Blog 4: Foreign Language Text Activity

 I picked a book in Russian which is a language I don’t have much knowledge of so this task was very challenging for me!  Initially I looked through the pictures to help me get an idea of what the book was about.  I also tried to find text features that I might recognize.

• What did you do to make meaning?
•   Used illustrations
•   Looked for repetitive words (names) 
• Attempted to find some of the letters that I knew in Russian

One thing that some members of class did was to go to another student who spoke the language they were trying to read.  In the classroom, if a student was really struggling, they could go to someone else who knew the language if there was someone available.  However, in a lot of cases, this isn't always possible. 

In the text, it was possible to make out quotations – although they are a different shape and other text features.  I also was able to make out the names of the characters because they were written repetitively.  The pictures in the book weren’t all that helpful because they didn’t really help me understand the plot of the story but they did give me ideas on the characters in the book.

What are the implications for teachers?

•  Teachers need to be very mindful in how they present text to students. 
• They need to be mindful that they are scaffolding texts and to help their students get the maximum amount of information from the text
• They need to have resources in the classroom to help their students out for example picture dictionaries, first language resources.
•  Make sure books you are giving students have pictures that really do tell a story to help them make more meaning.
• Present books so that students are meaningfully looking for a word or phrase that they have learned so that they have success with the activity.

As someone who has traveled a lot, I have to admit that I’m not all that daunted by foreign text.  However, I remember the day I landed in Beijing.  Talk about overwhelming!!! I was lucky to have a guide book with me!  I remember that my first strategy was to learn common characters first, which in China ended up being numbers.  I could empathize with first language learners in their frustration at not understanding what was going on in the book.