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vi Contents

Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language 27


Phonemes 27
Pitch 28
Stress 28
The Sound System as Written Language 28
Morphology: The Words of Language 29
Morphemes 29
Word-Formation Processes 30
Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of Language 31
Semantics: The Meanings of Language 32
Pragmatics: The Influence of Context 33
Language Functions 34
Appropriate Language 34
Conversational Rules 35
Nonverbal Communication 35
Body Language 36
Gestures 36
Facial Expressions 36
Eye Contact 37
Communicative Distance 37
Conceptions of Time 37
SUMMARY 38
LEARNING MORE 38
Thinking It Over 38
Web Search 38
Exploration 39
Try It in the Classroom 39

3 Learning about Second-Language Acquisition 40


Historical Theories of Language Teaching and Learning 41
Grammar-Translation Methodology 41
Structural Linguistics 42
Behaviorism 42
Current Theories of Language Development and Second-Language Acquisition 43
Transformational Grammar 44
Cognitive Approaches to Language Learning 44
Krashen’s Monitor Model 44
Cummins’s Theories of Bilingualism and Cognition 45
Learning Strategies and CALLA 47
Information-Processing Theories of Learning 50
Brain-Compatible Learning 51
Neurolinguistic Research about Brain Function 52
Constructivist Learning 52
Communicative Competence 53
The Social Context for Language Learning 54
Discourse Theory 55
Semiotics 55
Translanguaging 56

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Contents vii

SUMMARY 56
LEARNING MORE 57
Further Reading 57
Web Search 57
Exploration 57
Experiment 57

PART TWO Instruction 59


Oracy and Literacy for English-Language Development,
Content-Area Instruction, and Bilingual Education

4 Oracy and Literacy for English-Language Development 60


Critical Oracy and Literacy 61
English-Language Development Standards 62
State English-Language Development Standards 63
Integrating Language Skills 63
Listening 64
Listening to Repeat 65
Listening to Understand 66
Listening for Communication 67
Speaking 68
Situations for Spoken Discourse 68
Oral Language as an Integrated Skill 69
Improving Oral Proficiency 69
Vocabulary Development 71
Reading 72
Transferring Literacy from First to Second Languages 73
Students without Literacy in First or Second Languages 73
Balanced Literacy Instruction for English Learners 74
Approaches to Teaching Reading 77
Strategies for English Learners’ Literacy Instruction 79
The Three-Tier Model of Instruction 82
Writing 83
Texts and Contexts 83
The Writing Process 84
The Six Traits Approach 85
Writing in the Age of the Internet 85
Writing Poetry 86
Error Correction and Grammar in Oracy and Literacy Instruction 87
Treatment of Errors 87
Teaching Spelling 87
Treatment of Grammar 88
Oracy, Literacy, and Technology 88
Technology-Enhanced Language Learning 88
Learning Online 93
Upcoming Technologies 93

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viii Contents

SUMMARY 94
LEARNING MORE 95
Further Reading 95
Web Search 95
Exploration 95
Collaboration 95

5 Content-Area Instruction 96
Principles of Support for English Learners in Academic Content Areas 97
A Model for SDAIE 98
Teacher Attitude 100
Content 100
Connections 103
Comprehensibility 104
Interaction 106
Content-Area Application 108
Social Studies 109
Literature 111
Mathematics 113
Science 116
The Visual and Performing Arts 119
Physical Education 120
Instructional Needs beyond the Classroom 121
SUMMARY 122
LEARNING MORE 122
Further Reading 122
Web Search 122
Exploration 122
Discussion 122

6 Theories and Methods of Bilingual Education 123


Foundations of Bilingual Education 124
Historical Development of Bilingual Education 126
Legal Evolution 127
Educational Issues Involving Bilingual Education 131
Organizational Models: What Works for Whom? 136
Submersion 136
The Teaching of English-Language Development (ELD) 137
Transitional or Early-Exit Bilingual Education 138
Developmental or Maintenance Bilingual Education 138
Immersion Bilingual Education 140
Newcomer Centers 142
Research Studies on Program Effectiveness 143
Instructional Strategies 144
Language Management 144
Primary-Language Use 145
Code Switching 147
Classroom Organization 147

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Contents ix

SUMMARY 149
LEARNING MORE 149
Further Reading 149
Web Search 149
Exploration 150
Looking at Classrooms 150

PART THREE Assessment 151

7 Language and Content-Area Assessment 152


Educational Standards and Standardized Assessment 153
Advantages of Standards-Based Instruction for English Learners 153
Achievement Testing and No Child Left Behind 154
Disadvantages of Standards-Based Instruction for English Learners 155
Assessments under Common Core State Standards 156
Linking Assessment to Progress for English Learners 157
The English-Language Development (ELD) Framework 157
Linking Placement Tests to Language Development 157
Linking Standards-Based Classroom Instruction to Assessment 158
Purposes of Assessment 158
Formative versus Summative Assessment 159
Proficiency, Diagnostic, and Placement Tests 160
Achievement Tests 161
Competency Tests 162
Methods of Assessment 162
Linking Assessment to the Integrated Curriculum 162
Authentic Assessment 163
Performance-Based Assessment 163
Standardized Tests 165
Teacher Observation and Evaluation 166
Cautions about Testing 168
Reporting Assessment Results to Parents 168
Best Practices in Testing 169
Identification, Assessment, and Placement of English Learners
in the Schools 169
Identification Procedures for English Learners 169
Assessment for Placement 169
Redesignation/Exit Procedures 170
Limitations of Assessment 171
Problematic Test Content 171
Interpretation of Test Results 172
Technical Concepts 173
Validity 173
Reliability 173
Practicality 174
SUMMARY 174

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x Contents

LEARNING MORE 174


Further Reading 174
Web Search 175
Exploration 175
Experiment 175

PART FOUR Cultural Diversity in the United States 177


Cultural Diversity in the United States, Culturally Responsive Schooling, and the Role of
the Family in Schools

8 Cultural Diversity 178


Historical Perspectives 179
Contributions 180
Exploitation 185
The Impact of a Changing Population 186
Poverty among Minority Groups 186
The Education of Minorities 187
Immigration and Migration 189
Causes of Immigration 189
Migration 192
Immigration Laws and Policies 193
SUMMARY 195
LEARNING MORE 195
Further Reading 195
Web Search 196
Exploration 196
Collaboration 196

9 Culturally Responsive Schooling 197


Understanding Culture and Cultural Diversity 198
The Nature of Culture 199
Key Concepts about Culture 201
Investigating Ourselves as Cultural Beings 203
The Personal Dimension 203
Cultural Self-Study 204
Learning about Students’ Cultures 205
Ethnographic Techniques 205
How Cultural Adaptation Affects Learning 207
Striving for Equity in Schooling 209
Detecting Unfair Privilege 209
Fighting for Fairness and Equal Opportunity 210
Combating Prejudice in Ourselves and Others 211
Reducing Interethnic Conflict 214
Promote Achievement with Culturally Responsive Schooling 216
Respecting Students’ Diversity 216
Adapting to Students’ Culturally Supported Facilitating or Limiting Attitudes and Abilities 225
Sustaining High Expectations for All Students 229
SUMMARY 231

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Contents xi

LEARNING MORE 231


Further Reading 231
Web Search 231
Exploration 231
Collaboration 231

10 The Role of the Family in Schools 232


Marshaling Family and Community Support for Schooling 233
Comparing a Deficit-versus an Asset-Based Model of Home–School Connection 234
Ways That Schools and Families Can Be Mutually Supportive 235
Bilingual, Bicultural Home–School Partnerships 235
Different-Language Home–School Partnerships Requiring Intercultural Communication 237
Structuring Parent and Community Partnerships 240
Recognizing Parental Rights 240
Issues in Parental Participation 240
Programs in Action 241
School–Community Partnerships 243
SUMMARY 243
LEARNING MORE 244
Further Reading 244
Web Search 244
Exploration 244
Collaboration 244

PART FIVE Policy 245


Language Policy and Special Populations of English Learners

11 The Role of Educators in Language Policy 246


A Critical Approach to Language Policy 247
Tollefson: Power and Inequality in Language Education 248
Foucault: The Power of Discursive Practices 249
Fairclough: Critical Language Analysis 249
Bourdieu: Language as Social Capital 250
Cummins: Language Policies as Emancipatory 251
Language Policy: The Classroom 252
Educational Equity in Everyday Practices 252
The Policies Embodied in Teachers’ Plans 253
Policy at the School Level 253
The Cultural Climate of the School 253
Collaboration with Colleagues 254
School-Site Leadership 254
The Academic Ambiance of the School 255
Involving Parents/Families 255
Policy in Local School Districts and in the Community 256
Professional Growth and Service 256
The School Board 256
Community Support for English Learners 257
The Public Forum 257
Community Organizations 257

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xii Contents

State Commissions and Professional Organizations 258


The Voice of the Expert 259
Professional Leadership Roles 259
Legislation and Public Opinion 259
Opposing Linguicism 259
Influencing Federal Policies 260
Federal Funds for Innovation 260
Federal Legislation 260
The National Spirit 261
SUMMARY 262
LEARNING MORE 262
Further Reading 262
Web Search 262
Exploration 262
Collaboration 262

12 Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners and Special Education 263


Scenarios, Issues, and Principles in the Education of English Learners with Special Needs 264
Who Are CLD Learners with Special Needs? 264
Issues Underlying the Scenarios 266
Complexities and Vexities 266
The Disproportionate Representation of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children in
Special Education 267
Principles for the Education of CLD–Special Education Students 269
Identification, Referral, Early Intervention, and Assessment of Students Needing Additional
Mediation 269
The Referral Process: The Roles of the Classroom Teacher and the ELD Specialist 270
Academic and Learning Problems That CLD Learners May Experience 271
Similarities between Ethnic Language Variations and Learning Disability Symptoms 272
Early Intervention 272
Roles of Classroom Teachers and ELD Teachers during the Process of Determining
Eligibility for Additional Services 273
Testing for Special Education 273
The Descriptive Assessment Process 273
Family Support for Evaluation 274
Collaboration among ELD Resource Teachers and Special Educators 275
Definition and Principles of Collaboration 275
Collaboration among ELD Specialists, Mainstream Teachers, and Special Educators 275
Working with an Interpreter 276
Relationship of Continued ELD with Other Services 276
Teaching Strategies for the CLD Special Learner 276
Adapting Listening Tasks 277
Adapting Reading Tasks 277
Adapting Writing Tasks 278
Assistive Technology 279
Adapting Homework Tasks 279
Assessing Student Performance in the Mainstream Classroom 279
Methods of Assessing the Success of Included Students 280
Assessing Students’ Work 280
Testing Accommodations for Students with Disabilities 280
Using the Results of Assessment 281

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Contents xiii

Universal Design for Special Populations of English Learners 281


Universal Instructional Design 281
English Learners with Communication Challenges 282
Teaching Visually Impaired English Learners 282
Teaching English Learners with Hearing Impairments 283
Autism Spectrum Disorders 284
SUMMARY 285
LEARNING MORE 285
Further Reading 285
Web Search 285
Exploration 286
Experiment 286

References  287
Name Index  309
Subject Index  317

A01_DIAZ5204_07_SE_FM.indd 13 10/1/16 8:07 AM


Introduction

The presence of many linguistic and ethnic minority students in the United States has challenged
educators to rethink basic assumptions about schooling. In the past, school models and methods
were based on the notions that students shared the same cultural background and spoke the same
language. This assumption is no longer sufficient to meet the needs of today’s students. There is
an urgent need to provide a high-quality education for students in the United States whose native
language is not English and/or whose culture differs from that of the U.S. “mainstream.” This calls
for increased expertise on the part of classroom teachers, administrators, and community leaders.
Today’s students come from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. But the cultural pat-
terns of schools and classrooms may not ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to
succeed. Culture is a part of the educational process that has been invisible but that can no longer
remain so. By understanding the influence of culture, educators can avoid inadvertently advantag-
ing those students who share the dominant culture while neglecting those students whose cultures
differ from the mainstream. Culture includes more than the habits and beliefs of students and
teachers; the school itself is a culture in which the physical environment, daily routines, and inter-
actions advantage some and yet may alienate others. Educators now need a foundation of cultural
awareness and second-language acquisition theory to adapt schools to the needs of multicultural
and multilingual students.

New to this edition!


In this edition, classroom-ready strategies focus on the development of content-specific academic
literacy and oracy skills to prepare English learners for the demands of Common Core curricula and
assessments. This addresses the needs of millions of English learners nationwide who must develop
their English-language proficiency while they acquire the content knowledge needed to succeed in
today’s standards-based education environment.
Classroom glimpses present instructional techniques designed for English learners from pre-
school to high school. Key resources for educators seeking to promote academic success for cultur-
ally and linguistically diverse learners are the many features based on best practices that link culture
and language to school success. This edition explores ways to tie students’ cultures to teaching
techniques useful in both content areas and English-language development. A new look at bilingual
education explains the concept and instructional uses of translanguaging. Special education adap-
tations for English learners adds back-up support for teachers and administrators facing today’s
complex educational challenges.
For educators who reach out to the home and community, innovative applications of technol-
ogy such as mobile learning are featured that engage learners beyond school hours, including the
use of cell phones and hand-held devices to take learning to the “next step.” A unique approach
to community involvement highlights the role of the heritage language to motivate family support.
Instructional support for prospective and practicing teachers includes learning outcomes at the
beginning of each chapter to focus and guide the reader, as well as new Check Your Understanding
features aligned with the learning outcomes. A new Scenarios section at the end of each chapter
presents provocative discussion situations based on the concepts presented in the chapter. A Glos-
sary is available for each chapter to specifically define new concepts.
Please note that videos, Check Your Understanding activities, and other digital features are
only available with the Pearson eText, not through third-party ebooks. For more information on
purchasing or using the Pearson eText, please go to www.pearsonhighered.com.

xiv

A01_DIAZ5204_07_SE_FM.indd 14 10/1/16 8:07 AM


Acknowledgments

A book like this could not have been written without the help and support of numerous individuals.
The teachers and students with whom I have worked have given me insights and examples. My col-
leagues have shared their experiences and expertise. In addition to those who gave so much support
to previous editions, I would also like to thank those who have made this sixth edition a reality.
It goes without saying that I owe homage to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing
for their work in designing California’s CLAD credential and its revision, the CTEL authorization.
I want to thank the teacher education and TESOL master’s students at CSUSB as well as my
colleagues in TESOL and in the Department of Teacher Education and Foundations at CSUSB who
have enriched my understanding of the teaching–learning process as it relates to second-language
learners, and who have participated with me in research and curriculum development.
I am grateful also to those who provided helpful reviews of the manuscript for this edition:
Anaida Colon-Muniz, Chapman University; Stephanie A. Dhonau, University of Arkansas at Little
Rock; Cheryl McElvain, Santa Clara University; Nancy Vincent Montgomery, Southern Methodist
University; and Mary Amanda Stewart, Texas Women’s University.
To all those who have provided linguistic and cultural support not only to English learners but
also to those who have struggled to adapt to a new culture, I salute you. To the researchers and
authors who provided valuable insights into this process, my deepest thanks for your pioneering
efforts. Finally, I thank my editors Julie Peters and Drew Bennett, content producers Megan Moffo
and Miryam Chandler, and the rest of the Pearson editorial staff for their efforts in ­producing this
book.

xv

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Part One Learning
Learning about the Learner, Language Structure, and Second-
Language Acquisition

Part One represents learning the foundations of instruc- may influence groups of learners to react in similar ways to
tion: knowledge about the learner, about the structure of classroom instruction. Chapter 2 introduces language struc-
language, and about the process of acquiring a second lan- ture and functions. Chapter 3 offers insights from classic and
guage. Chapter 1 explores the learner, with a focus on the contemporary research in second-language acquisition and
psychological factors in language learning that make individual development, particularly in the context of the classroom.The
language learners unique, as well as the sociocultural factors accompanying figure highlights Part One of the theoretical
that situate the learner in the context of cultural patterns that model presented in the introduction.

Part Four:
Culture
• Cultural Diversity in the United States
• Culturally Responsive Schooling
• The Role of the Family in Schools

Part Two: Part One: Part Five:


Instruction Learning Policy
• Oracy and Literacy • Learning about • Language Policy
for English-Language the Language Learner • Special Populations
Development • Learning about of English Learners
• Content-Area Language Structure
Instruction • Learning about
• Bilingual Education Second-Language
Acquisition

Part Three:
Assessment

Theoretical Model for CLAD Learning: Learning about the Learner, Language Structure, and Second-Language Acquisition

M01A_DIAZ5204_07_SE_P01.indd 1 9/28/16 7:06 PM


1
Learning about the Language Learner
Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, you should be able to . . .
• Consider common misconceptions about teaching English learners.
• Survey demographic information about English learners in U.S. society as well as in public schools.
• Describe psychological factors that influence English learners as they acquire English and academic
content during schooling.
• Describe sociocultural factors that influence English learners as they acquire English and academic
content during schooling.

English learners comprise a growing proportion of school


children in the United States.

© Zurijeta/Shutterstock

M01B_DIAZ5204_07_SE_C01.indd 2 9/28/16 4:48 PM


Chapter 1 Learning about the Language Learner 3

Imagine experiencing the cultural shock of being in a new country, in a new culture, and not being able to speak the
language. That was the predicament that I found myself in when I first came to the United States from Colombia.
I was nervous and scared.When I was taking English classes at a local community college, the worst experience that
I had was when a classmate said, “You think that you’re good because everybody applauded you? You’re not! Your
English is awful.”
I could not believe what I heard. His words struck me like lightning in a thunderstorm. My reaction was plastered
on my face, and I couldn’t disguise it. Ms. Tjandra, my ESL teacher, noticed the devastated look on my face, and she
asked me,“Are you okay, Nelsy?” Tears filled my eyes. I said,“Ms.Tjandra, a classmate told me that my English was awful
and that people only applauded for me at my oral presentation because they felt pity for me.”
Ms. Tjandra, with a sweet and compassionate tone, said to me, “Nelsy, there is nothing wrong with your English.
Your English is fine. He is just jealous because you are smart and have a career. Don’t pay attention to him—he doesn’t
deserve your friendship. Keep studying English because you are going to be successful and get to places that he can
only dream of.” Her words of encouragement lifted my spirits. It was at that moment that I knew learning English was
not an option but a passport: to my freedom, to better opportunities, to a new life . . .
(Jackson, N. (2016). Personal Communication.)

With the help of her English-language development teachers, Nelsy Jackson acquired the English-
language academic preparation needed to become a certified teacher so she, in turn, can help others.
Learning a second language connects people across cultures, making it possible for immigrants to
achieve their dreams and aspirations. This crosscultural process enriches everyone.
Teachers in the United States are increasingly expected to educate students whose native
languages are not English and whose cultural backgrounds vary considerably from that of the
American mainstream culture. Although the teaching profession includes educators from minority
cultures in the United States as well as from other countries, the majority of the profession remains
the white, middle-class, usually monolingual teacher who can benefit from teacher education that
includes specialized methods and strategies for the effective education of culturally and linguisti-
cally diverse (CLD) students.
Moreover, research has documented the effectiveness of long-term primary-language educa-
tion. However, numerous classrooms contain students speaking various home languages. Thus
­English-language development (ELD) classrooms that require modified instruction in English
become increasingly important. Teachers with a strong interest in language acquisition and a sense
of compassion for the difficulties faced by CLD students are often the most successful in promoting
their academic success.

Common Beliefs about Teaching English Learners


Before beginning to explore the multiple factors that create complexity in teaching English learners,
it is important to address four key misconceptions (see Harper and de Jong, 2004).

Misconception 1: Exposure and Immersion Are the Answer


Many teachers believe that the mind of a child, left to its own resources, will automatically learn
a second language given enough time. This may stem from the parallel misconception that the
first language is learned easily. However, before reaching kindergarten a five–year-old child has
had more than 25,000 hours of family life in which to learn the primary language—but attend-
ing school for 180 days amounts to about 1,000 hours of English per year. Even if a second lan-
guage were learned like the first, this would be nowhere near an equivalent exposure to language.
Krashen’s (1985) insight is that exposure must be comprehensible; school, on the other hand, often
features abstract and decontextualized language. Thus, not only exposure, but special second-
language-teaching instruction is necessary.

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4 Chapter 1 Learning about the Language Learner

Misconception 2: One Size Fits All


Learners do not all progress at the same rate in acquiring English. Differing levels of literacy in the
first language as well as differing success in prior education, learning-style diversity, and differing
social skills are just a few of the ways in which learners vary.

Misconception 3: Specially Adapted Instruction in English Is


“Just Good Teaching”
Teachers may resist acquiring pedagogy designed to incorporate second-language-acquisition tech-
niques because they think they can simply use techniques that are tried-and-true for native speak-
ers of English—or they use remediation techniques designed for low-achieving students. In fact,
neither approach is justified. For example, English learners may need modified instruction just to
gain the confidence necessary for a minimal level of oral participation; silence does not indicate a
lack of understanding. Teaching English learners requires a specific set of skills that are addressed
in this book.

Misconception 4: Effective Instruction Means Nonverbal Teaching


Making instruction comprehensible by providing pictures and teaching using gestures are tech-
niques designed to enhance understanding when language must be augmented—but this does not
replace the need to teach language directly. Conceptual understanding and language are inter-
twined—one supports the other. The expert teacher takes responsibility for both.
Teaching in a second-language-acquisition context does not become simpler by reducing its
complexity, but rather by acquiring the teaching skills required to operate effectively. Misconcep-
tions undermine the motivation to learn how to succeed in a difficult teaching domain.
Schools, as institutions within a society, perform an important role in socializing students and
helping them gain the knowledge, skills, roles, and identities they need for success. Students who
enter school must develop a high level of English proficiency, and teachers are challenged to develop
students’ English skills during the K–12 period of schooling. The first part of this chapter presents
current demographic trends. The chapter then introduces factors that affect English learners and
offers ways for teachers to inform themselves about these learners’ needs.
Despite these misconceptions about English learners, a central fact stands out: English learners
face challenges in U.S. schools. Sustaining high achievement in a school system that represents a
new culture and a new language is not easy.

Video 1.1 As you watch this video, look at the faces of the students. Do these children look
like the English learners you might see in your local schools? After viewing, review the educa-
tional challenges presented in the video. Can you think of any other challenges to add to the list?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2ap4Q5uxGE

Check Your Understanding 1.1 Click here to check your understanding of this
section’s content.

English Learners: Demographic Trends


The profession of teaching has changed dramatically in the early twenty-first century; many more
classrooms contain English learners, students whose home language is not English and who are not
classified as fluent English proficient based on test scores and other criteria. By 2025, one in every
four students will initially be classified as an English learner. A quick overview of the demographics

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Chapter 1 Learning about the Language Learner 5

of English learners in the United States can help teachers to visualize the numbers of these learners
and their distribution in the schools.
In the school year 2012–2013, 9.2 percent (an estimated 4.4 million) of the school-age pop-
ulation over 5 years of age was limited-English proficient (LEP; National Center for ­Educational
Statistics, 2015a). This amounts to about 8.5 percent of all elementary and secondary students
in the United States (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). The District of Columbia and six
states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas) had 10 percent or more
English learners in their public schools. Leading the states, California has 22.3 percent, a total
of 1.392 million students (83.7 percent of whom were Spanish speaking); Texas was second,
with 773,732 students. Other states—Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, and W ­ ashington—
also had more than 100,000 English learners. The majority of English learners in the U.S.
were Spanish speaking (71 percent). Chinese (4 percent) and Vietnamese (3 percent) constitute
the second- and third-largest demographic groups of English learners (Ruiz Soto, Hooker, &
­Batalova, 2015).
Taking a closer look at the largest source of English learners, according to U.S. Census (2015b)
data, there are 55.5 million Hispanics in the U.S., comprising 17.4 percent of the total population.
Adding the 3.5 million residents of Puerto Rico, the total number of Latinos surpasses 59 million.
In the United States, 62 million residents—about one-fifth of the population—speak a language
other than English while at home (Boyle, 2014); of these, 62 percent (38.4 million) are Spanish-
speaking (in all, the U.S. Census Bureau reports the presence of 382 languages in the U.S.). Between
2000 and 2010, the Latino population increased by 43 percent (15.2 million), accounting for more
than half of the 27.3 million increase in the total population of the United States. In the coming
decades, Latinos will account for more than 60 percent of the national’s population growth between
2005 and 2050.
In today’s American public school system, Latinos are by far the largest minority group, num-
bering more than 12.4 million in the country’s elementary, middle, and high schools. In 2012,
nearly 24 percent, or slightly less than one in four, of all preK-12 students enrolled in U.S. public
schools were Latino; this is expected to rise to 29 percent in 2024 (National Center for Educational
Statistics, 2015b). There are 17.1 million Latinos ages 17 and younger in the U.S.; therefore as
they mature, their children will comprise a large group of students in the schools for many years
to come.
These population demographics indicate that all states need to provide services for English
learners, with the need greatest in California, New Mexico, New York, Florida, Illinois, and
Texas, serving Hispanics or Asian/Pacific Islanders. The linguistic and cultural variety of English
learners suggests that more and more teachers serve as intercultural and interlinguistic educators—
those who can reach out to learners from a variety of backgrounds and offer effective learning
experiences.

Check Your Understanding 1.2 Click here to check your understanding of this
section’s content.

Psychological Factors That Influence Instruction


Learners do not learn language in a vacuum. They learn it by interacting with others. Psychological
and sociocultural factors play important roles in a learner’s acquiring and using a second language.
Teachers who are aware of these individual (psychological) and group (sociocultural) factors are
able to adapt instruction to meet the individual needs of the learners so that each student can
achieve academic success. Figure 1.1 offers an outline that can help teachers organize the factors
they know about a given learner.
Psychological factors are traits specific to individuals that enable them to acquire a second
language (L2). Learners use the assets of their personalities to absorb the ambiance of the culture,
to process the language they hear, and to create meaningful responses. Psychological factors can

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6 Chapter 1 Learning about the Language Learner

Figure 1.1 English-Learner Profile

Psychological Factors
The Learner’s Background
Learner’s name ________________________________________________________________________ Age ______________ Gender (M / F)
Grade ____________ L1 proficiency ___________________________________________________________________________________
Type of bilingualism _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Previous L2 experience _____________________________________________________________________________________________
Assessed L2 level: Reading _________________ Writing _________________ Listening _________________ Speaking _________________
Prior academic success _______________________________________________________________________________________________
Likes/dislikes ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Social–Emotional Factors
Self-esteem ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Motivation ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Anxiety level __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Attitudes toward L1/L2 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Attitudes toward the teacher and the class __________________________________________________________________________________

Cognitive Factors
Stage of L2 acquisition ____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Cognitive style/Learning style ______________________________________________________________________________________________
Learning strategies _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sociocultural Factors
Family acculturation and use of L1 and L2 _______________________________________________________________________________________
Family values ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Institutional support for language-minority students ____________________________________________________________________________
Sociocultural support for L1 in the classroom environment ________________________________________________________________________

be divided into three categories: background factors, social–emotional factors, and cognitive fac-
tors. Teachers can help students be aware of those psychological factors that further their language
learning and can work with students to ensure that these factors promote rather than impede their
learning.

The Learner’s Background


Naming Practices and Forms of Address. A learner’s name represents the learner’s individual-
ity as well as a family connection. People feel validated if their names are treated with respect.
Teachers who make the effort to pronounce students’ names accurately communicate a sense of
caring. Students may be asked to speak their names into a tape recorder so the teacher can practice
privately. Expecting students to say their names again and again so the teacher can rehearse may
be embarrassing for both parties.
Naming practices differ across cultures. The custom in the United States is to have a first (or
given), middle, and last (or family) name. On lists, the first and last names are often reversed in
order to alphabetize the last names. In other parts of the world, naming practices differ. In Vietnam,
for example, names also consist of three parts, in the following order: family name, middle name,

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Chapter 1 Learning about the Language Learner 7

and given name. The names are always given in this order and cannot be reversed because doing so
would denote a different person—Nguyên Van Hai is different from Hai Van Nguyên. In Taiwan
the family name also goes first, followed by given names. Puerto Ricans, as well as other Hispanics,
generally use three names: a given name, followed by the father’s surname and then the mother’s
surname. If one last name must be used, it is generally the father’s surname. Thus, Esther Reyes
Mimosa can be listed as Esther Reyes. If the first name is composed of two given names (Hector
Luis), both are used. This person may have a brother who is Hector José; for either to be called
simply Hector would represent a loss of identity.
In many cultures, adults are referred to by their function rather than their name. In Hmong,
xib fwb means “teacher,” and Hmong children often use the English term teacher in the classroom
rather than a title plus surname, as in “Mrs. Jasko.” Middle-class European-American teachers
may consider this to be rude rather than realizing this is a cultural difference.
Osgood (2002) suggested ways to enlist native-English-speaking students to make friends with
newcomers: Challenge them to teach a new student their names and to learn the new student’s first
and last names, using recess, lunchtime, or free time to accomplish this task.

Adapted Instruction
Students’ Names
• Understand the use and order of names, and pronounce them correctly.
• Don’t change a student’s name, apply a nickname, or use an “English” version of a student’s name (even at the
student’s request) without first checking with a member of the student’s family.

Age. Second-language acquisition (SLA) is a complex process that occurs over a long period of
time. Although many people believe that children acquire a second language more rapidly than
adults, recent research counters this notion. Although it is true that the kind of instruction varies
greatly according to the age of the learner, there is little evidence to indicate that biology closes
the door to learning a second language at certain ages (see Singleton & Ryan [2004] and Han
[2004] for further discussion of age-related issues in SLA, as well as the Point/Counterpoint box
on page 8).

First-Language Proficiency. Research has shown that proficiency in the first language (L1) helps
students to achieve in school. To learn a student’s strengths in the first language, a teacher, primary-
language-speaking aide, or parent who is fluent in the language of the student may observe a student
working or playing in the primary language and take notes on the child’s language behavior, or
schools may rely on formal testing.
Acceptance of the first language and use of the first language to support instruction pro-
motes a low-anxiety environment for students. A lower anxiety level in turn promotes increased
learning.

Adapted Instruction
First-Language Proficiency
• Monitor students’ fluency in their primary languages and share concerns with parents if students appear to be
dysfluent in their home languages.
• In cooperative groups, allow use of the first language so that students can discuss concepts.

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8 Chapter 1 Learning about the Language Learner

Types of Bilingualism. Cummins (1979) analyzed the language characteristics of the children he
studied and suggested that the level of bilingualism attained is an important factor in educational
development. Limited bilingualism, or subtractive bilingualism, can occur when children’s first
language is gradually replaced by a more dominant and prestigious language. In this case, children
may develop relatively low levels of academic proficiency in both languages. The most positive
cognitive effects are experienced in proficient bilingualism, when students attain high levels of
proficiency in both languages. This is also called additive bilingualism.

Point Counterpoint

What Is the Best Age for Second-Language Acquisition?


For adults, learning a second language can be a frustrating and children has consistently demonstrated that adolescents and
difficult experience. In contrast, it seems so easy for children. adults outperform children in controlled language-learning
Is there a best age for learning a second language? studies (e.g., Snow & Hoefnagel-Hoehle, 1978). Adults have
access to more memory strategies; are, as a rule, more socially
POINT: Children Learn Second Languages Easily Those comfortable; and have greater experience with language in
who argue that a child can learn a second language more rap- general. The self-discipline, strategy use, prior knowledge,
idly than an adult generally ascribe this ability to the critical and metalinguistic ability of the older learner create a dis-
period hypothesis—that the brain has a language-­acquisition tinct advantage for the adult over the child in second-language
processor that functions best before puberty (Lenneberg, acquisition.
1967)—despite the fact that the critical period hypothesis has Marinova-Todd, Marshall, and Snow (2000) analyzed
not been proved. misconceptions about age and second-language learning and
Evidence from child second-language studies indicates that reached the following conclusions: “[O]lder learners have the
the language children speak is relatively simple compared to potential to learn second languages to a very high level and
that of adults; it has shorter constructions with fewer vocabu- introducing foreign languages to very young learners cannot be
lary words and thus appears more fluent. Moreover, adults are justified on grounds of biological readiness to learn languages”
often unaware that a child’s silence indicates lack of under- (p. 10). “Age does influence language learning, but primarily
standing or shyness, and they underestimate the limitations of because it is associated with social, psychological, educational,
a child’s second-language acquisition skills. One area that seems and other factors that can affect L2 proficiency, not because of
to be a clear advantage for children is phonology: The earlier a any critical period that limits the possibility of language learning
person begins to learn a second language, the closer the accent by adults” (p. 28).
will become to that of a native speaker (Oyama, 1976); age
of L2 learning appears to be the most important predictor of Implications for Teaching
degree of foreign accent (Piske, Mackay, & Fiege, 2001). Teachers need to be aware that learning a second language
is difficult for children as well as for adults. Helping children
COUNTERPOINT: Adults Learn Languages More to feel socially comfortable reduces their anxiety and assists
Skillfully Than Children Research comparing adults to acquisition.

Adapted Instruction
Promoting Additive Bilingualism
• Send home newsletters that feature articles by students in English as well as in English learners’ first languages.
• Make sure classroom or community libraries feature books in the home language and encourage students to
check out books in both languages.
• Welcome classroom visitors and volunteers who speak the home language, and ask them to speak to the class
about the importance of proficiency in two languages.

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Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
from an alcove in his direction. Before he could avoid her she spoke
to him.
However unwelcome the meeting might have been to Shelby—
and his face showed plainly that it was so—there could be no doubt
of Paquita’s eagerness to see him. As I looked at her I could only
wonder at the strangeness of life. She whom men had pursued and
had found elusive, even when they thought they had her captured,
was now herself in the anomalous rôle of pursuer. And the man
whom she pursued cared no more for her than she for those who
pursued her. Nay more, he was openly, hopelessly in love with
another woman, in every respect the antithesis of herself. Much as I
disliked Paquita’s type, though realizing her fascination as a study, I
could not help seeing the potential tragedy and pathos of the
situation.
She did not accuse or upbraid. On the contrary, she was using
every art of which she was a past mistress to fascinate and attract. I
did not need prompting from Kennedy to see the strange romance of
the situation. The little dancer was subtly matching all the charm and
all the knowledge of men and the world which she possessed
against the appeal that Winifred had made to a hitherto latent side of
Shelby’s nature. The struggle between the two women was no less
enthralling than the unraveling of the mystery of Marshall Maddox’s
death.
“By Heaven!” I heard Kennedy mutter under his breath, as we
watched Paquita and Shelby, “I wonder whether it is right to let
events take their course. Yes—it must be. If he cannot go through it
now, he’ll never be able to. Yes, Shelby Maddox must fight that out
for himself. He shall not ruin the life of Winifred Walcott.”
His remark set me thinking of the responsibility Craig had had
thrust on him. It was far more than merely running down the
murderer of Marshall Maddox, now.
Shelby himself evidently appreciated what faced him. I could see
that he was talking very bluntly and pointedly to her, almost rudely.
Now and then she flashed a glance at him which, with her flushed
face and the emotion expressed in her very being, could not have
failed only three days ago. Shelby seemed to feel it, and took refuge
in what looked to be an almost harshness of manner with her.
Kennedy jogged my arm and I followed his eyes. In the alcove
from which she had come I was not surprised to see Sanchez,
standing and looking at them. His dark eyes seemed riveted on the
man as though he hated him with a supernal hate. What would he
himself not have given to be where Shelby was? I wondered whether
his blinded eyes saw the truth about Shelby’s position. I doubted it,
for it was with difficulty that he restrained himself. Black and ominous
were the looks that he darted at the younger man. Indeed, I did not
envy him.
As I turned to say something to Kennedy I saw that Sanchez and
ourselves were not the only ones interested. Frances Maddox had
just come out of the dining room, had seen her brother and Paquita,
and had drawn back into the shadow of a doorway leading to the
porch, where she could see them better without being seen by them.
Yet she betrayed nothing of her feelings toward either.
Meanwhile Shelby had been getting more and more vehement as
he talked. I could not hear, but it was quite evident now that he was
repeating and enforcing the remarks he had made to Paquita the
night before during their secret stroll down the beach. And she,
instead of getting angry, as he no doubt hoped she would, was
keeping her temper and her control of herself in a most dangerous
manner.
There was so much to think about that it was not until now that I
noticed that the face we had seen in the alcove was gone. Sanchez
had disappeared. Had the thing been too much for him? Was it that
he could not trust himself to stay? At any rate, he was gone.
Just then Shelby turned on his heel, almost brutally, and
deliberately walked away. It was as though he felt it his only escape
from temptation.
Paquita took an involuntary step after him, then stopped short. I
followed her quick glance to see what it might be that had deterred
her. She had caught sight of Frances Walcott, whose interest had
betrayed her into letting the light stream through the doorway on her
face. Instantly Paquita covered the vexation that was on her face.
Least of all would she let this man’s sister see it. Consummate
actress that she was, she turned and walked across the lobby, and a
moment later was in gay conversation with another of her numerous
admirers. But it did not take an eye more trained than mine to see
the gaiety was forced, the animation of quite a different character
from that she had showed to Shelby.
“Of one thing we can be sure,” remarked Craig. “Miss Walcott will
hear all about this. I hope she hears the truth. I’m almost tempted to
tell her myself.” He paused, debating. “No,” he decided, finally, “the
time hasn’t come yet.”
Shelby had retreated to the porch, where now he was pacing up
and down, alone. As he came past the door his abstracted glance
fell with a start on his sister. He drew himself together and spoke to
her. Evidently he was debating whether she had seen anything, and,
if so, how much and how she had interpreted it. At any rate, he was
at pains to speak now, hoping that she might carry a message which
he dared not send. What was going on in their minds I could not
guess, but to outward appearance they were more like brother and
sister than I had seen them ever before.
They parted finally and Shelby continued his measured tread
about the porch, as though trying to make up his mind on a course of
action. For about a quarter of an hour he walked, then, his face set in
determined lines, entered the Lodge and went deliberately over to a
florist’s stand. There, oblivious to anything else, he selected the
handsomest bunch of violets on the stand. He was about to drop his
card into their fragrant and reconciling depths when he paused,
replaced the card in his case, and directed the man to deliver them
anonymously. There was no need for us to inquire where they were
sent.
Still oblivious to the gay life of the Lodge and Casino, he strode
out into the night and down to the dock, paying no attention to
Craig’s student as he passed. He stepped into the tender which was
still waiting and we saw him head straight for the Sybarite. Ten
minutes later the lights in the main saloon flashed up. Shelby was
evidently at work over some problem, wrestling it out himself. Was it
his relations with Winifred or his stock-market schemes—or both?
“Well, I’ve been looking all over for you. Where have you been?”
sounded Burke’s voice back of us, as Kennedy and I were silently
looking out over the dark waters at the yacht.
Without waiting for us to reply Burke hurried on. “You remember
that operator, Steel, that was here from Seaville?”
“Yes,” encouraged Kennedy. “What of him?”
“He went back to the station and has done his trick. He has just
crossed over again with a message to me. That wireless power,
whatever it is, is jamming the air again. I thought you’d like to know
of it.”
For just a second Kennedy looked at Burke in silence, then
without further inquiry turned and almost ran down the length of the
dock to the float at the end.
There Watkins had already set up on the float a large affair which
looked for all the world like a mortar. We watched as Craig fussed
with it to make sure that everything was all right. Meanwhile the
student continued adjusting something else that had been let down
over the edge of the float into the water. It seemed to be a peculiar
disk, heavy and suspended by a stout wire which allowed it to be
submerged eight or ten feet.
“What’s this thing?” inquired Burke, looking at the mortar over
which Craig was bending. “Fireworks, or are you going to bombard
somebody?”
“It’s a light-weight rocket mortar,” explained Kennedy, ramming
something into it. “You’ll see in a moment. Stand back, all of you—off
the float—on the dock.”
Suddenly there came a deep detonation from the mortar and a
rocket shot out and up in a long, low parabola. Kennedy rushed
forward, and another detonation sent a second far out in a different
angle.
“What is it?” gasped Burke, in amazement.
“Look!” called Kennedy, elated.
Another instant, and from every quarter of the harbor there
seemed to rise, as if from the waves, huge balls of fire, a brilliant and
luminous series of flames literally from the water itself. It was a
moonless night but these fires seemed literally to roll back the
Cimmerian darkness.
“A recent invention,” explained Craig, “light-bombs, for use at
night against torpedo-boat and aeroplane attacks.”
“Light-bombs!” Burke repeated.
“Yes, made of phosphide of calcium. The mortar hurls them out,
and they are so constructed that they float after a short plunge in the
water. You see, the action of the salt water automatically ignites them
merely by contact and the chemical action of the phosphide and the
salt water keeps them phosphorescing for several minutes.”
As he talked he shot off some more.
“Kennedy, you’re a genius,” gasped Burke. “You’re always ready
for anything.”
The sight before us was indeed a beautiful pyrotechnic display.
The bombs lighted up the shores and the low-lying hills, making
everything stand forth and cast long spectral shadows. Cottages
hidden among trees or in coves along the wide sweep of the shore
line stood out as if in an unearthly flare.
What people on the shore thought we had no time even to
wonder. They crowded out on the porches, in consternation. The
music at the Casino stopped. No one had ever seen anything like it
before. It was fire on water!
As yet none of us had even an inkling of what it was that Kennedy
expected to discover. But every craft in the harbor now stood out
distinct—in the glare of a miniature sun. We could see that, naturally,
excitement on the boats was greater than it was on shore, for they
were closer to the flares and therefore it seemed more amazing.
Craig was scanning the water carefully, seeking any sign of
something suspicious.
“There it is!” he exclaimed, bending forward and pointing.
We strained our eyes. A mile or two out I could distinguish a
power-boat of good size, moving swiftly away, as though trying to
round the shelter of a point of land, out of the light. With a glass
some one made out a stubby wireless mast on her.
Kennedy’s surmise when we had first studied the wireless
interference had proved correct.
Sure enough, in the blackness of the night, there was a fast
express cruiser, of the new scout type, not large, almost possible for
one man to control, the latest thing in small power-boats and a
perfect demon for speed!
Was that the source of the strange wireless impulses? Whose
was it, and why was it there?
XXI

THE SUBMARINE EAR


Almost before we knew it the speed demon had disappeared
beyond the circle of the flares.
“Suspiciously near the Sybarite,” remarked Kennedy, under his
breath, watching the scout cruiser to the last moment as she ran
away.
I wondered whether he meant that the swift little motor-boat might
have some connection with Shelby Maddox and his new activities,
but I said nothing, for Kennedy’s attention was riveted on the wake
left by the boat. I looked, too, and could have sworn that there was
something moving in the opposite direction to that taken by the boat.
What could it be?
On the end of the dock was an incandescent lamp. Craig
unscrewed the bulb and inserted another connection in the bulb
socket, an insulated cable that led down to the apparatus on the float
over which his assistant was still working.
By this time quite a crowd had collected on the dock, and on the
float, watching us.
“Burke,” ordered Kennedy, “will you and Jameson make the
people stand back? We can’t do anything with so many around.”
As we pressed the new-comers back I saw that among them was
Paquita. Though I looked, I could not discover Sanchez, but thought
nothing of it, for there were so many about that it would have been
hard to find any particular person.
“If you will please stand back,” I implored, trying to keep the
curious from almost swamping the float, “you will all be able to see
what is going on just as well and, besides, it will be a great deal safer
—providing there is an explosion,” I added as a happy afterthought,
although I had almost as vague an idea what Kennedy was up to as
any of them.
The words had the effect I intended. The crowd gave way, not
only willing, but almost in panic.
As they pressed back, however, Paquita pressed forward until she
was standing beside me.
“Is—Mr. Maddox—out there?” she asked, pointing out at the
Sybarite anxiously.
“Why?” I demanded, hoping in her anxiety to catch her off guard.
She shot a quick glance at me. There was no denying that the
woman was clever and quick of perception.
“Oh, I just wondered,” she murmured. “I wanted to see him, so
much—that is all. And it’s very urgent.”
She glanced about, as though hoping to discover some means of
communicating with the yacht, even of getting out to it. But there did
not seem to be any offered.
I determined to watch her, and for that reason did not insist that
she get back as far as the rest of the crowd. All the time I saw that
she was looking constantly out at the Sybarite. Did she know
something about Shelby Maddox that we did not know? I wondered
if, indeed, there might be some valid reason why she should get out
there. What did she suspect?
Again she came forward, inquiring whether there was not some
way of communicating with the Sybarite, and again, when I tried to
question her, she refused to give me any satisfaction. However, I
could not help noticing that in spite of the cold manner in which
Shelby had treated her, she seemed now to be actuated more by the
most intense fear for him than by any malice against him.
What it meant I had the greatest curiosity to know, especially
when I noticed that Paquita was glancing nervously about as though
in great fear that some one might be present and see her. Nor did
she seem to be deterred from showing her feelings by the fact that
she knew that I, Kennedy’s closest friend, was watching and would
undoubtedly report to him. It was as though she had abandoned
discretion and cast fear to the winds.
As the minutes passed and nothing happened, Paquita became a
trifle calmer and managed to take refuge in the crowd.
I took the opportunity again to run my eye over them. Nowhere in
the crowd could I discover Winifred, or, in fact, any of the Maddox
family. They seemed to be studiously avoiding appearance in public
just now, and I could not blame them, for in a summer colony like
that at Westport facts never troubled gossipers.
“What do you suppose Kennedy is afraid of?” whispered Hastings
in my ear, nervously. “Your friend is positively uncanny, and I can
almost feel that he fears something.”
“I’m sure I don’t know,” I confessed, “but I’ve seen enough of him
to be sure that no one is going to catch him napping. Here’s Riley.
Perhaps he has some news.”
The Secret Service operative had shouldered his way through the
throng, looking for Burke, who was right behind me.
“What’s the matter,” demanded his chief.
“There’s another message, by telephone from the Seaville
Station,” Riley reported. “They say they are having the same trouble
again—only more of it.”
“That operator, Steel, came back again,” considered Burke.
“Where is he?”
“As soon as I got the message, I hunted him up and took the
liberty of sending him up to Mr. Kennedy’s room to look at that
arrangement there. I couldn’t make anything out of it myself, I knew,
and I thought that he could.”
“Did he?” inquired Burke.
“Yes. Of course he hadn’t seen it work before. But I told him as
nearly as I could what you had told me, and it didn’t take him very
long to catch on to the thing. After that he said that what was being
recorded now must be just the same as it had been before when Mr.
Kennedy was there—not messages, but just impulses.”
“Where is he—down here?”
“No, I left him up there. I thought it might be best to have some
one there. Did you want to speak to him? There’s a telephone down
here in the boat-house up to the switchboard at the Lodge.”
Riley jerked his thumb back over his shoulder at a little shelter
built on the end of the dock.
“N-no,” considered Burke. “I wouldn’t know what to tell him.”
“But I think you ought to tell Kennedy that,” I interrupted. “He
might know what to do.”
Together Riley and I walked across the float to where Craig was
at work, and briefly I told him what had happened.
He looked grave, but did not pause in his adjustment of the
machine, whatever it was.
“That’s all right,” he approved. “Yes, get the operator on the wire.
Tell him to stay up there. And—yes—tell him to detach that
phonograph recording device and go back to straight wireless. He
might try to wake up the operator on the Sybarite, if he can. I guess
he must know the call. Have him do that and then have that
telephone girl keep the line clear and connected from the boat-house
up to my room. I want to keep in touch with Steel.”
Riley and I pushed through the crowd and finally managed to
deliver Kennedy’s message, in spite of the excitement at the Lodge,
which had extended by this time to the switchboard operator. I left
Riley in the boat-house to hold the wire up to our room, and rejoined
Burke and Hastings on the float.
Kennedy had been working with redoubled energy, now that the
light bombs had gone out after serving their purpose. We stood apart
now as he made a final inspection of the apparatus which he and his
assistant had installed.
Finally Craig pressed down a key which seemed to close a circuit
including the connection in the electric-light socket and the
arrangement that had been let over the edge of the float. Standing
where we were we could feel a sort of dull metallic vibration under
our feet, as it were.
“What are you doing?” inquired Hastings, looking curiously at a
headgear which Kennedy had over his ears.
“It works!” exclaimed Craig, more to Watkins than to us.
“What does?” persisted Hastings.
“This Fessenden oscillator,” he cried, apparently for the first time
recognizing that Hastings had been addressing him.
“What is it?” we asked crowding about. “What does it do?”
“It’s a system for the employment of sound for submarine signals,”
he explained, hurriedly. “I am using it to detect moving objects in the
water—under the water, perhaps. It’s really a submarine ear.”
In our excitement we could only watch him in wonder.
“People don’t realize the great advance that has been made in the
use of water instead of air as a medium for transmitting sounds,” he
continued, after a pause, during which he seemed to be listening,
observing a stop watch, and figuring rapidly on a piece of paper, all
at once. “I can’t stop to explain this apparatus, but, roughly, it is
composed of a ring magnet, a copper tube which lies in an air gap of
a magnetic field, and a stationary central armature. The magnetic
field is much stronger than that in an ordinary dynamo of this size.”
Again he listened, as he pressed the key, and we felt the peculiar
vibration, while he figured on the paper.
“The copper tube,” he resumed mechanically to us, though his
real attention was on something else, “has an alternating current
induced in it. It is attached to solid disks of steel, which in turn are
attached to a steel diaphragm an inch thick. Surrounding the
oscillator is a large watertight drum.”
“Then it makes use of sound-waves in the water?” queried
Hastings, almost incredulously.
“Exactly,” returned Craig. “I use the same instrument for sending
and receiving—only I’m not doing any real sending. You see, like the
ordinary electric motor, it is capable of acting as a generator, too and
a very efficient one. All I have to do is to throw a switch in one
direction when I want to telegraph or telephone under water, and in
the other direction when I want to listen.”
“Talking through water!” exclaimed Burke, awestruck by the very
idea, as though it were scarcely believable.
“That’s not exactly what I’m doing now,” returned Kennedy,
indulgently, “although I could do it if there was any one around this
part of the country equipped to receive and reply. I rather suspect,
though, that whoever it is is not only not equipped, but wouldn’t want
to reply, anyhow.”
“Then what are you doing?” asked Burke, rather mystified.
“Well, you see I can send out signals and listen for their reflection
—really the echo under water. More than that, I can get the sounds
direct from any source that is making them. If there was a big
steamer out there I could hear her engines and propellers, even if I
couldn’t see her around the point. Light travels in straight lines, but
you can get sounds around a corner, as it were.”
“Oh,” I exclaimed, “I think I see. Even if that little scout cruiser did
disappear around the point, you can still hear her through the water.
Is that it?”
“Partly,” nodded Kennedy. “You know, sound travels through water
at a velocity of about four thousand feet a second. For instance, I
find I can get an echo from somewhere practically instantaneously.
That’s the bottom of the bay—here. Another echo comes back to me
in about a twentieth of a second. That, I take it, is reflected from the
sea wall on the shore, back of us, at high tide. It must be roughly a
hundred feet—you see, that corresponds. It is a matter of
calculation.”
“Is that all?” I prompted, as he paused again.
“No, I’ve located the echo from the Sybarite and some others.
But,” he added slowly, “there’s one I can’t account for. There’s a
sound that is coming to me direct from somewhere. I can’t just place
it, for there isn’t a moving craft visible and it doesn’t give the same
note as that little cruiser. It’s sharper. Just now I tried to send out my
own impulses in the hope of getting an echo from it, and I
succeeded. The echo comes back to me in something more than five
seconds. You see, that would make twenty thousand-odd feet. Half
of that would be nearly two miles, and that roughly corresponds with
the position where we saw the scout cruiser at first, before it fled.
There’s something out there.”
“Then I was right,” I exclaimed excitedly. “I thought I saw
something in the wake of the cruiser.”
Kennedy shook his head gravely. “I’m afraid you were,” he
muttered. “There’s something there, all right. That wireless operator
is up in our room and you have a wire from the boathouse to him?”
“Yes,” I returned. “Riley’s holding it open.”
Anxiously Kennedy listened again in silence, as though to verify
some growing suspicion. What was it he heard?
Quickly he pulled the headgear off and before I knew it had
clapped it on my own head.
“Tell me what it sounds like,” he asked, tensely.
I listened eagerly, though I was no electrical or mechanical
engineer, and such things were usually to me a sealed book. Still, I
was able to describe a peculiar metallic throbbing.
“Record the time for the echo from it,” ordered Kennedy, thrusting
the stop watch into my hands. “Press it the instant you hear the
return sound after I push down the key. I want to be sure of it and
eliminate my own personal equation from the calculation. Are you
ready?”
I nodded and an instant later, as he noted the time, I heard
through the oscillator the peculiar vibration I had felt when the key
was depressed. On the qui vive I waited for the return echo. Sure
enough, there it was and I mechanically registered it on the watch.
“Five and thirty-hundredths seconds,” muttered Kennedy. “I had
five and thirty-five hundredths. It’s coming nearer—you hear the
sound direct again?”
I did, just a trifle more distinctly, and I said so.
Confirmed in his own judgment, Craig hastily turned to the
student. “Run up there to the boat-house,” he directed. “Have Riley
call that wireless operator on the telephone and tell him to get the
Sybarite on the wireless—if he hasn’t done it already. Then have him
tell them not to try to move the yacht under any circumstance—but
for God’s sake to get off it themselves—as quick as they can!”
“What’s the matter?” I asked, breathlessly. “What was that
humming in the oscillator?”
“The wireless destroyer—the telautomaton model—has been
launched full at the Sybarite,” Craig exclaimed. “You remember it
was large enough, even if it was only a model, to destroy a good-
sized craft if it carried a charge of high explosive. It has been
launched and is being directed from that fast cruiser back of the
point.”
We looked at one another aghast. What could we do? There was
a sickening feeling of helplessness in the face of this new terror of
the seas.
“It—it has really been launched?” cried an agitated voice of a girl
behind us.
Paquita had pushed her way altogether through the crowd while
we were engrossed in listening through the submarine ear. She had
heard what Kennedy had just said and now stood before us, staring
wildly.
“Oh,” she cried, frantically clasping her hands, “isn’t there
anything—anything that can stop it—that can save him?”
She was not acting now. There could be no doubt of the
genuineness of her anxiety, nor of whom the “him” meant. I
wondered whether she might have been directly or indirectly
responsible, whether she was not now repentant for whatever part
she had played. At least she must be, as far as Shelby Maddox was
involved. Then I recollected the black looks that Sanchez had given
Shelby earlier in the evening. Was jealousy playing a part as well as
cupidity?
Kennedy had been busy, while the rest of us had been standing
stunned. Suddenly another light-bomb ricocheted over the water.
“Keep on sending them, one by one,” he ordered the student, who
had returned. “We’ll need all the light we can get.”
Over the shadowy waves we could now see the fine line of foam
left by the destroyer as it shot ahead swiftly.
Events were now moving faster than I can tell them. Kennedy
glanced about. On the opposite side of the float some one of the
visitors from the cottages to the dance at the Casino had left a trim
hardwood speedboat. Without waiting to inquire whose it was, Craig
leaped into it and spun the engine.
“The submarine ear has warned us,” he shouted, beckoning to
Burke and myself. “Even if we cannot save the yacht, we may save
their lives! Come on!”
We were off in an instant and the race was on—one of the most
exciting I have ever been in—a race between this speedy motor-boat
and a telautomatic torpedo to see which might get to the yacht first.
Though we knew that the telautomaton had had such a start before it
was discovered that we could not beat it, still there was always the
hope that its mechanism might slow down or break down.
Failing to get there first, there was always a chance of our being
in at the rescue.
In the penetrating light of the flare-bombs, as we approached
closer the spot in which Watkins was now dropping them regularly,
we could see the telautomaton, speeding ahead on its mission of
death, its wake like the path of a great man-eating fish. What would
happen if it struck I could well imagine.
Each of us did what he could to speed the motor. For this was a
race with the most terrible engine yet devised by American inventive
genius.
XXII

THE TELAUTOMATON
Devilishly, while the light-bombs flared, the telautomaton sped
relentlessly toward its mark.
We strained our eyes at the Sybarite. Would they never awake to
their danger? Was the wireless operator asleep or off duty? Would
our own operator be unable to warn them in time?
Then we looked back to the deadly new weapon of modern war
science. Nothing now could stop it.
Kennedy was putting every inch of speed into the boat which he
had commandeered.
“As a race it’s hopeless,” he gritted, bending ahead over the
wheel as if the boat were a thing that could be urged on. “What they
are doing is to use the Hertzian waves to actuate relays on the
torpedo. The wireless carries impulses so tuned that they release
power carried by the machine itself. The thing that has kept the
telautomaton back while wireless telegraphy has gone ahead so fast
is that in wireless we have been able to discard coherers and relays
and use detectors and microphones in their places. But in
telautomatics you have to keep the coherer. That has been the
barrier. The coherer until recently has been spasmodic, until we got
the mercury steel disk coherer—and now this one. See how she
works—if only it could be working for us instead of against us!”
On sped the destroyer. It was now only a matter of seconds when
it would be directed squarely at the yacht. In our excitement we
shouted, forgetting that it was of no use, that they would neither hear
nor, most likely, know what it was we meant.
Paquita’s words rang in my ears. Was there nothing that could be
done?
Just then we saw a sailor rush frantically and haul in a boat that
was fastened to a boom extending from the yacht’s side.
Then another and another ran toward the first. They had realized
at last our warning was intended for them. The deck was now alive
and faintly over the water we could hear them shouting in frantic
excitement, as they worked to escape destruction coming at them
now at express train speed.
Suddenly there came a spurt of water, a cloud of spray, like a
geyser rising from the harbor. The Sybarite seemed to be lifted
bodily out of the water and broken. Then she fell back and settled,
bow foremost, heeling over, as she sank down to the mud and ooze
of the bottom. The water closed over her and she was gone, nothing
left but fragments of spars and woodwork which had been flung far
and wide.
Through my mind ran the terrible details I had read of ships
torpedoed without warning and the death and destruction of
passengers. At least there were no women and children to add to
this horror.
Kennedy slowed down his engine as we approached the floating
wreckage, for there was not only the danger of our own frail little
craft hitting something and losing rudder or propeller, but we could
not tell what moment we might run across some of those on the
yacht, if any had survived.
Other boats had followed us by this time, and we bent all our
energies to the search, for pursuit of the scout cruiser was useless.
There was not a craft in the harbor capable of overtaking one of her
type, even in daylight. At night she was doubly safe from pursuit.
There was only one thing that we might accomplish—rescue.
Would we be in time, would we be able to find Shelby? As my mind
worked automatically over the entire swift succession of events of
the past few days I recalled every moment we had been observing
him, every action. I actually hated myself now for the unspoken
suspicion of him that I had entertained. I could see that, though
Kennedy had been able to promise him nothing openly, he had in
reality been working in Shelby’s real interests.
There flashed through my mind a picture of Winifred. And at the
same time the thought of what this all meant to her brought to me
forcibly the events of the night before. One attack after another had
been leveled against us, starting with the following and shooting at
Hastings at our very laboratory door. Burke had been attacked. Then
had come the attack on Kennedy, which had miscarried and struck
me. Death had been leveled even at Mito, as though he had
possessed some great secret. Next had come the attempted
abduction of Winifred Walcott. And at last it had culminated in the
most spectacular attack of all, on Shelby himself.
Try as I could by a process of elimination, I was unable to fix the
guilt on any one in particular, even yet. Fixing guilt, however, was not
what was needed now.
We had come into the area of the floating debris, and the
possibility of saving life was all that need concern us. In the darkness
I could make out cries, but they were hard to locate.
We groped about, trying hard to cover as much area as possible,
but at the same time fearful of defeating our own purposes by
striking some one with bow or propeller of our speed boat. Every
now and then a piece of the wreckage would float by and we would
scan it anxiously in mingled fear and hope that it would assume a
human form as it became more clearly outlined. Each time that we
failed we resumed the search with desperate determination.
“Look!” cried Burke, pointing at a wooden skylight that seemed to
have been lifted from the deck and cast but into the waves, the glass
broken, but the frame nearly intact. “What’s that on it?”
Kennedy swung the boat to port and we came alongside the dark,
bobbing object.
It was the body of a man.
With a boat-hook Craig hauled the thing nearer and we leaned
over the side and together pulled the limp form into our boat.
As we laid him on some cushions on the flooring, our boat drifted
clear and swung around so that the flare shone in his face. He stirred
and groaned, but did not relax the grip of his fingers still clenched
after we had torn them loose from the skylight grating.
It was Shelby Maddox—terribly wounded, but alive.
Others of the crew were floating about, and we set to work to get
them, now aided by the volunteer fleet that had followed us out.
When it was all over we found that all had been accounted for so far,
except the engineer and one sailor.
Just at present we had only one thought in mind. Shelby Maddox
must be saved, and to be saved he must be rushed where there was
medical assistance.
Shouting orders to those who had come up to continue the
search, Kennedy headed back toward the town of Westport.
The nearest landing was the town dock at the foot of the main
street, and toward this Craig steered.
There was no emergency hospital, but one of the bystanders
volunteered to fetch a doctor, and it was not long before Shelby was
receiving the attention he needed so badly.
He had been badly cut about the head by flying glass, and the
explosion had injured him internally, how serious could not be
determined, although two of his ribs had been broken. Only his iron
will and athletic training had saved him, for he was weak, not only
from the loss of blood, but from water which he had been unable to
avoid swallowing.
The doctor shook his head gravely over him, but something had
to be done, even though it was painful to move him. He could not lie
there in an open boat.
Kennedy settled the matter quickly. From a tenant who lived over
a store near the waterfront he found where a delivery wagon could
be borrowed. Using a pair of long oars and some canvas, we
improvised a stretcher which we slung from the top of the wagon and
so managed to transport Shelby to the Harbor House, avoiding the

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