Implications for mainstream teachers

It is very important that students be encouraged to continue their native language development. When parents ask about the best ways they can help their child at home, you can reply that the child should have the opportunity to read extensively in her own language. You could suggest that parents make some time every evening to discuss with their child, in their native language, what she has done in school that day: ask her to talk about the science experiment she did, question her about her understanding of primary and secondary sources of historical information, have her explain how she has solved a math problem etc.

As Cummins (2000) states: "Conceptual knowledge developed in one language helps to make input in the other language comprehensible." If a child already understands the concepts of "justice" or "honesty" in her own language, all she has to do is acquire the label for these terms in English. She has a far more difficult task, however, if she has to acquire both the label and the concept in her second language.

Task Difficulty

Cummins has devised a model whereby the different tasks we expect our students to engage in can be categorized. In the diagram below tasks range in difficulty along one continuum from cognitively undemanding to cognitively demanding; and along the other continuum from context-embedded to context-reduced. A context-embedded task is one in which the student has access to a range of additional visual and oral cues; for example s/he can look at illustrations of what is being talked about or ask questions to confirm understanding. A context-reduced task is one such as listening to a lecture or reading dense text, where there are no other sources of help than the language itself. Clearly, a D quadrant task, which is both cognitively demanding and context- reduced, is likely to be the most difficult for students, particularly for non-native speakers in their first years of learning English. However, it is essential that ESL students develop the ability to accomplish such tasks, since academic success is impossible without it.

Context A cognitively	embedded C cognitively
Undemanding B Context	Demanding D reduced

Bloom's taxonomy (Knowledge > Comprehension > Application > Analysis > Synthesis) provides a useful way of determining whether a task is demanding or undemanding. So activities which fall within the category of Knowledge – such as collecting, naming, showing etc. – will clearly be less demanding than Analysis activities such as comparing, explaining and inferring.

The degree to which a task is context-embedded depends on the number of channels of information available to the student. So a student who listens to a news report on the radio has only one channel of information – this is a context-reduced learning experience. Compare this with the student who reads a report about the same event in a newspaper article which contains photographs and diagrams. The student can read at her own speed and has access to a dictionary. If she can also ask another student or her parents to explain parts of the text, then she has many channels of information available to her. This is clearly a context-embedded activity and as a result is much more manageable.

It is difficult to see the value of any tasks that are cognitively undemanding and context-reduced. Copying a list of the kings and queens of England from a textbook to an exercise book is an example of such an activity. It is sometimes called busy work.

Implications for mainstream teachers

If teachers have an awareness of the likely difficulty of a task, based on Cummins' model, they can judge its appropriateness for the non-native speakers in their classes and in this way avoid much frustration. This does not mean, however, that ESL students should be fed a diet of cognitively-undemanding tasks. It may be beneficial to use such activities in the student's early days at school, in order to build confidence, or as a lead in to a more challenging activity. However, teachers should switch soon to tasks that engage the students' brains, making these tasks accessible by providing visual or other support. Once students are comfortable with these kinds of activities, they can be gradually exposed to tasks that are both cognitively-demanding and context-reduced.

Additive/subtractive bilingualism

Cummins draws the distinction between additive bilingualism in which the first language continues to be developed and the first culture to be valued while the second language is added; and subtractive bilingualism in which the second language is added at the expense of the first language and culture, which diminish as a consequence. Cummins (1994) quotes research which suggests students working in an additive bilingual environment succeed to a greater extent than those whose first language and culture are devalued by their schools and by the wider society.