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Key Principles and Additional Teaching Strategies for English Language Learners 3–5

You may have students who are English language learners in your classroom. Some of these students may be new to English, having just emigrated from another country where English is not the primary language, and others may have started learning English in kindergarten and first grade. Whether the English language learners have just started learning English or have developed some proficiency in English, they have unique needs from native English speakers.

To help you meet their needs, you’ll find suggestions for each standard at the end of the “What the Teacher Does” pages. Here, I supplement these instructional ideas with additional background, the stages of language acquisition, and the implications for differentiated scaffolding that will be most effective.

Focus on Acquisition

The students in our grades 3–5 classrooms, both native-English-speaking students and English language learners (ELLs), are learning language. In many respects they are remarkably the same in their quest and language acquisition. Both groups of children are rapidly developing their vocabularies, using language to communicate, and learning about academic language and formal English.

However, there is a difference between native-English-speaking students and ELLs. ELLs are acquiring a second language when they learn English at school; they already have their primary language, with which they communicate at home and in the community. Thus, many of these children are fluent in their first language, an important point to remember so that our mindset as teachers isn’t that all these kids are struggling learners overall.

We learn language through two processes. One process is called acquisition, and the other process is called language learning. Language acquisition is “picking up” a language. Language learning is what we experience when we take a class in a foreign language.

In our classrooms, we want to focus on the natural process of “picking up” a language. Thus, for both native-English-speaking students and ELL students, this book is filled with strategies and lessons to teach the standards through natural, motivating, and supportive teaching.

Consider the Five Stages

To understand the best ways to help your ELLs and to differentiate instruction based on their language acquisition needs, it is important to understand that not all children learning English need the same scaffolds, the same types of instruction, or the same performance tasks. What they need depends on which stage of language acquisition they are in. While people don’t fit into boxes and language learning is a fluid process, it truly helps to understand the five stages of language acquisition and assess where your students are so you can tailor instruction based on their language needs. These five stages, as described in the following chart on page xxviii, are preproduction, early production, speech emergence, intermediate fluency, and advanced fluency (Haynes & Zacarian, 2010; Krashen, 1982/2009, 2003; Krashen & Terrell, 1983).

It is also important to note that students acquire language in a natural order (Krashen, 1982/2009, 2003; Peregoy & Boyle, 1997). The key idea behind this natural order idea is that students won’t learn English in the order that you teach it but, rather, in the natural way that the brain learns language. In other words, you can’t force students to learn a grammar rule by teaching it explicitly, but you can ensure students acquire English rapidly by providing engaging, language-rich, supportive, culturally respectful, and meaningful classroom experiences in English (Akhavan, 2006; Hoover & Patton, 2005).

Understand the Needs of Long-Term ELLs

The general amount of time it takes to become proficient in a second language is about four to seven years; for some students it takes longer (up to 10 years) and for others, they never reach proficiency (Hakuta, 2000). Students who enter upper grades, middle school, and high school having started learning English in kindergarten or first grade—but not reaching proficiency—are considered long-term English learners. Long-term English learners comprise those students who are designated as still learning English after five or more years of enrollment in U.S. schools (Callahan, 2005). It is important to understand the different needs of the students in your classroom learning English. If a student has been learning English for more than five years and is not making progress in English proficiency, he needs continued support and scaffolded language and content lessons. Often, it is hard to discern that these students are not making progress in language acquisition because they may speak English well. Speaking English well, and having good interpersonal communication skills, doesn’t mean that the student has academic language skills.

Offer Collaborative Activities

To support language acquisition, it is important to provide learning activities that encourage ELLs to work together with native English speakers to give them opportunities to talk, think, read, and write in English. It is also important to take into consideration the prior knowledge of the ELLs and preview, or frontload, information, ideas, and activities with them in small groups before they join the whole group for a lesson in English. This frontloading in small-group discussion gives ELLs the opportunity to develop knowledge about a subject, discuss the topic in a “safe” setting where they can question, and even use their primary language to discuss the lesson so that they have a foundation before receiving the main lesson in English.

Check the Clarity of Your Lessons

Making your lessons understandable to ELLs is the most important thing you can do to help these students be successful in your classroom. Making “input” comprehensible will help your students participate in lessons, help them understand what is going on in the classroom, and encourage them to speak in English, as appropriate (Krashen, 2003). You need to provide comprehensible lessons that scaffold the language learner. Scaffolds can include pictures, objects, media from the Internet, and other realia, as they powerfully contextualize what you are saying, making it comprehensible and concrete.

Speak Clearly and at an Appropriate Pace

It also helps to slow down your speech rate and to repeat what you are saying to give students learning English “clues” about what you are teaching and time to process. This is not only true for students new to English; it is also true for students who seem to be proficient because they can speak well in English but who may not have yet developed academic language.

Attune Your Teaching and Learning Expectations to the Stages of Language Acquisition

Language-appropriate, culturally relevant instruction and instruction with high expectations for learning can support students as they learn English. The following chart explains the five stages of language acquisition and highlights learner characteristics at each stage. You can best support language acquisition by matching your expectations for student production and interaction in English with the stages that your students are in as evidenced by their oral and written work.

Unfortunately, many students remain in the Intermediate and Early Advanced stages for their entire school careers, never reaching full English proficiency. These students are considered long-term English learners and struggle in content-area classes. This is why it is so important to know and understand the five stages of language acquisition so you can differentiate instruction based on students’ needs.

The Five Stages of Language Acquisition: What to Expect of Students

Source: Contributed by Nancy Akhavan.

References

Akhavan, N. (2006). Help! My kids don’t all speak English: How to set up a language workshop in your linguistically diverse classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Callahan, R. M. (2005). Tracking and high school English learners: Limiting opportunity to learn. American Educational Research Journal, 42(2), 305–328. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/200368076?accountid=10349.

Hakuta, K. (2000). How long does it take English learners to attain proficiency? Berkeley: University of California Linguistic Minority Research Institute. Retrieved from http://escholarship.org/uc/item/13w7m06g.

Haynes, J., & Zacarian, D. (2010). Teaching English language learners: Across the content areas. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Hoover, J., & Patton, J. (2005). Differentiating curriculum and instruction for English-language learners with special needs. Intervention in School and Clinic, 40(4), 231–235.

Krashen, S. D. (1982/2009). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Retrieved from http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/books/principles_and_practice.pdf.

Krashen, S. (2003). Explorations in language acquisition and use: The Taipei lectures. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Krashen, S. D., & Terrell, D. (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. Hayward, CA: Alemany Press.

Peregoy, S. F., & Boyle O. F. (1997). Reading, writing and learning in ESL: A resource book for K–12 teachers (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Longman.