Stages of Second Language Acquisition
1. ENTERING This is the beginner ELL student who has little to no knowledge of the English language.
2. EMERGING This student speaks a few words and sentences (possibly more), but the emphasis is still on listening and absorbing the new language. There will be many errors in this stage.
3. TRANSITIONING Speech is fairly fluent in social situations with minimal errors. New contexts and academic language are challenging and the individual will struggle to express themselves due to gaps in vocabulary and appropriate phrases.
4. EXPANDING Communicating in the second language is fluent, especially in social language situations. The ELL student is able to speak almost fluently in new situations or in academic areas, but there will be gaps in vocabulary knowledge and some unknown expressions. There are very few errors, and the individual is able to demonstrate higher order thinking skills in the second language such as offering an opinion or analyzing a problem.
5. COMMANDING The ELL student communicates fluently in all contexts and can maneuver successfully in new contexts and when exposed to new academic information. At this stage, the individual may still have an accent and use idiomatic expressions incorrectly at times, but the individual is essentially fluent and comfortable communicating in the second language.
SUPPORT STRATEGIES
Word walls, visuals, gestures, word banks,
glossaries, first language support, build background knowledge, project based learning,
flexible grouping, graphic organizers, vocabulary organizers, sentence starters, sentence frames
FREE TOOLS FOR TEACHERS OF ELLS
https://elementaryenglishlanguagelearners.weebly.com/infographics.html
https://getsupported.net/free-tools/?mc_cid=cd0d34d6f6&mc_eid=2eb7a57b67#lessonplan
https://www.nysed.gov/bilingual-ed/integrated-english-new-language-enl-resources
https://sites.google.com/ocmboces.org/midstaterberntoolkit/language-acquisition
https://sites.google.com/ocmboces.org/midstaterberntoolkit/lesson-planning
https://sites.google.com/ocmboces.org/midstaterberntoolkit/teaching-materials
https://sites.google.com/ocmboces.org/midstaterberntoolkit/teaching-roles/content-areas
CAN-DO DESCRIPTORS
A general way to get this information about what your student can do at his/her level.
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/can-do-ell/•
Keep in mind that every student is different, so everything may not always apply.
https://wida.wisc.edu/teach/can-do/descriptors
BLOGS
