What Is Direct Teach Strategy, and How Does It Address the Gap Between Content and Language Need of ELs?

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) acknowledged that key objectives for teaching mathematics are problem-solving, arguing, and interacting mathematically (NCTM, 1991). Research shows that English language learners (ELs) often get fewer opportunities to learn in mainstream American classrooms because of their limited English proficiency. This leads to other problems, which include lower academic achievement and delayed linguistic development because ELs are less active in classrooms and experience heightened “expressive and receptive communication difficulties” (Arreaga-Mayer, & Perdomo-Rivera, 1996, p. 246). As the issue of equity, access, and participation in everyday classrooms emerged, scholars developed different means of best practices (e.g., use of students’ first language to activate prior knowledge, use of realia, manipulatives, visual aids like pictures, etc.) to scaffold ELs’ participation in their regular content classrooms (Aguirre, & del Rosario Zavala, 2013). It is hard to make an absolute recommendation of a teaching strategy that fulfills all instructional needs in every context; however, it should be based upon a student’s background knowledge of math, his/her linguistic competency, and the teacher’s instructional experiences (Moschkovich, 2012). Expert mathematicians recommend a cognitive learning theory for most programs of study, which include reading, science, mathematics, and second language learning (Chamot, Dale, O’Malley, & Spanos, 1992).

What is a Direct/Explicit Teaching Strategy?

Informed by the behavioristic learning principle, which is a traditional teaching strategy, direct teach is a teacher-led teaching methodology in which the teacher identifies the concept or skill for students to learn and leads them through various classroom activities carefully designed in advance to result in student learning (Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei, & Thurrell, 1997). Deductive in nature, the direct-teach strategy puts teachers in charge of the overall classroom activities (e.g., autonomy to change the curriculum and instruction to meet specific needs of students, getting students’ attention, providing explicit feedback, practicing correct responses, monitoring the pace, etc.) to foster higher academic success rate by keeping expectations high for all students. This strategy is more effective when teachers introduce new concepts while teaching the students of other languages who aim to learn both academic content and target language at once (Franke, & Kazemi, 2001; Moschkovich, 2012). The direct teaching strategy always builds on prior knowledge; for example, students first learn numbers and learn to put them in ascending order before they put them in descending order.

How Does Direct Teaching Fill the Gap between Content and Language Need of ELs?

Studies on second language specific to mathematics instruction have established some common agendas that teaching math to English learners should:

(a) Consider language as a means to communicate, not a shortfall for ELs,

(b) Focus on more than vocabulary alone, and corroborate language learners’ participation in mathematical discussions while they learn English, and

(c) Resort to various means obtainable in classrooms (e.g., graphs, drawings, objects, gestures, and technology), including home-language and outside experiences (Moschkovich, 2012; Rosenshine, 1986). 

The direct teach strategy provides multiple opportunities for students, regardless of their linguistic competency, to participate in the content-related discussion and hands-on training, even though they wrestle to comprehend the content. The teacher calls on students, checks for understanding, and provides explicit feedback, or corrects a mistake if needed. Every-day interactions of this kind let the teacher know how an EL is learning and what modifications are necessary to address both content area and language needs as well as nurture over-all development. Research proves that ELs with even limited English proficiency (WIDA Levels 1 & 3) students are capable of making required contributions if they are encouraged to participate (Chamot et.al., 1992). It is important to note that an EL with good English conversational skills (WIDA Level 5) and even a native English speaker may have very limited academic language skills as well as limited mathematical content knowledge.

A significant amount of research has identified that content-related vocabulary teaching for English learners is important for successful content-area learning. The direct teaching strategy can be modified to address the needs of individual students or a group of students. Second language researchers believe that ELs require early, explicit, and intensive coaching to build their comprehension skills, vocabulary in context, and fluency of the target language (Francis et. al., 2006). This means that while vocabulary instruction is important, it is not sufficient (Moschkovich, 2012). Students should get an opportunity to be a part of a language-rich classroom where English learners directly observe casual or “discourse-level grammar (e.g., pragmatic regularities and politeness strategies, communication strategies, and various elements of conversational structures such as openings, closings, and turn-taking systems)” (Celce-Murcia, & Thurrell, 1997, p. 142). Teachers who follow the direct teach strategy to prepare their classroom to be more effective than outside world to the beginner- and intermediate-level ELs (Arreaga-Mayer & Perdomo-Rivera, 1996). We can take an example of a Kindergarten mathematics classroom where the teacher is going to teach ‘Simple Addition’. The teacher lets students know what s/he is teaching that they and what she wants them to learn or be able to do by the end of that lesson. S/he introduces the concept in small steps providing various synonymous words (e.g., increase, sum, combine, etc.) using examples (on the board, or on the interactive technology if available). S/he then, let students participate in hands-on activities based on students’ competency (both linguistic, and content). S/he may provide other opportunities in different media (copy, textbook, think-and-answer, etc.)  to make students understand the concept well. Meanwhile, s/he tests student’s acquisition of the subject matter and offers feedback, and finally, follows up time to time to check where each student stands (Nutta, Strebel, Mokhtari, Mihai, & Crevecoeur-Bryant, 2014). These entire directed activities center around a single concept and thus, it is more effective for ELs to learn both language and content.     

Moreover, to aid the theoretical perception, teachers make use of any/all available resources (pictures, graphs, markers, think-sheets, graphic organizers, objects, symbols, student-prepared word banks, etc.) in the classroom. Modern tools (e.g., audio/video tools, internet etc.) can be utilized if they are attainable. Teacher should model effective behaviors in their classrooms (e.g., talk aloud, think aloud, read aloud, chunking long difficult sentences in manageable blocks, etc.) and conduct guided practice to boost ELs’ cognitive capabilities while giving them the tools to learn both content and language by enhancing their morale (Rupley, Blair, & Nichols, 2009).   

Overall, a direct/explicit teaching strategy is a crucial feature of math instruction because it gives the necessary tools for all students, including ELs, whose challenge is to learn both language and content. It is a dynamic and contemplative teaching procedure in which teachers understand and employ collaborative processes using various manipulatives that result in students’ learning.

References

Aguirre, J. M., & del Rosario Zavala, M. (2013). Making culturally responsive mathematics teaching explicit: A lesson analysis tool. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 8(2), 163-190.

Arreaga-Mayer, C., & Perdomo-Rivera, C. (1996). Ecobehavioral analysis of instruction for at-risk language-minority students. The Elementary School Journal, 96(3), 245-258.

Celce-Murcia, M., Dörnyei, Z., & Thurrell, S. (1997). Direct approaches in L2 instruction: A turning point in communicative language teaching? TESOL Quarterly, 31(1), 141-152.

Chamot, A. U., Dale, M., O'Malley, J. M., & Spanos, G. A. (1992). Learning and problem solving strategies of ESL students. Bilingual Research Journal, 16(3-4), 1-28.

Francis, D. J., Rivera, M., Lesaux, N. K., Kieffer, M. J., & Rivera, H. (2006, October). Practical guidelines for the education of English language learners. In Presentation at LEP Partnership Meeting, Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://www. centeroninstruction.org

Franke, M. L., & Kazemi, E. (2001). Learning to teach mathematics: Focus on student thinking. Theory Into Practice, 40(2), 102-109.

Moschkovich, J. (2012). Mathematics, the Common Core, and language: Recommendations for mathematics instruction for ELs aligned with the Common Core. Commissioned Papers on Language and Literacy Issues in the Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards, 94, 17.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Commission on teaching standards for school mathematics. (1991). Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Nutta, J. W., Strebel, C., Mokhtari, K., Mihai, F. M., & Crevecoeur-Bryant, E. (2014). Educating English Learners: What Every Classroom Teacher Needs to Know. Harvard Education Press. Cambridge, MA 02138.

Rosenshine, B. V. (1986). Synthesis of research on explicit teaching. Educational Leadership, 43(7), 60-69.

Rupley, W. H., Blair, T. R., & Nichols, W. D. (2009). Effective reading instruction for struggling readers: The role of direct/explicit teaching. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 25(2-3), 125-138.