Moving Along the Proficiency Continuum
Harnessing Creativity
and Play to Move Proficiency
Forward for Novice and
Intermediate Students
By Victoria Gilbert
“Yo
primero sombrero”
(I first hat) says the
novice student arriving
in my classroom where (in our circus unit)
the clown props are given out to first five in
the door. How do we get our students to start
speaking the target language from the start?
Make them feel that they can use whatever
language they have to enter the conversation,
even if it is just responding to the teacher
with a reciprocal, “Buenos días.”
Many students study a language, though
not all manage to become functionally
proficient in it. In my experience, we need
to create space for students (of all ages)
to play with language, especially at Novice
and Intermediate levels. Not playground or
doodling play, but rather the type of play that
allows for students to share their originality
and wit, and to express their humanity for the
sheer joy of it, using the target language as a
vehicle for their expression.
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According to Dutch cultural theorist Huizinga (1949), play must occur in limited time, in
a circumscribed place and be done for its own
sake. The first two factors are aspects of most
classes, while the latter often is not. Students
can take pieces of what they have memorized
and learned and apply them in new ways to
make it their own when nothing more is at
stake. When students are faced with a task
that is to be assessed (formally or informally),
the stakes go up and their willingness to take
a risk by inventing original expression decreases. If the teacher can provide for moments of
real play with language, for its own sake, the
affective filter (Krashen, 1982) is reduced and
taking risks becomes more possible.
To form original expressions, students must
be willing to deconstruct and reconstruct new
combinations based on existing vocabularies.
If they become so engaged in accomplishing
this that they disregard the form for function,
stress levels will fall, and students will persist
longer in maintaining communication. Students
may do this through repetition of structures
they have already mastered, varying the arrangement of known segments and connect-
1.
ing them to newer ones that they are focused
on assimilating. For example, in a primary
classroom, students may quickly co-opt the
expression, “Quiero ser la gallina” (I want to be
the chicken) in a song role-play with puppets
to “Quiero ser voluntario” (I want to be the
volunteer for the next activity). The goal from
their perspective is being able to participate
in a game; the use of target language is the
vehicle for their participation. For the Novice
range and Intermediate Low to Mid levels, this
is the key to moving proficiency along.
Miller (2003) reminds us that as soon as
one has learned how something is supposed
to be, turning it upside down or distorting
it in some way becomes a source of fun. One
student in my class teased the class puppet
by singing the “goodbye” song at the start
of class instead of the “hello” song, once
he learned the difference. These same pre-K
students have taken to requesting more water
(during Spanish snack time) by saying, “más
agua, por favor,” only to reveal a full cup with
a giggle. Or, after learning the words for “big”
and “small” in discussing fruits and pumpkins,
they point to me and say “big.” I point to
Have students create a song using thematically related vocabulary
to a known tune. Provide scaffolding for students with rhyming
word lists and synonyms for key words. In these examples, all words
are cited exactly as fourth grade students wrote them for a unit on
birthdays. The Novice students were given a model and the chart
below the song to use for inspiration. Their first efforts to the tune
of “Row, row, row your boat” are below:
Version 1: Hay . . . hay un tarta y muchos regalos / El gordo cachoro
come los amigos.
Version 2: Hay . . . hay una bicicleta muy pequeña / y muchos,
muchos, muchos regalos para mis amigos.
Words that rhyme
-os
Words that rhyme
-a
Other key words
globos
tarta
feliz
amigos
familia
Casita de árbol
regalos
fiesta
Es
cumpleaños
caja
Hay
años
pequeña
grande
cachorror(s)
bicicleta
enorme
Vela(s)
recibe
them and say “small.” Teachers have to be
ready to jump into the play and extend the
new patterns that students invent. Children
experiment with applying general patterns
to new circumstances, and play provides an
opportunity to experience situations from
numerous points of view as often occurs during a role-play. So not only is play important
for building proficiency, it can also help
students to inhabit new cultural viewpoints.
For language students of any age, acting more
childlike can help students enter into those
creative proficiency-building moments. Using
props, masks, or clothing/costumes helps students enter a new world for a moment. These
moments occur when students disregard exactly how they are supposed to say something
and just try it to express it. Using language is
the only way to make it your own.
Teachers can adopt techniques to spark creativity in their classrooms in many ways. Some
are suited to interpersonal tasks, others to
interpretive or presentational communication.
Even at the Novice level, students can be original and creative. Here are some ways to play
with language or “turn things upside down”:
or free time activity. Accept any premise, no matter how ridiculous
or fanciful; the point is to have the characters relate to one another
and have the students use the target language in improvisational
and spontaneous ways.
3. Create a shape poem using newly acquired vocabulary or allow students to literally lay cut-out words in ways that make sense to them.
This works particularly well in a thematic context where students can
connect the words in related ways as they present their shape poems.
2. Have students adopt identities with visuals to represent them,
(e.g., famous athlete, actress, cartoon character, another teacher or
administrator from the school’s community) and then make up what
the two will discuss when they meet. This can be related to any subject currently being studied in the classroom, from having them ask
and answer about their birthdays to discussing their favorite food
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Moving Along the Proficiency Continuum
Performance
á la mode
ALWAYS uses
sentences!
A sentence
Lists and phrases
Words
How many scoops
will you choose?
INTERMEDIATE LOW
NOVICE HIGH
NOVICE MID
NOVICE LOW
“Busco mi nariz“
“It's not a bad day.“
Whether it is with interpersonal, interpretive, or presentational tasks, humans use language to express who they are
and make a connection to others. Teachers can capitalize on
this greatest of human needs by showing students a road
map for how to use the target language in their search for
a connection. Teachers can design learning environments
that provide opportunities for students to exercise their
creativity while completing a craft project or playing games
on teams with each other or with partners. By continually
raising the ante required to participate in the project or win
games from word level to sentence to connected sentences,
the craft project or game performance in and of itself become the moments to push proficiency forward.
Moving language proficiency along also depends upon
students having a sense of how the path ahead of them
looks. Teachers need to provide opportunities for students
to rephrase or paraphrase with controlled context or content until the responsibility can be released to the students.
For example, if the unit goal is to have students be able
to describe a birthday party setting, it is important to
provide models of descriptions and opportunities to create
with fragments, before finally removing the scaffolding to
see what students can do independently. This task can be
higher-order thinking by comparing birthdays across home
and target cultures rather than simply describing. Novice
students need to experience language just beyond their level with comprehensible support such as visuals or patterns
of phrasing so that they can reach it eventually. Elementary
students can even be given a metaphor for their developing
language performance ability such as the “ice cream cone”
used in the Shelby County Schools district (left).
Teachers guide students in this construction by providing
models, showing different formats, and connecting students
to meaningful context worthy of building a road to reach the
next destination. But we cannot forget that it is the students’
minds that must individually construct those roads. So how
do teachers move students along on their proficiency? Let’s
examine the aspects of classroom context where teacher
choice has the greatest impact on student performance.
In the interpersonal realm, students need exposure to
playful turns-of-phrase such as those used in advertising, proverbs, and other examples of authentic text. The
challenge of finding examples that are at the correct level
for one’s students remains, but it is possible. In one such
project, students were invited to adopt traditional sayings
in authentic ways in class discussions. The degree of cooperation and playful exchanges among Intermediate speakers
to set up an actual opportunity to use the proverbs was
inspiring. The sense of accomplishment when they were
able to say “Querer es poder” (Where there’s a will, there’s a
way) or “Más vale tarde que nunca” (Better late than never)
demonstrated their natural ability to negotiate the meaning
of the culturally authentic saying and the tradition of using
proverbs as a shorthand for longer commentary.
Presentational tasks can offer students the opportunity to incorporate their understanding of the target culture
and the assimilation of turns of phrase and expression
typical in the target language. For example, in one class,
students applied dictum of the Spanish language signs
of the NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority (“If you see
something, say something”) to the hazards of school life
such as serving food that has been vetted for nuts or following the dress code. Another example of this is when a
Novice student who used a past vocabulary word, “nariz”
in an unexpected way with a new verb “buscar” to generate a comical sentence, “Busco mi nariz” (I search for my
nose), which he then illustrated by crossing his eyes!
In the Interpretive Mode, students enjoy seeing playful videos, comics, memes, reading jokes, or other “fun”
varieties in the target language. If we provide a thematically based context and include authentic materials of this
type that relate to the theme, teachers can accomplish
several tasks at once. It is important to include visual images that represent the more abstract, linguistic notions.
Students will use these visuals as a type of inter-language.
It also helps them to “borrow” an understanding of the
new target expression. Even abstract words can have a
visual reference point as long as the teacher designates
and maintains the same reference for the same word or
expression each time. Some examples are an eye to represent “Hasta la vista” and distinguish it from “Hasta luego”
which could be represented by a clock face with hands
showing elapsed time. The standard red “prohibited” circle
with a slash mark through it also makes it easy to designate what something is not (e.g., “It’s not a bad day.”)
Language targets are important to set when planning
for your classes, but how students arrive at those targets
can be the result of 90% preparation and 10% inspiration, or the reverse. When students begin to use language
in personal ways and for authentic purposes, we can no
longer script their responses; we can only provide the
building blocks for the road they will create along the
journey to greater proficiency.
Author ID to come
References
Huizinga, J. (1949) Homo ludens: A study of the
play element in culture. Retrieved from http://
art.yale.edu/file_columns/0000/1474/homo_
ludens_johan_huizinga_routledge_1949_.pdf
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Krashen, S. (1982) Principles and practice in second
language acquisition. Retrieved from http://
www.sdkrashen.com/content/books/principles_
and_practice.pdf
Miller, E. (2003) Verbal play and language
acquisition. Retrieved from http://www.
storytellingandvideoconferencing.com/17.html
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