Group items tagged

Considerations when instructing ELLs in vocabulary Vocabulary development is one of the greatest challenges to reading instruction for ELLs, because in order to read fluently and comprehend what is written, students need to use not just phonics, but context. It is possible for students to read completely phonetically and not comprehend what they have read because they do not have the vocabulary. Therefore, vocabulary needs to be taught explicitly and be a part of the daily curriculum in addition to learning to read. This can be done through class time devoted strictly to English as a Second Language (ESL) or English Language Development (ELD). Scientific research on vocabulary development demonstrates that children learn the majority of their vocabulary indirectly in the following three ways:

Through conversations, mostly with adults; Listening to adults read to them; and Reading extensively on their own (CIERA, 2001). This finding has serious consequences for ELLs, whose parents and other adults in their lives are often not fluent in English. It is therefore extremely important for educators of ELLs to know and incorporate the ways that students learn vocabulary directly, including: explicitly teaching vocabulary words before students read a text, how to use dictionaries, how to use prefixes and suffixes to decipher word meanings, and how to use context clues (CIERA, 2001).

In the discussion of literacy development for ELLs, it is useful to consider a theory that distinguishes the language proficiency needed for everyday, face-to-face communication (BICS, for Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills) from the proficiency needed to comprehend and manipulate language in the decontextualized educational setting (CALP, for Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) (Cummins, 1992). The BICS/CALP distinction highlights the fact that some aspects of language proficiency are considerably more relevant for students' cognitive and academic progress than are the surface manifestations commonly focused on by educators. Additionally, in terms of vocabulary development, it highlights the fact that an ELL student may have the vocabulary to hold a conversation about weekend activities, but might not have the vocabulary to comprehend a science or social studies text.