Lsquo the language of thinking consists of natural language terms that refer to mental processes and mental products. Words like think, believe, guess, conjecture, hypothesis, evidence, suspect, doubt, and theorize form a vocabulary used to describe thinking. In addition, a language of thinking allows comprehending the illocutionary force behind the statements of others rsquo perkins, jay and tishman, 1993, p. Bruner 'ascribes an important role to language in the development of thinking: thinking leads to language, but, thereafter, language is responsible for the improved development of thinking' hamers and overtoon, 1997, p.15. Esl new arrivals who transition to mainstream schooling are disadvantaged because they cannot learn effectively in the current student centred constructivist method. In a constructivist classroom, the environment encourages critical and creative thinking, but esl new arrivals are further disadvantaged because they cannot understand the thinking processes because they have not developed the language of thinking.

Rowe rsquo s research supports my ar proposal of teaching the language of thinking to esl new arrivals before they transition to the mainstream, because there the constructivist approach will be waiting for them and the culture of the lsquo thinking classroom rsquo. Rowe 2006 argues that lsquo exclusive emphasis on constructivist approaches to teaching are neither initially or subsequently in the best interests of any group of students and especially those experiencing learning difficulties' abstract. He supports his argument with key information from a national project designed to identify effective teaching practices for year 4 6 students with learning difficulties in reading and numeracy, conducted with private, independent and government schools rowe, 2006, p. Rowe rsquo s own findings, which are based on qualitative and quantitative data indicate that direct instruction modes of teaching are the most effective teaching methods for children with learning difficulties, disadvantaged children and esl children rowe, 2006, p. 2 rowe explains that meta analytic syntheses of findings from more than 500 0 evidence based studies of influences on student learning outcomes, including teaching methods, provide support for his results rowe, 2006, p. 2 rowe 2006 emphasises that this is particularly the case for children from non english backgrounds, and that constructivist approaches are the major problem.

This article is important in the context of my action research ar and supports the urgency of direct teaching the language of thinking to esl new arrivals. Firstly, almost all of the esl new arrivals are disadvantaged and from low socio cultural backgrounds and contexts, because more affluent new arrivals have generally had english instruction or tuition in the homelands and do not require a nap. Secondly, the esl new arrivals that qualify for the nap are only eligible to stay for two terms, before transition into the mainstream where lsquo student centred rsquo , inquiry and project based learning and constructivism is the current teaching method, and they are expected to have an inquiry disposition as they are placed directly into that system. Rowe rsquo s research explains that these children cannot cope and his data shows students rsquo achievement growth is much higher when direct teaching methods and intervention are used.

His findings are important in supporting my ar because we want to use direct. Explicit teaching methods with the disadvantaged new arrivals, to teach them the thinking language because as soon as they enter mainstream schooling, they are confronted with an integrated, inquiry approach in the ber open learning spaces, and they are confronted with all the thinking processes without having been exposed to the language of thinking before. As the smr outreach services coordinator, i visit schools almost every day to access new arrivals and recommend the most appropriate esl programs to accelerate english language acquisition.

Good Words to Put In a College Essay

I see firsthand that many schools do not have esl teachers, do not have an esl program in the school, do not have experience of teaching esl students, do not have an esl curriculum and do not separate the esl learners from the constructivist. I concede that these schools may differentiate learning for esl students, but this differentiation is within the inquiry curriculum, not a separate esl curriculum and esl new arrivals who have transitioned, suddenly have to participate in the student centred constructivist approach to learning. So, clearly, according to rowe, they cannot and do not learn effectively, and are further disadvantaged as a result, on two fronts. constructivist approaches to teaching now prevail as the predominant methods throughout the victorian schools. Esl new arrivals are still learning to speak, listen and read and write in english, so they need explicit instruction in the acquisition of basic language, for a long time to become proficient in english can take up to seven years after transition into mainstream schooling. They struggle with the methods of lsquo constructivism rsquo , on top of struggling with spelling, mathematical computation and word problems of numeracy, literacy and they do not understand the thinking processes domain of the interdisciplinary strand of the vels, because they have not been exposed to the language of thinking, or the thinking skills and tools in english. Esl new arrivals transition to mainstream schooling after two terms in a nap, and still need direct, explicit teaching, modelling and scaffolding and learning material in small steps.

The research base for direct instruction di is grounded in findings from evidence based research in cognitive science rowe, 2006, p. Rowe rsquo s data is compelling evidence that esl new arrivals that transition to mainstream schooling should not participate in constructivist, student centred learning which i believe is further compounded in a lsquo community of thinkers rsquo. Since they do have to have an inquiry disposition, we can ensure that these esl new arrivals, who do go into this system, are better able to cope. So, there is urgent justification for my project and my ar proposes to focus on the direct, explicit teaching of the language of thinking, so that they are better able to cope in the constructivist mainstream setting. The research and quantitative data findings published by morenc and hogan 1976 on lsquo the influence of race and social class level on the training of creative thinking and problem solving abilities rsquo , support my ar proposal because their data results indicate that lsquo participation in the productive thinking program enabled the students to improve their creative thinking and problem solving abilities.

Neither race nor social class level affected the child rsquo s ability to increase these skills rsquo morenc and hogan, 1976, p. The data shows significant differences between the experimental and control groups and the training program had a huge impact on student improvement morenc and hogan, 1976, p. We cannot afford any of the training programs available nationally or internationally, due to financial constraints, but the ar team is developing their own program to support and improve student performance and outcomes, prior to transition to constructivist mainstream schooling in a lsquo community of thinkers rsquo. Shahini and riazi 2010 introduced their esl students to philosophy based language teaching pblt as an approach to developing productive language and thinking skills. The framework that informs pblt is informed by the theories of matthew lipman 2003. The study involved an experimental and control group and results revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group by a significant percentage on both speaking and writing tasks. The significance of pblt for esl learners is, according to shahini and riazi 2010 that it enhances thinking ability through l2 instruction, and the improvement of l2 proficiency, especially productive skills through philosophical discussion.

Lsquo the findings of the study have implications for all stakeholders in elt and internationally rsquo shahini and riazi, 2010, p. This study based on qualitative and quantitative data shahini and riazi, 2010, p. 174 177 showed distinctive improvements in the control group, and has positive implications for my proposed ar project, because although we are not introducing philosophy based language teaching pblt to esl new arrivals, we are introducing thinking language.