presentation by Kristin Lems and Jason Stegemoller, professors at National Louis University, at the 2014 STEMTech conference in Denver, Colorado organized by theleague.org.

1. Technology and English
Learners: A New Language,
or Universal?
STEMtech
Nov. 10, 2014
Kristin Lems and
W. Jason Stegemoller
National Louis University
Chicago, IL

2. All Kids can Learn!
All kids can learn, all kids can learn - I’ll tell you now and you’d best
believe: All kids can learn!
Every kid has their own style, Every kid has their own speed
Watch them closely for awhile to find out what they need.
School can be such a happy place, Got to put on a happy face
Now’s the moment so do not wait, Tell those kids – I think you’re great!
Technology can help so much
if you don’t forget the human touch!
Blend it together, add lights and sound
You’ll have the brightest class around!
When you have a productive day who learns the most? It’s hard to say?
Kids learn from peers and books and you - If you work together, you’ll learn
lots too!

3. Abstract:
Like math, technology is often called “universal,” but its
uses by multilingual learners can differ significantly.
Tech teachers need to notice the language and culture of
technology, including text structures, resources, and
usage patterns, so that English learners can take full
advantage of post-secondary educational opportunities.

4. Our grant (2011-2016)
National Louis University, Chicago

5. Grant funding
$1,764,075
5 year training grant
From Office of English
Language Acquisition,
U.S. Dept. of Education
2011-2016

6. Design of the Grant
parapros
ELL Student
Admini-strators
STEM
teachers
Parents
and
families
University
ESL
teachers
Elementary
teacher ed
faculty

7. Design of the Grant
parapros
ELL
Student
Admini
-
strators
STEM
teachers
Parents
and
families
University
ESL
teachers
Elementary
teacher
ed faculty
Find potential
paraprofessionals
from STEM and less
common language
backgrounds

8. Design of the Grant
parapros
ELL
Student
Admini-strators
STEM
teachers
Parents
and
families
University
ESL
teachers
Elementary
teacher
ed faculty
Find potential
paraprofessionals
from STEM and less
common language
backgrounds
Provide focus on
language of
STEM and how
to teach it to
ELLs

9. Design of the Grant
parapros
ELL
Student
Admini-strators
STEM
teachers
Parents
and
families
University
ESL
teachers
Elementary
teacher
ed faculty
Find potential
paraprofessionals
from STEM and less
common language
backgrounds
Provide funding for
18 s.h. of ESL
endorsement
coursework with a
STEM focus
Provide focus on
language of
STEM and how
to teach it to
ELLs

10. The way we see our role at
STEMtech:
to help bridge
language teaching and
content learning of ELLs
at the community
college level

11. The New
Mainstream

13. “The New Mainstream”
Children and youth who speak a
language other than English at home in
the US is 18% in large metropolitan areas
(Aud, et al, 2012)
 Students who attended K-12 ESL or bilingual program
 “Generation 1.5” -- arrived in the US as teenagers
(Harklau, Losey, & Siegal, 1999).
 International Students – Arrived in US after graduating
from high school abroad

14. Theories of language
acquisition related to CALL
CALL (computer assisted language learning)
interaction hypothesis
capitalize on technology’s ability to promote
interaction and community
depth of processing theory
multiple modalities, incidental and intentional
vocabulary learning
sociocultural theory
build on the strengths of students’ language
outside of school
 (Chappelle, 2003, TESOL Technology Standards document)

15. “the hypothetical theory of
CALL sounds not much
different from an integrated
theory of language
acquisition; in fact, it is the
same”
(TESOL technology Standards p. 1).

16. Interaction
Hypothesis
capitalize on technology’s
ability to promote interaction
and community

17. Focal Question
How can you use technology in your
classroom to promote interactions for
language development in English
language learners?

18. Benefits of technology for ELLs
“levels the playing field”
 ELLs are very tech savvy (even those from
developing countries)
 great resource for self-learning
 great way to stay in touch with other ELLs

19. From a high school teacher:
ELL students…have all seemed
very well versed with digital
devices and media. Many of
them, especially with the social
norms rampant within a high
school environment, access social
media and message applications
quite often.

20. Partner work
Interaction is a second
language reading
process
Co-constructing text

21. Tricky and easy words from
technology
1. gigabyte to message macbook cached blog
2. doc phishing online ITunes keyboarding GIF
3. to boot spam PDF pinterest upload shutdown
4. web surfing menu geek ebook friend/unfriend
5. firewall texting techie pixel DVD/DVR
6. keyword avatar cyberspace logon ROM
7. mouse spybot spam helpdesk fax nerd
8. skype stream cloud snail mail metafile
9. dropdown reboot app podcast google

22. Let’s try something…
Pick one line of the tech words
and with a partner create an
interactive word-learning
activity

24. Tech tools of high value
for ELLs
 Avatars – Communicating their ideas and
through avatars (they love this – it is very user
friendly and non-threatening)
 Chat – gives plenty of low-stress, authentic
writing practice
 Showing images and videos – gives another
way to share information when vocabulary is
still developing

25. Depth of Processing
Theory
multiple modalities,
intentional and
incidental
vocabulary learning

26. Focal Question
How can you use video, audio,
graphics and text to promote both
intentional and incidental
vocabulary learning for ELLs?

27. Infographics

28. Images
Using images
to build
background
knowledge
and practice
language

29. Intentional and incidental
vocabulary learning
Intentional
Vocabulary learning through
intentional focus on the meaning,
use, sound, spelling of words
Incidental
Vocabulary learning without
conscious intention to learn the
words

30. Using Facebook
 Lee (2012) conducted a quasi-experiment
with 33 Korean college students enrolled in an
ESL course
 Students were asked to learn 100 academic
vocabulary works
 Students Googled assigned words and then
posted a text, audio or movie clip
demonstrating the use of the word in context
 Students explained their words and
responded to each other

31. Lee (2012) Example 1

32. Lee (2012) continued
ELL response example:
“Often, we use the word ‘renovation’ as
the term for construction. But I want to use
this to human. We must renovate
ourselves everyday”
Results:
Pre-test: mean 17.1 known words out of
100
Post-test, recognition: 74 known words
out of 100

33. Let’s try something…
What do you know about non-renewable
resources, in
Spanish?
 Which of the following Spanish words do you know?
combustible fósil
carbón recurso
renovable

34. (1) La mayor parte de la energía usada
hoy viene de los organismos que
vivieron hace cientos de millones de
años. (2) Los combustibles fósiles son
sustancias ricas en energía, formadas
de los restos de organismos que una
vez vivieron. (3) Los tres combustibles
fósiles son el petróleo, el gas natural, y
el carbón. (4) Los combustibles fósiles
llevan centenares de millones de años
para formarse, por eso se consideran
recursos no renovables.

35. Post-test!
 Which of the following Spanish words do you know?
combustible fósil
carbón recurso
renovable

36. (1) Most of the energy used today
comes from organisms that lived
hundreds of millions of years ago. (2)
Fossil fuels are substances rich in energy
formed from the remains of organisms
that lived at one time. (3) The three
fossil fuels are petroleum, natural gas,
and coal. (4) Fossil fuels take hundreds
of millions of years to form, therefore
they are considered non-renewable
resources.

37. Spanish version
La mayor parte de la energía usada hoy viene de los organismos que vivieron
hace cientos de millones de años. Los combustibles fósiles son sustancias ricas
en energía, formadas de los restos de organismos que una vez vivieron. Los
tres combustibles fósiles son el petróleo, el gas natural, y el carbón. Los
combustibles fósiles llevan centenares de millones de años para formarse, por
eso se consideran recursos no renovables.
English version
Most of the energy used today comes from organisms that lived hundreds of
millions of years ago. Fossil fuels are substances rich in energy formed from the
remains of organisms that lived at one time. The three fossil fuels are
petroleum, natural gas, and coal. Fossil fuels take hundreds of millions of years
to form, therefore they are considered non-renewable resources.

38. Implications for practice
 Provide key vocabulary before it comes up in class and
practice it together
 Ask students if they know concepts and terms in another
language to help them activate their knowledge encoded in
another language and bridge to English
 Develop extensive reading activities to get the gist of topics
to promote incidental vocabulary learning and reading
confidence.
 Create opportunities for intensive reading coupled with
interaction to promote intentional vocabulary learning

39. Sociocultural Theory
building on the strengths
of students’ language
practices outside of
school

40. Focal Question
How can student successes outside of
school, including their technology
activities, be used to support success
in your classroom?

41. Lam (2000) studied an immigrant high school
student from Hong Kong who arrived in US in
middle school. He felt positioned as an
outsider in school because of his “non-native
like English”
He created a website out of school related
to his personal interests in Japanese pop
culture. He represented himself as
knowledgeable and he was positioned as
an expert.

42. Let’s try something!
Scenario # 1
Instructor: Please put your cellphones
away and deactivate them during class. I
don’t want you texting during class or not
focusing on our lesson.
Student 1: I’m not gonna do that.
Student 2: Sorry, I need my phone!
Instructor: I’m not going to continue until
you put those away. Do you hear me?

43. Scenario #2
Instructor: Today we’ll talk about satellite
technology. We’ll type in keywords on our
smart phones and see what we can learn.
What are some keywords from this reading?
Student 1: Satellite? Communication?
Teacher: good words. We downloaded the
dictionary apps last week. Can you check
them for some synonyms for those words?
Student 1: message, statement….
Student 2: Oh! I found some pictures of
satellites.
Instructor: Great, can you send us a link so
we can see it on the screen?

45. More uses for Mobile phones
Stockwell (2010) used Internet searches,
SMS about what was learned, SMS focus
on vocabulary/grammar
Thornton and Houser (2005) “sent short
mini-lessons for learning vocabulary via e-mail
to learners’ mobile phones 3x a day,
using new words in multiple contexts to
allow learners to infer the meanings”

46. Online translators
Positive:
Can quickly resolve unknown words using
first language resources
Can help access meanings
Negative:
Removes sense of urgency to learn word
Sometimes conveys misconception
depending on quality of the translator tool

47. The TESOL Technology
Standards
 Standards for TEACHERS
 Standards for STUDENTS
 Includes ADULT level
 Find and download at
Tesol.org

48. Teacher methods:
I have used my IPAD to engage my
students and to have the liberty of walking
around the classroom as I teach.

49. TESOL Tech Goal 1 Standard 1:
Adult students improve their literacy in English
while learning basic computer operations.
In an Adult Education English language literacy
context, students can improve their English
skills when learning basic computer operations. Prior
to any instruction in this area it is important to assess
students’ fundamental abilities. This can be performed
as a self assessment, functional quiz, or evaluative
observational activity.
Target: 20 mixed background beginning1 English
language students.
(3 different options depending on tech resources)

50. Low resource, low-access classroom
with one computer and overhead
projector - TPR
1. Students watch the teacher perform basic operating
functions while the teacher speaks the commands out
loud.
2. Each student has a handout of the commands for a
visual reference. Next, student volunteers read the items
on the list and watch the teacher perform the functions.
3. Students come up in pairs and perform the functions as
the teacher calls them out. Students discuss with one
another before responding.
4. Students volunteer in pairs, alternating between the role
of the one who gives the command and the one who
performs the task in front of the class.
Total physical response example: Turn the computer on

51. Mid-resource, mid-access setting
in computer lab with no internet
Students build their writing skills when learning
basic computer functions.
1. Students follow the teacher’s modeling of
the skills discussed above.
2. After the teacher demonstration, they work
in pairs giving and carrying out commands
for 10 more minutes.
3. The teacher provides a second
demonstration related to basic functions of
presentation software.
4. Each pair of students then creates and
saves a three-slide presentation. On each of
the three slides they write a basic
computing function command and illustrate

52. High resource, high access setting
with internet access, in classroom lab
with video camera
Students are also able to utilize online resources that
reinforce oral and presentational skills.
1. After achieving familiarity with the basic operating
functions and associated language commands
described in previous plans, students explore either
the word processing or presentation software in pairs
for 10 minutes.
2. They then watch examples of video clips of people
describing how to perform basic computer
operations
3. In groups, students choose up to 6 new commands
to peer teach through a video clip they create.
4. The teacher posts the video clips, which then serve

53. Help ELLs find tech resources in
the community
Community resources
Obtaining smart phones through community
assistance
Helping ELLs and their families who lack home
computers access internet through
smartphones
how to schedule conferences
How to pay bills
How to search and apply for jobs…

54. Review of Focal Questions
How can you use technology in your classroom to
promote interactions for language development in
English language learners?
How can student successes outside of school, including
their technology activities, be used to support success
in your classroom?
How can you use video, audio, graphics and text to
promote both intentional and incidental vocabulary
learning for ELLs?

55. Thank you! Kristin and Jason
klems@nl.edu, Jason.stegemoller@nl.edu
National Louis University, Chicago