SECOND LANGUAGE INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACHES AND STRATEGIES
(Taken from “Language Arts Through ESOL,” a Guide for ESOL Teachers and Administrators)
No single methodology or technique will guarantee success for students who are adapting to a new situation, whether it is a new classroom, and unknown language, a different culture, or all of the above. However, by integrating the best elements that current second language teaching and learning strategies have to offer, each program prepares the students for the next step on the academic ladder.
In order to successfully master a language, a multiplicity of approaches, methodologies and strategies must be used. The following language teaching approaches and strategies have been selected to insure ELL students maximum access to the language arts curriculum and to learning, by making instruction understandable at their level of English proficiency.
Integrated Language Teaching
An integral language teaching approach focuses on using and acquiring language in context rather than earning a second language. Language is acquired in meaningful chunks; it cannot be broken down into small, unrelated segments (i.e., concentrating instruction only in teaching reading, or particular grammar points, such as verb conjugations). The language experience, both oral and written, should be interwoven with the instruction in all curriculum areas (including language arts which is one of the content areas of the school curriculum) throughout the day (Adapted from Faltis (1993) Fulton-Scoot (1983)Enright & MacClosky (1988).
Following this theoretical model, the ELL classroom becomes a place where active language learning is going on at all times, not just when it is being deliberately taught as a “lesson.” At the same time, the teacher uses basic subject area content infusion into the language arts curriculum as one of the strategies to make instruction comprehensible, reinforce concepts being taught in other areas, make the content interesting, and motivate student participation and confidence. In an integrated language arts lesson or unit, the instructor can create many opportunities to make use of the students’ previous experiences (within and outside the school setting) as building blocks in learning the new language and the content of the class.
The Natural Approach
In this approach (Krashen and Terrel, 1983), students acquire new vocabulary through experiences and associations with the words, as such words are employed in a meaningful context. Extended listening experiences include physical response activities, use of vivid pictures to illustrate concepts, and active involvement of the students through physical contact with the pictures and objects being discussed by means of choice-making, yes-no questions, and game situations.
The Natural Approach outlines a useful sequencing of teacher questions which moves emerging students from a listening mode to a speaking mode; the first two levels (except for the use of “yes” and “no”) give a demonstration of listening comprehension only, while the last two levels move the student into speaking:
o Meaningful communication is the main goal in language acquisition.
o Students are directed to acquire the language instead of just learning it.
o Affective factors are key to language instruction.
o Learning of vocabulary in context is essential for comprehension and speech production.
The Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach
(CALLA)
The Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) (Chamot & O’Malley, 1994) assists in the transition from a language arts program in which content is made comprehensible through the use of ESOL strategies to the “mainstream” language arts curriculum by teaching students how to handle content area material with success. CALLA can help intermediate and advanced students in understanding and retain content area material while they are increasing their English language skills.
The authors of the CALLA approach have stressed that students who are exposed to content-based English language courses are much more motivated than students who are enrolled in classes where English is taught using traditional approaches without subject-area content infusion.
CALLA content area-infused lessons incorporate the following elements:
o Content: The content of a lesson is determined by the grade-level curriculum in science, math, social studies, etc.
o Language: Students acquire the language functions used in content classes, such as describing, classifying, explaining, etc. At this point, the student must also learn the language arts content and some of the specialized vocabulary of each content area, such as the phonology of English language, syntax, lexicon, technical terms, etc.
o Strategy: Learning strategies should emphasize critical and creative thinking skills, such as problem solving, extrapolating, inferencing, etc. These learning strategies are essential to mainstream success.
Adapted from: Chamot, O’Malley & Keeper (1991)
Whole Language Approach
In a Whole Language Approach, linguistic, cognitive, and early literacy skills are developed in an integrated fashion. Instructional strategies for a Whole Language Approach include the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing (Goodman, Goodman & Hood [1989]).
The Whole Language Approach incorporates elements from several instructional strategies to develop reading and writing skills. Chief among these strategies is the Language Experience, which is also described in detail immediately after this section.
The following checklist briefly highlights the salient features of the Whole Language Approach:
What Whole Language Is What Whole Language Isn’t
Language kept “whole” Phonics taught in isolation
Student-centered Teacher-centered
Literature-based/Content-based Vocabulary-controlled, syntax controlled,
high interest/low vocabulary texts
Context rich Context deprived
Writing rich A focus on form over content
Highly interactive Quiet
Activity-based Busy work
Involves community Isolated from the community
Self-esteem building Self-esteem damaging
Cooperative, small group and individual Every class taught in the same way everyday
teaching/learning situations
Based on the work of Sharon Rich, editor, Whole Language Newsletter (Dec. 1986): Whole Language, 123 Newkirk Road, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada.
Language Experience Approach
The goal of the Language Experience Approach (LEA) is to have students produce language in response to first-hand, multi-sensorial experiences. The LEA uses the students’ ideas and their language to develop reading and writing skills.
All of the above strategies are empowering because they are interactive. Students are not sitting around as passive learners; they are actively and meaningfully engaged. This can make learning exciting to ELL students. What follows briefly describes the steps for using the Language Experience Approach in the classroom (Dixon & Nessel, [1983]):
Step 1: Providing the Experience/Motivation
An experience story is based on an experience the teacher and students share. This takes place during the school day and can range from a special occasion, such as a field trip, to an everyday occurrence, such as playing or singing. These motivational activities stimulate children’s thinking and language production. Learning in the early grades is multi-sensorial, and real experiences ensure that language is not removed from action and meaning. Thus, the teacher should use real, first-hand experiences when initiating use of the LEA.
Step 2: Facilitating Language Production
Immediately following an experience, students need to interact with each other to discuss the experience and what it meant to them. The teacher’s questioning skills can elicit idea sharing and confirm the students’ observations. Finally, the teacher can serve as a model by sharing emotions and personal reactions attributed to the experience. This sharing process helps students organize and derive meaning from the experience they just had.
Step 3: Creating a Personal View Representation
To identify individual personal reactions, the teacher has the students draw or paint a picture about something interesting about the activity. Depending upon the students’ level of language proficiency, the teacher may need to gesture or provide samples of other students’ work. Ideally, this activity would work best with small groups of 6 to 8 students.
Step 4: Retelling Events/Reactions
A volunteer is selected to share his or her picture with the group. The teacher may ask a student to tell the others what she/he likes best. Using different techniques, the teacher elicits reactions from all the students in the group. After the discussion, the teacher asks the students what they remember about the topic. Using their vocabulary and, if possible, their syntax, sentences are written on the board. When the story is finished, it should be copied on chart paper, or on the students’ notebooks (higher levels).
Step 5: Writing Students’ Statements
The teacher asks each student a question and records his/her answer, writing on the chalkboard exactly what the student says, using large manuscript letters. The teacher may place individual names or initials after each statement to acknowledge each student’s contributions and to motivate other to add to the story.
After writing each statement, the teacher reads it back to the group for confirmation. When four or five statements are on the board, the students decide their sequential ordering. The statements are then numbered and transferred to sentence strips, and the students correctly arrange the strips on a chart holder.
Step 6: Reading
After the chart or individual statements have been completed, students read their statements to each other and the teacher. Then, the teacher reads the complete story, underlining sentences as they are read in a left-to-right progression. The entire group may read in unison while pointing to the written words, or the teacher may choose to ask for volunteers to read segments of the story.
Step 7: Writing
As students develop writing skills, they copy the story into their notebooks or on lined paper. After several stories are collected, they can be bound into class books labeled “Our Stories.”
Step 8: Follow Up with Activities
The story may be re-read on several subsequent days either by the teacher, the students, or both. Letter, word and sentence cards or strips corresponding to the story may be matched to the original. Students can also save the story with other language experience class stories to form their own class book for later reading. Finally, the student may wish to dramatize or illustrate their story, and present it to other classes, parents or administrators.
The Language Experience Approach is a natural extension of the language acquisition process, because children learn reading and writing within meaningful contexts, experiencing the responding to reading selections as well as real life sensory and cognitive experiences. Through the process, they investigate sentence formation and the logical sequencing of linear thinking, explore word/idea relationships, expand their vocabularies, and fix and define the concepts that will shape their universes. Zamora (1989).
Total Physical Response
Total Physical Response or TPR is a systematized approach to the use of commands, developed by the psychologist James Asher. TPR has become a common and effective means of introducing students and adults to a second language, and in particular to listening, especially in early developmental stages of instruction, or with ELL students who have had no previous exposure to the English language. In TPR teachers interact with students by delivering commands, and students demonstrate comprehension through physical response. Students are not expected to respond orally until they feel ready. This strategy involves little or no pressure to speak. (Asher, 1982).