Sentence Starters: Facilitating or Hindering English Learner Classroom Talk?

• In Event: 25.060 - Scaffolds and English Learners' Participation in Academic Discussions: Too Much or Just Right?

Abstract

Teachers are being encouraged to use various instructional modifications when working with English learners (ELs). While many modifications have been proposed to support ELs’ access to academic content (e.g., graphic organizers, realia, visuals), sentence starters have become quite popular among teachers and professional development programs (E.L. Achieve: Creating Effective Systems for English Learners, 2014; Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2008; Kinsella, 2013). Sentence starters are being used to support the type of talk required under the new standards and are widely promoted as an instructional modification to help ELs access academic content and participate in academic discussions, but we know nothing about their effect on English learner language use. In this study, I examine how sentence starters affect ELs’ participation in academic discussions in the fourth grade classroom across multiple subject areas.
This study is grounded in Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of learning and Walqui’s model of scaffolding as structure and process (2006) that occurs within the Zone of Proximal Development. To study how sentence starters influence EL participation in academic discussions, I recorded and transcribed eight fourth grade ELs’ classroom talk over a period of 6 months and took field notes describing classroom activities. Following Walqui’s model of scaffolding, I coded transcripts for the contingent nature of the sentence starters and whether their use was required or optional. I also coded for missed opportunities to elaborate, follow up or respond to peer’s questions within the sentence starter events and opportunities to gained within the events. In instances where the children were permitted to freely communicate their ideas before communicating their ideas within the sentence starter structure, I compared the ideas communicated before and after and coded for whether the sentence starters worked to strengthen or weaken the delivery of ideas.
Preliminary analysis shows that use of the sentence starters was rarely optional and the sentence starters were often a pre-planned component of the lesson and not contingent to student need. Furthermore, when students were required to fit their ideas within the sentence starter, their ideas were less elaborate than when they expressed them without the structure. Teachers are being encouraged to use various instructional modifications that are currently of unknown value with respect to how helpful they actually are to ELs. Some of these instructional modifications may be unsuccessful and perhaps even counterproductive. By taking a close look at one instructional modification, sentence starters, this study will help us understand how sentence starters are used in naturally occurring academic discussions and help teachers and professional development providers ensure that scaffolds intended to support ELs are helping and not hindering their participation in academic discussions.

Authors

• Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica, Santa Clara University

• Sara Ann Rutherford-Quach, Stanford University