Theory and Practice of ELL

By: Kayleigh Basovky, Leigh Scarano, Julia Zendell and

Mazie Stiles
 What is an ELL?
● An ELL is “an individual whose home language is a
language other than English.”
● When these children enter school, and their
English language proficiency is assessed, they are
placed in classrooms that offer varying levels and
models of support through English as a Second
Language (ESL) programming.
● Most ELL’s are born in the United States.
● Most of the time Spanish is the primary language,
but there is over 400 languages spoken by ELL
students throughout the country.
5 stages of second language acquisition
Pre production stage - the student does not
speak

Early production stage - responds with one or

two words only

Speech Emergence stage - speaks simple

sentences

Intermediate fluency stage - student has few

grammatical errors

Advanced fluency stage - speaking the language

just about fluently
Most Effective Instructional Strategies
● Explicit skill instruction
● Student-directed activities
● Instructional strategies that enhanced understanding
● Opportunities to practice
● Systematic student assessment
● A balanced curriculum
Explicit skill instruction (SRES)
● Systematic, Relentless, Engaging, Successful
● S- instruction focuses on critical content and is sequenced logically (easier
skills before harder skills), it is organized and focused
● Example- I, We, You
● R- continuous practice, reviews, and teaching until mastery
● E- responses are encouraged, performance is monitored, feedback is
always provided
● Examples- walking around to monitor, hand signals, facial expressions for
comprehension
● S- with all of this, comprehension works!
 Student-directed activities
● This type of teaching allows students to make choices
● Students can explain what interests them
● The teacher can then determine what the students will learn based on
their interests
● The teacher and students can come up with a rubric for a project together
○ The ELL student can see how the teacher comes up with the rubric
and the students can learn from each other’s ideas
● The teacher can let the students decide why the project is important to
them and what purpose it serves
○ This helps ELL students because they can understand the purpose of
projects through other students ideas
Instructional strategies that enhanced
understanding
● Make it visual
● Build in more group work
● Communicate with the ESL teacher
● Honor the “silent period”
● Look out for culturally unique vocabulary
● Pre-teach whenever possible
● Always take them seriously
Opportunities to practice
● Integrated Group Classrooms- ELLs enter their grade level, and
instructors use specially designed academic instruction in English.
● Dual-Language Programs- Students work in English for a designated
percentage of the school day and in another language (often Spanish) for
the other percentage of the school day. Each year the percentage of each
language changes.
● Self contained ESL Classrooms- Students first do academic work in their
core subjects with other ESL students. They then are mainstreamed for
non-academic subjects such as physical education, art, library, computer
lab, lunch, and recess.
Systematic student assessment
● This is the process of collecting data to see how well students are learning
and if the programs within schools are working and making sure all
students succeed
● This will help ELL students because schools can understand by collecting
data if programs for ELL students are working
A balanced curriculum
A balanced curriculum is a tool that school districts use to create, align, assess,
and manage their curriculum development and implementation.

Each course the school district offers is divided into units with specific tasks to
go along. Those tasks are aligned with state standards and assessment
specifications.

It is designed in the way that teachers must follow, however with the freedom
and creativity to make it work for their own unique classroom.
Video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hekJsCOHLU

While watching the video, write down any methods

you have seen in your own observation classroom!
Skit!
Split into six groups and each group gets a different strategy

Every group will make up a skit using their strategy

At the end of the skit, the class will guess which strategy your group had!
Learning Styles
Visual: the students are able to see the slides and the video

Auditory: we spoke clearly to the students

Social & verbal: the students came up with a skit and were able to participate
throughout the presentation

Applied: the students can relate what they learned in the presentation to what
they see in the classrooms they observe in
References
● http://urcues.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ELLS-brief_FINAL-.pdf
● https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/five-stages-of-
second-language-acquisition/
● http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108002/chapters/Research-
Based_Practices_for_English_Language_Learners.aspx
● https://www.scoe.org/files/explicit-instruction.pdf
● https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/15-examples-student-centered-
teaching/
● https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244013478012
● https://in.nau.edu/ocldaa/characteristics-of-systematic-assessment/