Building Oral Language in Bilingual Kindergarten: Lessons from Implementation 

By: Luisa Cuesta, Picio Muñoz, Matt Hajdun  

As an international and bilingual school with a population primarily of heritage Spanish speakers, The Columbus School (TCS) has always used a variety of approaches in our two instructional languages, English and Spanish. The main objective has been to help students become competent in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in both languages, but there was a perception in the community that English instruction and learning was more valued. Two and a half years ago, TCS started to adapt its approach after understanding that strengthening oral language is a more natural approach that will help students feel and sound successful compared to the traditional reading and writing structures used at the time. Before that shift, we were using a more workshop-aligned approach. The focus then was on traditional reading and writing skills before students had the necessary oral skills and vocabulary to thrive as readers, authors and illustrators. Also, most teachers used to teach high-frequency words and other critical concepts in isolation, and there was limited alignment between language programs and subjects. Our school, understanding the importance of delivering engaging and relevant content to students, started implementing biliteracy units that integrated not only the two languages but also content-area learning.

We knew that oral language was an important part of literacy development for our young learners, but we needed to step back and consider what this looked like for our students and step back even further to consider the reality of our emergent bilinguals.  When monolingual learners enter kindergarten, they start with between 5,000-7,000 words in their heritage language - that’s an asset we needed to harness as most students at TCS were coming in with around just 100 words in English. Previously, we jumped too fast from “beginning English language learner” to “student learning to read in English”.  Our students’ early literacy skills were developing in two languages, but one language, Spanish, had a significant head start with oracy and the vocabulary students were bringing from home.  A shift to a deeper focus on English oral language is giving us that bridge, helping students to expand their vocabulary in English before advancing to traditional reading in English.   

Escamilla et al (2022) state, “As students learn to speak the new language, they are expanding the repertoire of vocabulary that gives literacy meaning and internalizing the sounds of the new language that will be represented in print (NCEL, 2022).”  Now, additional practice in English oral language serves as a foundation on which our students can stand - giving them not only vocabulary but also the confidence to see themselves as bilingual readers when they pick up familiar texts and read independently after LOTS of practice. ”Children’s oral language skills serve as the foundation for both aspects of reading ability- word reading and language comprehension (Shanahan & Lonigan, 2015).” By focusing on oral language, students began to use a balance of phonics paired with meaning.  With a foundation in oral language, a student could now ask, “Does this make sense?” and link the science of reading approaches with the three cueing systems - the perfect balance for emergent bilinguals! 

Another shift, beyond the greater emphasis on oral language, was connecting with greater purpose and intentionality to students’ Spanish assets.  We are now experimenting by beginning units practicing language frames in Spanish first or even diving into initial content understanding in our students’ heritage language.  Therefore, students have to spend less time making meaning of grammar, usage, and mechanics but can see the connections to what they already know. As a unit progresses, we move from Spanish, to English, quickly working on the word level with the most essential vocabulary.  Then, we embed that new vocabulary into the sentence level, working with question-and-answer pairings so that students have ample practice in question formation and providing complete responses.  We turn these language frames into familiar texts for students to read, days after they have practiced orally.  Students reinforce these language skills in stations with Reader’s Theater scripts of repeated texts, labeling pictures, orally and in writing by completing sentence frames, or working on phonological awareness or phonics activities.  Some of these foundational skills opportunities involve contrastive analysis like counting syllables and looking for patterns in content area words (plant/planta, sun/sol, animal/animal) or comparing and contrasting hard c and soft c at the beginning of words - which is similar in English and Spanish. 

 

After exposing students for five weeks to the intentional and rigorously planned biliteracy unit “Looking Closely at Living Things” -  a unit that integrates NGSS standards, Common Core Language standards in both languages, specific vocabulary, and different skills such as writing, reading, speaking, investigating, and acting- Kinder students were able to verbalize, read, and write simple and compound sentences using correct grammatical structures. The engagement rate was high, and our emergent bilingual students were able to interpret and produce specific content vocabulary such as: survive, environment, grow, seeds, shelter, etc. An aspect that really helped was that Spanish and English teachers were aligned by supporting students and using in both classes what they knew in each language to synch their knowledge. Students felt successful after being able to read and write books about the unit, and teachers witnessed their growth.  Through Seesaw (see sample end-of-unit oral language assessment video), we were able to create a window to our classrooms and families were delighted to see all of the speaking and reading their children were doing.  These successes have inspired us to make additional adjustments and we will be engaging in action research on this approach in our third trimester!