How Important is the Native Language?

Imagine yourself as a newly appointed staff at your local NEA chapter. Your boss is the Associate Director for Professional Development, responsible for developing priorities for staff development activities for the union. Given the large number of English Learners in the district, she needs to address this issue and asks you to help her out. She poses the following questions:

• Just how important do you think it is to spend our valuable professional development funds familiarizing teachers in linguistic comparisons of L1 and L2? Just how important is the native language in second language acquisition?
• I have to give a speech on this topic to union leaders in a few days, so can you give me some good examples of contrasts between English and another language that would grab their attention?
• Given the huge diversity of native languages that students bring to our schools, it is not practical is it for all teachers to know about all languages. Can you suggest some possible solutions to problem, such as how technology could be utilized?

Prepare a response to this request. Be sure to include aspects of language that are both structural (e.g., the possessive 's) as well as social (e.g., how to engage in rituals and conversations). There is no length limit. You may prepare the memo in the form of bulleted points.

Your resources for this case are threefold:

1. Video clips, contained in CD #1 (Linda Tong Reflections, and Linda Tong Classroom). Linda Tong is an expert 1st Grade teacher in San Francisco Unified School District, where her students are all native speakers of Chinese. In the pair of videos for this case, you will see her reflections about addressing differences between Chinese and English, as well as some brief shots from her actual instruction in the classroom where she addresses these linguistic differences.
2. Lily Wong Fillmore and Catherine Snow are professors of education, respectively, at the University of California Berkeley and Harvard University. They have written a paper boldly titled "What Teachers Need to Know about Language". Included in their list is the importance of recognizing linguistic differences between the students' native language (L1) and English (L2).
3. Your knowledge of another language and any pertinent experiences and observations teaching English learners.