Developing Interpretive Communication:
Guiding Learners
to the Next Level of Performance
Paul Sandrock
[email protected]
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Interpretive Communication: Learners understand, interpret,
and analyze what is heard, read, or viewed on a variety of topics
• Source: heard, read, or viewed
• One-way communication: no opportunity to
–
interact with the initiator of the communication;
–
interaction is only with the “text”
• Purpose: discover new information or ideas;
–
build on prior knowledge or thoughts;
–
affirm or change ideas;
–
imagine, enjoy, experience
Source: Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century
Interpretive Communication
Is NOT
Is
Translation
Context-driven understanding
(getting the gist)
Hunt for trivial details
Whole picture; mediating
meaning with the text;
a focused task
Familiar words in new context;
and new words in a familiar
context (authentic)
Glossed readings; teaching
all new vocabulary first
Reading, listening, or viewing Use the author’s perspective
and cultural perspectives
from the “reader’s”
perspective only
Reading word-for-word
Re-phrasing chunks; re-telling;
predicting; structural clues
Listeners & Readers
Listeners & Readers Bring to the
Interpretation Task…
•
•
•
•
Their knowledge of the target language
Their background knowledge & world experiences
Their knowledge of how discourse is organized
Their ability to hold information in short-term
memory
• Their ability to use a variety of strategies to help
them arrive at meaning
(adapted from Shrum & Glisan, 2010, p. 183)
From: Eileen Glisan – ACTFL Webinar - 2012
Interpretive Strategies
Overarching question: What does the author (speaker,
producer) want you to understand?
• Don’t have students read out loud as a
comprehension strategy (it is only pronunciation
practice; and only for the person reading)
• Work in pairs collaboratively to make meaning
• Reveal the sentence or question in a flow (guide
their reading)
• Use simple response to signal comprehension
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Interpretive Performance
Novice
1. Identifies main
ideas
Intermediate
Advanced
1. Comprehends
1. Comprehends main
main ideas and
ideas and
identifies some key
supporting details
supporting details
2. Benefits from
2. Benefits from
familiar contexts
predictable order
and visual
and familiar
support of text
contexts
2. Comprehends
narrative,
descriptive, and
some persuasive
texts
3. Comprehends by 3. Predicts meaning
recognizing key
from context
words/phrases
3. Creates inferences
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NCSSFL - ACTFL Can - Do Statements
Bridging
performance
and proficiency
http://www.actfl.org/publications/all
Sample Interpretive Assessments
Targeting
 Explain the author’s (speaker’s, director’s)
Intermediate-High
perspective on the subject matter, drawing on what
is known about the target culture
Targeting
 From a list of statements, identify logical and
Intermediate-Mid
illogical inferences, explaining the choice made
Targeting
 Make a list of the key ideas, and highlight where
Intermediate-Low
they are found in a reading
 Give details that support the main idea of a short
story
 Use context clues to predict the meaning of words
or phrases in a reading
Targeting
Novice-High
 Tell the main idea or purpose of a news article
 Identify from a list of logical key ideas those
actually found in a short story
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Consider the learners in your STARTALK program:
Reflect on how your STARTALK learners will
demonstrate performance for Interpretive communication
Describe one way learners will demonstrate
“Meets Expectations” in the Interpretive mode for your
program
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Challenges for Literacy & Common Core
• Balance of Informational and Literary Texts
• Close Reading of Increasingly Complex Texts
• Use of Evidence-Based Arguments
• Interaction with Multiple Print, Auditory,
and Visual Sources
Alignment Document:
www.actfl.org/commoncore
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Interpretive: Graphic Organizer
Supporting
Detail #1
Key Detail
Supporting
Detail #2
Main Idea
Key Detail
Supporting
Detail
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Magnet Summaries
Students use this strategy to identify key words.
Then, students use those key words to write a summary.
Pluto
Sun
does not orbit
planet
dwarf planet
astronomers
Astronomers decided
that Pluto is no longer a
Planet because it does
not orbit around the
Sun. It is now a dwarf
Planet.
Doug Buehl, 2001
Cited in ACTFL Webinar – Laura Terrill
Activity for Interpretive Mode
Grade 3 – Fruit
How (performance task)
Degree of targeted control
Describe what students will do (conceptual, partial or full)
 Students will read a letter
 Identifying fruit names –
from Susana describing her
full control
daily routine
 Identifying descriptions
 While reading, students will
of fruits – partial control
highlight the fruit names
 Illustrating schedule –
and/or descriptions
partial/full control
 After reading, students will
illustrate Susana’s schedule
with a focus on the fruits
From: Dorie Conlon Perugini,
Glastonbury, CT
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For Susana’s class, she had to make a schedule of the
fruits she likes to eat throughout the day. Here is what she
came up with. As you read her schedule, underline the
names of the fruits and circle the adjectives she uses to
describe the fruits.
A las ocho de la mañana, como tostada con tomate. A las
diez de la mañana, como un plátano maduro con mi clase.
A las dos de la tarde, como una naranja jugosa después
del almuerzo. A las cinco de la tarde, como una manzana
roja con la merienda. A las nueve de la noche, como una
sandía con la postre después de cenar.
From: Dorie Conlon Perugini,
Glastonbury, CT
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On each clock, draw the time that Susana eats a fruit.
Next to each clock, draw a picture of the fruit Susana
eats at that time.
La hora
La fruta
From: Dorie Conlon Perugini,
Glastonbury, CT
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Focused on Interpretive Communication?
Assessing more than vocabulary and grammar?
Interpretive
Look at (or listen to) information from three different
host families in Egypt, to find out as much as you can:
Where they live, how many children they have, what
activities they like to do, etc.
Then decide which family you would prefer to
host you and list as many reasons as possible to
explain why.
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Assessing Interpretive Communication
What can you find out
about the family?
Where do they live?
Do they live in a house, apartment,
condo, something else?
How many people live together as
the family? Who are they?
What activities do they like to do?
What else can you do during
homestay with this family?
Letter from
Eissa Family
Letter from
Mizrahi
Family
Letter from
El Nabawy
Family
How will such assessments impact our teaching?
• Model how to interpret what is read, heard, or viewed
• Engage students in practicing these strategies
• Have students identify or check off what strategies
they use to interpret meaning
• Include these strategies in the way students are
assessed in the Interpretive mode (not just simple
comprehension or factual questions)
Developing Interpretive Communication Skills
1. Integrate authentic texts into instruction on a regular
basis
2. Provide opportunities for students to explore an
authentic text in order to glean either the main idea or
specific details (skimming or scanning), but without
having to demonstrate an understanding of the entire
text
3. Prepare students for the task by activating their
background knowledge and engaging them in
anticipating the main idea of what they will listen
to/read/view
Source: ACTFL Integrated Performance Assessment, 2003
Developing Interpretive Communication Skills
in the Classroom
4. Provide students with strategies for comprehending
authentic printed texts such as:
•
using contextual clues
•
using word families as clues to figuring out the
meaning of new words
•
identifying key words that provide meaning clues
•
using titles and visuals that appear with the text as
clues to meaning Source: ACTFL Integrated Performance Assessment, 2003
Developing Interpretive Communication Skills
in the Classroom
5. Provide students with strategies for comprehending
authentic oral texts such as:
•
listening to the segment a number of times--each time
for additional information
•
pausing the tape recorded segment to give time for
recalling what was heard
•
listening for key words only
Source: ACTFL Integrated Performance Assessment, 2003
Developing Interpretive Communication Skills
in the Classroom
6. Use interpretive tasks as the basis for interpersonal and
presentational communication
7. Design interpretive activities that include pair and group
collaboration
8. Assist students in moving from literal comprehension (key
word, main idea and supporting detail detection) to
interpretive comprehension (word and concept inferences,
author/cultural perspectives, organizational principles of
the text)
Source: ACTFL Integrated Performance Assessment, 2003
Designing Your Interpretive Task
What is your prompt to the “text”?
(How will you focus learners as they read, hear, or
view)?
What should students know after reading, (listening
to, viewing) the text? (Determine what is essential)
How will you elicit what learners understand?
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