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Stage 1 is referred to as parroting. The student concern is to be able to reproduce what he hears. Sometimes he perceives he hears is not correct. Being unfamiliar with inflection patterns in the new language clutters his perception of the true sound in the new language.
A student is best taught through oral technique by passing comparisons. If he developed any reading or writing skills in his native tongue and tries to transfer this knowledge, he must go through a second step thinking process. 1) Apply the sound first to his native tongue 2) Then transfer it to the new language. This 2-step process slows learning. It is much better to just submerge with parroting. The goal is to "Think in English."
The listener must be able to discern what he is hearing I.E. Spanish speakers will hear v's as b's or the th's as d's due to sound association of first language pronunciations. Sound blends such as sh will be perceived as the single sound s since blends are not present in first language.
Since parents do not those instruction; they often cannot discern sound and will misprounce words even after extensive time in this country. It is not uncommon for parents to be uncomfortable speaking the second language to their own children because the children have been taught to discern the proper sounds. This can result in a feeling that the kids are doing better than the parents, thus, the parents stop trying to help the children. That leaves the child no help with homework in the English language. Even though there may be some comprehension and desire, the parent feels inadequate and therefore is reluctant to try. Sometimes the parent has not second language skills making it impossible to oversee homework. Sometimes an older brother or sister tries but sibling rivalry prevents much success.
A responsible teacher will make sure time and help is available for all work assigned to a second language learner. Homework or extra credit work allowed to raise test scores is of little value unless a tutor is available to help with it. ESL tutors are wonderful resources for teachers who coordinate work with them. Many times a parent even lacks first language skills in reading and writing. In school supervision is the only rewarding solution.
When Stage 1 is well under way, a second language learner, the same as a young baby, will mimic without understanding. A second language learner may even master the speaking of words for which he does not have an accurate meaning. Unfortunately the vocabulary he hears repeated most often is not proper English. The high use words of English children in neighborhoods, buses, playgrounds, halls, and lunchrooms is filled with slang and vulgarities not used by classroom teachers or found in textbooks. The ESL student first becomes adept at what we call "Survival" English or "Street Slang," but can be very lost in a classroom setting. He might even try a newly learned expression in a most inappropriate setting.
Sometimes a teacher will watch a student communicating with his friends outside the classroom and conclude that the student is indeed fluent. Therefore, the assumption is made that the student understands much more than he does. This conclusion can be disastrous in the classroom because it yields unreal expectations resulting in frustration for both teacher and student. This frustration seems to surface in the constant misunderstanding of instructions for class assignments. The student cannot do written work he does not thoroughly understand how to do. He may become quite creative in solving his dilemma. He may try one or more of these behaviors: 1) become the class copycat from anyone who will allow, 2) sit as if he doesn't care to do it at all, 3) demand additional explanation from teacher or classmate. Repetitive use of any of these behaviors can label him a discipline problem, or even worse, the class idiot. A perceptive teacher will write simple instructions on a piece of paper or the blackboard in advance so the student is not solely dependent on what he hears as a verbal explanation. Since there is a strong probability of his not being able to read cursive, these instructions should be in print. Content teachers can give a copy of these instructions to the ESL teacher so she can check the students work before he comes back to class this gives the ESL teacher a chance to who him where he erred and correct the procedure before returning to class. If she waits for him to arrive with the instructions, she has no opportunity to consult the text or review an unknown fact ahead of him. This really puts the tutor on the spot, especially if she has other subjects for other students int eh same hour. It is not possible to read them all on the spot. Furnishing the tutors with teacher answer sheets or preparation manuals can give clues as to which things to drill the student so the he/she can be successful when returning to class.
When learning the second language the student must train the muscles of the mouth and throat area to bring the sound backward. It is difficult for lip language speakers such as Hispanics to bring the delivery back into the cavity area of the mouth. Lip language sounds are not followed with puffs of air such as the ending T sound in hat. Therefore, ending consonant sounds as well as word attack consonants have to be drilled. Correct sound articulation is a tutor are even though the Spanish alphabet has only four characters not found in the English alphabet. It is not uncommon for the ESL student to be able to distinguish the sound (Stage 1), attach a word meaning to individual words (Stage 2), and still not be able to reproduce the sound quickly enough to respond in an understandable sentence order. Inverted word order and double word meanings will result in the ESL student shaking his head on cue with messages vaguely understood but not being able to give a verbal reply. Sometimes he will even answer yes he understands, because he thinks he does, when actually he has missed most of the details. He will consider just staying in the conversation a success.
At this stage an astute teacher will not be afraid to carry a one sided conversation, speaking slowly and using a very repetitive vocabulary which will reinforce his learning even at this early growth period.
Word comprehension occurs when Stages 1, 2, and 3 are well under way. Just as the small child will repeat things heard long before attaching a meaning or accurate pronunciation, so will a second language learner try to use vocabulary which he does not fully comprehend. At this stage he is a very adept at reading body language to see if he has goofed using newly acquired phrases at the inappropriate time. His main problems now surface with idioms and verb agreements. He sometimes reverses word order of adjectives and nouns or uses noun/pronoun doubles because he is just getting used to putting the subject before the verb. (In his native tongue, the subject is dictated by the verb ending.) Just trying to put the words he knows together correctly, can be so overwhelming, it becomes easier to mingle with those who will speak his native language rather than be so hampered with the constant struggle. We refer to this as "Cultural shock." Though he has good start and strong desire to be accepted in his new culture, he has very strong insecurities and doubts in his own ability. He definitely does not want to be on display or be a victim of laughter or ridicule. He has been here long enough not to enjoy being the "New Student" anymore.
It is not uncommon for an ESL student in this stage to deliberately pull away from integrating with local students. It is imperative that his ESL teacher create a secure place for him to come in those terrifying minutes of isolation, such as before school or waiting for a bus. Usually he will have questions about assignments or need a place to finish uncompleted work anyway, as doing work in a second language is so very tedious and slow. The wise teacher will devote much energy to self-esteem at this stage. She should personalize her room with his interests and display successful papers. Creating an environment where he can practice communication with other students on his learning level will give him a sense of security. Between class breaks and lunch hour, extra minutes visits interrupt the routine of sitting all day in classes, where only a portion is being understood. These breaks are vital to his being able to redirect his attention in his new language and refrain from just turning out from sheer boredom.
In such a location the ESL teacher can allow the students to use broken sentences, long pause and misused phrases without fear of peers. This semi-controlled practice builds confidence and speeds learning more than any other teaching technique. It promotes a good mental attitude which in turn produces greater concentration during the strenuous classroom intervals.
Development in the first four stages is accumulative, easy to access, and highly visible. Stage 5 is quite different. The ESL student will be able to identify and reproduce rather well, even to the point of reading with great fluency. His learning unfortunately will still be very much on a mechanical level. It is even possible for him to read a full page eloquently and not glean even the basic concept, especially if it is new vocabulary, such as a science class or history class where concepts build one upon another. The dedicated teacher will anticipate this and will use various teaching strategies such as pre-reading, demonstrations, questions, introducing vocabulary, or using group activities. This is good procedure for any student who lacks the ability to make deductions from context clues; for at this stage, there is usually someone beside the ESL student who will have a comprehension problem also. Realizing the others may have this problem will sometimes give the ESL student a little much needed confidence.
Building comprehension is a very long slow process with any student, but especially with the ESL student because his exposure to improvement is usually only at school where the second language is spoken.
The content teacher can arrange with the ESL teacher to give comprehension reading in his content area to enhance the students ability to function in that subject when he gets to that classroom. An ESL teacher will need accessibility to a wide variety of text to review, as many items the same information can be given at a lower reading level from a different author. One must always be careful not to choose younger books for this purpose if the ESL student is a teen. They are quite sensitive to the fact the pictures are of 'babies.' They are embarrassed to be found reading baby books.
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Migrant Education is a division of Chapter I designed to give ESL (English as a Second Language) teaching using oral and written skills when the students academic progress is impeded by a bilingual problem as well as students who are not on grade level because of migratory lifestyle. As the ability of the student to function in bilingual setting is lessened, so is the ESL teaching adjusted to the students current needs.
Individualized programs are presecribed for each student based on needs revealed by comprehensive testing. An oral test (LAS-Language Assessment Survey), and and academic test (Woodcock), are administered to determine the level of oral proficiency and academic ability. Academic ability is evaluated in these five areas: 1) Letter Identification--which includes print and cursive, 2) Word Identification--which includes the ability to read and pronounce, 3) Word Attack--which includes phonetical assessment of ability to pronounce word forms, 4) Word Comprehnsion--which attaches meanings to individual words, 5) Passage Comprehension--which supplies word choices from content clues.
Following test adminstration, a profile is graphed of the student acheivement levels. A prescription is then written addressing the low areas that revealed in the testing. Prescription writing is influences by the age, background, and availabilty of the student and tutor.
Self-esteem is a strong factor in second langauge learning and in migrants without a langauge problem. A student will only learn quickly and well if he is not discouraged in the early stages. Prescriptions can include self-esteem factors as well as academic goals.
A student may become eligilbe for mainstreaming from an ESL program because of oral fluencly long before passage comprehension is achieved. This can be a difficult problem becasue the student will usually slip into a failure mode one or two years following mainstreaming if the comprehension isn't gleaned from somewhere. Very bright students can sometimes pick it up on their own. If not, the need usually surfaces at secondary levels. Because the comprehension problems stems from a bilingual handicap in the beginning, the student is still eligible for ESL help if funds permit, sometimes LEP funds are available to those whose migrant eligibility has lapsed. A distinction is then made in the ESL program between Spoken English (Oral Skills) and Applied English (Reading and Writing Skills). Applied English can be offered only if teacher are available. Ideally a secondary ESL student should have both until moved into a mainstream English class and then carried as Applied English for several more years. Elementary students have the optional advantage of being taken out of the classroom more than once a day in addiont to a migrant summer school where help is given to the majority of ESL migrant students.
Since Migrant Eduction is a division of Chapter I and most Migrant students live in school areas where Chapter I is available, Chapter I should be considered immedialtey to aid in math, and upon mainstreaming, to aid in comprehension reading skill. Since Chapter I is not available in all schools, great care should be given to follow the student who is mainstreamed so that he is not lost in the shuffle. Also since Chpater I teachers have to form groups of their own, it is not always possible to give help in multiple areas to the newly mainstreamed student. If this is the case, the ESL teacher can continue working with the area in addition to the Chapter I area.
Remember, the only help this student gets is at school.
While an ESL student may qualify for Resource with a vision or hearing problem, the solution is NEVER to use the Resources qualification of "Learning Disabled" because of a bilingual handicap.
It is necessary for ESL students to be placed into the proper learning levels and have the availability of whatever program within the school best fits the need. Often the best solution is to use two programs simultaneously. If extra programs are not within the school, the ESL teacher may carry a student a little longer than normal, to increase the comprehension and improve the chances for success. Many teachers on the secondary level are willing to design special programs which meet students needs and teach them with tutor help through their own classrooms. The teachers who will go this extra mile are to be commenced. Student needs are the ulimate factor in writing student prescriptions in any situation.