So, you only speak English?

Evergreen Park Elementary School District 124

Professional Development
Laura Heneghan, ELL Instructional Coach

Immigrant ELs
(Newcomers)

Immigrant ELs
Over 70% of ELs are born in the United States; 30% are
immigrants.
Students who are new not only to the language but also to
the United States...present a unique set of difficulties
among ELs.

Immigrant ELs
Igoa (1995, cited in Guerrero) described a period of
sociocultural adjustment or uprooting in which immigrant
students may experience depression or confusion due to their
inability to communicate and may go through a silent
stage. This adjustment period may last 1 to 2 years or
sometimes longer.
Immigrant ELs who enter U.S. schools at the middle- and high
school levels are trying to learn academic content while
simultaneously learning conversational and academic English
in its oral and written forms and adjusting to a new culture
and new school routines (Francis et al.,2006a).

Myths Vs Realities
Myth #1
Learning a second language is entirely different from
learning ones native language.
Reality #1

Learning the linguistic structures and rules of a second

language occurs in much the same way as the first
language.
However, learning a second language takes time and
requires support.

Considerations

Consider each language learners stage of language

acquisition

Pre-production stage (Also known as the Silent Period)

Can last up to six months
Early Production

in English, as well as yes-or-no responses, names and repetitive

language patterns
Speech Emergence
Able to speak in short sentences
Intermediate Fluency

Characterized by students using single words or two-word phrases

Students can express sentences of increasing length and

complexity
Advanced Fluency
Demonstrate near-native level of fluency

As you prepare your lesson...

It is important to make sure you dont water down the
curriculum for ELs at lower levels of English Acquisition.
Instead:

Utilize the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol

(SIOP) Strategies when lesson planning
Determine your lesson objective
Eliminate unnecessary information that does not meet your
objective
Select the concepts to teach
Choose specific vocabulary to pre-teach
Develop assessments to test that content

SIOP Lesson Plan Template

There are several different lesson plan templates available for the
SIOP Model. SIOP-based teaching benefits all students not just those
learning English as an additional language. Sample template.
The SIOP Model consists of eight interrelated components:

Lesson Preparation
Building Background
Comprehensible Input
Strategies
Interaction
Practice/Application
Lesson Delivery
Review and Assessment

Myths Vs Realities
Myth #2
Teachers should discourage students from speaking their
native language as this will hinder their English language
development.
Reality #2

Using their native language facilitates cognitive and

academic growth.
Speaking their native language with their parents is
important and should be respected and encouraged.

Previous Learning
Studies show that ELs who have formal schooling in their
first language develop proficiency in English faster than
ELLs who have had no formal schooling in their first
language.
ELs who receive more native-language instruction in wellimplemented bilingual programs typically learn more academic
English than those in all-English programs.

make sure you do not generalize

Do not group all ELs together or divide them into simply
higher level and lower level groups.
Even though students should be encouraged to speak in their
native language, grouping students of different stages of
English language acquisition can actually do a disservice to
both students, even if they share the same native language.

make sure you do not generalize

Do engage preproduction students at the same level of
thinking as other students.
When applying tiered questions with students who are in the
process of acquiring English, its important to distinguish
between low-level questions, which lead to low levels of
thinking, and high-level questions, which promote higherorder thinking.

Use of Tiered Questions

Understanding a students language-acquisition stage is
important.
Once a teacher knows a students language-acquisition stage,
that teacher can pose questions about content that match the
way a student in that stage is capable of answering.

Stages of Second Language Acquisition and Tiered Questions

Stage

Characteristics of Students Verbalization: The student...

Tiered Questions (Prompts)

Preproduction

Has minimal comprehension without support

May not verbalize
Nods yes and no
Draws and points

Show me
Circle the
Where is ?
Who has?

Early Production

Has limited comprehension without scaffolds

Produces one- or two-word responses
Participates using key words an dfamiliar phrases
Uses -ing verbs

Yes-or-no questions
Either-or questions
Who, what, and how many questions

Speech Emergence

Has good comprehension

Can produce simple sentences
Makes grammatical and pronunciation errors
Frequently misunderstands jokes

Why?
How?
Explain
Questions requiring short-sentence answers

Intermediate Fluency

Has excellent comprehension

Makes few grammatical errors

What would happen if?

Why do you think?
Questions requiring more than a one-sentence
response

Advanced Fluency

Has a near-native level of speech

Decide if
Retell...

Myths Vs Realities
Myth #3
Younger children are more effective language learners than
older learners.
Reality #3

Language expectations for younger learners are generally

lower than for older students.
School language is more complex and less contextualized
at higher grades, making language acquisition
challenging.

Vocabulary Development
Vocabulary development is especially important for ELs.
Some strategies to help develop an ELs vocabulary are:

Pre-Teach

Role play or pantomime

Show real objects
Point to pictures
Quick drawings on the board

Scaffold

Use a graphic organizer to explain concepts and related words

Post new vocabulary on a word wall and review the words daily

Label drawings and pictures to help students make the connection

between oral and written English

Encourage Oral Language Use

Myths Vs Realities
Myth #4
Once students can speak with reasonable fluency, they can
quickly pick up the academic work.
Reality #4

Social language, called BICS (Basic Interpersonal

Communication Skills), is generally acquired within 2
years of immersion.
However, CALPS (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
Skills) take many years to develop.

Opportunity to Learn academic english

Research shows that ELs benefit from explicit instruction in
academic English across all content areas.
This instruction should include words that are important to
understanding the text but no commonly used in conversation
(e.g., determine, whereas, and factor).
It should also include words with multiple meanings. For
example, odd, root, and field take on special meanings in
the context of mathematics.

Opportunity to Learn academic english

Els also need opportunities to engage in structured academic
talk. They will need help moving from the word level to the
sentence, paragraph, or essay/project level.
One of the most important things a teacher can do is to
provide examples and model the kinds of language one expects
the student to use on a regualar basis.
Additionally, the student can benefit from purposeful
independent readings that are matched to the readers
ability level.

Myths Vs Realities
Myth #5
If the ESL teacher could take the student more often and
just focus on teaching the English language to ESL students,
learning in all areas would occur faster.
Reality #5

Students can learn language and content simultaneously;

classroom teachers providing comprehensible input is
important to academic success and to language learning.

ESL
ESL, or English as a second language, refers to special classes for
ELs, usually given for one or two sessions per day.
ESL classes have different goals, depending on the approach. The
Sheltered English Approach is a form of ESL instruction in which the
focus is on academic content taught in a way that is comprehensible
for students with limited English.
The goal is mastering the subject matter. This way the students
absorb academic English naturally and incidentally, while they are
learning useful knowledge.
This is an approach to instruction that does not only have to be
utilized in the ELL classroom.

Myths Vs Realities
Myth #6
Until students learn English, there is no point in trying to
teach them content area subjects
Reality #6

ESL students need to continue their content education.

It is possible and desirable to teach ESL students
various subject matter while they are acquiring English.

Engaging students to learn content at all Language Levels

Teachers must teach higher-order thinking skills while using
language that is appropriate to their students levels of
English acquisition. The newer student is to English, the
more comprehensible input he or she will need.

Sample Tasks at all levels of blooms taxonomy

For Preproduction-State ELs
Evaluation

Assess correctness of a moveable biome model. Show understanding by

rearranging parts as necessary.

Synthesis

Plan and construct dioramas or collages to show seasons in a forest biome.

Analysis
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge

Categorize types of plants found in desert and alpine tundra biomes using
pictures and lables.
Graph how tall plants get under specific conditions.
Match parts of the plant to their function.
Label and order the steps of the plant cycle. Respond to teachers request to
point to, gesture for, draw, or match icons for steps of plant cycle.

Source: From Using Classroom InstructionThat Works with English Langue Learners (2nd ed.) (p.18) by J.D. Hill and K.B. Miller, 2013, Alexandria, VA: ASCD 2013 by McREL.

Myths Vs Realities
Myth #7
Learners need a strong grasp of oral English before they are
exposed to print.
Reality #7

ESL learners should be exposed to a rich print

environment from early on in their English learning.
Students who are literate in their first language can use
reading and writing as a means of learning English.
Students who are not literate in their first language
need oral language development along with reading and
writing readiness skills.

REading Comprehension
Reading is an important part of learning new content in the
classroom. Make sure to have their environment full of rich
print.
Utilize books at their level and in their native language
whenever possible.
Assign a reading partner. Pair an EL with a fluent reader.
After partner reading they can summarize what they read.

Classroom Instruction
Should be:

comprehensible to all learners

interactive
connect school to students lives
promote cross-cultural understanding
develop language and literacy across the curriculum
help all students achieve learning outcomes

Classroom awareness
Be aware of your own English use in the classroom. Remember
that words alone dont convey meaning for ELs.
To help ELs follow the presentation of information:

Slow your rate of speech

Speak in complete sentences

Additionally, you may use one or more of the following:

Manipulatives and miniature objects

Visuals (photos, pictures, and drawings
Gestures, body movement, and pantomime
Facial expressions

Classroom awareness
Be careful not to overuse idioms or pronouns; instead, use
nouns, which convey more meaning to someone still learning
the language.
Use technology to record your instruction so that a student
can review the lesson as needed.

Resources
http://www.ed.gov.nl.ca/edu/k12/curriculum/guides/esl/myths_reality.pdf
https://www.wida.us/standards/RG_Performance%20Definitions.pdf
https://www.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/E00989/chapter1.pdf
http://www.redmond.k12.or.us/departments/student-services/english-languagelearners/teacher-resources-for-ell-newcomers/
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Topic.aspx?sid=6
https://www.shastacoe.org/uploaded/Dept/is/general/Teacher_Section/EnglishLanguageLearners.
pdf
file:///Users/lheneghan/Downloads/2016DELLel-rules-regs-pres1508.pdf
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb16/vol73/num05/Engaging-YourBeginners.aspx