Stages in Second Language Acquisition

David MurphyEnglish Language Fellow

www.comexus.org.mxELFPachuca@Gmail.com

Five Stages in SLAStage 1: Pre-Production (Silent Period)Stage 2: Early ProductionStage 3: Speech EmergenceStage 4: Intermediate FluencyStage 5: Advanced Fluency

Stage 1: Pre-production (Silent Period)

Period: from several weeks to several monthsIndicators: language learners have very little output at this stageOngoing Processes: learners are learning new vocabulary and practicing pronunciation

Stage 2: Early ProductionDuration: About 6 monthsAcquisition: Learners typically acquire a vocabulary of about 1,000 wordsIndicators: Learners speak in short phrases. These phrases may not be correctly delivered.

Stage 2: Students Will Be Able To• Ask yes/no and either/or questions.• Accept one or two word responses.• Give students the opportunity to

participate in some of the whole class activities.

• Use pictures and realia to support questions.

• Modify content information to the language level of ELLs.

Stage 2: Students Will Be Able To• Build vocabulary using pictures.• Provide listening activities.• Simplify the content materials to be used.

Focus on key vocabulary and concepts.• When teaching elementary age ELLs, use

simple books with predictable text.• Support learning with graphic organizers,

charts and graphs. Begin to foster writing in English through labeling and short sentences. Use a frame to scaffold writing.

Stage 3: Speech EmergenceAcquisition: Learners typically acquire a vocabulary of about 3,000 wordsIndicators: Learners make short sentences, begin reading and writing. Learners gain greater confidence.

Stage 3: Students Will Be Able To· Read short, modified texts in content area subjects.· Complete graphic organizers with word banks.· Understand and answer questions about charts and graphs.· Match vocabulary words to definitions.· Study flashcards with content area vocabulary.

Stage 3: Students Will Be Able To

Participate in duet, pair and choral reading activities.· Write and illustrate riddles.· Understand teacher explanations and two-step directions.· Compose brief stories based on personal experience.· Write in dialogue journals.

Stage 4: Intermediate Fluency Acquisition: Learners typically acquire a vocabulary of about 6,000 wordsIndicators: use more complex sentences when speaking and writing and are willing to express opinions and share their thoughts. They will ask questions to clarify what they are learning in class.

Stage 4: Intermediate Fluency

Skills: Student writing at this stage will have many errors as ELLs try to master the complexity of English grammar and sentence structure. Many students may be translating written assignments from native language.

Stage 5: Advanced Fluency Duration: takes students from 4-10 years to achieve cognitive academic language proficiency in a second language.Indicators: Student at this stage will be near-native in their ability to perform in content area learning.Most ELLs at this stage have been exited from ESL and other support programs.

Questions for SLAPreproduction: Ask questions that students can answer by pointing at pictures in the book ("Show me the wolf," "Where is the house?").

Early Production: Ask questions that students can answer with one or two words ("Did the brick house fall down?" "Who blew down the straw house?").

Questions for SLASpeech Emergence: Ask "why" and "how" questions that students can answer with short sentences ("Explain why the third pig built his house out of bricks." "What does the wolf want?").

Intermediate Fluency: Ask "What would happen if …" and "Why do you think …" questions ("What would happen if the pigs outsmarted the wolf?”)

Questions for SLA

Advanced Fluency: Ask students to retell the story, including main plot elements but leaving out unnecessary details.

Creating Lesson Plans

1. Identify your student learning outcomes.2. Outline your activities.3. Review your activities and look for ways to

make them more student-centered, to appeal to some of the eight intelligences, and to treat the four skills plus grammar.

Activities• Disappearing dialogues – write a line on

the board, the class repeats it, then you erase parts of the line.

• Dialogue building – use a drawing of stick figures to create a scene. Students write the dialogue for the scene.

• Information gap activities – information to complete a task is distributed among students. The students must share the information to complete the task.

Taboo• Put students into groups. One of the students

must sit with their back to the board, the other students facing the board.

• The teacher draws a picture or puts a flashcard on the board. The students have to describe what is on the board to help the student (with their back to the board) to guess what it is.

• For higher level students write a number of TABOO WORDS on the board. For example if a teacher shows the students a flash card of say ‘a teacher’, the taboo words that students cannot say could be ‘school’ and ‘student’.

Drawing Descriptions• Students each get a single picture, and

they must describe to their neighbor what the picture looks like.

• Students who are listening must draw the picture.

• After the first student is finished drawing, the first student should describe a different picture to the second student.

Hold It Up!• When the students are in groups, say one of

the vocabulary words that you want to review (or give a definition for higher levels).

• One team member must write the word on their paper and hold it up.

• The student to hold it up first gets one point for their team.

• After five vocabulary words, change the team member who must write.

• Variation: Students who haven't learned the alphabet can be given pictures to hold up.

Guess Who?• Each student in a group chooses a famous person

or thing.• Group members ask yes/no questions about the

famous person or thing. • When a group member receives a 'yes' to their

question, they can ask one follow up question• If the answer to a group member's question is no,

the next student gets to ask a question• You may choose to prepare a handout of possible

questions to get things started and help weaker students. Some possible questions are: ‘Are you famous?’ ‘Are you a man?’ ‘Are you a woman?’ ‘Are you an actor?’ ‘Are you a singer?’

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Thanks!David Murphy

English Language Fellowwww.comexus.org.mx

www.americanenglish.state.govELFPachuca@Gmail.com