Five-year-old Xian Lei enters kindergarten with little under.docx

Five-year-old Xian Lei enters kindergarten with
little understanding of English. Ms. Sisco, her
teacher, sees that Xian Lei has difficulty con-
necting with much of what is going on in the
classroom if it depends on English. The one time
when she seems to brighten up is when Ms.
Sisco tells nursery rhymes or reads traditional
stories such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
These are stories that Xian Lei has obviously
heard in her own language. That’s when her
teacher first hears her say some phrases in Eng-
lish, such as “Bears eat” and “Goldilocks sleep,”
in her play and as she draws pictures in her
journal following story time. Xian Lei also seems
eager to participate in the classroom activities
that spin off from Ms. Sisco’s storytelling.
M
any US classrooms today
have at least some children
with limited abilities to under-
stand and express themselves
in English. Because language
acquisition is highly social, there is reliable
evidence that immersing young dual language
learners (DLLs) in playful contexts that high-
light language is far more effective than teach-
ing isolated skills in resource rooms or through
tutoring sessions (Freeman, Freeman, & Mer-
curi 2004). Even so, during the initial stages,
second language acquisition can be challeng-

ing for young children and for the classroom
teacher who must create high-quality learning
experiences for everyone in the class.
Using Stories to Extinguish the Hot Spots
in Second Language Acquisition,
Preschool to Grade 1
34 Young Children March 2013
Anne K. Soderman,
Kay G. Clevenger,
and Ian Gregory Kent
Supporting
Dual
Language
Learners
and Their
Families
®
2
, 3
Photos © Ellen B. Senisi
unless otherwise noted
Two critical factors spell success or failure for teachers
who have DLLs in their classrooms: the teacher’s under-
standing of and respect for the initial difficulties in learn-
ing a second language and the teacher’s ability to adapt
learning experiences in a creative and playful manner

(Soderman, Wescott, & Shen 2007; Menken & Garcia 2010).
Responding to hot spots in early acquisition
of second languages
Acquiring a second language presents challenges that
differ for individual children. It is less difficult when done
as early as possible and prior to adolescence (Howard
& Sugarman 2007). The young dual language learner is
better able to hear the “music,” or prosody, of the new
language and therefore has less difficulty with phonol-
ogy than do older children and adults. However, there are
definite hot spots where children in preschool through
the early primary grades need
targeted support as they move
through the multiple stages of
second language building. The
following six suggestions will
enable teachers to help children
through these hot spots.
Foster children’s moti-
vation to acquire a new
language
Second language acquisition
is almost never a young child’s
choice. Families move from
their home countries for many
reasons, including business,
politics, marriage, war, and
economic circumstances. For
these children, bilingualism
is usually a fact of life and not
an option (McCardle & Hoff
2006). Other families may enroll
their children in dual language

programs because they appreci-
ate the value of bilingualism and
multiculturalism for their children’s future.
Children, on the other hand, are not thinking about
these issues. Many children arrive with interrupted
schooling, very little command of English, and limited
ability to verbalize their feelings about being separated
from immediate or extended family members. They are
also powerless to voice their discomfort in being in an
unfamiliar situation with an unfamiliar language (Cho,
Chen, & Sin 2010). Children’s incentives for acquiring a
second language are likely to rest entirely on social forces
that activate emotional arousal and behavior; that is,
wanting their desires satisfied, being able to enter into
play with others, or getting their ideas across to someone
who does not speak their primary language (Kovelman,
Baker, & Petitto 2008; Soderman & Oshio 2008).
Build a rudimentary receptive vocabulary
As with learning their home language, once a child acquir-
ing a second language has obtained about 50–100 words,
language develops quickly. Children first develop labels
for objects and people in their environment. Subsequently,
they add action verbs and venture out with simple formu-
laic phrases: “Want markers,” “Thank you,” “Yes, please,”
“Excuse me,” “Don’t like that!,” “Stop.” When they build
About the Authors
Anne K. Soderman, PhD, is professor
emeritus at Michigan State University,
adjunct faculty at the University of South
Florida, and research consultant to 3e

International School in Beijing, China.
[email protected]
Kay G. Clevenger, MA, is associate princi-
pal at 3e International School in Beijing and
is Montessori (AMS)-certified. She holds an
MA in early childhood from the University
of Michigan and taught kindergarten for
more than 40 years before moving into
education administration. [email protected]
3einternationalschool.org
Ian Gregory Kent, BA, is a program leader
at Hudson Out of School Care in Van-
couver, British Columbia. Ian has written
and produced two children’s plays for the
Edmonton International Fringe Festival.
[email protected]
35March 2013 Young Children
enough receptive vocabulary, or understanding of the lan-
guage, to begin communicating with others and receive en-
couragement and opportunities for practice, they are usually
on their way to rapid advancement (Kostelnik, Soderman, &
Whiren 2011).
Help children develop self-con�idence and com-
fort in expressing their needs and ideas
For children who tend to be shy, isolate themselves when
under stress, or seem afraid to make mistakes, expressive
language will come more slowly. Teachers need to build early
rapport with children. This is critical and more challenging

when language is a barrier; however, good teachers fi nd a
way to let children know, “I’m here to help, and I really like
having you in my classroom.”
Children acquire a second language more quickly in a
learning environment where planned activities and ex-
periences are meaningful, playful, engaging, and useful
(Soderman 2010). Such classrooms typically have space for
large group meetings and spontaneous small group activi-
ties; clusters of tables and chairs; centers for construction,
dramatic play, writing, art, and listening to favorite books;
and a library. Environmental print (e.g., labels on equipment
and materials and predictable charts) and invitations to print
(e.g., sign-up sheets, a well-equipped message center) are
everywhere. Books are displayed on shelves and in baskets.
Areas and supplies are labeled with both words and pictures,
and sign-in and sign-up sheets are visible. In some class-
rooms, eye-catching displays may hang from the ceiling or be
in other unexpected places (e.g., the bathroom). Early read-
ers have access to charts on which familiar poems, rhymes,
and songs are displayed, and children might construct
masks, props, or puppets to use in their dramatic produc-
tions (Bhattacharyya 2010).
Support phonological awareness
Speaking, reading, and writing in English require all learners
to move through sequential stages (see “Phonological Aware-
ness Continuum”). The process allows the learner to under-
stand that the language can be broken down into smaller
parts and manipulated. Activities such as word play, rhym-
ing, onset and rime (consonant and a phonogram, beginning
with the vowel that follows; for example, “fat, bat, hat, mat”
or “dig, big, wig, rig”), and isolating various sounds within a
word lead to a child’s well-developed phonemic awareness

and, eventually, good abilities to spell and decode.
Promote alphabetic awareness
Some children coming into English-speaking classrooms
might have only had experience with idiographic languages,
such as Japanese, that use symbols but not a phonetic alpha-
bet. In addition, there are variations in worldwide phonetic
alphabets, with some symbols being culturally relevant. Eng-
lish requires the child to develop a fl uid understanding of what
26 lower- and uppercase symbols look like, to make correct
grapheme/phoneme (letter/sound) associations depending on
context, and to structure letters consistently and sequentially
to form words. Learning the sound is equally as important as
learning the letter names. When children internalize these
insights, they acquire the foundation needed to move ahead
with reading and writing in English (Yopp & Yopp 2009).
Phonemic Awareness
Individual Sounds
Grapheme /Phoneme Association
Decoding
Less complex More complex
Phonological Awareness Continuum
Understanding that words can be divided into smaller parts
and manipulated
Word Families
Onsets and Rimes

Syllabification
Separating Words into Syllables
Sentence Segmentation
Phrases, Words
Hearing Rhymes
Generating Rhymes
Eliminate confusion about consonants, vowels,
grammar, and syntax
Becoming academically skilled in a language—that is, mov-
ing beyond a conversational understanding and usage of
the language—takes at least fi ve years, but depends greatly
on children’s cognitive development, exposure to the
second language, and amount of practice. It also depends
on their having a knowledgeable mentor who can model,
monitor, and expand usage. One of the best ways to pro-
mote young children’s understanding of how a language is
to be expressed is to model usage daily. This takes alertness
and intentionality on the teacher’s part to do so as often as
possible (Youngquist & Martinez-Griego 2009). With older
children, we can point out particular written and spoken
conventions (taking care to keep children’s self-esteem
intact), have children write every day, and discuss aspects
of their written work samples with them.
Using stories to address the hot spots
Stories are powerful resources for teachers of dual lan-
guage learners. In order to motivate children, provide a

comfortable learning environment, and build their lan-
guage skills, we need to take greater advantage of such an
eff ective and natural teaching asset.
Stories and connected activities, called literacy spin-
off s, help teachers expand children’s cultural awareness;
adapt to their capability, interests, and experiences; and
address many of the potential complexities inherent in
language acquisition. Listening to stories, children build
phonemic awareness and hear vocabulary not usually
heard in everyday conversation. They learn about story
elements (characters, mood, and plot) when teachers
enhance their narratives by using exaggerated facial
expressions, vocal eff ects, and pictures, and by encour-
aging children to act out the story. When teachers point
out vocabulary ahead of time and examine and reuse the
words in another context after telling or reading a story,
children’s knowledge is signifi cantly enhanced.
Practice and familiarity with words leads to children
internalizing and, eventually, expressing language. For ex-
ample, after Ms. Edlund reads Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry
Caterpillar to the children, she uncovers a small terrarium
containing a caterpillar. As the fascinated children crowd
around it, Ms. Edlund points to the text on a sign above the
terrarium that asks, “What is the caterpillar doing?” She in-
vites the children to stop by that morning to watch and tell
her tomorrow in large group what they saw the caterpillar
doing. That day, Jaliyah writes in his journal, “The cadaplrs
are moving. The cadaplrs are Eating. Climbing” (Soderman
& Farrell 2008, 75).
Expand our concept of stories

Stories can come from many places, be completely oral or in
print, and involve diff erent print genres. We usually think
of children’s narrative picture books as the primary source
The concept of a story may be broad-
ened to include nursery rhymes,
poems, songs, traditional stories, and
stories made up by the teacher, the
children, and their families.
for stories. However, the concept of a story may be broad-
ened to include nursery rhymes, poems, songs, traditional
stories, and stories made up by the teacher, the children,
and their families.
Nursery rhymes, poems, and songs are not usually
thought of as stories, but they are a child’s version of a short
story. Poems, rhymes, and songs are often the first solid
connection children experience with a second language.
Best of all, they are joyful and without threat. They are
useful for engaging dual language learners and expand-
ing their concepts of language and literacy in the second
language. Children can
n develop phonological awareness as they detect and
manipulate sounds and syllables (Yopp & Yopp 2009);
n learn quickly about rhyming words, language rhythm,
phrases contained within sentences, and the concept of
beginning, middle, and end;

n come to understand that characters in the stories may
experience problems, such as those encountered by
Little Miss Muffett, Clifford, Humpty Dumpty, and the
Rainbow Fish; and
n expand their memories (children can often be heard pri-
vately singing a song in another language, even before
they understand the words).
Use traditional stories
Traditional stories include fairy tales and legends from
almost every culture and in different languages. Teachers
can suggest that families read or tell a tale to the child in
their home language. It helps to have translated versions of
books available in school for families from other countries
to check out. For example, culturally relevant versions of
the tales of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the Billy Goats
Gruff, Snow White, and Little Red Riding Hood are known
almost everywhere in the world. Even though children
do not have the receptive vocabulary to understand every
word of the English version, they often are completely
engaged and actively listening as they put the teacher’s
expressions together with pictures and story lines that are
similar to those in their home language. When reading to
DLLs, teachers can enhance their experience by
n Previewing the pictures to familiarize children with the
story prior to reading the storybook (a picture walk);
n Including culturally relevant stories as often as possible
n Encouraging children with limited expressive vocabu-
lary to respond to questions about the story by using

gestures or pointing to the illustrations;
n Expanding the ideas in the book to other classroom cen-
ters, prompting children to use the vocabulary in other
contexts;
n Inviting children to retell or dramatize the story once
they have heard it several times;
n Using manipulatives, illustrations, gestures, and facial
exressions to help children understand vocabulary; and
n Explaining three to five core words essential to under-
standing the story prior to reading it (Gillanders &
Castro 2011).
Create personal stories
Teachers create personal stories to target particular issues,
to expand on children’s emerging interests, or to connect to
experiences certain children have had. These can be made
more effective for dual language learners when the teacher
does the following:
n Include visuals, props, photographs, or on-the-spot
drawings to support what is being told
n Take time to listen to children’s stories and to have re-
laxed conversations with them about what is happening
in their lives
n Clarify and expand on the language children are using
n Encourage conversation at snack, lunchtime, and for a
few minutes after reading a story
n Hold one-on-one or small group conversations sponta-

neously throughout the day
Use puppets
Some teachers use a puppet to tell a story. For example,
Xian Lei’s teacher has a puppet named Max that sits on
a high shelf near the large group area. Max occasionally
joins large group time to tell the children a story about
something that has happened to him outside the class-
room, on the playground, or elsewhere. He has a name and
other identifying features that make him very real to the
children: He is 5 years old but will be 6 in February. He has
a mother and father and two brothers, and a dog named
Fozzie. He is sometimes afraid of the dark. Revealing such
personal aspects is all part of his storytelling.
Creating story spin-offs
Teachers need to expose children to songs, rhymes, poems,
and narratives again and again to develop children’s famil-
iarity and understanding of language usage. To keep chil-
dren engaged and to scaffold literacy skills and concepts,
teachers can spin off these stories in intriguing ways. For
example, a kindergarten group in Ocala, Florida, developed
Teachers need to expose children
to songs, rhymes, poems, and nar-
ratives again and again to develop
children’s familiarity and under-
standing of language usage.
a humorous class book. It illustrated various places where

Humpty Dumpty sat, such as “Humpty Dumpty sat on the
moon” and “Humpty Dumpty sat in his car.”
Create personas
One creative teacher, Mr. Dragan, assumes a completely
different persona, often donning a cape covered in alphabet
letters for a story or conversation with the children. His
mission is increasing their alphabet awareness, one of the
hot spots in helping children acquire a second language.
The kindergartners delight in this, going along with the act
and paying close attention to what the character tells them
and asks them to do.
The children never know when the Alphabet Avenger
(Mr. Dragan) will appear. When he does, he begins with a
story and then talks to them about a particular component
of the alphabet he wants them to notice (e.g., how letters
are curved or straight, and upper- or lowercase). During
another visit, he challenges them to think of as many words
as they can that start with a certain letter and sound. He
writes the words on the whiteboard with the children’s
help. He provides small baggies of plastic letters and invites
the children to go to the table to make words with the
letters. The Alphabet Avenger leaves them with cards on
which they are to print their names and other words they
are learning. He asks the children to tape their cards on a
long red ribbon and tells them, “I will return soon to get
this ribbon to hang from my ceiling at home.”
Invite guest readers
Guest readers can heighten DLLs interest in being read to.
Guest readers can be family members, older children from
other classes, and various school employees, including

custodians, lunch servers, secretaries, and bus drivers. The
principal in one school joins the class occasionally as a guest
reader known as The Empress, an activity adapted from
Singer, Golinkoff, and Hirsh-Pasek (2009). After reading a
story, poem, or rhyme, she invites the children to bring her
“gifts.” They each bring two gifts, which they select from an
array of small laminated pictures of objects that begin with
the same letter and sound (e.g., a picture of a bear and a book
or a moon and a monkey). They present the gifts by saying
the name of the objects (“Dear Empress, I have a bear and
a book for you.”). She says, “I thank you for the bear and the
book,” reinforcing the phonetic connections children need
to make. This game can also be played with older children
who are learning concepts such as synonyms, antonyms,
adjectives, and alliteration (“Dear Empress, I have a beauti-
ful, busy, brown bear and a big, blue, busy book”). Children
can make up and illustrate poems to present to her.
Act out rhymes
The ability to hear rhymes and to generate them contrib-
utes enormously to children’s phonological awareness.
They contribute to children’s sense of syntax in the lan-
guage being acquired, their understanding of the phrasing
and rhythm of English, and their knowledge of vocabulary.
As the children bring these rhymes to life, the characters’
actions become familiar verbs that children can transfer to
other attempts at language.
Create story murals

Being able to illustrate a familiar story helps dual
language learners internalize the various elements of a
story and comprehend the general story line. They can
document the title and illustrator, focus on the characters
in the story, depict events, describe the location or setting,
and reflect on the problem and the solutions. They can work
on their own or with other children to complete a series of
panels over a period of time.
Use attribute charts
Attribute charts are powerful tools that help children build
expressive vocabulary, see conventional spelling, and con-
nect words in a language they are trying to acquire with
those they already know in their home language. To create
an attribute chart, teachers choose a real object or an en-
gaging photo or picture in which the children can identify a
number of different characteristics. For example, a teacher
tells the following story:
Once upon a time, there was a seed planted in the
warm earth. The sun shone on it, the rain came down
on it, and after a while it started to push. It pushed
and pushed and pushed until the seed pod split open,
and a stem with two seed leaves came out of the earth.
The sun warmed it, and the rain came down on it, and
it began to grow. It grew and grew and grew. It grew
more leaves. It grew and grew until … it was a beauti-
ful sunflower.
After telling the story, the teacher shows the children
a real sunflower and talks about its components—stem,
leaves, petals, bristles, roots, and colors. The children feel
the flower and its parts, and repeat the new vocabulary.
Then the teacher attaches the flower to a piece of easel pa-

per. He asks the children to think of words to describe the
sunflower. He draws lines on the paper from parts of the
flower and invites the children to help him spell the words
as he writes them on the attribute chart.
In addition to the scientific names the children are
learning, they offer other words to describe the flower, such
as “beautiful,” “green,” “dirt” (on the roots), “prickly,” and
“center.” The teacher repeats each word and points to the
flower part they are referring to, adding their thoughts to
the attribute chart. To reinforce this learning, the children
plant sunflower seeds outdoors, observe the plants’ growth,
and use the vocabulary on the attribute chart.
Conclusion
Young children attempting to learn the many rudiments of
a second language are empowered when teachers provide
engaging activities designed to spark their interest, build
receptive and expressive vocabulary, strengthen phonemic
and alphabetic awareness, and eliminate grammatical and
syntactic confusions. All children in the early childhood
learning community enjoy and benefit from such activities.
For the young dual language learner, however, they may
very well serve as the critical difference between simply
being exposed to a second language or benefiting from the
richness in language that flows naturally and abundantly
out of the many types of stories we can share with them. Ph
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Copyright © 2013 by the National Association for the Education
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