Understanding Language and Literacy Development: Diverse Learners in the Classroom

Today’s schools are characterized by significant cultural and linguistic diversity—and teaching is correspondingly becoming an increasingly complex, multi–faceted, and challenging endeavor. Understanding Language and Literacy Development features a wide variety of effective supporting strategies to address the varying language and literacy developmental characteristics of children and adolescents in contemporary classroom settings. Utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis as a conceptual framework, Wang examines the complexity of language and literacy and their roles in academic learning. The author expertly discusses children’s developmental stages, considering a wide range of topics including English language acquisition among children and adolescents—and the typical issues related to comprehension and production at different stages and ages of acquisition—as well as the impact of various language impairments (from SLI to autism). Special features of this work include questions that engage and challenge the reader throughout the chapters, and exercises designed to facilitate understanding of language phenomena in the classroom and elsewhere; the author also ties her discussion into the new Common Core standards that underlie the public school curriculum. Innovative and timely, this is an invaluable resource to assist in meeting the teaching challenges of 21st–century classrooms.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT PREFACE REASONS TO READ THE BOOK UNIQUE APPROACHES OF THE BOOK OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK KEY TERMS PART I: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: WORKING WITH DIVERSE STUDENTS: SOME IMPORTANT ISSUES PRE–READING QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES IMPORTANCE OF TEACHER KNOWLEDGE ON LANGUAGE AND LITERACY CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK TRANSFORMATIVE PEDAGOGY EVOLVING DEFINITION OF LITERACY RE–CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE LABELS FOR DIVERSE STUDENTS SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS KEY TERMS RECOMMENDED FURTHER READINGS CHAPTER 2: COMPLEX FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT PRE–READING QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES LANGUAGE AS A GENETICALLY PREDISPOSITIONED HUMAN UNIVERSAL BIOLOGICAL FACTORS ECOLOGICAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE LANGUAGE AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT LANGUAGE DIVERGENCE FACTORS MODALITY FACTORS MOTIVATION AND IDENTITY FACTORS TYPES OF FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS KEY TERMS RECOMMENDED FURTHER READINGS LANGUAGE SAMPLE ANALYSIS I PART II: DEVELOPING LANGUAGE AND EMERGENT LITERACIES: DIVERGENT ABILITIES IN INFANCY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD (BIRTH TO 5) CHAPTER 3: ACQUIRING ONE LINGUISTIC SYSTEM: FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PRE–READING QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT PROFILE IN INFANCY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPING ESSENTIAL LANGUAGE ABILITIES SPECIAL ISSUES RELATED TO LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVELOPING EMERGENT LITERACIES SPECIAL ISSUES RELATED TO EMERGENT LITERACY DEVELOPMENT SUPPORTING LANGUAGE AND EMERGENT LITERACY DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS KEY TERMS RECOMMENDED FURTHER READINGS CHAPTER 4: ACQUIRING MORE THAN ONE LINGUISTIC SYSTEM: MULTILINGUAL FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PRE–READING QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES DEVELOPMENTAL PROFILES OF CHILDREN WHO ACQUIRE MORE THAN ONE L1 COMPLEX ISSUES ABOUT ACQUIRING MORE THAN ONE L1 DEVELOPING ESSENTIAL MULTILINGUAL LINGUISTIC ABILITIES DEVELOPING EMERGENT MULTILINGUAL LITERACIES SUPPORTING EMERGENT MULTILINGUAL AND MULTILITERACY DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS KEY TERMS RECOMMENDED FURTHER READINGS CHAPTER 5: ACQUIRING FIRST LANGUAGE(S) WITH DIFFICULTIES PRE–READING QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT IN INFANCY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENTAL PROFILES OF CHILDREN WITH LI LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN WITH LI DEVELOPMENT EMERGENT LITERACIES SUPPORTING STRATEGIES FOR CHILDREN WITH LI IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS KEY TERMS RECOMMENDED FURTHER READINGS LANGUAGE SAMPLE ANALYSIS II PART III: DEVELOPING LANGUAGE AND LITERACIES: DIVERGENT ABILITIES IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD (6–11) CHAPTER 6: TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE AND LITERACIES IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD PRE–READING ACTIVITIES AND QUESTIONS TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES TYPICAL DEVELOPMENTAL PROFILE IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD MAJOR LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT OF LITERACIES IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD SPECIAL ISSUES SUPPORTING LANGUAGE AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT IN ELEMENTARY GRADES SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS KEY TERMS RECOMMENDED FURTHER READINGS CHAPTER 7: LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD PRE–READING QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES LEARNING A LN IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD LN DEVELOPMENT IN THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT DEVELOP LITERACIES IN THE NEW LANGUAGE SUPPORTING STRATEGIES FOR ENGLISH A LN LEARNERS SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS KEY TERMS RECOMMENDED FURTHER READINGS CHAPTER 8: LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD PRE–READING QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES LANGUAGE AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT FOCUS FOR ELEMENTARY STUDENTS WITH LI LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN WITH LI IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD LITERACY DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN WITH LI IN THE ELEMENTARY GRADES SUPPORTING STRATEGIES FOR CHILDREN WITH LI IN THE ELEMENTARY GRADES SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS KEY TERMS RECOMMENDED FURTHER READINGS LANGUAGE SAMPLE ANALYSIS III PART IV: DEVELOPING LANGUAGE AND LITERACIES: DIVERGENT ABILITIES IN ADOLESCENCE (12–18) CHAPTER 9: TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE AND LITERACIES IN ADOLESCENCE PRE–READING QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES TYPICAL DEVELOPMENTAL PROFILE IN ADOLESCENCE LANGUAGE AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT FOCUS MAJOR LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT CHARACTERISTICS IN ADOLESCENCE SPECIAL ISSUES IN ADOLESCENT LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT ACADEMIC LITERACY DEVELOPMENT IN ADOLESCENCE SUPPORTING STRATEGIES FOR ADOLESCENTS SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS KEY TERM RECOMMENDED FURTHER READINGS CHAPTER 10: LEARNING ENGLISH AS A NEW LANGUAGE IN ADOLESCENCE PRE–READING QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNING A LN BEYOND THE SENSITIVE PERIOD ACQUIRING A NEW LANGUAGE IN ADOLESCENCE DEVELOPING ACADEMIC LITERACY IN A LN SUPPORTING STRATEGIES FOR ENGLISH LN LEARNERS IN ADOLESCENCE SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS KEY TERMS RECOMMENDED FURTHER READINGS CHAPTER 11: LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT IN ADOLESCENCE PRE–READING QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ADOLESCENT WITH LI LITERACY DEVELOPMENT OF ADOLESCENTS WITH LI SUPPORTING STRATEGIES FOR ADOLESCENTS WITH LI SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS KEY TERMS RECOMMENDED FURTHER READINGS LANGUAGE SAMPLE ANALYSIS IV PART V: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING CHAPTER 12: THEORIES THAT EXPLAIN VARIOUS LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT PRE–READING QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES FUNCTIONS OF THEORIES THEORIES THAT EXPLAIN L1 ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT THEORIES THAT EXPLAIN MULTILINGUAL L1 ACQUISITION THEORIES THAT EXPLAIN LN LEARNING THEORIES THAT EXPLAIN LI THEORIES THAT EXPLAIN NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS THEORIES THAT EXPLAIN LITERACY DEVELOPMENT PROCESS THEORY THAT EXPLAIN DISCOURSE ANALYSIS THE BOTTOM LINE REGARDING THEORIES SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS KEY TERMS RECOMMENDED FURTHER READINGS EXIT SELF–EVALUATION APPENDIX A: COMMON CORE K–12 KEY LANGUAGE AND LITERACY STANDARDS APPENDIX B: STANDARDIZED LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTS GLOSSARY REFERENCES

Xiao–lei Wang is a Professor in the School of Education at Pace University. She has published extensively in academic journals and is the author of Growing up with Three Languages and Learning to Read and Write in the Multilingual Family .