Preemptive and Fixing Strategies for Proficient Speakers
The preceding paragraphs targeted ELLs’ plurilingual competence. However, proficient speakers need to do their part by preempting and fixing misunderstanding. Some preemptive strategies, such as making room in conversations for learners to speak, and taking up and recasting learners’ partially correct or incomplete responses, have already been described in detail in the reading literature on scaffolding ELLs’ participation in classroom talk (e.g., Cappellini, 2005; Dansie, 2001; Gibbons, 2002; Mohr & Mohr, 2007). Another useful preemptive strategy is to give learners some control over the conversational topic. As has long been known, classroom conversations are traditionally teacher-directed events—some teachers of ELLs talk two thirds more than all the learners in the class put together (Breen, 2001). Yet there is evidence that asking questions, rather than passively responding to questions, enables learners to direct conversation according to their understanding. Student control is, therefore, an important preemptive strategy (Bremer, 1996).
For reasons efface and confidence, student control is more likely in small group or one-on-one interactions. Moreover, it is more likely in conversation arising from an activity in which a student is engaged: Conversation for conversation’s sake tends to fall flat and sound contrived. However, when a student is deeply involved in solving a problem or carrying out an activity in a learning community, comments and questions arise more naturally, especially if more proficient speakers are careful to not to dominate the conversation. Projects or theme work in content areas across the mainstream curriculum are ideal environments for this type of conversation. At the same time, there is evidence (McNaughton, 2002) that such conversation contributes to better content area outcomes for students whose linguistic and cultural resources differ from those traditionally assumed by school activities (McNaughton, 2002).
In addition to preemptive strategies, strategies for fixing problems of understanding are useful for more proficient speakers of the language. These strategies depend somewhat on how precisely the learner is able to indicate the source of difficulty. When the indication is very precise, misunderstanding is easily addressed. The proficient speaker can simply repeat and explain the difficult language (Bremer, 1996). In contrast, when the indication is vague, more proficient speakers can refer back to the context (“OK, we’re trying to explain why leaves are green”). They can also reformulate what they have said to make it easier to understand. Comprehension checks can be used to ensure that the reformulation worked (Bremer, 1996).
In addition to preempting and fixing misunderstandings, the more proficient speakers should monitor their own listening comprehension. As was noted earlier, this convention of English conversation is sometimes violated in conversations with an ELL. To avoid this inequitable use of power, the more proficient speaker needs to indicate whether or not they are following. Sympathetic noises (Uh-huh, mmm, yeah, interesting, OK OK, ah-huh, yes, yes, right] can be used to signal comprehension, and clarification formulae (Sorry Oh Really I don’t quite get it) can be used to signal misunderstanding (Thornbury & Slade, 2006).
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