Promoting+SLA+in+the+Classroom

Many students enter the regular classroom who are not fluent in the English language. Of course, their educational experience will be more of a challenge than a child who comes from an English speaking home. If the child is struggling, the teacher often has a difficult time determinig if the problem is a language barrier or a learning problem.

Before identifing an ELL with a learning difference, the amount of time that he has benn exposed to the English language must be considered. Also, this student needs explicit, small group intervention in English by a reading interventist and/or an ESL teacher. If the child only has a language barrier, most students will start making progress quickly. However, if the student continues to experience language difficulties over time, there may be another problem that needs to be addressed.

I had a student in the eight grade who entered America at age nine. She was placed in the lowest reading group and was required to do all the work in the lowest group. She did not receive any special intervention. The teachers and assistant principal had labed her as special education, although she had not been tested. When I started working with her, she was reading on a first grade level. She would try to sound out each individual phoneme, and did not understand vowel teams, blends, etc. For example,she would pronounce boat as /b/ /o/ /a/ /t/. Once I taught her the basic rules of phonics, she was able to learn to read quickly. By the end of the year, she was reading on a fourth grade level and made A/ B honor roll.

Two websites that explain the importance of literacy development are as follows: [] []

Two websites that explain the imortance of oral language development in the SLA process are as follows: [] []

ESL lesson plans are available at []

An article about the stages of SLA is called "The Stages of Second Language Acquisition" by Judie Hayes. The website is []

Suggested reading: __Are You My Mother?__ by P.D. Eastman Grade profeciency- 1.6 A baby bird haches from its egg and can't find his mother. He asks a kitten, a hen, a dog, a cow, a car, a boat, and a plane if they are his mom, but was disappointed. Finally, the baby bird thinks a "snort"is his mom. The "snort" puts the baby bird safely in his nest where the real mom is waiting.

I have also included a newsletter for ESL parents.



Jena Tabor ESL Teacher Flintville Elementary 37 Flintville School Rd Flintville, TN 37335 931-937-8751 jtabor@lcdoe.org