1. Oracy & Literacy for
English-Language
Learners
Chapter 4
Challenges

2. Standards for ELL Students
Nationwide and Locally
 1997 – original standards for student
performance
 2006 – brand new document
incorporating content areas

3. ESL Goals and Standards
 Goal 1: To use English to communicate in social settings
 Use English to participate in social interaction
 Interact in, through, and with spoken and written English for persoal expression
and enjoyment
 Use learning strategies to extend their communicative competence
 Goal 2: To use English to achieve academically in all content areas
 Use English to interact in the classroom
 Use English to obtain, process, construct, and provide subject matter information in
spoken & written form
 Goal 3: To use English in socially & culturally appropriate ways
 Use the appropriate language variety, register, and genre according to audience,
purpose, and setting
 Use nonverbal communication appropriate to audience, purpose, & setting
 Use appropriate learning strategies to extend their sociolinguistic and sociocultural
competence

4. Arkansas English Language
Frameworks
 Four skills areas
 How many of you took a course on listening or
developing listening comprehension?
 Listening
 Speaking
 Reading
 Writing
 Integrating helps to build proficiency

5. Listening
 Passive? NO, receptive skill
 Use background knowledge, visual cues,
expectations of what people will be saying to
make meaning
 Backward buildup is technique to focus on
difficult vocabulary

6. Watch

7. How can you tell listening
happening?
 Have students listen to text (audiotape, ad from tv,
video, announcement, etc…)
 Allow them to draw what they understand (see the
example of integrated skills) first
 Allow them to order what happened first in the text,
second, etc… by numbering or cutting out visuals
that represent the text
 TPR activities--- listening first, then later other skills

8. Speaking
 Do we expect learners to come to school able to speak under most
circumstances?
 Novice: Linguistically language learners begin with one/two word phrases
or memorizable chunks
 Intermediate: Move to “almost” sentence structure
 Intermediate High: Next step is to complete simple sentences
 Advanced: Next is to more complex
 Advanced/Superior: Finally, to paragraph-length utterances
 Look at Table 4.2 – pg. 84, which are Novice speaking activities? Which
are intermediate? Which would you avoid with a brand new language
learner initially?

9. Speaking
 What about perfect pronunciation and
intonation?
 Is it always a good idea to teach
stress, intonation overtly or should we allow
students to experience?
 Error correction: Does it matter if we correct
student errors?

10. Reading
 The key most important element for a
language learner (or any learner) to
comprehend a reading passage is background
knowledge! Not grammar!
 Important skill that can transfer if foundations
laid
 Most important skill to gain content
knowledge in many classrooms still

11. Wide range of literacy we serve
 K-3 whose beginning literacy instruction is in their primary
language
 K-3 acquiring initial literacy in English because they do not
have access in L1
 Older learners with grade-level primary language literacy who
are beginning to develop English literacy
 Older with limited formal schooling in home country
 Older learners with inconsistent school history, with limited
development of either the primary language or English
 DESPITE this, national accountability is requiring us to assess
these groups to the same standards!

12. Transfer of Reading from L1 to L2
 Much easier to transfer knowledge of printed
word, how words fit together if you have had
experience in L1
 IRA (2001) recommended that initial literacy be in
the child’s L1
 When not possible or serving other groups as listed
above three major things to consider
 Literacy is introduced in meaningful way
 Link b/w oral language and print is made as naturally as
possible
 Students have the opportunity to enjoy reading/writing

13. 7 Strategies for teaching reading
 Environmental print
 Meaning-based
 Silent period in reading
 Low-anxiety environment
 Motivating activities
 Integration of structure & function
 Integration of content & literacy (see Table
4.4)

14. Phonics & Literacy for ELLs
 Often taught in early childhood
 Has been shown to be good for English-speaking children
 For ELL students, evidence is not clear-cut
 “English learners should not be involved in phonics instruction that isolate
sounds and letters from meaningful use of text”
 Success for All (reading program in some central Arkansas
schools)…elementary teacher found following problems: reading
(decoding) is separate from comprehension; emphasis is on sound and
sound-blend identification to the detriment of coherent, logical reading
materials; specially written stories focus on targeted sounds and do not
include commonly occurring English words and natural usage; and
unnatural, awkward syntax contradicts ELL growing knowledge of spoken
English and/or reinforces use of problematic language (Lee, 2000).

15. Strategies for ELL Literacy
Development
 Visuals, visuals, visuals and meaningful
content
 Prereading activities (activating schema/prior
knowledge)
 LEA – students tell orally about experiences,
teachers write down and read, and text
becomes reading for the ELL students
 Other techniques listed in the chapter

16. Writing
 Often the last skill to be improved upon (think about
yourself in your L1!)
 Moved from product to process writing
 Brainstorming
 Drafting
 Peer reviewing
 Publishing
 Remember that language learners may need to draw
and label as alternative to longer writing assignments
at novice levels.

17. Error Correction & Grammar
 Grammar should not be taught just for grammar’s sake, especially
for ELL students who do not have enough abstract language to
understand the “linguistic” talk – needs to be connected to
meaningful interaction
 However, there does need to be meaningful connections to grammar
 Errors are a part of acquiring a L2 so we must encourage them
 Early on, fluency is more important than grammatical accuracy
 When student says, “I no got pencil”, the teacher should model back
“well if you don’t have a pencil, ask your partner to borrow one”.
Focus is ON THE MESSAGE, not the form.
 Younger children do not benefit from overt grammar instruction as
much as older children who have had language experiences in their
L1.
 If you notice a common set of errors over and over again, this may
be the time to use the overhead or computer to show students and
have them analyze the problem

18. CALL – Computer Assisted
Language Learning
 Wonderful time to be teaching! At least where tech is
concerned
 Lots of practice on language learning can be
accomplished on commercial & FREE software
 Computer language learning can provide meaning
authentic texts for learners
 Students can look up news stories in their own
languages and newspapers to gain background
knowledge for learning the content in English! (if
they have L1 literacy skills)

19. BICS/CALP