Effective Strategies for Teaching ELLs

1. Teaching Strategies for ELLs Janet L. Pierce ESL Teacher, ELL Coordinator Franklin Regional School District IUP Doctoral Student, Composition & TESOL (ABD) 1

2. Origin of Chosen Strategies • 19 years personal experience as an ESL teacher • Research from seminars, workshops, reading-TESOL, 1997; PDE 2002-2008; Indiana University of PA 2004-2008 • Workshop for FRSD staff 2006 • McREL workshop with Jan Hill, March 5, 2008 2

3. Things to Consider: • You need to know the ELL’s English proficiency level • You need to know how to align Stages of Second Language Acquisition to Bloom’s Taxonomy • You need to understand how to break down a lesson to teach language of your content area 3

4. English Proficiency levels • Terminology- pre-emergent, emergent, basic, developing, expanding, bridging. • Expectations for each level • How to consider language functions • How to provide activities for each level 4

5. Beginning English language learners: • The Pre-emergent ELLs have no English and can make few or no responses. This is the pre-production stage of language acquisition. • The Emergent ELLs have just begun to be aware of letters of the alphabet and sounds and may recognize a few isolated words, universal symbols, gestures. This is the early production stage. • The Basic ELLs understand simple speech spoken slowly, with repetition, formal patterns, sight words and common phrases. This is the speech emergence stage. 5

6. Beginning level ELLs: • Pre-emergent • Silent period, followed by imitation speech. • They construct meaning from: non-print items, such as pictures, graphs, maps and tables. • Teacher prompts: Show me, circle the, Where is, Who has. • Student response: yes, no, and pointing. 6

7. Beginning level ELLs: • Early production or Emergent • Recognizes simple words and sounds. • Student uses one to two word responses to concrete information that is visual and for which the student has context. • Teacher prompts: yes/no, either/or questions; Who/what and how many questions 7

8. Beginning level ELLs • Speech Emergent or Basic • Concrete information with visuals and formulistic patterned speech • Imitation and repetition continues • Expanding vocabulary with labeling • Teacher prompts: Show me…, what is this, where are …, asking students to explain to specific prompts for one word or phrase answers 8

9. Intermediate level ELLs • Intermediate or Developing • Understand more complex speech, with some repetition • Vocabulary of basic words and phrases for daily situations (social English-BICS) • Generate some English, but have restrictions in vocabulary and grammar 9

10. Intermediate level ELLs • Simple sentences with grammatical errors • Difficulty with Academic language (CALPS) and more complex syntax/wording of texts • Generate more complex texts than beginners but still have unconventional features in language patterns • Teacher prompts: Why do you think . . . Based on what you heard/saw/read and some visual/contextual references 10

11. Advanced level ELLs • Advanced or expanding • Students read with some fluency and can locate and identify specific facts within a text • Still have some difficulty understanding texts with material presented in a de-contextualized manner, with complex sentence structures and /or abstract vocabulary 11

12. Advanced level ELLs • Students can read independently, but with some comprehension problems • Students can produce texts on their own for both personal and academic purposes but errors persist in structure, vocabulary and overall organization of the material (TESOL, 1997) • Teacher prompts: Summarize the story. . ., Tell me what this means when . . . 12

13. ELLs can do higher level thinking • Consider Bloom’s Taxonomy and the stages of second language acquisition across the board • Consider language function as the way to consider tasks to move ELL from concrete to abstract learning 13

14. Break down tasks according to language functions that can be done at each proficiency level from concrete to abstract Beginning level ELL: • Show knowledge by arranging, ordering, labeling, reproducing- visual, simple words, simple phrases • Show comprehension by pointing to visuals that answer questions, use simple words to tell something, give simple phrase explanations or reasons 14

15. Beginning ELLs move to application reasoning • Show application by making choices of visuals, dramatizing what would happen if . . . using visuals as prompts; illustrating, writing, telling, in one word or simple phrases what would happen next, or what they interpret as happening in a specific situation 15

16. Beginning ELLs move to analysis reasoning • ELLs can show ability to analyze , calculate, categorize, compare and contrast, criticize, differentiate, examine, and experiment by pointing to visuals to answer questions; naming things, using phrases , adjectives to show differences, results to experiments in specific situations 16

17. Beginning ELLs can synthesize • ELLs can arrange visuals in order, put things together (puzzles, pictures, items) collect (pictures, items) create, design, develop, organize and plan visuals, say words of things, ideas that are associated, have relationships, as well as short phrases to show how they would set up, organize something so it can do something else 17

18. Beginning ELLs can evaluate • ELLs can argue, assess, attach, choose, compare, defend, estimate, predict, rate, select, support, and evaluate visuals by matching; answering questions with visuals and one word phrases and examining situations to give phrase answers 18

19. Intermediate ELLs can do the same with longer and more complex sentences • At the knowledge level they can give the definitions • At the comprehension level they can explain in a few sentences how to do something • At the application level they can explain how to do something and apply it to something else 19

20. Intermediate ELLs • At the analysis level they can explain how something is done for something else and in what way or manner • At the synthesis level they can take information and add to it with their own thoughts and information from other sources • At the evaluation level they can tell about consequences, argue different points of view, predict, rate, support their viewpoints with sentences (remember there will still be grammatical and structural problems) 20

21. Advanced ELLs can do all levels of thinking with near-native fluency and a few grammatical, structural problems • They can offer more detailed information at all levels, but still may need more time, have some grammatical problems and may need some context provided. 21

22. What’s next? • Apply language functions to real life situations-BICs first, then CALP • Set language objectives-determine the language functions and language structures the student will need to participate in the lesson 22

23. Some functions of language (adapted from J. Hill workshop, 3-5-08, MCREL) • Agreeing/disagreeing • Asking questions for help, directions, how to do something, for permission • Classifying, comparing • Explaining, hypothesizing • Inferring • Refusing, sequencing, warning • Describing, identifying, planning, reporting,suggesting, wishing and hoping 23

24. Recognize ELLs need specific organizers, sentence structures • Teach signal words such as chronological sequence words- after, finally, initially, now, then, first, last, later, third, second, preceding, next, soon, until, when, not long after • Teach language structures such as sentence starters-cloze frames; key words for vocabulary; real life mini lessons- teach grammatical usage for authentic context- what they might really encounter-role play, script, re-enact. 24

25. Provide feedback • Make it corrective • Make it timely • Be specific to a criterion (rubrics) so ELLs know what to expect • Let ELLs provide some of their own feedback 25

26. One type of Feedback: WORD-MES • Word-MES (taken from J. Hill, McREL workshop 3-5-08) • Provide vocabulary WORDS • Model correct usage • Expand by using adjectives, adverbs, new vocabulary • Help students “Sound like a book” (use academic language)

27. Applying Word-MES • Pre-production/Pre-emergent- new vocabulary pictures and labels-rain drops, sky • Early production/emergent- two word combinations, yes/no responses- Sky rains. “Yes, the sky rains and rains. • Speech Emergent/basic- simple phrases- It rains all the time. “Yes, it can rain all the time.” 27

28. Applying Word-MES • Intermediate/developing- sentence combinations with some adjectives and adverbs- The blue sky darkened and clouds formed. “Yes, the blue sky darkened quickly and large heavy clouds formed. It will soon rain.” • Advance-Retell, provide information with additional words they have heard/read/seen elsewhere. 28

29. Finally, • Enhance ELLs ability to understand, learn, and communicate what they have learned using mental images that are produced in multiple ways. • The more ways an ELL can remember information the easier it will be for them to recall and use the information. • Use Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences as one way of helping you think of multiple ways to help ELLs learn and remember. 29

30. Recommendations for Classroom Practice • Nonlinguistic representations • Use graphic organizers to represent knowledge(teach how to use them too) • Have students generate physical models of the knowledge (materials and bodily) • Have students generate mental pictures of the knowledge they are learning 30

31. Recommendations continued • Use pictures or pictographs to represent knowledge • Have students engage in kinesthetic, musical, visual, and other multiple intelligence activities representing knowledge. • Teach students how to summarize, and to use reciprocal teaching as another strategy. • Teach students our text structures and what they mean • Provide lots of response time, plenty of practice in small groups of peers more than in whole class situations 31

32. Summmary • Consider English Proficiency levels • Incorporate Higher level thinking activities/skills • Consider language functions • Language structures • Set language and content objectives • Provide multiple ways to learn and practice of material geared to their level • Allow time and provide plenty of VISUALS 32