English Language Acquisition: Talking and Writing

by Ruth Brown and Anna S. Cook

Your school year is going fairly well, all things considered. Then, just when you thought you had it all under control, the principal walks in the door with a new student – straight from Somalia or the Ukraine or Laos or Honduras or Mexico. This ELL student was taught some English in their native country, but you can barely communicate with the child.

Has this happened to you? Statistics say if it has not, it will. According to the Indiana Department of Education, the number of students in Indiana for whom English is a new language has grown by 450% in the past 10 years (Language Learning and Migrant Education, 1998 & 2008).

It’s hard to describe how to help English language learners (ELL) because it’s hard to describe ELLs. Their oral English skills may range from none to nearly fluent. They may be new to speaking English when they enter your room, or they may have a few years of experience. Their native country may share similar cultural/religious customs or there may be no connections at all. They may only hear and use their English at school. Even though their academic abilities are as widely varied as native English speakers, it is much harder to determine if learning difficulties are language development or academically related.

Research (Hill & Flynn, 2006) has shown that it will take your new ELL student several years to become fully fluent in English -- between five and seven years if they have a solid foundation with their home language and between seven and ten years if their native language has not been established. English acquisition also depends on the age the student begins to learn the new language, academic ability, and the individual’s desire to learn.

So how do you help your ELLs write?

Written language will mirror oral language acquisition:

As language develops, so, too, does writing. “Second language writers, like their first language counterparts, progress developmentally as they gain control over the writing process. To become truly effective writers, they must coordinate a broad range of complex skills, including clarity of thought and expression, knowledge of different genres to suit different purposes, and the ability to use conventional spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Such coordination depends, among other things, on students’ English language proficiency, cognitive development, and writing experience” (Peregoy, 2001, p. 220).

According to Jill Mora (2007), a bilingual and second language educator at San Diego State University, ELLs will:

• Show the same errors in writing that they make in speaking (i.e. pronoun agreement, correct use of articles, adjective agreement, dropping words, etc.)
• Lag one to two levels behind their LEP level
• Use phonetics to guide spelling

Kindergarten ELLs are only behind in vocabulary since all kindergarteners are learning letter sounds and basic reading and writing skills. Older ELLs need more help because the curriculum assumes progressive language skills. The extent will depend on how much education the child had in their native country and whether they need to master a new language or master all foundational skills.

A good vocabulary is critical to communication, comprehension, and fluency. ELL children are thousands of words behind native language learners when they start school at kindergarten. Cultural differences can become additional hurdles for some ELLs. Not only are they learning new vocabulary, they are learning new concepts, contexts, and frames of reference.

It is important for ELLs to begin to talk in order to acquire vocabulary; the primary way we learn a language is through oral discourse (DeMado, 2008, n.d.). According to Nonie Lesaux (as cited in Pappano, 2008, Focus on Tier 2 Words. 17), Associate Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, research shows that an ELL has to hear a word 13 – 15 times in different contexts to own the word. You need to lead the way. If you dedicate two minutes of focused listening and conversation prompting each day, within ten days you will have built an invaluable learning foundation of safety and inclusion for the ELL student. This is absolutely essential for quick learning.

Most importantly, don’t be discouraged. This is an opportunity for you and your students to learn and grow.

In addition to the interventions happening outside the classroom, here are a few winning strategies you can use in the classroom to speed the language acquisition process:

Word Hero

• Find out from ELL staff which words to begin with. Use a mix of Dolch¹ words plus words from these categories: school, colors, personal pronouns, gender, family, pets, food, clothing, sports, and action verbs.
• Ask students to help you label all the basic classroom elements. You can set up one small area where several common classroom items are kept together.
• Assign one of the students to review these with your ELL daily.
• First pronounce the object’s name while pointing to the object and the word label. Ask the student to repeat after you. After several times of review, cover over the word and ask the student to tell you the name of the item before you say the name. Often it is good to provide the noun and related verb. “Scissors cut.” Use the word in a simple sentence. “I sharpen my pencil.” Encourage the student and praise all efforts.
• Bring in some magazines (or ask to borrow pictures from the ELL staff), and ask the class to find pictures showing action verbs or other pictures from your core list.
• Create picture and word wall. This will be very helpful for vocabulary and sentence building.

Chat Club

Ask a peer tutor to talk with the ELL each day. The conversation can be generated from the Word Hero wall, beginning readers, talk about family, or school. For a complete novice, beginning readers are great conversation starters. The peer tutor can point to the pictures and ask simple yes/no questions at first: “Do you like the dog?” “The dog is funny, right?” Borrow books from ELL staff, the Waterford Reading Program, or your book room. Encourage the ELL to talk. Praise all efforts.

Sentence Superstar

• Cut 3 x 5 index cards in half and make two sets of Word Hero cards -- one set for the Word Hero wall and one to use to build sentences.
• Ask a peer tutor to help the ELL student build sentences using a pocket chart or any flat surface. Start with just 10 - 12 cards at first to avoid overwhelming the student. These words work: The, boy, girl, I, am, a, is, it, dog, cat, big, little, red, yellow. Make changes to the noun cards every day or so as the ELL student becomes familiar with those sentences. “The pencil is yellow.” “The dog is big.” “I go to school.” “I like pizza.” Encourage and praise the ELL continually.

Write Now

• Pictures or picture books are great writing prompts. Borrow a few beginning readers from the ELL staff. These books will provide a wide variety of sentences such as “I like….” and “The monkey is brown” for students to model their own sentences after.
• Instruct your peer tutors to help the ELL sound out words to determine how to spell them. As long as the phonetic sound is there, correct spelling isn’t important. The peer tutor may find the ELL student will need more help associating the short vowel sounds with the appropriate letter.
• Since an ELL student will have more free time than other students, he/she can be encouraged to draw a picture to accompany the daily sentence work.
• Look for ways to share work with the class.

Board Buddies

Let your ELL student and another student carry on a conversation on the board. Have the peer tutor write simple questions for the ELL student. “My name is Brian. What is your name?” Let the ELL student write his/her response. Good sentences give information and then ask a question. (ex: “I am ten years old, how old are you?” ) The only requirement is for the ELL student to try to write full sentences, not just one word responses. The ELL student can use the peer tutor’s work to pull words for his/her own sentences. It will be helpful to give the peer tutor a list of questions to use. Be sure to instruct the peer tutor not to correct the ELL student’s spelling, but to help with phonetic spelling.

Memory Madness

Ask a peer tutor to help the ELL student memorize important information. Start with short vowel sounds. A good way is to associate an object or action with the sound. Of course, the obvious apple, elephant, octopus, and umbrella work, but we have changed short “i” to itchy since igloo and iguana are too obscure. (Use motion to help: Scratch your arm as you say “itchy.”) Other great memory categories are: color names, the names of the numbers one through twenty (later go to one hundred), the days of the week, and the months of the year.

Ease Up on the Spelling and Grammar

Don’t worry about spelling, subject/verb agreement, or syntax. The most important thing for the student is that they are building English sentences and then writing them. Even when they ask you to help with spelling, just offer the phonetic sounds and let them write what they hear. It is far more important for the ELL student to hear all the sounds in the word than that they use correct spelling. There will be plenty of time to help with their spelling. You can expect ELLs to leave words out of their sentences. Let them. They may want to use both the personal noun and the pronoun (ex. “Hassan he can run”). Let them. They may put their adjectives after the noun (ex. “Daniel and daniel big play ball”). If the sentence communicates, let it be.

¹"After surveying a great quantity of children's books, Edward W. Dolch compiled the famous Dolch Sight Word lists to help parents and educators improve the reading ability of their children . . ." http://www.dolch-words.com/

References:

--. (2008).

Indiana department of education language minority enrollment summary. Indianapolis, Indiana: Author. Retrieved April 2008 from http://www.doe.state.in.us/lmmp/

DeMado, J. (2008, March).

The language-rich schoolhouse. Keynote address presented at K-12 ESL Conference, Indianapolis, IN.

Hill, J.D. & Flynn, K.M. (2006).

Classroom instruction that works with English language learners. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Mora, J. (2007).

Development of second-language writing. Retrieved May 2, 2008 from Cross-Cultural Language and Academic Development CLAD Website, http://coe.sdsu.edu/people/jmora/L2WritingMMdl/

Office of English Language Learning and Migrant Education. (1998).

Indiana department of education language minority enrollment summary. Indianapolis, Indiana: Author. Retrieved April 2008 from http://www.doe.state.in.us/lmmp/

Papano, L. (2008, May/June).

Small kids, big words. Harvard education letter. Retrieved May 2008 from http://www.edletter.org/insights/bigwords.shtml

Peregoy, S. F & Boyle, O. F. (2001).

Reading, writing, and learning in ESL: A resource book for K-12 teachers. New York: Longman.

Ruth Brown and Anna S. Cook

Anna S. Cook, Coordinator of Special Programs and Literacy, MSD of Decatur Township, Indianapolis, IN. Anna has been a district administrator for 8 years and an educator in the township for 13 years prior to that.

Ruth Brown, ESL Instructional Assistant, MSD of Decatur Township, Indianapolis, IN. Ruth has been tutoring ESL students and assisting classroom teachers for 3 ½ years.

This featured article appeared in Volume 3, Number 4 issue of the Write Connections quarterly newsletter. View other archived newsletters , a topical organization of all newsletters, or sign-up to receive notification when the next newsletters are ready to download.