ELL Resources

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.