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mleung

The Stages of Second Language Acquisition - 2 views

www.ascd.org/...cond-Language-Acquisition.aspx

shared by mleung on 14 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • It is important that you tie instruction for each student to his or her particular stage of language acquisition. Knowing this information about each student allows you to work within his or her zone of proximal development—that gap between what students can do on their own and what they can with the help of more knowledgeable individuals (Vygotsky, 1978).
  • Research shows that high levels of student engagement are "a robust predictor of student achievement and behavior in school" (Klem & Connell, 2004, p. 262). One way for mainstream teachers to engage their ELLs more is by asking tiered questions. We recommend that teachers ask frequent questions throughout their lessons, as doing so lets ELLs practice their new language and helps teachers assess how much of the content the ELLs understand. Of course, questions should be tailored to each ELL's level of second language acquisition.
  • By knowing the stages of language acquisition and stage-appropriate questions, you can engage students at the correct level of discourse. Asking the tiered questions that accompany the stages of acquisition is one way to help students move to the next stage. To ensure that the student is being challenged and pushed to the next level, it is important to once in a while ask questions from the next level as well.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Stage  Characteristics  Approximate Time Frame  Teacher Prompts  Preproduction  The student Has minimal comprehension. Does not verbalize. Nods "Yes" and "No." Draws and points.   0–6 months  Show me … Circle the … Where is …? Who has …?   Early Production  The student Has limited comprehension Produces one- or two-word responses. Uses key words and familiar phrases. Uses present-tense verbs.   6 months–1 year  Yes/no questions Either/or questions Who …? What …? How many …?   Speech Emergence  The student Has good comprehension. Can produce simple sentences. Makes grammar and pronunciation errors. Frequently misunderstands jokes.   1–3 years  Why …? How …? Explain … Questions requiring phrase or short-sentence answers   Intermediate Fluency  The student Has excellent comprehension. Makes few grammatical errors.   3–5 years  What would happen if …? Why do you think …? Questions requiring more than a sentence response   Advanced Fluency  The student has a near-native level of speech.  5–7 years  Decide if … Retell …
  • For Early Production students, questions that require a one-word response, such as yes/no and either/or questions, are acceptable. You also want to begin asking students at this stage questions that require a phrase or short sentence. Speech Emergence students should be asked to answer questions that require a short-sentence response. It is OK to sometimes ask these students questions requiring a multiple-sentence response, but it is not OK to ask them questions requiring a pointing or one-word response. How about Intermediate and Advanced Fluency students? It is OK to ask them questions that require a lot of verbal output, but it is not OK to ask them questions requiring minimal verbal output.
  • Do not mistake an ELL's limited output for an inability to think abstractly. It's easy to keep asking Preproduction students yes/no questions or have them respond by pointing, but the students must do more than simply recall knowledge. We can't have ELLs stuck at the lowest levels of thinking.
  • mleung on 14 Oct 11
     
    Chapter 2: Language Acquisition and Tiered Questions, a great strategy.
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