Lara/Rosado

Developing Language Strategies for English Language Learners

Margarita Lara, PhD
Associate Professor of Bilingual Education
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Texas Southern University

Luis A. Rosado, PhD
Director of the Center for Bilingual Education Program
The University of Texas at Arlington
E-mail: rosado@uta.edu

Introduction

The number of English language learners (ELLs) attending schools in the United States has grown phenomenally, thus posing a challenge for schools and teachers. For example, in 2000-2001, an estimated 4.6 million English language learners were enrolled in public schools in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade (U.S. Census 2000). In Texas alone, the number of English-language learners identified in 1991-1992 was 331,869 and in 2000-2001, the number increased to 601,791 (U.S. Census 2000). A startling 81.3% growth rate raises an enormous concern of how to meet the needs of ELLs in our public schools. Teachers of ELLs need to be equipped with strategies for teaching English-as-a-second language (ESL), reading, academic literacy, concept attainment, writing and cultural awareness. Garcia (2001) affirms that it is crucial for teachers to select and apply instructional strategies that respect and build on the language and culture of the home. Teachers should also have some background knowledge on research concerning the complexities involved in teaching language and content to ELLs. With a better understanding of these complex processes, teachers of ELLs can support and understand the need to implement strategies that contextualize language and content to maximize students’ literacy development and success in school.

Literacy Defined

Literacy has traditionally been defined as the ability to read and to write. If we consider how literacy is used in real-life situations, however, it is a function of the interrelationships of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Literacy today also means the ability to read critically, write appropriately, and cope with an increasingly global and technological society. For K-12 ELLs in the United States, literacy is typically defined in terms of academic literacy and includes an explicit emphasis on the ability to demonstrate content understanding through different kinds of assessments in English. Researchers in second language acquisition agree that reading and writing are the most crucial language modes for school success, and that discrete language skills should not be taught in isolation. Ovando, Combs & Collier (2006) are advocates of the current trend for a constructivist and holistic nature language philosophy of learning. The emphasis of language learning is placed on the integration of the four language modes (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and content, fostering personally and academically meaningful language development. The focus of a constructivist philosophy is on the social construction of meaning. Students interact socially and engage in cooperative learning. They engage in literacy development by reading and writing text samples that are experienced-based and meaningful to them. Additionally, they read and write language that is embedded with meaning through a variety of strategies. Thus, students learn to read and write by reading and writing.

Biliteracy Defined

Thomas and Collier (1997) have developed a model that illustrates the interdependence of four components of language acquisition needed for school success: sociocultural, linguistic, academic, and cognitive (Prism Model). The sociocultural processes are at the heart of the model. This component represents the individual student who is going through the process of acquiring a second language in school. The social and cultural processes occur within the everyday life of the student in varied contexts-home, school, community, and society as well as other personal variables such as self-esteem, anxiety and other affective variables. These sociocultural factors can influence the student’s response to the new language if there’s enough support. However, if the student’s environment is not supportive, it can have a negative influence in the acquisition of L2.

Linguistic processes (L1 & L2), a second component of the model, consist of the subconscious aspects of language development (the innate ability all humans possess for acquisition of language), as well as the metalinguistic, conscious, formal teaching of language in school and acquisition of the written system of language. Included in this component are both the oral and written systems of the student’s first and second languages (L1 & L2) across all language domains (phonology, vocabulary, morphology and syntax, semantics, pragmatics, paralinguistic and discourse). Ovando, Combs & Collier (2006) assert that in order to assure cognitive and academic success in a second language, a student’s first language system, oral and written, must be developed to a high cognitive level to allow the transfer of these skills to the second language.

Academic Development (L1 & L2), a third component of the model includes all schoolwork in language arts and content areas. Academic knowledge here transfers from L1 to L2. According to Ovando, Combs, & Collier (2006), developing academic work through students’ first language (L1) while teaching the second language (L2) is more efficient than postponing the academic development of ELLs until they acquire sufficient knowledge of the second language to understand content. This kind of approach is commonly used in transitional bilingual education programs to avoid the cognitive retardation that can result from postponing content area instruction until students become proficient in L2.

Cognitive Development (L1 & L2), the fourth component of the model, is a natural subconscious process that occurs developmentally from birth to the end of schooling and beyond. Research has shown that students who reach full cognitive development in both L1 & L2 enjoy cognitive advantages over monolinguals (Bialystok, 1988; Bialystok, 1991; Bialystok & Hakuta, 1994).

Thus, the Prism Model shows the interdependence of the four components-sociocultural, academic, cognitive, and linguistic in language acquisition. These interrelated components illustrate the influence that sociocultural processes have on the academic, cognitive and linguistic aspects of language acquisition for school success. A high level of acquisition in these four components of the Prism model can ultimately describe a biliterate person who experiences success in school. Although the model appears to be simple enough in print, it’s extremely complex and there are many variables interacting within the four components. Thus, there are some basic statements and principles of developing and promoting biliteracy among ELLs that all teachers need to keep in mind.

Although oral language development in L1 is acquired universally with minimal explicit instruction, literacy, on the other hand, is not universally acquired; it requires substantial explicit instruction and practice (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005). Moreover, children’s use and understanding of oral language influences their comprehension of written language. Oral development and language experiences in general are central components of good reading instruction. Research supports the idea that oral language development provides the foundation in phonological awareness and allows for subsequent learning about the alphabetic structure of English (Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998), which in turn get students children ready to begin reading in L1 and L2.

The process of literacy development in the first and second language is similar in both languages (Urzúa, 1987; Hudelson, 1984, 1987); however, there are basic research principles that teachers must take into account when promoting biliteracy among ELLs:

1.Given appropriate and effective instruction, ELLs can benefit from literacy instruction in the second language (L2) before they have developed proficiency in the first (L1) (Urzúa, 1987; Hudelson, 1984, 1987). Furthermore, formal literacy instruction in the L2 can also support the development of literacy in L1.

2. Research suggests that proficiency in L1 facilitates the development of proficiency in L2 because these skills are transferable (Cummins, 1981; Tragar & Wong, 1984).

First Language Acquisition/Second Language Acquisition

English-language learners (ELLs) who have well-developed literacy skills in their first language (L1) can transfer these skills to the second language—L2 (Collier & Thomas, 1992, Cummins, 1989). According to research, ELLs (depending on the level of proficiency in L1) may take from 5-9 years to acquire academic language needed for school success (Collier & Thomas, 1992). Research also supports the notion that academic knowledge and conceptual development transfer from the students’ first language to their second language. Concepts and skills are taught in the students’ first language while they are in the process of acquiring the second language. Thus, the teaching of academic content does not have to be postponed until literacy in the second language is attained.

Reading Development for Native Speakers of English

The first step in learning to read English for native English speakers is to learn the relationship between sounds and letters (phoneme awareness and letter-sound knowledge). Thus, the beginning reader must learn the 44 phonemes (sounds) in English and the 26 letters of the alphabet (graphemes). For English speakers, being able to make the connection between sounds and printed forms (alphabetic principle) is a must if they are to develop accurate decoding skills and reading fluency (speed). In addition, they must have knowledge of word meanings (vocabulary), text comprehension, written expression, spelling and handwriting, and the motivation to read. Furthermore, teachers must conduct continuous assessment of developing readers to ensure success in reading. The acquisition of reading and writing are complex processes for native English speakers, just imagine the complexity of these processes for ELLs.

Reading for English Language Learners (ELLs)

For ELLs, the English sound system becomes problematic, in particular, for those students who are not literate in their first language (L1). There are multiple sounds in the English language that pose a problem for ELLs. If children cannot perceive the sounds in spoken words, they will have difficulty in “sounding out” or decoding words accurately. The problem is compounded by the fact that in addition to developing literacy skills, ELLs must acquire content knowledge and content area literacy. Furthermore, ELLs encounter more problems in that each content area is unique with its own set of terminology, writing conventions and critical thinking skills that are a must if the student is to become proficient in the English language (National Clearing House for English Language Acquisition, NCELA, 2006).

Strategies to Support ELLs

The complexity of learning a second language can be minimized with the use of developmentally appropriate and effective strategies to teach ELLs. This part of the article provides strategies to modify basal readers and content area textbooks for beginning, intermediate and advanced English language learners. The strategies for each level of English proficiency are divided into the following language modes—listening/speaking and reading/writing. Strategies are defined as techniques that teachers and students use to bring meaning and purpose to language activities. The strategies presented can be used interchangeably from one level of English proficiency to another by contextualizing the strategy, thus making the instructional input comprehensible. ELLs need a variety of strategies to comprehend the complex English language system. The strategies presented in this chapter have been adapted from numerous researchers in the field of second language acquisition (Celcia-Murcia & McIntosh, 1979; Chamot & O’Malley, 1987; Echevarria & Graves, 2002; Jiménez, García, & Pearson, 1996; Mora, 2001a, Thonis, 1981, Tinajero & Ada, 2003). Several strategies for establishing and creating a positive, nurturing, and supportive environment for effective language development to occur are also discussed.

Providing a Supportive Environment for ELLs

It is important to keep in mind that learning a second language can be very intimidating for students who come to school with a language other than English. The students must feel comfortable in their new environment. Teachers must provide a positive, nurturing, and supportive classroom environment that is stress free in order for natural language development to occur. The teacher must establish oral/aural routines that support and nurture students’ second language acquisition. They must also focus on oral communication that is clear and concise. Teachers may use prompts, cues, facial expressions, body language, visual aids (charts, pictures, books, word walls) and concrete materials to reinforce oral and written comprehension. The teacher may assign the ELL an English-speaking buddy for helping with instructions, classroom routines and procedures and cooperative learning activities. The classroom environment must be print rich with charts, word walls, and many books of interest for students at all levels of language development. More importantly, teachers should use many varied strategies for developing ELLs’ listening/speaking and reading/writing language skills. Some strategies for developing skills in listening/speaking and reading/writing for beginning ELLs are presented below.

Strategies for Beginning Learners

Listening/Speaking Strategies

Students at the beginning level of language development have minimal to limited comprehension in the second language. Consequently, teachers must immerse the students in oral language and model appropriate pronunciation, intonation, rhythm, word stress, pace, fluency and above all, meaning. Many strategies are available for developing listening/speaking skills for ELLs.

Modeling—Model directional words such as circle, write, draw, read, cut, underline, match, and simple commands and actions based on the Total Physical Response-TPR (Asher,1982),

Visuals—The teacher should use visuals for concept and language development. The teacher can use pictures from the basal readers, newspapers, magazines, coloring books, clip art, and real pictures of family members and other pictures provided by the teacher and the students to teach about family and community.

Real and concrete experiences—Talk about food, cooking, art, music, crafts, family and community and other topics presented in the students’ basal readers and present these topics as English-as-a-second language lessons by discussing the sequence of events, cooking, actions in creating a craft, family and community activities and other topics.

Songs—Songs can be used to promote listening comprehension and to teach language patterns, vocabulary and structures in English in a contextualized and enjoyable fashion.

Dramatization—Teachers can engage students in dramatizing their favorite basal reading stories, movies, comic strips, riddles, and story characters as they develop oral language skills. The teacher can provide the props for students to authentically engage in meaningful dramatization of stories from basal readers.

Role playing—This activity focuses on students acting-out a role or character in their basal readers and other material. Students can play the role of a character in a story, a real-life situation or natural language dialogues.

Poetry—The teacher should select poems that have predictable patterns and are fun to learn. Teachers should enunciate clearly and have children follow along. Select a variety of poems appropriate for beginning ELLs.

Puppetry—Puppets can be used to introduce vocabulary, retell basal reading stories, alphabet stories, poetry, and can also be used as props to talk about fantasy or real experiences.

Wordless books—Students can create their own language structures for wordless books. These books contain fun, colorful picture to motivate and support beginning ELLs.

Flannel Stories—The possibilities are endless in the use of flannel stories in oral language development. Students use flannel material to trace and cut story characters and props to retell a story sequence. Letters can also be used for inventing words and labeling objects.

Diorama—Dioramas are great for depicting an event, a sequential storyline, or a field-trip. In addition to the language benefits, students engage in artistry in the development of the mural-like artistic representation. Teachers may use butcher paper or any other type of paper to illustrate students’ work on a wall. Students use pictures, drawings and captions to support their oral language presentations.

Reading/Writing Strategies for Beginning ELLs

Many of the strategies for developing oral language can also be used in teaching beginning reading for ELLs. To promote reading development, teachers should model reading to the students daily and use the following strategies.

Language Experience Approach (LEA)—Using LEA, students immediately see their productions of language in print, authenticating their own language. In this activity, students dictate a story to the teacher and use the story as a foundation for reading. In this kind of activity students begin to see the oral and written connection of language. Students begin to see the basic letter-sound associations and spelling patterns that help them in word recognition and decoding their own words in print.

Shared Reading—Students share in the reading experience with other students, the teacher and family members. At school, students read, share what they have read with other students and/or the teacher and continue the process. The same process can be extended to the home environment.

Guided Reading/Writing—Guided reading/writing is a strategy for small group instruction and focuses on each child’s needs. Children are guided to used context, visual and structural cues to obtain meaning from text and to communicate meaning in writing. It is excellent for modeling reading and writing processes and providing support for reading.

Big Books—Big books are motivating, exciting and use large print and pictures to make reading easy and fun. Many big books have predictable patterns that are easy for beginning ELLs.

Choral Reading—In this strategy, students read a story at the same time as the teacher. This strategy can be used in whole group instruction or small groups. Many students who are shy and do not like to read aloud can participate in this type of activity. Reading aloud in unison is non-threatening to beginning ELLs and it is used to promote fluency.

Fill-in Gaps—In this strategy, the teacher reads a story to the children and stops at a given point to allow students opportunity to decode high predictable words or word that are repeated consistently in the story. Since words are highly predictable, students experience success and begin enjoying reading.

Using the 5 W’s—In this strategy, teachers guide students to respond to questions like who, what, where, when, and why? Students will learn the patterns quickly when the teacher asks these questions before, during and after reading activities. Students can answer questions orally or write the responses in journals.

Journals—Journal writing provides students opportunities to write for meaningful purposes. Journals are ideal to monitor students’ writing progress for an extended period of time. A simple comparison of the beginning and ending writing sample can provide teachers with valuable information about students’ progress.

Picture Dictionary—In this strategy, students create their own picture dictionaries from language lessons on vocabulary from basal readers and other content areas. Students keep their dictionary, study the words periodically, and continue adding new words as their vocabulary increases.

Scrapbook—Students keep a scrapbook with captions of all school, community and home experiences, illustrated with pictures and captions. This high interest activity will motivate them to write for meaningful purposes.

Strategies for Intermediate Learners

Students at the intermediate level of language development have good comprehension. Lessons continue to enhance receptive vocabulary and activities are designed to develop higher levels of language use. Strategies for this level of language acquisition and content area learning contextualize the academic language needed for school success.

Listening/Speaking

Visuals, demonstrations, concrete objects/experiences—Provide practice in listening to explanations and presentations on academic topics. Accompany the presentations with visuals, demonstrations, and concrete experiences. Have students practice short oral presentations using the academic vocabulary and concepts as demonstrated by the teacher.

Imagery—Students use visual images (either mental or actual) to understand and remember new information. Have students verbalize their visual images to other students.

Explaining/clarifying—Provide practice in academic speaking skills by having students explain a process or an answer, make brief oral presentations to a group, and ask clarifying questions that elicit the information needed.

Using language functions—Provide practice in using all the language functions students will need in the mainstream classroom, including: explaining, informing, justifying, describing, classifying, probing, debating, and evaluating.

Focus on Meaning—Develop thinking by expecting students to ask and answer higher level questions, focusing on the intended meaning rather than on correct form.

Self-Talk—This strategy reduces anxiety by using mental techniques to make the student feel competent to engage in the learning task. For example, as students read have them interact with the text by asking questions like “What is the meaning of this word in this situation?”

Summarizing—Students make mental, oral or written summaries of information from readings, discussions and presentations. Provide students with different types of graphic organizers to help them in summarizing content material.

Cooperative learning—Have students work in groups on the following: solve a problem orally, gather information, check for understanding of a learning task, model a language activity, reflect on the group’s process, and give or receive feedback from cooperative learning team members.

Questioning for Clarification—Have students engage in various activities that require the following: eliciting from a teacher or peers additional information, explaining, rephrasing, giving examples, or verifying information in order to fully comprehend the activity or content.

Elaboration—Students relate new information to prior knowledge and extend this knowledge by adding other meaningful information to build their understanding of skills and concepts. Teachers should model the process of elaborating and extending students’ knowledge base.

Taping Presentations—Allow students to record presentations, lectures and instructions, so they can listen to these tapes when needed. Students may also record and listen to their oral readings. This activity will help students identify problematic areas in decoding certain words and self-evaluate their reading fluency.

Reading/Writing

Conduct pre-reading discussions of the topic, allow students to read cooperatively, focus on higher level reading comprehension questions rather than on recall. In developing the academic and technical vocabulary for the different content areas (science, mathematics, social studies, and literature), provide context to assist comprehension and by all means, do not teach vocabulary as word lists. Students retain vocabulary and concepts best when they are given varied and extensive opportunities to develop concepts in meaningful situations. Additionally, look for the same content in another medium (movie, filmstrip, tape). Reading and writing activities should be incorporated into all content area lessons.

Grouping—Guide students to engage in classifying words, terminology, or concepts according to their attributes when reading content textbooks. Students should keep a journal for each subject as a tool for reviewing and studying for exams.

Index Cards—Students may use index cards for a variety of reading and writing activities. In English classes, students may use the index cards to write main ideas of literature passages and content area definitions. Students can file these cards in each subject area.

Summarizing—Students summarize content information by identifying main ideas in paragraphs, key vocabulary and organize this information into narrative or outline formats. Introduce graphic organizers as a way to summarize material.

Self-monitoring—In this activity students are guided to check their understanding and comprehension during listening or reading activities. Teachers need to model self-monitoring skills during oral, reading and writing exercises.

Resourcing—Students read and extend knowledge of content area concepts by using encyclopedias, dictionaries, textbooks, internet documents, films, journals and other materials.

Idiomatic and figurative language—Expose students to the use of idiomatic expression and figurative language in meaningful situations. Guide them to write the figure of speech together with the intended meaning. Students can make their own books titled: “Idioms”.

Fun with Cognates—Have students research cognates (words similar in L1/L2) and create a game board or any other type of game with cognates. Students will learn many words that sound alike in Spanish and English (i.e. educación, education). Teachers may also introduce deceptive or false cognates.

Note-Taking—Teach children to write down key words and concepts in abbreviated form, illustration/graphic or numerical form during a listening or reading activity. Again, teachers should model note-taking skills. This activity is more appropriate for students in the upper elementary, middle school and high school.

Skits-Students can brainstorm on topics for skits, organize their thoughts and write a skit based on content knowledge or “real-life” events. Skits provide a motivating avenue for students to engage in writing and speaking exercises.

Story Starters—Students may use a variety of story starters to compose writing exercises. Story starters can include beginning sentences from literature or other stories and topics of interest to the students like: “An unfortunate encounter with…and A fantastic adventure with…”

Greeting Cards—There are many types of greeting cards for different occasions. Students can have a field-day with writing for different purposes and audiences as they compose their greeting cards. Teachers can take advantage of the various web-based companies that allow people to compose and send greeting cards.

Strategies for Advanced Learners

Students at the advanced level of language development are near proficient in oral activities. Students can understand and comprehend complex sentences, however, they need more practice and experiences with the written language. Again, many of the activities used at the intermediate level can be modified for advanced English learners.

Listening/Speaking

What if?—What if questions set up hypothetical situations for students to discuss. Students’ imaginations are linked to knowledge and comprehension of a topic. A student’s prior knowledge is used as a base to build creative thought. (Example: If you were the mayor of your city, how would you solve the traffic problem?)

Debate—Have students brainstorm on topics having two conflicting sides (pros/cons), select a topic, divide them into 2 groups (pros/cons) and have each group research their side.

Demonstrate How To—Have students prepare a how-to-book and present the steps orally on a topic of their choice. Topics can range from different content areas like, how to bake cake, how to build a kite or how to find a solution to a mathematics problem.

Mock Trial—The subject of a mock trial can be a “real life” trial that has taken place or is taking place to give the students an authentic setting for the trial. Many historical events and literature topics can turn into mock trials.

Prepare a T.V. Commercial—Students will select a product of their choice and prepare a commercial. Have students view several commercials before beginning this activity. Students may research and use guidelines for writing effective commercials. Students may also use concepts in their content area classrooms for their commercial.

Book Talks—Students can arrange book talks and share this information with other students. In English classes, class time may be provided for this to occur.

Reading/Writing

Develop a School Reading Focus—All schools should have a focus for reading whether it’s monthly, bimonthly or by semester. Teachers should encourage students to read consistently for content and for pleasure.

Read the newspaper daily—Encourage students to read the newspaper daily. Each day, share an article from the newspaper to discuss in class. In content area classrooms, students should look for articles related to their content area.

Create a Brochure—The student may create a brochure about his/her city, a place to visit, a park, historical markers, their school, and other topics. Based on availability, students can use computer programs like Microsoft Office Publisher or similar programs to develop the brochure. The students can be given guidelines for creating an effective brochure, including the use of graphics.

Write an ad—Students may design an advertisement for a new product, or an old product with a new twist. Allow students to see many advertisements from newspapers, magazines and other materials to get sufficient ideas. Have students follow guidelines for writing an effective ad. Students can have presentations to class to see if the ads are convincing enough.

Design a newsletter—Have students design a one page or two page newsletter for their grade level. Here Microsoft Publisher can be used to create the newsletter. All the students individually or in groups may contribute to the newsletter. Depending on the age of students, teachers or students can help with the technical components of the project.

Publish a book—Students can author and illustrate their own books. Students should have knowledge of the parts of a book and the style of writing (i.e. fiction or non-fiction). There are companies that will publish individual books for children in elementary education. Traditionally, they will publish a few copies to sell them to family members.

Design an exhibit or showcase—Based on content area concepts, students may design an exhibit with illustrations and written explanations and showcase it in the classroom or the school library.

Create a comic strip—Have students create their own comic strips. Have students invent a new character, illustrate a story, demonstrate a process or a historical event and have fun creating many comic strips.

Write instructions for creating a web page—Research and write the instructions for creating a web page and check if students can follow your instructions.

Other reading/writing strategies—Design an invitation; write a formal letter to a well-known person; write a proposal for recycling in your school; write a story or poem; write letters to story characters (e.g. Students may write a letter to Tom Sawyer and compare the life today with that of his time); rewrite a Fairy Tale; write a T.V. commercial; and write a news report.

Classroom publishing—Have the students work in groups and follow the guidelines for publishing classroom books:

Brainstorm and select a name for the publishing “house” (have students look at various books to get ideas).
Develop a “list” by choosing appropriate topics to write about.
Assign chapters to group members or independent writers.
Write contracts.
Write the rough draft
Edit the material
Design, illustrate, reproduce, and bind the books
Review books written by classmates.
Take pictures and write “bios” about the authors.
Award Prizes (establish criteria for judging the chapters, books)

The published books can range from topics coming from the content area classroom, literature stories, history and social studies concepts, real life events, biographies, and other topics as well.

Conclusion

This article presented a variety of strategies that can be used in modifying and contextualizing basal readers and content area material for beginning, intermediate and advanced ELLs. The strategies were divided into listening/speaking and reading/writing language modes. Research on literacy, biliteracy, first and second language acquisition, oral language and reading and the teaching of reading to native and non-native speakers of English was briefly discussed. The purpose of the research presented was to provide teachers with background knowledge in understanding the complexity of ELLs’ acquisition of academic skills needed for school success. Additionally, the strategies presented will provide teachers with tools for teaching listening/speaking and reading/writing skills in meaningful, contextual, and varied social/linguistic settings. It was continuously emphasized throughout the chapter for teachers of ELLs to model the strategies, allowing the students to see the step-by-step processes used in effective speaking, reading and writing. Based on research presented, teachers of ELLs may develop second language skills while teaching content knowledge. Furthermore, the initial focus of literacy should be on meaningful, authentic and natural uses of language. The goal in teaching language skills and academic content for ELLs should be “lifelong biliteracy for all”.

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