of their current level of understanding
As a monolingual strategy
Multilingual dimensions
Focus in particular on the target language:
Brown & Palinscar’s (1985) Reciprocal Teaching (read, summarise, ask questions, reflect)
Practise self-assessment using rubrics
Helps students to know which elements of performance are important
Translanguaging: If students are allowed to choose how and when to switch languages, “they assume an empowering self- managing role of their own language acquisition and reflect upon those choices […] which in terms of self-access use is a metacognitive skill essential in autonomous learning” (Adamson & Fujimoto-Adamson 2012:64)
20 September 2018

17. Conclusion
Linguistically complex teaching situations demand creative support (scaffolding) strategies
Useful to think of scaffolding as a set of semiotically flexible sociocultural strategies with lasting cognitive gains
Should be used consistently and purposefully
Should introduce message abundancy and message redundancy
If applied appropriately, all English L2 students may gain as much profit from the mainstream subject matter as their L1 counterparts
20 September 2018