Instructional strategies

Teachers utilize instructional tactics to help students become independent and strategic thinkers. The table below contains instructional methodologies for ELLs-English language learners, as well as justifications for each skill level.

Pre-Emergent Instructional Techniques

Strategy and Description of the Content Area

Justification

Listening and Speaking

Communicate the learning purpose, slow down the teacher’s speech rate, and use print to supplement the oral presentation.

Allow adequate time for students to respond.

Use manipulative, visual, and facial expressions, as well as eye contact and gestures (Janzen, 2008).

The pupil at this stage does not understand English and does not speak it.

A student is capable of pointing out key points in a group presentation.The student has not yet known how to read and while previewing the text material, the student will look at pictures, bold print and graphics.

Student has not had the ability to write just yet, he/she can copy examples or label for group presentations.

Reading

Draw attention to text headings, questions and paragraphs

Give directive to students to maintain notebook for basic vocabulary.

Writing

Maintain writing portfolio for tracking progress, effort and achievement.

Accept work in the primary language of the student.

Teaching and reinforcement of conventions like punctuation and capitalization.

Emergent Instructional Strategies

Content Area

Strategy and Description

Justification

Speaking and Listening

Communicate learning objective

Coach learners into verbalizing in English and speak in complete sentences.

Provision of safe opportunities for student to speak/respond

Reduce teacher speech rate and allow for enough wait-time for the response of the learner.

Emphasis of the key elements for learner note -taking

Student has an awareness of alphabetic letters, sounds and has the capacity of recognizing few isolated words, gestures and universal symbols.

For emergent English learners, the extent of the prior reading knowledge of the learner is dependent on his/her skill level (Jacquie, 2017).

Reading

Communicate the learning objective

Provision of key information using the primary language of the learner.

Identification of word parts, i.e. suffixes, roots and prefixes

Prompt learners into formulating questions through turning headings, subheadings and illustrations as well as graphic aids into questions (Taboada, Bianco, & Bowerman, 2012)

Writing

Communicate learning objective

Expand student vocabulary by identifying the synonyms.

Direct learners in group work into to creating a non-linguistic material representation

Allow revision and resubmission after corrective feedback.

Ensure sentence fluency of the student with a variation of sentence starters.

Basic Instructional Strategies

Content Area

Strategy and Description

Justification

Speaking and Listening

Communicate the learning objective

Concrete information with visuals and formulistic patterned speech

Imitation and repetition continues

The learner has an understanding of simple speech with repetition and spoken slowly, formal patterns, common phrases and sight words.

Reading

Expanding vocabulary with labeling

Writing

Allow revision and resubmission after corrective feedback.

Expand student vocabulary by identifying the synonyms.

Intermediate Instructional Strategies

Content Area

Strategy and Description

Justification

Speaking and Listening

Communicate learning objective.

Encouraging learners to use academic language and frequently check for comprehension.

Encouraging learners to use complex sentences in oral presentations and expand their vocabulary through the identification of synonyms.

The learner understands more complex speech, but with some repetition.

Reading

Modification of text for elimination of unnecessary information.

Prompt learners into applying a reading comprehension strategy to text after teacher modeling.

Encouraging student oral reading fluency via understanding punctuation

Provision of reading materials at independent reading level of the learner.

Writing

Communicate learning objective

Expand student vocabulary by identifying the synonyms.

Allow revision and resubmission after corrective feedback.

Ensure sentence fluency of the student with a variation of sentence starters.

© 2017. Grand Canyon University. All Rights Reserved.

References

Jacquie, M. (2017, November 24). Reading Strategies for Emergent Readers: Pre-Reading. Retrieved from lessonplanspage: http://lessonplanspage.com/reading-strategies-for-emergent-readers-pre-reading/

Janzen, J. (2008). Teaching English language learners in the content areas. Review of Educational Research, 78(4), 1010-1038.

Taboada, A., Bianco, S., & Bowerman, V. (2012). Text-based questioning: A comprehension strategy to build English language learners’ content knowledge. Literacy Research and Instruction, 51(2), 87-109.