Kelly ODonnell

EDUC 359
Stages of Language Acquisition and Methods of Co-Teaching Reflection:

Stages of Language Acquisition:

Stage 1: Pre-Production
Key Factors:
-

Not all students speak during this stage (called the silent period.)
The students that do speak may only be parroting, not actually producing
language. This is called parroting.
Some students may respond only nonverbally with gestures or pointing.

Effective Strategy:
-

In this stage a buddy that speaks the English language learners language is
very beneficial to the ELL student. These students are overwhelmed and
exhausted by trying to understand another language all day and having a
buddy speak to them in their language is a nice break and relief.

Stage 2: Early Production

Key Factors:
-

In this stage students vocabulary increases to about 1,000 words from 500
words in the Pre-Production stage.
Students can usually speak in one to two word phrases only.
They can speak in chunks that they have memorized although these chunks
are not always used correctly.

Effective Strategy:
-

A good way to work with these students is to ask yes or no questions and
accept either one or two word answers from these students.
Using pictures and visuals is also key for the students in this stage.

Stage 3: Speech Emergence

Key Factors:
-

In this stage students vocabulary has increased to about 3,000 words and can
communicate in simple sentences and phrases.
The grammar of these sentences and phrases may be incorrect.
ELL students will also begin to initiate short conversations with their fellow
classmates.

Effective Strategy:

A good strategy in this stage is to have students work with vocabulary by

matching words with their definitions.
Having students write at this stage is also beneficial.

Stage 4 Intermediate Fluency

Key Factors:
-

Vocabulary increases to about 6,000 words in this stage.

The students are beginning to speak in more complex sentences when
speaking and writing.
Students are more open to expressing their opinion in the classroom and
asking questions when they need clarification.
Students use strategies from their first language to understand and learn
content in English.

Effective Strategy:
-

In this stage it is important for teachers to focus on teaching ELL students

learning strategies. (This way they will not always rely on thinking in their
native language and translating over to English.)

Stage 5 Advanced Fluency

Key Factors:
-

At the beginning of this stage students still need a lot of assistance from their
teachers in content areas.
Students are near native in their abilities in content area learning in this
stage.
At this stage most students will have been exited out of the ESL program and
other support programs.

Effective Strategy:
-

It is key to give students support in troublesome content in the final stages

such as social studies and writing.

4 Methods of Co-Teaching:
1. Supportive Teaching:
With this method of teaching one teacher has the primary
responsibility for planning and teaching the lesson. The other teachers
responsibility is to move around the classroom and help individual
students. Some advantages of this strategy is that the students are
better behaved because of the close proximity of the one teacher. They
also get added help that they may need in a timely manner because
they do not need to wait until the teacher is done with the entire
lesson. This method can be used very effectively in a classroom with
an ELL student. Although the teacher that walks around is there for
everyone, he or she can keep an extra eye on the ELL student and add

extra help whenever it seems as though the student is struggling or

falling behind.

2. Parallel Teaching:
In this method, there are two teachers that plan the lesson together.
Once the lesson is planned, they split the class into two groups and
teach the same lesson individually. This is a helpful method because
the teachers have the comfort of teaching a lesson the way they know
how. It also splits the class into two much smaller groups which allows
for more individualized instruction. The smaller group instruction can
be very beneficial for an ELL student. The student will be able to focus
on the teacher more easily because the teacher is speaking to a much
smaller group of students. Also the teacher does not have a whole
classroom to attend to so he or she will be able to focus on the ELL
student more than usual and give assistance when it may be needed.
3. Complementary Teaching:
In this method one teacher teaches the lesson while the second
teacher does something to supplement what the first teacher is
teaching. The second teacher complements the lesson that the
primary teacher is giving. For example the second teacher can
paraphrase what the primary teacher is saying or even repeat it
nonverbally with gestures and actions. The primary teacher speaks
while the secondary teacher does what the primary teacher is
teaching. This is good for an ELL student because they are able to hear
what the English words that the one teacher is speaking and
understanding those words by watching the actions that correspond
with what they are saying. For example if the one teacher is explaining
an experiment while the other teaching is setting up the supplies and
holding up each tool as it is being spoken about the ELL student will
have a better grasp in what is going on and what they will be expected
to do.
4. Team Teaching:
With this approach both teachers are responsible for planning the
lesson and teaching it together. Both teachers have equal parts in
teaching the lesson to the entire classroom as a whole. Both teachers
are actively involved in teaching the lesson, managing the classroom,
and adding assistance where needed. This is a good method when
there is an ELL student in the classroom because the teachers will be
able to work together to think of lessons and approaches that will
reach the ELL student. With two teachers they will have twice the
amount of ideas and expertise in order to engage the ELL student as
much as they can and ensure that the student does not fall behind in
the classroom.