Language Development

Many new teachers feel like the process of learning SEI isn’t applicable to them because they don’t
intend on teaching EL students. However, given the current system set in place for EL students, no class
can exclude a student for being an ELL. Due to this, we must prepare our classrooms with
accommodations for these students whenever they join us. Every teacher is a language teacher in some
capacity, so we must learn how best these students learn language. For nearly a hundred years
educators have theorized on the best ways to teach language to students. In my BLE 407 class, we went
through several theories and evaluated each one’s potential effectiveness. Many of the modern theories
push for more interaction with the EL student, specifically having the student learn their second
language more effectively by communicated said language. For example, Long’s Interaction Hypothesis
states that comprehension will be reached when a student can both comprehend input and produce
language that is comprehensible to a speaker of the language. In my current internship, we have several
ELLs in one specific period. Each have varying levels of proficiency of English, however there is one
student who falls far below in her ELP. She seems to understand when most classmates talk to her, and
even is able to hold solid conversations with them. However, though she can read and speak, she
refuses to write for almost any assignment. In the few assignments that she does write her English
writing skills fall far below where she should be at. From what I understand, she hasn’t been given much
practice in writing at the level she’s at currently, so she feels significantly left behind by her peers.