Classical retellings

Here are some great examples of where digital storytelling can allow literature to be updated, recontexualised and adapted to modern times and short attention spans.  Most of these formats are also easily adopted by students to create their own versions of the classics.


Green Gables Fables (Anne of Green Gables)

https://www.youtube.com/user/greengablesfables

Lizzie Bennet Diaries (Pride and Prejudice)

 

http://www.pemberleydigital.com/the-lizzie-bennet-diaries/


Frankenstein – Inkle Studios

http://www.inklestudios.com/frankenstein/

Frankenstein MD – Vlog
http://www.pemberleydigital.com/frankenstein-md/


Greek Myths – Twitterature 

https://storify.com/CrownPublishing/100-greek-myths-retold-in-100-tweets


Greek Myths – retold by vegetables

http://www.openculture.com/2014/08/the-story-of-oedipus-retold-with-vegetables-in-starring-roles.html

Digital literature – Interactive documentaries

I’m going to do a couple of posts highlighting good examples of digital literature, divided into different genres / types.

Here are a few interactive documentaries I think are particularly good.

The Guardian  – First World War


http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2014/jul/23/a-global-guide-to-the-first-world-war-interactive-documentary


New York Times – Story of the high rise

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/high-rise/
A short history of the high rise

Welcome to Pine Point NFB Canada

http://pinepoint.nfb.ca/#/pinepoint


Firestorm – The Guardian

What is twitterature?

Exploring storytelling using twitter is one of the many new “genres” in digital storytelling.  Here is Andrew Fitzgerald explaining what it is:

https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/andrew_fitzgerald_adventures_in_twitter_fiction.html

Viking / Penguin have taken the lead in this new format and there is a dedicated website to some of the best examples.

The myth of "reluctance"?

I went to a professional development session the other day on motivating secondary students to read. It was a pretty good session with lots of interaction and ideas.  But it did give me pause for thought. About the premise. Yes I agree that reading is important – fundamental in fact to any kind of academic life at any level above primary school. I love an applaud meditations such as those of Alain de Botton on what literature is for (see below).  I think it interesting and noteworthy that numeric goals are being given to just how many books a student should read (20-25) in order to benefit from all these wonderful things.  And yet …

All through the discussions I kept hearing the term “reluctant readers” – they were to be shaken up and motivated and enticed and if we just found the right “entry drug” book, the right set of incentives, the right way to monitor it all, if we showed them how important it was, how much we valued it, then hey presto! They’d go from reading 2 books to 20 books and voila!
The first thing that got me thinking was a name.  Not an idea.  The name “Lars” – a success story in this battle against reluctance.  I have a nephew called Lars.  He’s Dutch. I know a couple of people called Lars who are Danish and Swedish.  And then I wondered.  Could it be that Lars was not reading 25 books in English in his English class because he was perhaps reading them in his mother tongue?  Had anyone asked him about his reading in other languages?  Did anyone care?  Because caring is important.  I know, I have two children reading in their chosen tongues, Dutch and Chinese respectively.  And it’s a balancing act.  One in which you’re teetering on a beam of approval – that of your English teacher on the one hand and your family and / or language tutor/teacher on the other.  And that language teacher / tutor may not even be part of your school community, so if you’re too shy or to nervous or just plain don’t understand that reading is reading and that all reading counts in whatever language you’re reading in – well you’re not going to get credit for that reading.  NOT ONCE in the entire PD session did anyone at any point mention mother tongue reading (except me to my learning partner – but she knows me, and she’s one of us bilingual and multicultural types).  I looked around the room at the pretty homogenous bunch of language teachers around me and it wasn’t surprising. I wonder how many of them were bilingual? Of course that is not what they’d be selected on, but, their class demographic is built up of at least 50% bi- or multi-lingual students. Why are we not talking about this? I suspect because we are not even thinking about this.
Research shows, if you’re interested in it and if you want to acknowledge it, that languages at a CALP (Cognitive academic language proficiency level) scaffold and complement each other.  And if we’ve been doing our job correctly as parents and educators, by the time kids are in secondary school they should have a CALP level in at least one of their languages so it shouldn’t matter too much which language is being read most.   But are we even thinking about this? Is it even on our teaching horizon?  
But then again, how many of our students are not at a CALP level when they enter secondary school? Even if they’re mono-lingual.  With the best intentions and the best resources and all the rest, some students just don’t get there. And no amount of monitoring or encouragement will get them there. It requires more.  Kids don’t wake up one morning and along with acne and hormones decide to be reluctant readers. It’s something that probably creeps up on them.  Mel Levine in his book “The Myth of Laziness” attempts to look behind why students do not succeed in an academic environment.  He finds labels of learning problems and then he tries to look behind those labels and to break down very specific issues that then can be worked on.  So too I think when we are confronted with a reluctant reader we need to look underneath that big label and work out where the reluctance stems from.  Is there an underling difficulty with reading? It is said that if a child is not a competent reader by Grade 3, s/he will struggle for the rest of school.  So what about our children in the expatriate environment who are snatched from their native language environment with the assumption that “they’re young, they’ll pick up xxx language easily” and who don’t establish the competencies early on, and then may or may not get help, or may get language help when the problem is learning or learning help when the problem is language.  Who are more or less forced to drop and ignore their mother tongue at great cost in order to fit into a new environment.
Students don’t just lose a language. They may shed bits of their identity along the way.  One student I spoke to was a success story by all accounts.  Rapidly rising from an EAL (English Additional language) to the mainstream English class in a year.  The picture of diligence.  But who felt in the process she’d lost her self and her voice.  And that wasn’t the worst of it, the worst is that no one around her would acknowledge that her success had come at a cost and that the cost disturbed her.  As an educator one may rather be concerned when a student does not notice or express this frustration and anxiety at the apparent ease of substitution of self.
Back to reading.  I’ve become somewhat enamoured of late of the potential of digital storytelling as a way to allow students to reclaim their identities and voices.   How about we take the immensely successful Lizzie Bennett diaries? Celebrated as having taken the themes of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and translated them to modern time North America.  Why should we not in our schools have those themes expressed from a Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, African view point? And why just vlogging? It can be vlogging, or twitterature, or multi-media film and text and picture.   We like our “World Literature” we do.  But too often our world literature is a voice that suits a western audience.  We like our stories of China to involve the cultural revolution, of Vietnam the escape to the non-communist west, of Afghanistan something to do with boats and difficulties at the Australian border.  But what about the stories of our students who are a little like us, part of that global cosmopolitan elite, but then not quite. Where the mirror by which they reflect themselves distorts ever so slightly that it is not always perceptible. That is what we should want to hear and what as educators we have a role in eliciting.  And perhaps when that takes place our literature and our world views will be enriched.
I recently suffered through “To rise again at a decent hour” – the self-absorbed rantings of a middle aged white baseball loving north american male tinged with crazed religious passages was more than I could bear. And yet supposedly it was literature having been on the man booker long list. And had I been a student, I would be first in the “reluctant reader” line.  So a lack of identification and interest may foster reluctance.
How about time?  As an idealistic mother I so totally bought into that half hour of reading in bed before lights out.  Easy when you’re doing the reading and setting the bedtime and there is no homework or after school activities that eat into the late afternoon and then munch past dinner time and gulp up the hours past the absolute latest time that you know a child should be asleep. There are always deliverables. 
There are some good things going on.   I’m really gratified to see that some teachers are setting time aside in class for reading. I hope that’s working.  I hope students can read on demand.  I really like the concept of class libraries, the easy availability of books at the point of demand. I also hope we have dedicated enough budget to have that in all our language classrooms as well and to think about how we are meeting the needs of our multi-linguals.  For now just even thinking about them. Just mentioning them in a seminar or workshop would be a huge step forward.

Digital Storytelling – an 8-week interactive program for Middle School students

Note: This is the example of the type of program that could be held for this age group – it is an academic submission and as such has not been tested in reality.

____________________________________________________________________
Assessment Item 1: Report and program for specified age group
INF 505 – Library Services for Children and Youth
Digital Storytelling – an 8-week interactive program for Middle School students at UWCSEA-East
Report prepared for the Librarian of UWCSEA-East by Nadine Bailey, September 2014

___________________________________________________________________

 

“For those associations and borrowed emotions, coming as they do from outside, carry young people over the dangerously spongy spiritual ground of the years during which one must signify something to oneself, while one is still too incomplete really to signify anything at all” (Musil, 2001, p. 10 writing on the value of literature for adolescents)

 

Part 1: Background and context

 
United World College of South East Asia East (UWCSEA-East) is an International School located in Singapore. It has a student population of 2,240 who come from 68 different countries and speak 50 different languages (UWCSEA, n.d.).  Around 40% of the students are bilingual and 12% speak more than two languages. As an international school drawing on an expatriate population, it has a high student turnover and the community can largely be described as cosmopolitan elite. The campus has two libraries, one for the Kindergarten and Primary students, and the other for Secondary students.
 
Section
 Number
Kindergarten
 353
Primary School
 654
Middle School
 587
High School
 324
IB
 321
Total
 2,239
Figure 1: Student breakdown by section
 
The school recently won the “21st Century school of the year award” (21stCL, 2013) and has a one-laptop-per-child program from Grade 6. Secondary school parents are ambivalent about the prevalence of computers in their children’s lives and often complain that their teenagers spend too much “non-productive” time on social media and online-game playing.
While the school offers a wide range of activities to the students, including outdoor adventure, sports, drama, music and socially driven clubs, there are no activities catering for creative writing or story-telling. There is a “techspert” club which deals with the technical rather than the creative aspects of technology and at present, besides the parents’ book club, the library does not run any programs outside of curriculum teaching, readers’ advisory, and reference or research assistance. Some teachers, learning support staff and librarians feel there is a need for a creative writing activity outside of the classroom to cater for younger adolescents who are introvert or struggle to express themselves due to shyness, learning differences or developing English skills and who would otherwise get “lost” in such a large, noisy, busy and extroverted campus.
The affordances of Web 2.0, social media and digital technology may have pedagogical and social benefits to secondary students, particularly those who are shy or socially awkward, and act as a bridge to physical relationships and interactions (Gorrindo, Fishel, & Beresin, 2012; Greenhow, Robelia, & Hughes, 2009). Educational research has indicated that exposure to technological tools in the creation of digital stories and book talks benefit students through increased motivation, engagement, ownership, control, confidence and deeper understanding. In turn, both the reading and writing aspects of textual literacy are improved (Barnard, 2011; Beach, 2012; Gunter & Kenny, 2008, 2012; Kenny & Gunter, 2004; Kenny, 2011; Ragen, 2012; Yoon, 2013).  It was therefore decided to combine the creative writing and technology aspects in a “Digital Storytelling” eight-week interactive program.
This program will be targeted to Middle School students, (grades 6 to 8) for a number of reasons. Firstly, as students move into Middle School (around age 12), they loose the structure and security of one class teacher and a fixed group of classmates while at the same time academic demands become higher. In addition, besides losing part of their peer group from the previous year due to international relocations, the school adds extra classes and pupils, resulting in about a third of the cohort being new to both Singapore and the school. This is the age group where, in Eriksonian terms, students are struggling with the commencement of puberty, and the related psychological stresses of developing and discovering an identity, negotiating social interaction and affiliating with friends, causes and ideals (Greenhow et al., 2009). Finally, this development takes place within a digital and online context which may be overwhelming to young teens as they explore the boundaries of online social behaviour and interaction (Gorrindo et al., 2012) and may not have positive role models in their home or peer environments.
“One reason that an afterschool program can have such a large impact relates back to the developmental needs of teenagers” (Jones & Waddle, 2002, p. 43).  These needs can be summarised as:
·      Positive social interaction with adults and peers
·      Structure and clear limits
·      Physical activity
·      Creative expression
·      Competence and achievement
·      Meaningful participation
·      Opportunities for self-definition (Jones & Waddle, 2002 cited in Meyers, Fisher, & Marcoux, 2007)
The secondary library that will host this program is a two-level open-plan space with moveable bookshelves.  Teenage students are comfortable in the welcoming library space which incorporates design thinking in creating zones for comfort, relaxation, reading and social interaction. The ground floor is mainly open plan with two study rooms with carousels and one large classroom (the Think Tank), while most of the collection is located on the first floor that additionally has two study rooms set up for audio-visual work.

 

Part 2: Design and develop a program

 
In this section, the following elements of program design will be covered: goals and objectives; cost and logistical considerations; marketing and promotion; and program delivery. Evaluation will be covered in the next section.

 

Goals and objectives

 
The primary goal is to design a program in which students can use technology in a positive and creative way to express themselves through storytelling in a safe environment that meets their developmental needs.
The program objectives, their relevance and how they will meet these needs are summarized below:

Objective
Relevance
Related Developmental need
1. Introduce students to concepts, examples and tools of digital storytelling
Students are familiar with literature and with digital tools, however not with digital storytelling.  This will broaden their competencies while scaffolding on what they already know.
Competence and achievement
Structure and clear limits
2. Support students in the creation of their own narratives using the tools of digital storytelling
For successful creative output, students will need technical, literacy and social support in an encouraging non-judgmental environment
Creative expression
Positive social interaction with Adults and Peers
Competence and Achievement
Opportunities for Self-definition
3. Provide a forum for sharing, promotion, collaboration and interaction
Student’s digital storytelling outputs receive validation through providing an appreciative audience while allowing them to contribute the same to their fellow participants.
Positive social interaction with Adults and peers
Meaningful participation

Figure 2: Objectives, relevance and developmental needs

 

Cost, staffing and other logistical considerations

 
Since the program will be run from the school library using school equipment, premises and staff, there are no associated program costs. Instruction time given to the program will count towards staff’s “educator activity contribution requirement”. Students will use their own laptops, pre-loaded with all the necessary software and digital tools for which the school has an education license.

·      Image – iPhoto and Photoshop
·      Moving image – iMovie
·      Text – Google documents or Pages
·      Music / sound / voice over – iTunes / Garage band / Voicethread

Thirteen Nikon D7000 cameras with tripods are available for loan during school hours to students and teachers. Besides the “Think Tank” meeting room where most of the sessions will be held, the library has two audio-visual rooms equipped with a television, projector and green or blue screen which will be reserved for program students during weeks 5 and 6, during the program time at lunch time. The program will run as an official school activity for eight weeks on a Monday afternoon from 15h15 to 17h00 so as not to clash with the sports and other activity programs. Sign up will be through the school activity sign up program. The activity is free and limited to 12 students selected from a pool of applicants in consultation with tutor mentors, learning support staff and the school counsellor.

 

Program delivery

 
Writing is a complex highly abstract process involving productive rather than receptive skills. These include cognitive, psychological and semiotic expertise within the social, cultural and historical context of the writer. Students often have an imbalance between their spoken and written abilities and get bored by the recursive steps of planning, prewriting, drafting, revising and editing (Thompson, 2012). Ways to encourage reluctant writers include ensuring that the topic is: relevant; of interest; taught naturally; understandable; engages emotions; expresses an inner world and is delivered in a playful manner (Vygotsky, 1978, cited in Nilsson, 2010). Fortunately, digital and technological tools have been shown to create new motivation and purpose in reluctant writers (Beach, 2012; Burke & Kafai, 2012; Dreon, Kerper, & Landis, 2011; Green, 2011; Hall, Hall, Hodgson, Hume, & Humphries, 2012; Morgan, 2014). 
In the creation of this program, the above factors were considered, while the weekly structure follows the four P’s of digital storytelling (Knight, 2012):

·      Plan (Objective 1 – concept and tool introduction) – weeks 1-3,
·      Produce (Objective 2 – support students in their creation) – weeks 4-6,
·      Publish and Promote (Objective 3 – provide a forum for sharing) – week 7
Instructors were carefully selected to ensure they had a good rapport with this age group, but were not involved with them as classroom teachers, so did not have any pre-conceptions about their writing, technological or creative skills.
An overview of the activities is given in Appendix 1.

 

Week 1: Experience it!

 
During the first session, a variety of digital literature will be made available to the group. An example of each type will be briefly introduced and then students will be free to chose and borrow the example that most appealed to them, or to find other examples in that genre.

 

Week 2: Telling Tales

 
This week the elements of storytelling will be introduced.  Using the conceptual framework of Branigan (1992, cited in Kenny, 2011), story telling as a universal construct includes the interaction between a teller and the audience with the elements of time and place (background), cause (conflict or challenge) and effect (fight or flight) which result in a transformation as the story is resolved.
The acronym “I AM TOP CAMP” is a useful way to remember the principles of digital story telling, i.e. Interactive; Authentic; Meaningful; Technological; Organized; Productive; Collaborative; Appealing; Motivating; and Personalized (Yoon, 2013).

 



Figure 3: Storytelling process

 

Week 3: Storyboard

 
Building on the experiences of week one and learning of week two, students will be encouraged to start thinking about creating a storyboard for their own story. Comics and graphic books will be used to scaffold this activity (Hall et al., 2012). The elements of good design will be introduced, namely Contrast, Alignment, Repetition, Proximity otherwise known as CARP (Reynolds, 2008).

 

Week 4: Digital tool box

 
Each of the modal choices in digital storytelling (still and moving image, text, voiceover, music and sound (Buchholz, 2014)) requires the use of different technological tools, which can either be used separately, or in combination with each other.

 

Weeks 5 & 6: Production

 
Students are given the opportunity to create their own story. They have complete control over the type of story, tools to use and whether to work in a group or pairs or individually. Additional staff members will be available on a roving basis to trouble-shoot and assist students with any technical or story-telling difficulties they encounter.  Audio-visual rooms and digital cameras will also be available during lunchtimes should students wish to work on their story outside of the activity time.

 

Week 7:  Performance

 
One of the problems with creative writing is the perceived lack of an audience (Thompson, 2012). Although collaboration, interaction and sharing has been a part of all the activities up to now, this week the activity makes the audience explicit. The group’s productions will be shown at a special screening in the small black box theatre. Students can invite friends, parents and teachers.

 

Week 8: Reflection and celebration

 
In the final week, students will be able to reflect on their experiences during the last 7 weeks and provide feedback to the group (Survey – Appendix 4). This will be part of the evaluation discussed in the next section. Students will be allowed to bring along a snack for a celebratory party and will be invited to help as student volunteers in the Production stage of the next program.

 

Detailed activity plan – Week 1



Materials required

 
Laptop (MacBook) and iPads with preloaded eBook apps, screen, projector, apple TV for screening. The following digital literature should be preloaded onto iPads, available online or available for borrowing from the library catalog:


Type
Name
Link
Interactive Documentary
A global guide to the first world war (Panetta, 2014)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2014/jul/23/a-global-guide-to-the-first-world-war-interactive-documentary
Twitterature
100 Greek Myths retold in 100 tweets (Crown Publishing, 2012)
https://storify.com/CrownPublishing/100-greek-myths-retold-in-100-tweets
Digital Novel
Inanimate Alice (DreamingMethods, 2012)
http://www.inanimatealice.com/
Vlog
Lizzie Bennet Diaries (Su, Noble, Rorick, & Austen, 2014)
http://www.lizziebennet.com/
Animated dreamtime stories
Dust Echoes (ABC, 2007)
http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/
iPad app and eBook
Shakespeare in Bits – Romeo and Juliette (Mindconnex Learning Ltd, 2012)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shakespeare-in-bits-romeo/id370803660?mt=8

Figure 4: Digital Literature examples for screening


Step by step procedures of what is to be done 

 

 

Item
Equipment / Material
Timing
Greet students and ask for a brief introduction with name, class, where they are from and any experience or expectations they have from the program.
Stickers for students to write the names on
10 minutes
Perform a short icebreaker such as “two truths and one lie” with students in pairs.
n/a
10 minutes
Ask students to do initial survey using google forms.
Survey (Appendix 3)
5 minutes
Show snippets of the first three examples of digital story telling – A Global guide to the first world war, 100 Greek Myths and Inanimate Alice.
Laptop, projector and screen. Ensure various resources are open to minimise turnover time
3 resources, 5 minutes each = 15 minutes
Open discussion on what appeals to the students
Use the elements of successful digital story telling i.e. Interactive; Authentic; Meaningful; Technological; Organized; Productive; Collaborative; Appealing; Motivating; and Personalized (Yoon, 2013) to scaffold activity
20 minutes
Give students a break to have a snack, use the washroom, etc.
10 minutes
Show snippets of the next three examples of digital story telling – Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Dust Echoes and Shakespeare in Bits – Romeo and Juliette.
Laptop, projector and screen. Ensure various resources are open to minimise turnover time.
3 resources, 5 minutes each = 15 minutes
Ask students to choose the type of digital storytelling that most appeals to them; they can explore the resource in the remaining class time and borrow the resource to explore further at home.
Assist with loan and downloading of materials or searching of similar materials.
20 minutes
Finish in time for buses / pickup
Total 1 hour 45 minutes

Figure 5: Step by Step Procedure for week 1

 

Audience, staffing and other considerations

 
As discussed in Part 1, there will be 12 middle school students aged 12 – 15 years. All students should have a laptop and access to the library catalog and the Internet.  The secondary school librarian will demonstrate the material and show where similar material can be found in the catalog. An assistant librarian should be on hand to troubleshoot if students have problems loading the apps or eBooks, signing in or any other technical difficulties. Ensure room shades are all working so the room can be darkened sufficiently.

 

Marketing and promotion

 

The school markets all activities through the website and has a centralized signup program, however, as this is a new activity, additional promotion will be needed. A promotional calendar has been created including a short synopsis of each activity and its relevance (see Figure 2 below, and Appendix 1 for the promotional calendar).

 


Figure 6: Promotional Calendar

 

Printed posters will be put in the library, hallways, and elevator notice boards. In order to attract those students who would most benefit from the program a combination of “pull” and “push” promotion will be needed, so flyers will be given to Middle School language teachers, digital literacy coaches, learning support teachers and school counsellors who will be encouraged to discuss participation with students who may benefit from the program. A link to the calendar will also be placed on the library portal and in the school newsletter, the eBrief.

 

Part 3: Evaluation and reflection

 

How to evaluate the program

 
There are two main ways in which participants will evaluate the program.  In the first place a questionnaire will be completed (see Appendix 4). Secondly students will reflect on their own work and give feedback to other participants as part of the reflection in Week Eight.  Students are used to the PNI method of reflecting on the Positives, Negatives and possible Improvements. The most relevant evaluation however will be whether the activity is seen as interesting in subsequent semesters with demand and over-subscription from students during the Season 2 signup period. Although the student as “client” will be the main evaluator of the program, the teachers and digital, visual and text literacy coaches will also be asked to give feedback on the content, logistics and perceived usefulness of the program. 
Some digital storytelling programs have administered pre- and post- program literacy tests to students to evaluate the efficacy of the program (Barnard, 2011; Beach, 2012; Gunter & Kenny, 2008; Ragen, 2012; Yoon, 2013). But, since the primary goal of the program is to provide a social and creative outlet for students using digital tools, this will not be undertaken formally. However, the tutor mentors of the students participating in the program will be asked if they feel the program had any impact on the students socially or academically.

 

Reflection

 
One of the issues to be considered in this program will be the possible duality in the audience it attracts. On the one hand it may appeal to students with a passion for reading and writing, who already have a high level of sophistication and affiliation for writing. On the other, it may appeal to students who have difficulties in expressing themselves due to learning or language difficulties. They may be attracted by the expressive affordances of digital literature, the lure of technology or they may be encouraged to join in by their English teacher, learning or language support teacher or school counsellor. An important consideration would be how to cater to both these groups allowing each to build on their strengths without compromising the needs of either.  A further concern is that students will put a disproportionate amount of time into struggling with flashy technology and this will compromise the story-telling process. For this reason, digital tools are only introduced in the fourth week, after storytelling and the storyboard has been completed. During the mentoring, digital literacy coaches should remind students of academic honesty, consideration of DRM (digital rights management) and the correct accreditation or attribution of images and other material.
In setting up this program, older students were not considered, since once they move into High School and the International Baccalaureate program; study and exam pressures result in limited time for participation in activities. In the primary school, extensive writing workshops are already in place, led by the literacy coach. At a later stage, if the program is successful it could be expanded to include other groups of students.
Finally, it is important to reflect on the developmental needs of teenagers in the light of the objectives and characteristics of the program.


Objective
1. Introduce students to concepts, examples and tools of digital storytelling
2. Support students in the creation of their own narratives using the tools of digital storytelling
3. Provide a forum for sharing, promotion, collaboration and interaction

Figure 7: Objectives revisited



Developmental Need
Expression
Program Objectives
Program characteristics
Positive Social Interaction with Adults & Peers
Seek attention, socialization
2, 3
Small group of students with specialist teachers with a variety of skills and personalities
Structure & Clear Limits
Push boundaries, challenge authority
1, 2, 3
Program is limited to 8 sessions with a clear structure within which choice and autonomy is possible
Physical Activity
Running, jostling, roaming
n/a
Not applicable
Creative Expression
Vandalism, Vine, Instagram, Snapchat
2
Creative storytelling is the main thrust of the program
Competence & Achievement
Competitive behaviour, Minecraft, number of followers on social media
1,2,3
The program allows for mastery of technological and storytelling skills within a new format, end result is performed and published
Meaningful Participation
Opinionated, socialization, clique club or team membership
2, 3
Activities allow for interaction in the physical and virtual space
Opportunities for Self-Definition
Status symbols, dress and hair,
2
Students are encouraged to consider their culture, linguistic and social identities in producing their story

Figure 8: Summary of developmental needs, expression, program objectives and characteristics
(Adapted from: National Middle School Association (1996). Research Summary: Young Adolescent’s Developmental Needs, 2006, cited in Gallaway, 2008).


 

References

 

21stCL. (2013). School of The Year – 21st Century Learning International. Retrieved May 15, 2014, from http://21c-learning.com/awards/school-of-the-year/

ABC. (2007). Dust Echoes. Retrieved August 20, 2014, from http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/dustEchoesFlash.htm

Barnard, C., A. (2011). How Can Teachers Implement Multiple Modalities into the Classroom to Assist Struggling Male Readers? (Education Masters Paper 26). St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY.

Beach, R. (2012). Uses of Digital Tools and Literacies in the English Language Arts Classroom. Research in the Schools, 19(1), 45–59.

Buchholz, B. (2014). “Actually, that’s not really how I imagined it”: Children’s divergent dispositions, identities, and practices in digital production. In Working Papers in Literacy, Culture, and Language Education (Vol. 3, pp. 25–53). Bloomington, IN: School of Education, Indiana University. Retrieved from http://education.indiana.edu/graduate/programs/literacy-culture-language/specialty/wplcle/index.html

Burke, Q., & Kafai, Y. B. (2012). The writers’ workshop for youth programmers: digital storytelling with scratch in middle school classrooms (pp. 433–438). Presented at the Proceedings of the 43rd ACM technical symposium on Computer Science Education, ACM.

Crown Publishing. (2012, November). @LucyCoats: 100 Greek Myths Retold in 100 Tweets (with tweets). Retrieved September 4, 2014, from https://storify.com/CrownPublishing/100-greek-myths-retold-in-100-tweets

DreamingMethods. (2012). Inanimate Alice – About the Project [Digital Novel]. Retrieved September 4, 2014, from http://www.inanimatealice.com/about.html

Dreon, O., Kerper, R. M., & Landis, J. (2011). Digital Storytelling: A Tool for Teaching and Learning in the YouTube Generation. Middle School Journal, 42(5), 4–9.

Gallaway, B. (2008). Pain in the Brain: Teen Library (mis)Behavior. Retrieved September 4, 2014, from http://www.slideshare.net/informationgoddess29/pain-in-the-brain-teen-library-misbehavior-presentation

Gorrindo, T., Fishel, A., & Beresin, E. (2012). Understanding Technology Use Throughout Development: What Erik Erikson Would Say About Toddler Tweets and Facebook Friends. Focus, X(3), 282–292. Retrieved from http://focus.psychiatryonline.org/data/Journals/FOCUS/24947/282.pdf

Green, M. R. (2011). Writing in the Digital Environment: Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions of the Value of Digital Storytelling. In American Educational Research Association (pp. 8–12). Retrieved from http://worldroom.tamu.edu/Workshops/Storytelling13/Articles/Green.pdf

Greenhow, C., Robelia, B., & Hughes, J. E. (2009). Learning, Teaching, and Scholarship in a Digital Age: Web 2.0 and Classroom Research: What Path Should We Take Now? Educational Researcher, 38(4), 246–259. doi:10.3102/0013189X09336671

Gunter, G. A., & Kenny, R. F. (2008). Digital booktalk: Digital media for reluctant readers. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 8(1), 84–99.

Gunter, G. A., & Kenny, R. F. (2012). UB the director: Utilizing digital book trailers to engage gifted and twice-exceptional students in reading. Gifted Education International, 28(2), 146–160. doi:10.1177/0261429412440378

Hall, M., Hall, L., Hodgson, J., Hume, C., & Humphries, L. (2012). Scaffolding the Story Creation Process. In 4th International Conference on Computer Supported Education. Porto, Portugal. Retrieved from http://www.lynnehall.co.uk/pubs/ScaffoldingTheStoryCreationProcess.pdf

Jones, P., & Waddle, L. L. (2002). New directions for library service to young adults. Chicago: American Library Association.

Kenny, R. F. (2011). Beyond the Gutenberg Parenthesis: Exploring New Paradigms in Media and Learning. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 3(1), 32–46. Retrieved from http://www.jmle.org

Kenny, R. F., & Gunter, G. A. (2004). Digital booktalk: Pairing books with potential readers. Association for Educational Communications and Technology, 27, 330–338.

Knight, S. (2012, June 20). Introduction to Digital Storytelling. Retrieved September 6, 2014, from http://www.slideshare.net/sknight/digital-storytelling-ed554?related=1

Meyers, E. M., Fisher, K. E., & Marcoux, E. (2007). Studying the everyday information behavior of tweens: Notes from the field. Library & Information Science Research, 29(3), 310–331. doi:10.1016/j.lisr.2007.04.011

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Appendix 1: Program Overview

 

                                                                                                                                                                          

Element
Synopsis
Relevance
Instructor
Location
Week 1:
20 October 2014
Experience it!
A whirlwind tour of digital books, vlogs, interactive apps and tweeted poems.
Provide background to program and give understanding of what is possible.
Ms. Katie Day – secondary school librarian – expert in YA literature
Library Think Tank
Week 2:
27 October 2014
Telling tales
Elements of storytelling explained with particular reference to digital storytelling.
Storytelling, no matter what the medium is the basis of this program.
Ms. Kate Levy – high school English teacher
Library Think Tank
Week 3:
3 November 2014
Storyboard
Students shown how to create a storyboard using the example of cartoons and graphic novels and elements of good design are introduced.
Learn the elements of good design and how to incorporate these in your story.
Mr. Noah Katz – visual literacy coach
Library Think Tank
Week 4:
10 November 2014
Digital tool box
Digital tools for capturing and combining different modal choices (image, sound, text) are explained. Best practise is highlighted.
Bring students digital skills to a comparative level of mastery and show how to incorporate into their storytelling.
Mr. David Caleb – digital literacy coach, photographer and author of “The Photographer’s Toolkit”
Library Think Tank
Week 5:
17 November 2014
Production
Students will be given the time and resources to put their ideas and skills into practise. They can choose between individual, paired or group production.
Students will be aided in their creation of digital stories by competent experts they can achieve their creative goals within a clear structure.
All 7 school digital literacy coaches, librarian and Ms. Levy
Library – Emily Dickinson, Pablo Neruda rooms & Think Tank – green, blue or white screens available
Week 6:
24 November 2014
Production
Week 7:
1 December 2014
Performance!
Output is produced and promoted. Friends, family and teachers are invited to the Black Box Theatre watch the digital storytelling productions.
An explicit audience is an important aspect of storytelling. Students will have a sense of competency and achievement.
Ms. Katie Day, participants, digital literacy coaches
Black Box Theatre
Week 8:
8 December 2014
Reflection
Time is given for reflection and feedback of the last 7 weeks. The end results are celebrated and promoted further.
The end of the program is indicated by this activity both setting a limit to the formal program and allowing reflection and also validating participants by requesting their evaluation and suggestions for improvement.
All instructors
Library Think Tank

 

Appendix 2: Promotional Calendar

 


 

Appendix 3: Pre-program Survey

 

 
Digital Storytelling Program
Pre-program Survey
To give us an idea of your current understanding, preferences and skills please complete this survey. Thank you!
Definitely
Usually
Some-what
Not really
Not at all
I enjoy reading or watching
Fiction, stories, memoirs
Non-fiction or documentaries
Poetry
I can use the following technology
Digital Camera
Digital Video Camera
iPhoto
Photoshop
iTunes
Garage Band
iMovie
I use the following social media
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube
Other – please state which ……
I express my creativity through
Writing
Art or photography
Music or dance
Drama and acting
Video or film
I am not creative
What do you expect from this program?

 

 

 

 

Appendix 4: Post Program Survey

 
Digital Storytelling Program
Post-program Survey
Now you have finished the program please reflect on your experiences and learning.
Definitely
Usually
Some-what
Not really
Not at all
I understand the concepts and tools of Digital Storytelling
Different types of digital stories
What is important in storytelling
How to create a storyboard
I can produce my own digital story
I can use the following technology
Digital Camera
Digital Video Camera
iPhoto
Photoshop
iTunes
Garage Band
iMovie
I would recommend this program
To friends / classmates
To teachers
What was the best / most positive part of this program?
What didn’t you enjoy about this program?
What improvements would you suggest?

 

 

Building a LOTE collection at an International School

Most international schools have a sizeable student population who speak a language other than English (LOTE), and offer language instruction in either mother tongue or second language at various levels. The question then is what role the school library plays in building a LOTE collection and how this can be financed and what other options exist.

Both the IBO (International Baccalaureate Organisation) and UNESCO encourage schools and learning communities to provide active support to promote learning and maintenance of mother tongue (Morley, 2006; UNESCO Bangkok, 2007). A school library’s aim should be to ensure that the LOTE collection supports the aims of the school for classroom instruction and external examination, pleasure reading and exposure to the literature of the various cultures of the campus community.

IMG_8834

A review of the LOTE collection can be undertaken in the following steps: an overview of the existing collection; information gathering on the language profiles of the school community (students, parents, educators); understanding of the language provision at the school including mother tongue and second language acquisition; reviewing LOTE collections in the community; creating a LOTE collection development policy and other considerations.

Overview of the existing collection

Initially it is important to gain an overview of the school’s existing collection and how that is catalogued. If our school is anything to go by, there will be reading books, language text books (temporarily as they get loaned out at the start of the school year), and language teaching resources for teachers in the library. Those are the books we know of. However, depending on how tightly or loosely the library manages resources, individual language departments or teachers may have anything from vast to tiny collections in their classrooms purchased by departmental budgets (or often the purse of the teacher) which are neither catalogued by the library nor even known of outside of that department. This will differ from school to school depending on the amount of control the library has over resource budgets, the amount of sharing that goes on and the co-operation between the library and departments.

Even finding out the extent and location of resources can potentially be a political minefield, so proceed with caution and bear in mind what may seem to be an innocent question / request on your side may be misinterpreted on theirs …

Language profile of the school community

Try to understand the language profile of your school community. Are there any significant language groups within the student, parent or educator body? Think carefully where you get this information from – for example if the school is English medium, parents may put “English” as the mother tongue and the mother tongue as a second language or even omit other languages spoken at home completely in any admissions documents. Hopefully the school does some kind of census that is separate from the admissions process. Does the Parent Association have language or nationality representatives who can support the library, financially or otherwise?

Understanding school’s language provision

In addition you need to establish how many students follow which language streams in the various sections of the school, and gain an understanding of the various levels. Hopefully language teachers are cooperative and enthusiastic in explaining the needs of their students for books that encourage reading outside and around the curriculum and for pleasure, not just what is required in the classroom. They should also be able to help with the levelling of materials to ensure a culture of reading is sustained in all languages not just English and students are not frustrated with the complexity of materials available but the library has a range of materials at all difficultly levels.

IMG_8856

Reviewing LOTE collections in the community

In the International / expatriate community, LOTE collections often exist outside of the school. Need for LOTE resources in a particular language is not necessarily a function of number of L1 (mother tongue) or L2 (second language) speakers. For example in Singapore, a few sizeable language communities (Korean, Japanese, and to a certain extent Dutch and French) rely on language and culture centres in Singapore spo

nsored in part by their National Governments, while the Singapore National Library holds Chinese, Malay and Tamil books. The role of the library would be one of collaboration and directing these populations to the relevant resource, (e.g. through the website and inter-library loans) rather than building up a potentially redundant collection. If the community has any International schools that focus primarily on one language (in Singapore this includes the German, French, Dutch, Korean and Japanese schools each with their own library), they could be approached for reciprocal borrowing or interlibrary loan privileges. Embassy and cultural attaches may be another source of funding or resources.

Creating a LOTE collection development policy

Depending on the size and status of the LOTE collection, it may not be necessary to create a separate LOTE collection development policy (CDP). LOTE collection issues can be dealt with within the overall CDP.

For example, the library strives to a goal of up to 20 books, excluding textbooks, per student. LOTE books can be expressed as a meaningful percentage per language of this aim.

Provision should be made for language teachers selecting books with input from parents or native speakers in the college community. Use can made of various recommendation lists including that of the IB Organisation (IBO) and collaborative lists of the International School Library Networks and language specialist schools.

Acquisition may be a tricky areas where books are either not available locally, are prohibitively expensive or are not shipped to the country. Provision often needs to be made for the acquisition by teachers, parents or students during home leave and reimbursed by the school. However, the budget and type of books needs to be vetted in advance so that there is little chance of miscommunication on either the cost or type of books thus acquired. A LOTE selection profile, such as that created by Caval Languages Direct (Caval. n.d.) can be adapted to fit the school’s needs.

IMG_8846

As far as possible, it would be helpful if the library processes and catalogues all books which the school has paid for, irrespective of whether it came from the library budget or not. In this way, the real collection is transparent, searchable and available to the whole community (on request obviously for classroom / department materials) and to avoid duplication in acquisition or under-utilisation of materials.

Cataloguing LOTE materials can be a challenge, particularly if they are not in Latin script. It is important to still have cataloguing guidelines that are followed to ensure consistency and ease of search and retrieval. Our school makes use of parent volunteers and teachers who fill the data into a spreadsheet that is then imported into our OPAC system. Our convention is to have the title details in script, followed by transliteration, followed by translation in English. Search terms need to be agreed with by the LOTE collection users, such as language teachers and students.

As far as donations are concerned, the library still needs to have a clear policy on what books they accept and in what condition. Although donated books may be “free”, they are not without cost, including processing and cataloguing cost.

Apart from physical books, it is worthwhile looking at what resources are available online either as eBooks or as other digital resources. For example BookFlix and TumbleBooks offer materials in Spanish. Often individual language departments maintain their own lists and links to digital resources, which could be incorporated into a Library Guide and made available to the whole community.

Budget may be a contentious area and often language material discussions occur at administration or department level without the involvement of the library and an expectation may exist that the library will provide LOTE “leisure reading” materials within its overall resource budget perhaps without an explicit discussion on the matter or a breakdown between resources and budget of the various languages.

Other considerations

International schools are a dynamic environment, and a language group may be dominant for a period of time and then disappear completely due to the investment or disinvestment of multi-national companies in the area. IB schools face the need to provide for self-taught languages and any changes made by the IBO and the school from time to time. The IBO currently offers 55 languages, which theoretically could be chosen. The IBO introduced changes in its language curriculum in 2011, substantially increasing the number of works that need to be studied in the original language rather than in translation. This places an additional burden on the library to have sufficient texts in the correct language available on time.

The socio-economic demographic of students with LOTE needs should also be considered. If most of the student body comes from a privileged background where LOTE books are purchased during home leave, the school could institute donation drives where “outgrown” books are donated to the school. It would be more equitable to use resources for scholarship students in order to maintain their L1 even if these languages do not form a large part of the communities’ LOTE.

The quality of materials in Southeast Asian languages is generally extremely poor. The cost of acquiring, processing and cataloguing the materials far exceeds the purchase price and books deteriorate rapidly. There is considerable scope for moving to digital materials, however the availability, format, access, licensing issues and compatibility will have to be investigated.

Schools, in conjunction with parents, needs to consider language provision for students who plan on returning to a LOTE university after graduation.

Centres of Excellence

A literature review suggests that the centre for excellence and expertise in building LOTE collections is Victoria Australia, (Library and Archives Canada, 2009), in fact the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Multicultural Communities Guidelines for Library services is based on their guidelines (IFLA, 1996). These guidelines suggest the four steps of; needs identification and continual assessment, service planning for the range of resource and service need, plan implementation and service evaluation.

Some LOTE Digital resources

http://librivox.org/about-listening-to-librivox/

http://www.radiobooks.eu/index.php?lang=EN

http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/language/Dutch

http://albalearning.com

http://www.wdl.org/en/

http://www.childrenslibrary.org/icdl/SimpleSearchCategory

http://www.dawcl.com

http://unterm.un.org

Library services

http://www.lote-librariesdirect.com.au/contact/

http://www.caval.edu.au/solutions/language-resources

http://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/lotelibrary/index.html

http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/services/multicultural/multicultural_services_public_libraries.html

http://www.reforma.org/content.asp?pl=9&sl=59&contentid=59

http://www.cacaoproject.eu

http://chopac.org/cgi-bin/tools/azorder.pl

http://civicalld.com/our-services/collection-services

References

American Library Association. (2007). How to Serve the World @ your library. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://www.ala.org/offices/olos/toolkits/servetheworld/servetheworldhome

International Baccalaureate Organisation. (2011). Guide for governments and universities on the changes in the Diploma Programme groups 1 and 2. IBO. Retrieved from http://www.ibo.org/recognition/dpchanges/documents/Guide_e.pdf

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. (1996). Multicultural Communities Guideline for Library Services. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://archive.ifla.org/VII/s32/pub/guide-e.htm

Kennedy, J., & Charles Sturt University. Centre for Information Studies. (2006). Collection management : a concise introduction. Wagga Wagga, N.S.W.: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.

Library and Archives Canada. (2009). Multicultural Resources and Services – Toolkit – Developing Multicultural Collections. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/multicultural/005007-302-e.html

Morley, K. (2006). Mother Tongue Maintenance – Schools Assisted Self-Taught A1 Languages. Presented at the Global Convention on Language Issues and Bilingual Education, Singapore. Retrieved from http://www.ibo.org/news/documents/morley2.pdf

Reference & User Services Association. (1997). Guidelines for the Development and Promotion of Multilingual Collections and Services. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://www.ala.org/rusa/resources/guidelines/guidemultilingual

UNESCO Bangkok. (2008). Improving the Quality of Mother Tongue-based Literacy and Learning Case Studies from Asia, Africa and South America. UNESCO Bangkok Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education Asia-Pacific Programme of Education for All (APPEAL). Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0017/001777/177738e.pdf

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This work by Nadine Bailey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Language, Bilingualism and Multi-lingualism in the news

I’ve started curating all the information I can find on the topic of language, language learning, and bilingualism into a Flipboard.  Flipboard is great for reading content on your iPad without any clutter or interference from advertisements and distractions.

There is a lot of information out there (I’ve found 575 articles in the last year alone), and there is a lot of repetition and there is a lot of nonsense, but plenty of gems as well.  Published “as it comes” and up to the reader to educate themselves and separate the hype from the reality.

Get flipboard here: https://about.flipboard.com/

And follow this board here: https://flipboard.com/section/bilingualism%2C-mother-tongue-%26-language-bxo7KX

Mother Tongue – How to assess your likelihood of success

One of the things I did as part of my research was to summarise the factors that contributed to a family being able to teach and maintain their mother tongue in their children while living / being educated in an English dominant environment.

First I present the table of factors, and then I present myself filling in this table as an exercise in my own home.

Analysis: The theories of MT acquisition and maintenance versus the reality of our situation
Theory
Reality – Chinese
Reality – Dutch
Child
Age (start as early as possible with formal MT education)
Both started Chinese immersion in Grade 1 (age 6)
Son started formal Dutch in Grade 5 (age 10)
Prior & current formal exposure to MT
1 hour per day class in International School
None
Prior & current informal exposure to MT
Not much – Hong Kong is Cantonese not Mandarin speaking. Daughter did learn characters through observation on the street.
Dutch spoken at home, exposure through paternal grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
Interest / Motivation
Daughter – High;
Son – Low
Daughter not particularly interested, speaks on holiday and to family
Son – High
Aptitude
Daughter – excellent memory which is necessary for amount of memorization necessary
Son – difficulties with working memory due to ADHD doesn’t rely on memory for learning
Son – very good ear and pronunciation, has taken well to spelling and grammar as it’s taught in a formal structured way (unlike English)
Available time
In HK had ample time (27/28 hours a week in class plus a lot of homework)
Daughter: in SG 5x 40 minutes a week class time, 90 minutes a week tutoring, 100 minutes a week required homework plus whatever time she has for self-motivated study and reading
5 x 40 minutes a week class time (1x of which is self-study)
1 x 120 minutes after school tutoring.
Homework around 60 minutes
Daily reading expected 15-20 minutes (doesn’t always happen)
Access to language role models
Limited to school and tutor and one family friend who we see irregularly
Parents speak Dutch at home to each other, Father speaks Dutch to him, Mother speaks English unless in Dutch context
Personality / resilience
Very determined, sees events as challenges rather than setbacks, competitive, responds well to reward systems, perfectionist, introverted and shy
Very sociable, extroverted, not scared of making mistakes. Quite emotional, inclined to give up when things get difficult, or need help to keep going
Family
Anticipated period of time abroad
Indefinite
Indefinite
Plans for tertiary education
Undecided, probably English medium
Considering studying film or photography in Netherlands (early thoughts)
Availability of language role models / support at home
Mother studied Chinese but level is not sufficient to support high level language and literacy needs practically, only in abstract
Both Mother and father speak Dutch in the home
Language level of parent(s)
Mother – Low level
Father – none
Mother – Fluent speaking reading, listening, written poor
Father – Fluent speaking, reading, listening, writing
Willingness / ability to finance choice
Yes
Yes
Culture of reading at home
Yes – but needs prompting and encouragement as slow difficult process and access to the right leveled material is difficult.
Yes – when father is home do co-reading as well
Help from extended family
None, only moral support
Yes – regular phone calls / FaceTime, visits during vacation and go to school with cousins for a few days
School
Language offered at MT level
Yes in theory.  However in practice the amount of time and level is not adequate, plus not enough leveled reading resources and mentoring
None in curriculum until G9. In G7 & G8 offered after school.  His Dutch classes are an exception and privately arranged and funded
Language community in the school
Yes, however she is not particularly a part of it.
Yes
MT support after school or other proviso
Yes, 90 minutes private tutoring after school, school provides walk in clinics 2x a week
Only from G7, however he’s not at the level required yet
Accommodations for MT (reading or writing in MT, creating identity texts)
Yes, in school (since middle school only) and tutor supplements
Yes, but still limited due to level
Sufficient BML teachers and administrators as role models
Administration & non-language teachers traditionally English / mono-lingual with some exceptions. This is changing a bit.
Administration & non-language teachers traditionally English / mono-lingual with some exceptions. This is changing a bit.
Access to parents and older children as role models
In principal – but need to tap into this more. No formal structures.
Yes, cultural events organized by Dutch Teacher.
Community
Existence of language community in country
Yes, large Chinese speaking population, however local families are not part of school
Yes, Dutch club and fair sized community with events
Accessible MT community on-line or through home visits
Possibly – not investigated yet
Yes
Community based formal language classes
Many tutoring schools that cater to the Chinese curriculum of local schools
Yes
Community based fun and cultural activities
Not as many as in Hong Kong
Yes through Dutch club and school
Community pride in the MT
Many classmates in MT group are not very motivated to learn Chinese, within SG community Mandarin is the formal standard Chinese while most families speak a dialect at home
Generally yes, however many Dutch people speak English well and will switch in mixed groups

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This work by Nadine Bailey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Research summary on Language

The post below is based on the background research I did for INF538 Value Added-information Services in June 2014.  Please cite me as the author should you wish to quote / use any of this.

Bailey, N. (2014, November 12). Research summary on Language. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from http://informativeflights.blogspot.sg/2014/11/research-summary-on-language.html

_________________________________________________________________________________

Background Research


This study has presented the typical knowledge management dilemma – there is a considerable amount of information and research, both academic and practical but it is widely dispersed and personal experience is often not documented.


History


Most research into BML (bi- and multi-lingualism) concerns itself with assimilation of immigrants (Fillmore, 2000; Slavin, Madden, Calderon, Chamberlain, & Hennessy, 2011; Slavin et al., 2011; Winter, 1999); maintaining minority (or majority) languages in a dominant language environment (Ball, 2011; Dixon, Zhao, Quiroz, & Shin, 2012) or language immersion or bilingual programmes; (Caldas & Caron-Caldas, 2002; Carder, 2008; Cummins, 1998; Genesee, 2014; Hadi-Tabassum, 2004; Soderman, 2010) aspects of which may or may not be relevant to this study or its population.
Until fairly recently the situation of high socio-economic status (SES) students in international schools is given at best a glancing mention and appears to have been a marginal area amongst researchers, as they are considered to be a privileged elite with more options and choices and greater economic means than immigrant or minority students (Ball, 2011; Carder, 2006; de Mejía, 2002). There are calls for “celebrating diversity” in the classroom, (Stauft, 2011) mentions of international food fairs, the involvement of the Parents’ Association and ensuring that the school conveys the message to parents on the importance of maintaining MT  (Hayim-Bambe, 2011), while most research looks into integration and scaffolding to English.  


Bilingualism


Researchers distinguish between three types of bilingualism. Simultaneous bilingualism – exposure to two languages from birth; early successive bilingualism – first exposure aged 1 – 3 years; and second language bilingualism – first exposure aged  4 – 10 years. There is considerable debate as to what exactly the “critical” ages are for successful language learning. As Kirsten Winter pointed out “Language learning is a continuum and bilingualism is not a perfect status to be achieved.” (Winter, 1999, p. 88).  Typical language learners cycle through alternating stages of passive (receptive) and productive (expressive) skills, usually in the order of listening, speaking, reading and then writing.


Figure 1: Continuum of language learning

Initially children learn phoneme production, syntactic competence and build vocabulary while phonological awareness then helps to develop literacy skills. The ability to understand both the ‘microstructure’ of sentences and a ‘macrostructure’ of the relationship between ideas results in language comprehension (Beech, 1994).

An important distinction is made between the surface skill of listening and speaking, which is usually acquired within two years (BICS – Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills), and the literacy skills of reading and writing at an abstract academic level (CALP – Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency), a targeted five to seven year process – as will be discussed later under “concerns” (Cummins, 1998). Due to transferability, concepts learnt and established in one language are more easily learnt in another language but only if a child has achieved CALP (Cummins, 1998; Dixon, Zhao, Shin, et al., 2012; Shoebottom, n.d.).



Figure 2: Elements of CALP


Factors Impacting Acquisition


Researchers agree on a number of factors which impact on the successful acquisition and retention of a second or subsequent language in the BML population. These relate to the student, family, school and the community or society.


Student


A child’s language learning aptitude is a mixture of cognitive and personality factors (Ehrman & Leaver, 2003; Stauft, 2011).  Cognitive factors include learning style and strategy while personality factors include “motivation, self-efficacy and affective self-management” (Hayim-Bambe, 2011, p. 59). Low motivation, low self-esteem, and high anxiety result in a ‘mental block’ and impede language acquisition (Krashen, 1982). Extroverts tend to monitor their language use less than introverts, perfectionists and children who lack self-confidence.  Moving beyond individual differences, considerable research has been done on the strategies that so-called “Good Language Learners” (GLL) employ, particularly in the field of second-language acquisition (Abhakorn, 2008; Griffiths, 2008; E. Le Pichon, de Swart, Vorstman, & van den Bergh, 2010; Emmanuelle Le Pichon, De Swart, Vorstman, & Van Den Bergh, 2013; Wang, 2013).  These competencies, which improve with age, include directed attention, control of emotions, anticipation, mime, cooperation, imitation, clarification and asking for assistance, can arguably be taught or encouraged in a learning environment by teachers or parents.
Research often attempts to identify critical periods or ages of language acquisition, with inconclusive results, as motivation and meta-cognitive skills can be confounding variables since older students have better developed meta-cognitive skills (Barac & Bialystok, 2011; Beech, 1994; Bowden, Steinhauer, Sanz, & Ullman, 2013; Cummins, 1998, 2003; Genesee, 2014; Granena & Long, 2013; Emmanuelle Le Pichon et al., 2013; MacSwan & Pray, 2005; Saito, 2013).  Less has been written about the socio-psychological aspects, including the impact of the teenage years where adolescents disengage from the family and identify with their peer group in an attempt to construct an identity outside of the family, which may or may not include their cultural/linguistic identity as a bilingual. Ensuring ample venue or context based immersion in the MT with access to meaningful peer relationships (particularly during vacation time) can help with the maintenance of the MT in this period (Caldas & Caron-Caldas, 2002).


Family


A large vocabulary in any language contributes to overall “oral proficiency, word reading ability, reading comprehension, and school achievement”(Dixon, Zhao, Quiroz, et al., 2012, p. 542). Vocabulary is influenced by the parent’s level of education, access to and availability of resources, and the quality and quantity of parent-child interactions, including shared reading, frequency of story telling and conversations.
Parent’s level of education influences language aspirations and is often correlated with a positive view of bilingualism, ensuring the quantity and quality of resources and amount of support provided to children (Lopez, 2005, cited in Dixon et al., 2012). Whether the child was born in the home country, and the length of time they lived there, impacts on the level of language maintenance.  Many children in the international school environment were born in a third country (neither the home nor resident country).
In looking at the role of parental involvement it is important to acknowledge and cater for the diversity of families within an International school (Sears, 2011). Table 1 below is based on Sears’ analysis of the types of families, their views on the role of English versus MT and what types of maintenance effort can be expected, with advice to the school.  Caution should be exercised in interpreting these generalisations, since within a family siblings may be different depending on their linguistic and birth country history, and the existence of a strong national curriculum may influence choices.


Table 1: Families and Languages


School


The International school context results in a number of issues that complicate MT provision, including the multicultural and multilingual nature of the student population, resulting in ‘fictive monolingualism’ and the transience of both the student and teacher population, with the resultant socio-psychological implications on learning (Caldas & Caron-Caldas, 2002; Hacohen, 2012; Hornberger, 2003). However, where the “cultural capital” of the school included valuing language diversity in its environment and teaching practise, students had an increased sense of belonging, higher levels of reading literacy and they scored significantly higher academically. Continued development of ability in two or more languages on a daily basis resulted in a deeper understanding of language across contexts. Best practice includes a well structured MT program with at least some inclusion in the school timetable and fee structure, inclusion of other subject matter in MT lessons, support for English acquisition through a daily ESL/EAL program, a socio-culturally supportive environment, better awareness and training for subject teachers, affirmation of students’ identity as bi- or multi-lingual and collaboration with parents, while block scheduling was not optimal for language learning (Carder, 2014; IBO, 2011; Tramonte & Willms, 2010; Vienna International School, 2006; Wallinger, 2000).  Research in heritage language (HL) teaching and learning indicates that macro-approaches and other specific strategies that build on learners’ existing language skills could be leveraged to improve reading and writing abilities, increase motivation and participation and validate students’ identity although specific teacher training for HL is recommended (Lee-Smith, 2011; Wu & Chang, 2010).

Figure 3: Success of MT based education policies
Source: (Ball, 2011, p. 46)

In her work for UNESCO, Ball suggested a number of policy dimensions that enhance the success of an educational policy. These are depicted in Figure 3above. 
Literacy is seen as crucial for development of CALP. External and internal factors affect literacy motivation in language learning.  Factors in schools include classroom environment, appropriate text availability and teachers. Collaboration among teachers and in the school-home nexus can enhance the perception of reading and writing as a pleasurable activity outside of the learning context. Although research generally favours intrinsic motivation, in the case of language learners, extrinsic motivation including recognition, grades, social acceptance, competition, rewards related to reading and compliance can play a role in creating a positive association with and nurturing literacy while not negatively impacting on intrinsic motivation (Fong, 2007). A well equipped library, organisation of international book fairs, other tongue events, culture clubs, reading hours with older to younger / parents to students a language buddy system and national days at school are other ways literacy can be focused on (Brewster, 2011; Krashen, 2004).


Community and Society


The support of a locally based language community, including faith and cultural communities had a positive impact which could mitigate socio-economic status (SES) factors and enhance learning through beliefs and practises, classes and cultural and religious activities (Dixon, Zhao, Quiroz, et al., 2012). Finally the availability of and access to learning resources, complementary schooling, books and other materials impacted on acquiring and maintaining language(Scheele, Leseman, & Mayo, 2010)
While languages associated with upward mobility and high SES thrive, languages considered to have a lower SES risk being neglected or suppressed by dominant or higher SES language (Gulf News, 2013; Srivastava, 2012). The profile of parents’ language use at home as well as peer pressure in the adolescent years impacts on children’s language use, in this context parents may speak just the MT, the MT plus English, just English or a third “common” language – irrespective of what their MT may be or a combination of these depending on the context, while at school, English dominates (Caldas, 2006; Dixon, Zhao, Quiroz, et al., 2012; Scheele et al., 2010). In this respect, the languages Hindi and Mandarin form a special case.  They are considered to be higher status languages than other Chinese “dialects” and Indian languages, and also serve as a “common” language in those populations. If parents are not proficient in these languages, or have a lower vocabulary, they are less likely to use them at home, which in turn impacts on the child’s language proficiency (Dixon, Zhao, Quiroz, et al., 2012; Saravanan, 2001; Srivastava, 2012; Wei & Hua, 2010). Amongst Chinese diaspora the dominant view was “to qualify as Chinese, one must know the language, and to know the language means to be able to read and write the written characters” (Wei & Hua, 2010, p. 159). While: “Young Indians with high SES and high educational achievement generally changed their primary language to English” (Saravanan, 2007 cited in Dixon et al., 2012, p. 558).
The final factor is the function attributed to that language by society.  In Singapore, the government “has assigned different functions to English and the ethnic languages. While ethnic languages constitute cultural identity, intra-ethnic communication, and ethnic solidarity, English is promoted for interethnic communication, national unity, and to facilitate science learning, higher education, and economic advancement” (Bokhorst-Heng, 1999, cited in Dixon et al., 2012, p. 547).  The question is whether international schools similarly assign these functions to language.


Concerns


Although the value of BML has become more widely accepted and most parents and educators appreciate and encourage the process, a number of concerns have rightly been voiced on the process and efficacy of reaching the goal of a BML child. In the first instance, the quality of the productive language – oral and or written skills – of one or all of the child’s languages may not develop to a sufficiently high level for academic or employment purposes  (Cummins, 1998). 


Figure 4: Context / cognition matrix
Source: (Carder, 2014, p. 72)


As Figure 4 shows, there is a significant difference between cognitively demanding and undemanding tasks, and the ability to use language in a context reduced environment (Carder, 2014). Secondly, studies have shown that speech and language problems that underlie both or all languages may be misinterpreted as natural delays in learning English and children from a BML background compared to monolingual children with the same problem, are often referred much later, or not at all, for help (Winter, 1999). Related to this, other research has found that behavioural or emotional problems may result from language problems including speech disorder, isolated expressive disorder, mixed receptive-expressive high level language disorder, specific language impairment and other language disorders and delays. They emphasize the importance of fully assessing language skills in these BML populations (Grizzle & Simms, 2009; Toppelberg, Medrano, Morgens, & Nieto-Castañon, 2002).
Figure 5: The “thin ice” of BICS vs. dual-iceberg of CALP
Source: (Carder, 2014 p.72)


Then there is the “drop-out” risk.  Literature distinguishes between early-exit bilingual education which is seen as “subtractive” and late exit or “additive” bilingual education (Ball, 2011; Cummins, 1998).  Subtractive bilingualism is where children do not develop language beyond the BICS stage due to suppression by the dominant school or societal language and their MT cannot be used to leverage learning in the school or societal language.  These children run the risk of not having high, abstract and academic level in any language which impacts negatively on their academic proficiency.


Another problem can be misguided parental interference and effort. Research has found that parents mainly rely on their own experiences in language learning in making choices for their children, referring to a combination of popular literature and expert advice to justify these decisions. BML families tend to form “family language policies” on home communication.  Parents’ efforts could be better supported, their uncertainties addressed and misconceptions clarified as few parents were properly aware of the challenges, issues, consistency and effort of raising BML children, nor of the fact that children raised in bilingual homes often become active users of only one language depending on the context (Caldas & Caron-Caldas, 2002; King & Fogle, 2006).


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