Helen Shaw

BIEDL5338 Summer 2016

Project #2 / Wiki #4

Project 2: Transfer Activity

Prompt: After learning about the elements of literacy that transfer from the L1 to the L2, design
an activity to facilitate the students transfer or bridging of a language or reading objective from
the L1 to the L2. (Individual)
This is a literacy activity that can be tied in to a social studies classroom, specifically, a
lesson on representative governments and elections. After learning the material in the L1, this
activity would help bridge those concepts to English. It is important to note that at this point, the
students should already have a grasp on the concepts, and now they are transferring those skills to
the L2 doing so may reinforce those concepts, but the point of this activity is not to teach the
concepts, but to transfer them.
Please note, that as I do not speak Spanish, I have chosen the L1 in this activity as
Portuguese, but it could work with any language.
The Activity
After completing a lesson on democracy and other types of governments, this activity will help
students transfer their knowledge to the L1:

The teacher creates a vocabulary list of the most important terms that students need to know
in English in order to discuss this subject, such as government, democracy, elections, citizens
rights, etc. Depending on how many vocabulary words there are, students divide into pairs or
small groups, so each group has one vocabulary word.

Groups stand together in a big circle. One by one, the teacher asks each group to read aloud
their word, and then asks the group members what they think that word means. For example,
the group with the word Democracy would likely guess that their word means democraca.

Helen Shaw
BIEDL5338 Summer 2016
Project #2 / Wiki #4
The teacher consults the rest of the class, to see if they are in agreement, and then the word is
put onto a vocabulary chart.

In addition to discussing what the word means, the teacher should also ask the student how
they knew what it meant. Some students may know because the words are cognates for
example election and eleio. However, other groups may know because their English
word is related to another English word they know for example polling station is related
to poll, and students may have previously participated in polls for class, giving them an idea
of the meaning of the word.

After all the words have been defined and discussed, the teacher can proceed to either a
discussion of the topic in English, or some other English-only activity to cement the use of
those words in English.