Stages of Second Language Acquisition: The different levels of proficiency that students experience during there time as English Language Learners. These stages include: Preproduction, Early Production, Speech Emergence, Intermediate Fluencey, and Advanced Fluency.
by Nick Conine
1. Content Area Testing: Assessment developed to evaluate a student's proficiency in a certain content area.
2. Zone of Proximal Development: Metaphoric space where students can reach a higher level of understanding and knowledge with the support of someone with a greater grasp on the subject.
3. Scaffolding: Providing support to a student within their zone of proximal development to help them understand a new concept.
4. Second Language Acquisition Theories: Different views on how English Language Learners develop their second language. These perspectives vary from cognitive, behavioral, innate, and sociocultural.
5. Content Area Testing is a way to assess whether or not students are receiving appropriate instruction in these specific content areas. Accommodations from content area instruction can help better prepare English language learners for content area assessment, such as removing unnecessary from a math problem.
6. The zone of proximal development is highly impacted by the student's level of second language acquisition. The student's zone of proximal development is determined by how much they already know, in other words, their stage of second language acquisition.
7. The zone of proximal development relies on scaffolding to expand each student's zone. By scaffolding topics, students can prepare to learn concepts that are abstract to them within their own zone of proximal development.
8. The zone of proximal development is a sociocultural concept of second language acquisition. Students are working with an individual with a greater grasp on the subject material, such as a teacher, a classmate, or a parent. These individuals exist within the student's surrounding environment, and are required for language acquisition, according to the sociocultural perspective.
9. The zone of proximal development and Krashen's input hypothesis look at very similar concepts, but explain them using different perspectives of second language acquisition. Krashen's input hypothesis looks at how the brain processes comprehensive input, while the ZPD looks at the interaction between a student and someone with a mastery of the subject.
10. Krashen's Input Hypothesis is a cognitive theory of second language acquisition. This theory looks at how the brain processes the input that we receive and how this helps acquire an understanding of language.
11. Error Correction: Strategies of correcting the language that students use in the classroom. The goal of these strategies is to correct the student's mistake without embarrassing them in front of the class.
12. Content Area Instruction: Instruction provided to English Language Learners that utilizes their home language to teach them specific content area skills.
13. Primary Language Support: The use of the student's home language during sheltered instruction to make instruction in English as simple as possible for English Language Learners.
14. Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP): Classroom model developed to help teachers plan, teach, observe, and evaluate effective English Language Learner instruction. Places importance on developing language skills along with content area skills.
15. Krashen's Input (Comprehension) Hypothesis: Krashen's idea that language is acquired through understanding certain input that is just above our level of comprehension. The input hypothesis is a cognitive process.
16. Interaction Hypothesis: A cognitive approach to second language acquisition in which second language is acquired through interaction with someone and receiving corrected feedback.
17. Guided Reading: Reading strategy in which students are split up into small groups based on level of proficiency. The students in these groups are provided the same text and work together to practice skills and strategies used in class.
18. Sheltered Instruction is one aspect of effective content area instruction. SIOP emphasizes constructing language objectives alongside content area objectives along with ways to assess whether or not the content area instruction is effective for English Language Learners.
19. The use of the student's home language in the classroom can greatly help understanding of content area material. If the student's proficiency in their home language increases, it will be easier to transfer that information to their second language and these content areas.
20. The method of content area instruction used in the classroom depends on the stage of language acquisition the student is going through. For example, students in preproduction may need more primary language support, while students in advanced fluency would need less content area instruction.
21. Guided reading provides students with the chance to interact with peers around their level. This level of input can help students develop a greater understanding of subject material.
22. The interaction hypothesis heavily relies on conversations in which students receive corrected feedback. Error correction helps the development of second language through interaction with peers or a teacher.
23. The interaction hypothesis relies on the comprehensive input that is discussed in Krashen's input hypothesis. Students interacting with one another provide themselves with the comprehensive input to expand their proficiency in their second language.
24. The method of error correction used in the classroom depends on the student's stage of language acquisition. Because teachers do not want to discourage students from participating in the classroom, students in the lower stages of second language development are corrected using methods to help them come to the correct answer, rather than flat out correcting them.
