ELL Survival Guide
a Pragmatic Learner, you
Learning Styles
It’s your first day of class, and
you have no idea where to
begin with your English
Language Learners. However, I
have a quick and fun way to
get to know your students.
Whether, you speak English,
Spanish, French, German,
Czech, etc., all students learn
differently. We call these
learning styles. There are so
many different types of
learning styles, but I will
provide 10 learning styles that I
feel are very important to
know and understand. There
are Auditory Learners, Visual
Learners, Applied Learners,
Conceptual Learners, Spatial
Learners, Verbal Learners,
Social Learners, Independent
Learners, Creative Learners,
and last but not least,
Pragmatic Learners. Knowing
the differences between these
different learning styles will
help you find the best way to
teach your ELL student. For
example, if your ELL student is
would want to incorporate
more direct and detailed
instruction, so that student can
fully grasp a new concept or
idea. A nice easy way to figure
out what type of learners you
have in your classroom is to
give the students a
questionnaire. The students
can answer a series of
questions, and they will see
what type of learner they are
by tallying up their answer
choices. There are lots of
learning styles questionnaires.
SIOP Process
You’re probably wondering what
the SIOP Process/Model is. Once I
break it down for you, you will be
an expert in no time. The SIOP
process is an eight-component
system that helps teachers write
more effective lesson plans. You
do not need to use all eight
components, and they do not
have to be used in order. The
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components of the SIOP Process
Model are Lesson Preparation,
Building Background,
Comprehensible Input, Strategies,
Interaction, Practice/Application,
Lesson Delivery, and Review
Assessment. These components
are like a teacher checklist for ELL
students. During Lesson
Preparation a teacher is making
sure that the standard being
taught matches up with the
language function. With Building
Background, a teacher cannot
assume that their students will
know what they are going to
teach, that’s why we teach them.
A teacher should try and make up
a fun way to introduce a new topic
that will grab their students’
attentions. Comprehensible Input
is self-explanatory, but you want
to make sure that the information
being taught in the lesson will be
understood by your students. The
Strategies Component of the SIOP
Process gives different ways to
teach all students, not just ELL,
but this will benefit you in your
ELL classroom. The Interaction
component is more beneficial for
the students: Are they
participating? Are they
contributing to group discussions?
How will you break off the
students into groups or pairs?
These questions. Will get easier as
you become more familiar with
your students. In the
Practice/Application component,
this is where your students can.
Get a hands-on learning
experience. How will the students
work with the new concept? The
Lesson Delivery Component is
very important. You need to make
sure that you are not talking fast,
you need to make sure that you
are giving your ELL students
enough wait time to respond
because they may or may not be
still learning English. Lastly,
Review/Assessment component
helps with drilling the new
concept home. Make sure that the
students know the new
vocabulary. Have review sheets
and visuals prepared. Your
students will need repetition. This
just about sums up the SIOP
Process and how you can use this
model beneficially and accurately
in the classroom.
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Language Acquisition
There are two types of language
acquisitions: First-Language
Acquisition and Second Language
Acquisition. First- Language acquisition is
a universal process regardless of home
language. Babies listen to the sounds
around them, begin to imitate them,
and eventually start producing words.
Second-language acquisition assumes
knowledge in a first language and
encompasses the process an individual
goes through as he or she learns
the elements of a new language, such as
vocabulary, phonological components,
grammatical structures, and writing
systems. I am going to focus on Second
Language Acquisition. There are five
stages: Pre-Production Stage, Early
Production, Speech Emergence,
Intermediate Fluency, and Advanced
Fluency. Depending on which stage of
language acquisition that your ELL
student is in, a student may or may
not participate in your class, and it is
not because they do not know the
answer.
In the Pre-Production Stage, the
student is verbally unresponsive,
hesitant, and unsure. This student
will respond with one-word answers.
These students will also respond by
pointing, gesturing, nodding, and
drawing. These students need more
time adjusting to the classroom. For
the students in the pre-production
stage, as the teacher, you should
speak more slowly, you should focus
on listening, do not worry too much
about speaking, you should use a lot
of visuals like graphic organizers or
pictures, and you should use gestures
and body language when
communicating with these students.
In the Early Production Stage, the
student is speaking in word chunks
that have been memorized, but the
chunks may not always be used
correctly. This stage can be from six
months to a year. In this stage the
student will have a receptive
vocabulary (the words they hear) and
an active speaking vocabulary of 1000
words. In this stage, teachers should
stick to Yes or No questions, teachers
should continue to encourage
listening, and teachers should use
labeling and diagramming
illustrations as visual cues.
 ELL Survival Guide
In the Speech Emergence Stage, the
student will have about 3000 words
in their vocabulary. These students
will communicate with simple
phrases and sentences. The students
will also start asking simple
questions. Be mindful that these
structures of the questions may not
always be correct: a word or two
might be missing. These students will
also initiate short conversations with
classmates. This is the stage where
students will begin doing some
content work with support. As the
teacher, you can still encourage
listening. Try not to force speaking.
You want to start encouraging the
student to participate more. You
should also start asking how and why
questions. You can also provide text
with pictures. Also, keep in mind the
necessary modifications that need to
be made.
In the Intermediate fluency stage, the
student will have developed a
vocabulary of 6000 words. This stage
lasts for about three to five years.
The student will start forming more
complex sentences in speaking and
writing. There will still be many errors
in grammar in writing. In this stage,
teachers should help students by
asking questions to clarify what is
being taught in class. The teacher can
also use native language strategies to
help teach the ELL student content in
English. Always remember to
encourage listening and do not force
speaking. Now, you can have the
students take on a larger role in
cooperative group activities. Start
introducing idioms to these students.
The final stage: Advanced Fluency is
where the student is at near-native in
their ability to perform in content
area learning. This stage takes about
four to ten years to achieve cognitive
academic language proficiency in a
second language. Most students in
this stage no longer need ESL
services. In the beginning of this
stage, however, the student will still
need continued support from
classroom teachers, especially in
content areas like social studies and
writing. In this stage you also
continue to encourage listening and
do not force speaking. Teachers will
still continue to emphasize content
area vocabulary. This is where the
teacher can provide grammar
instruction. The teacher should also
focus on reading and writing skills.
The student can now be a more
complex group participant: they can
be the note take or the reporter.