ELL & ESL Teaching Strategies

hello and welcome to teachings in education ESL and elly4s occator franca Vella in this video we're gonna cover everything you ever wanted to know about working with ëall and ESL students a variety of different topics will be covered such as second language acquisition and instructional strategies but we're gonna begin with a broad overview now ëall students often fall through the cracks that's because they are usually well behaved their parents aren't typically involved and they don't get the same attention as special education students there are many associated acronyms ëall meaning English language learner ESL English as

second language LEP limited English proficiency these may soon be replaced by a more positive term called emergent bilingual nevertheless terminology is not important understand that teaching these children is a very challenging task as a teacher you're gonna have your work cut out for you unfortunately some teachers feel that it isn't their responsibility to teach these students that don't speak English there are a number of teachers that feel anxiety the anxiety comes from the fact that schools seldom prepare teachers on to the next section which is accommodations teachers must provide ëall students with equal access to

the curriculum through accommodations these accommodations are meant to help al ELLs understand simple things that are asked of them with the help of these accommodation PLL's should better be able to keep up with their work and maintain the pace of instruction set forth by the teacher here are some common examples teachers may provide different types of graphic organizers concrete manipulatives for math scaffolding or flashcards for vocabulary extended time peer tutoring audiobooks and even having content presented in their native language the next section up is communication tips for teachers educators should use certain strategies to better

help communicate with Els the first strategy is to avoid speaking in idioms and acronyms both are particularly confusing for new language learners next teachers should not raise their voice when directly talking to the child the child may think that you are yelling at them e nun c8 your words will sound clearer and your ll student will better understand each word that you say use hand signals use your hand signals as much as you can be animated in the way you teach communication doesn't have to be all verbal take the time to summarize what was just

taught through short notes be sure to frequently check for understanding as there is no doubt going to be times where Els get lost during instruction look at their faces it'll tell you everything and lastly speak slowly do not rush classroom instruction is not a race it's about learning the next section covers BICS and CALP and credit given to Jim Cummins Kalp stands for cognitive academic language proficiency Vic's on the other hand stands for basic interpersonal communication skills kelps is basically your content language on the other hand fix is more of your social language proficiency for

cap is based on the ability to understand academic language for different content subjects it takes about five years for students to learn this language type this is the type of language proficiency that is integrated with higher-order thinking skills for example Bloom's taxonomy Bicks relates to the skills necessary to have a casual conversation with your group of friends Bix can take as early as six months semester it also includes your everyday slang or the basic language that you use while on the phone with your friend or your mother next we're going to cover the five stages

of second language acquisition with credit to Julie Haynes and the first stage is the pre-production stage the pre-production stage is also called the silent period the period of time less anywhere from a day to six months you can expect students to have a vocabulary of only 500 words this is also sometimes called the absorbing phase students are just trying to absorb what is being said students may simply repeat things that were said this isn't an effort to understand its meaning they parrot back phrases this is a very stressful time for the student they aren't able

to express themselves verbally one thing to do is to incorporate more visuals into the lesson but there are many more the next phase is early production early production has a duration period that lasts about six months the amount of words that are in the vocabulary increased to a thousand at this point you'll begin to hear some meaningful speed from Els they may speak in one or two-word sentences as a teacher you can provide some semantic graphic organizers although you don't really want to modify the content unless it's absolutely necessary this may be a stage where

it is necessary and of course you would want to use your CF use meaning check for understandings right now I'm going to take a quick break and ask if you could give me a quick like and subscribe if you can anyway let's get back to the lesson the third stage of second language acquisition is speech emergence this stage lasts approximately one year in length students have a vocabulary of about 3,000 words you'll see students coming into their own they'll be able to speak in short sentences and ask questions even more they should actually start to

understand everything that is being said in the classroom continuing we'll get to the fourth state which is intermediate fluency this is a period that lasts approximately two years the e ll students also have a vocabulary of around 600 words students in the classroom will begin to question some of the things that are said they will build ideas of the content that was covered this is also the point where Els will start to have conversations in English with other students teachers may want to scaffold assignments for Els but overall teachers should be decreasing the amount of

assistance at this point and now to the last stage of second language acquisition which is the advanced fluency stage it has a duration that lasts anywhere from four to ten years Els have built up an extensive vocabulary and that vocabulary will continue to increase this far into second language acquisition students will start to feel as if English is their native language now just because these students speak English well doesn't mean they still don't need the extra help for the content matter so we finished up with the stages of second language acquisition and now we're going

to move on to sheltered instruction let's begin with some of the goals of sheltered instruction educators want to see students develop proficiency in English as well as provide access to grade-level content sheltered instruction is based on the principle of equal content where teachers do not dumb down the lesson now I have to say this is not as easy as it sounds and most teachers do need assistance in utilizing sheltered instruction perhaps bringing in professional development here's a quick list of some associated strategies you simplified language give extra wait time sensory activities access for our knowledge

use visuals pair students with native speakers don't force speaking no student cultures and many many more now we're going to move on to some recommended instructional strategies for working with these children and the first one is to use a culture study cultural studies are a great lesson for al ELLs because most children's are proud of their culture there are several benefits to culture studies such as the development of research skills public speaking skills and it even gives students a chance to hone their writing abilities what are the steps for a culture study the first is

to assign students to research their ethnic background as a class project students should then take the time and do the research and one way to do that is to interview their family members after all the work is done students should present to the classroom getting e/l else to present and speak in front of a crowd is always a good thing and lastly have students take questions from the audience this is great for two-way dialogue a great alternative to cultural studies would be to do a Show and Tell lesson now on to the second of six

recommended instructional strategies realia realia is basically incorporating real-life objects into the classroom it's great for making work connections also adding real-life objects into the classroom will get the attention of those students that are bored all the time it is a multi-sensory experience students get to see hear touch and possibly taste vocabulary is the most common way to use realia in the classroom is to have a student just read a word like Apple but with realia they make a deeper connection with the brain as a side note it's sometimes using a science classroom as it's not

just for yourself science teachers bring in models I feel obligated to point out that these types of lessons do take a lot of work the next strategy is a language experience approach here students life lessons become part of the classroom it's a great way to get these kids engaged it also helps them increase their sight word recognition through reading their own life stories they start to improve on their fluency more and more let me walk you through the process it begins when an e ll student tells one of their life stories the student tells their

story verbally at first next teachers usually have a paraprofessional write down the story as the student tells it they should write it down word-for-word the student can read this story to themselves at first once they've mastered it with assists then they can read the story alone there are other variations on the language experience approach the fourth instructional strategy is group work so let's dive in the great thing about group work for it Els is that it increases face-to-face interactions students experience social learning through connecting with their peers they also have a dialogue around concepts and

content sometimes friendships develop dll's need friends to help them get around the school when they're new to translate and to be there for them group work even works for students in the silent period a second language acquisition because they can learn by observation some of the ways to integrate group work is to give projects labs jigsaw activities and many more some subjects are more inclined to group work than others the fifth strategy is total physical response abbreviated here as TPR total physical response TPR integrates physical activity with learning from my experience students enjoy getting up

and getting out of their seats therefore you could expect your students to appreciate this lesson to get started the teachers should first model the vocabulary word or action for the students the word here is meditate and the teacher is showing the student what it really means to do so when it's a noun something like a desk you can simply ask the student to point to the desk students are still allowed to get out of their seats to do the pointing of course actions are a little bit more suited when it comes to TPR for example

things like waving or easy teaching the students to jump though teachers need to make sure that they are actually saying the words while they're performing the actions and I have to mention that the writing component should be incorporated into the lesson just as students have to say they should also have to write on to the last instructional strategy which includes a number of typical supports for Els when the Els are new to the classroom the teacher should first assign a classroom buddy or friend earlier I mentioned that I ll need friends for both social and

academic purposes to make it easier on these children write in print as opposed to script granthi students extended time on their exams this goes back to the accommodations described give them preferential seating and that often means not by the teacher but by the assigned classroom buddy try to smile and have a warm disposition with Els procedures are great because these students can learn through observation and follow the crowd teachers should have procedures in place regardless of Els or not and lastly lessons have to be well planned out the language barrier makes it really difficult for

both parties and now we're going to finish up this wonderful lesson with getting the families of Els students more involved in the school and the first way to do that is to invite them to be chaperones on field trips specifically reach out to e ll parents and encourage them to be chaperones when sending emails to parents you should translate them because a large majority of these parents do not speak or read English if they don't come to you then you got to go to them attend their cultural events school should do their best to make

these parents stakeholders and decision-makers very rarely do you see these parents on school improvement committees identify the parents that need to have interpreters and make sure that they get an interpreter whenever there's a meeting school send out welcome letters but teachers can send out their individual welcome letters also and lastly integrate their culture with that of your classroom that includes more than just hanging up flags and posters it means making serious changes to the curriculum right now I want to say thank you for your time please check the description for a link to my ll

presentation and don't forget to Like share and subscribe to this channel thank you [Music]