Transcript Stages in Second Language Acquisition

Stages in Second Language
Acquisition
David Murphy
English Language Fellow
www.comexus.org.mx
[email protected]
Five Stages in SLA
Stage 1: Pre-Production (Silent
Period)
Stage 2: Early Production
Stage 3: Speech Emergence
Stage 4: Intermediate Fluency
Stage 5: Advanced Fluency
Stage 1: Pre-production
(Silent Period)
Period: from several weeks to
several months
Indicators: language learners
have very little output at this
stage
Ongoing Processes: learners are
learning new vocabulary and
practicing pronunciation
Stage 2: Early Production
Duration: About 6 months
Acquisition: Learners typically
acquire a vocabulary of about 1,000
words
Indicators: Learners speak in short
phrases. These phrases may not be
correctly delivered.
Stage 2: Students Will Be Able To
• Ask yes/no and either/or questions.
• Accept one or two word responses.
• Give students the opportunity to
participate in some of the whole class
activities.
• Use pictures and realia to support
questions.
• Modify content information to the
language level of ELLs.
Stage 2: Students Will Be Able To
•Build vocabulary using pictures.
•Provide listening activities.
•Simplify the content materials to be used.
Focus on key vocabulary and concepts.
•When teaching elementary age ELLs, use
simple books with predictable text.
•Support learning with graphic organizers,
charts and graphs. Begin to foster writing in
English through labeling and short sentences.
Use a frame to scaffold writing.
Stage 3: Speech Emergence
Acquisition: Learners typically
acquire a vocabulary of about
3,000 words
Indicators: Learners make short
sentences, begin reading and
writing. Learners gain greater
confidence.
Stage 3: Students Will Be Able To
· Read short, modified texts in content
area subjects.
· Complete graphic organizers with word
banks.
· Understand and answer questions
about charts and graphs.
· Match vocabulary words to definitions.
· Study flashcards with content area
vocabulary.
Stage 3: Students Will Be Able To
Participate in duet, pair and choral
reading activities.
· Write and illustrate riddles.
· Understand teacher explanations
and two-step directions.
· Compose brief stories based on
personal experience.
· Write in dialogue journals.
Stage 4: Intermediate
Fluency
Acquisition: Learners typically
acquire a vocabulary of about 6,000
words
Indicators: use more complex
sentences when speaking and
writing and are willing to express
opinions and share their thoughts.
They will ask questions to clarify
what they are learning in class.
Stage 4: Intermediate Fluency
Skills: Student writing at this
stage will have many errors as
ELLs try to master the
complexity of English grammar
and sentence structure. Many
students may be translating
written assignments from native
language.
Stage 5: Advanced Fluency
Duration: takes students from 4-10
years to achieve cognitive academic
language proficiency in a second
language.
Indicators: Student at this stage will be
near-native in their ability to perform in
content area learning.
Most ELLs at this stage have been
exited from ESL and other support
programs.
Questions for SLA
Preproduction: Ask questions that
students can answer by pointing at
pictures in the book ("Show me the
wolf," "Where is the house?").
Early Production: Ask questions that
students can answer with one or two
words ("Did the brick house fall down?"
"Who blew down the straw house?").
Questions for SLA
Speech Emergence: Ask "why" and
"how" questions that students can
answer with short sentences ("Explain
why the third pig built his house out of
bricks." "What does the wolf want?").
Intermediate Fluency: Ask "What would
happen if …" and "Why do you think …"
questions ("What would happen if the
pigs outsmarted the wolf?”)
Questions for SLA
Advanced Fluency: Ask
students to retell the story,
including main plot elements
but leaving out unnecessary
details.
Creating Lesson Plans
1. Identify your student learning outcomes.
2. Outline your activities.
3. Review your activities and look for ways to
make them more student-centered, to appeal to
some of the eight intelligences, and to treat the
four skills plus grammar.
Activities
• Disappearing dialogues – write a line on the
board, the class repeats it, then you erase
parts of the line.
• Dialogue building – use a drawing of stick
figures to create a scene. Students write the
dialogue for the scene.
• Information gap activities – information to
complete a task is distributed among
students. The students must share the
information to complete the task.
Taboo
• Put students into groups. One of the students must
sit with their back to the board, the other students
facing the board.
• The teacher draws a picture or puts a flashcard on
the board. The students have to describe what is on
the board to help the student (with their back to the
board) to guess what it is.
• For higher level students write a number of TABOO
WORDS on the board. For example if a teacher
shows the students a flash card of say ‘a teacher’,
the taboo words that students cannot say could be
‘school’ and ‘student’.
Drawing Descriptions
• Students each get a single picture, and
they must describe to their neighbor what
the picture looks like.
• Students who are listening must draw the
picture.
• After the first student is finished drawing,
the first student should describe a
different picture to the second student.
Hold It Up!
• When the students are in groups, say one of the
vocabulary words that you want to review (or
give a definition for higher levels).
• One team member must write the word on their
paper and hold it up.
• The student to hold it up first gets one point for
their team.
• After five vocabulary words, change the team
member who must write.
• Variation: Students who haven't learned the
alphabet can be given pictures to hold up.
Guess Who?
• Each student in a group chooses a famous person or
thing.
• Group members ask yes/no questions about the
famous person or thing.
• When a group member receives a 'yes' to their
question, they can ask one follow up question
• If the answer to a group member's question is no,
the next student gets to ask a question
• You may choose to prepare a handout of possible
questions to get things started and help weaker
students. Some possible questions are: ‘Are you
famous?’ ‘Are you a man?’ ‘Are you a woman?’ ‘Are
you an actor?’ ‘Are you a singer?’
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Thanks!
David Murphy
English Language Fellow
www.comexus.org.mx
www.americanenglish.state.gov
[email protected]