Prepared by Dr. Pier De Paola, May 6
2012, semi-retired school superintendent, designer of several ESL/ELL Schools,
educational consultant
This is a handy
tool to assist ESL/ELL teachers who are new to the challenges of motivating learners,
either children or adults, to acquire English Language Proficiency. I use the
standard ESL (English as a Seconf Language) and English Language Learner (ELL)
rather than seven or eight other terms now in common currency. Teachers need
not only focus on the English ability level of the learner but also on the
learner’s age in the life cycle. The older the learners, the more developed are
their fund of cultural, social, spiritual, economic and academic skills. The
teacher needs to harness the fund of skills, beliefs and insights that the
learner brings to the learning community. Teachers are reminded of the need to
ensure that there is strong Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills(BICS) in
English since this is the basis for the group activities that are indispensible
for sharing and reinforcing individual learning. As James Cummins has pointed
out, although BICS is indispensible to get the language acquisition process
started, teachers must close the gap between the learners’ native language and
English proficiencies in the Cognitive Academic Language Proficiencies (CALP)
of students. This means that teachers must have clear goals and objectives
toward ensuring that the student uses his or her native academic abilities in
both English well as the language of origin.
The next four
articles deal with more specific aspects of ESL/ELL: Part 2 deals with ESL/ELL
for teachers who have native Chinese learners. Part 3 deals with ESL/ELL
strategies using my adaptations of John Howard’s Multiple Intelligences Model.
Part 4 deals with ESL/ELL Vocabulary Acquisition Strategies and part 5 deals
with various unique ESL/ELL note-taking strategies and memory aids. All these articles may be copied and recycled
without permission. I appreciate emails and comments as to their
usefulness for teachers or school officials of ESL/ELL students!
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STAGES
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LEARNER TRAITS
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TIME SPANS
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BASIC TEACHER DAILY PROMPTS
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At each stage the teacher nudges the
learner toward the next stage:
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Learner traits are subject to age of
the learner since older learners bring their cognitive and academic
preferences to bear on their English Language challenges.
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Personal efforts and study skills can
help shorten each stage in the process.
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The teacher needs to ensure that
students are active participants rather than passive spectators. The teacher
must find ways to tap into the fund of knowledge that students bring with
them. Routines must be organized in a way that ensures maximum student
involvement and group level participation. Homework, graphic organizers and daily feedback are
indispensible strategies for ensuring maximum language acquisition.
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Pre-Production;
Youth under 10 have limited cognitive
mastery in native tongue.
Teens (11-19) bring greater
cognitive/academic skills to all ESL/ELL tasks. Tap these skills
Adults have strong academic, cultural
& cognitive preferences that they want to apply to all ESL/ELL tasks
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·
Has no or
minimal ESL/ELL comprehension
·
Does not
verbalize but sensitive to teacher or class mate acceptance
·
Listens to
torrents of words & sounds
·
Nods ‘Yes’ and
‘No’
·
Draw and point
responses when asked
·
Attempts to use
native language as a start point for decoding sounds and words
·
Eventually
speaks a few words at a time
·
Best if not
rushed into response
·
Needs
silence/think time between teacher question and student response
·
Seeks support
and encouragement via non-verbal cues and activities
·
Seeks clear,
simple direction and patient scaffolding by teacher
·
Seeks non-verbal
and verbal positive immediate feedback
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0 – 6
months
*Auditory discrimination is the major
challenge!!
*Promote Individual Effort, teamwork,
sharing, dialogue
*See Hwk strategies
*See Personal Dictionary &
Thesaurus
*Note-Taking strategies
*See Cooperative Learn- ing Group Roles
*Multiple Intelligences Chart linked to
Stages
***Emphasis on BICS & Basic Vocabulary
Building
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·
Kinaesthetic
Activities: Do as i do...; Greetings routines; line up tallest to shortest,
month of birth
·
Hands-on
Activities: Use realia, act out a song(ie-foot in, foot out)
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Demonstrate and
talk basic steps (ie: cooking rice)
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Cut out, draw
based on Word acquisition theme
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Show me... Point to... Circle the... Where is...? Who has...?
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Verbal/Non-Verbal
short skits to reinforce basic Interpersonal communication Skills (BICS)
·
Graphic
organizers: K-W-L Format, Venn Diagram, Attribute Charts (color, Size, Shape,
Function)
·
Cooperative
learning groups (3 –5 Students); ensure heterogeneous skill Stages
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Visual/nouns in
context of a theme: create Personal Dictionary; Charts on a theme
·
Hear, speak,
read, write 24x for mastery: Ensure maximum student involvement
·
Use MULTIPLE
INTELLIGENCE and Word-MES Formula
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Spelling Bee
from a list of BICS and basic CALP words
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Major BICS
Word/Noun themes: Greetings, Family, Body, Seasons & weather, Days &
Months, Tell time, Basic Math (+, -), Local home, town & environment,
School & teacher Commands, basic routines
·
Teachers need to
have students experience all four modes of communication actively: Listen,
Speak, Read, Write at BICS Level: Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills
·
Teach specific
vocabulary and ensure words, especially nouns, ae used in content contexts.
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Early Production
Student’s native language creates oral,
speaking, reading and writing challenges, especially if native language does
not have many cognates linked to English. All romance languages share a
Latin/Greek cognate base which is lacking for native Chinese or Arabic
speakers.
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·
Has limited English
comprehension
·
Produces one or
two word responses
·
If confident
will take chances as long as encouraged and not shamed
·
Participates
using key words and familiar phrases
·
Seeks teacher
support during attempts to take chances
·
Uses
present-tense verbs
·
Responds well to
teacher modelling and cooperative group activities
·
Seeks quick
feedback
·
If native
language lacks cognates linked to English, the student has greater difficulty
in acquiring vocabulary.
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6 months
– 1 year
*Promote Individual Effort, teamwork,
sharing, dialogue
*See Hwk strategies
*See Personal Dictionary &
Thesaurus
*Note-Taking strategies
*See Cooperative Learn- ing Group Roles
*Multiple Intelligences Chart linked to
Stages
*Move from BICS to CALP
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·
Model only
correct response
·
Yes/No Questions
·
1 or 2 word
answers
·
Lists on a
theme, charts & Labels with academic content
·
Cloze sentences
·
Match pictures
to words. Make first use of simple analogies for teen and adult learners
·
Syntax surgery
during teachable moments
·
Make physical
models of: house, map
·
Cooperative
learning groups (3 – 5)
·
Pictures on a
topic/theme are increasingly collated and labelled by student
·
Use MULTIPLE
INTELLIGENCE and Word-MES Formula
·
Graphic
organizers: K-W-L Format, Venn Diagram, Attribute Charts (color, Size, Shape,
Function)
·
Annual
School/Public Presentation by group: Science Fair, research on a theme
·
Spelling Bee
from a list of CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) words
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Speech Emergence
Ensure accumulation of short memorized
rhymes, poems, songs & story passages so as to promote better diction,
cadence and tone in oral communications.
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·
Has good English
comprehension
·
Can produce
simple sentences
·
Makes grammar
and pronunciation errors
·
Receptive to
teachable grammar & pronunciation moments
·
Can concert
nouns to verbs and vice versa if encouraged
·
Responds well to
language acquisition related to academic topic of high personal interest
·
English language
learners are equally strong in an academic area similar to that in their
native language; also, academic weakness is same in native and English
acquisition
·
Frequently
misunderstands jokes
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1 – 3
years
*Promote Individual Effort, teamwork,
sharing, dialogue
*See Hwk strategies
*See Personal Dictionary &
Thesaurus
*Note-Taking strategies
*See Cooperative Learn- ing Group Roles
*Multiple Intelligences Chart linked to
Stages
*See from BICS to CALP
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·
Tell me about... Why...? How...? Explain...
·
Expand sentence
with “because...”. “if, then...”
·
Phrase or
short-sentence answers
·
Use some synonyms
and antonyms as substitutes
·
Expose them to
coordinating conjunctions (“and”, “but”, “or”) in compound sentences
·
Cooperative
learning groups (3 – 5)
·
Phrases in
picture contexts
·
Use MULTIPLE
INTELLIGENCE and Word-MES Formula
·
Graphic
organizers: K-W-L Format, Venn Diagram, Attribute Charts (color, Size, Shape,
Function)
·
Simple
demonstrations: “how to....”
·
Host & MC:
Annual School/Public Presentation by group: Science Fair, research on a theme
·
Spelling Bee
from a list of CALP words
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Intermediate Fluency
*CALP (Cognitive and Academic Language
Proficiency) and note-taking skills begin to take precedence.
*Teacher must tap into learner’s major
academic and hobby interests.
*Teen and adults need forums to present
learning
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·
Has excellent
comprehension
·
Makes few
grammatical errors
·
Seeks
opportunities to have skills and interests in one language transferred to
that of another language
·
Academic and
content areas of personal interests are needed to keep student motivated at higher skill development levels.
·
Most have
confidence in preparing and doing presentations.
·
Responds well
with cooperative learning opportunities
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3 – 5
years
*Promote Individual Effort, teamwork,
sharing, dialogue
*See Hwk strategies
*See Personal Dictionary &
Thesaurus
*Note-Taking strategies
*See Cooperative Learn- ing Group Roles
*Multiple Intelligences Chart linked to
Stages
*See from BICS to CALP
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·
Short sentence
production
·
What would
happen if...?
·
Why do you
think...?
·
Ask others to
add to statements
·
Academic concept
development
·
Cooperative
learning groups (3 – 5)
·
Summarize short
narrative OR factual articles
·
Use MULTIPLE
INTELLIGENCE and Word-MES Formula
·
Graphic
organizers: K-W-L Format, Venn Diagram, Attribute Charts (color, Size, Shape,
Function)
·
Increase CALP
emphasis across academic areas
·
Familiarize
students with idioms, metaphors, similies etc
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Advanced Fluency
*Teen and adults need forums to produce
texts and objects of value to a community of learners and the public.
Learners present their learning and
respond to critics and the public
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·
Has a
near-native level of speech
·
Seeks forums and
opportunities to share skills in areas of interest
·
Needs higher
level cognitive skill development
·
Most inquisitive
in areas of interest
·
Some are eager
to lead, organize or MC public Assemblies, activities, competitions
·
Can play with
language, repairs own mistakes
·
If has a sense
of humour, learner can tell more sophisticated jokes or anecdotes
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5 – 7
years
*Promote Individual Effort, teamwork,
sharing, dialogue
*See Homework strategies
*See Personal Dictionary &
Thesaurus
*Note-Taking strategies
*See Cooperative Learn- ing Group Roles
*Multiple Intelligences Chart linked to
Stages
*See from BICS to CALP
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·
Present
arguments, opinions with concrete examples
·
Critique, debate
or write about topics that involve taking a stand
·
Re-tell,
summarize various types of texts: narrative, factual, scientific etc
·
Demonstrate
ability to edit one’s own texts and presentations
·
Correct and
substitute words
·
Promote use and
de-coding of idioms
·
Cooperative
learning groups (3 – 5)
·
Use MULTIPLE
INTELLIGENCE and Word-MES Formula
·
Graphic
organizers: K-W-L Format, Venn Diagram, Attribute Charts (color, Size, Shape,
Function)
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Adapted from Krashen & Terrell (1983). The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition
in the Classroom . Cummins (1984). Bilingualism and Special Education. Marzano, Pickering & Pollock (2001). Classroom Instruction that Works. Vygosky
(1978). Mind and Society. and
others.
