| This study grew out of a need for improved second language learning and more effective language teaching for hearing English-language learners at the middle level of education. The major benefit of this project was that newly-arrived immigrant children, many of whom had difficulty learning in an English-language school system, were given the opportunity to participate in an innovative instructional strategy resulting in statistically significant improved English-language learning.; The 8-week research study measured the effect of sign language cues in addition to the usual ELL instructional program. All students were pretested using the Language Assessment Battery prior to initiation of the research, and determined to be in the preproduction phase of language. The researcher combined gestural and oral cues in a multimodal approach to language learning to tap the physical, kinesthetic, and visual abilities of the population under investigation in order to increase communicative effectiveness of the ELLs without diminishing their facility in the use of their native language. The single case (N = 4) A–B experimental design across multiple baselines was the protocol used by the investigator to draw valid conclusions about effectiveness of treatment. The children participated in a story telling activity over a 55-day period using traditional ELL methodology in Phase A and integrating signs in Phase B.; Using an Information-Bits and Preferred Language Scale Score and repeated measures of analysis of variance, post-testing revealed a statistically significant increase in communicative competence for those children participating in the sign language treatment program. Additionally, qualitative data collected via videotapes of storytelling and retellings, teachers' reflections, and focus groups substantiated the following conclusions: (a) the experimental program was a more effective instructional approach to language acquisition for hearing ELLs than standard language teaching strategies; (b) learning accelerates when sign language cues were used as a teacher-directed sensorimotor strategy; (c) a continuous/diagnostic feedback model for instructing and testing ELLs developed as a result of staff's the staff's work.; The investigator, a principal of a middle school enrolling ELL students, attributes the success of the study to the multisensory aspect of the storytelling/sign activities, and the use of applied research through collaborative processes. |
