Literacy & Standards Based Content for ELs Flashcards
What are the four major language skills?
Speaking, listening, reading, and writing (speaking & listening are oral)
What are prosodic aspects of language?
The other parts of language beyond word choice including pitch, stress, rhythm, length, and loudness.
What are the different phases a child will go through when demonstrating listening comprehension?
- Nonverbal signals (heavily relying on illustrations or realia)
- Choosing between a pair of options (did John go home or to the park?)
- Say simple sentences without scaffolds
- Full sentence answers
- Multi-sentence summaries
What are discourse markers?
A discourse marker is a word or phrase that is used to manage the flow of a conversation or convey an attitude about the topic. (ex: “um” “you know” “right”)
Why are discourse markers challenging for ELs?
They often don’t impact the meaning of the sentence. They are challenging to teach in a systematic way because they depend on prosodic aspects of language like stress or tone. (ex: “Yeah right” can mean agreement or skepticism depending on how it is used).
What teacher practices should be considered when planning a listening comprehension activity?
The teacher should identify one component of the audio that students should listen for (ex: main idea, attitude of one of the participants towards the main idea). Teachers should also prepare students for idioms or implied meanings. (ex: The narrator uses a phrase that means to lose something forever.. let’s see if we can find out what it is)
What is frontloading and when should teachers use it?
A teacher frontloads when they explicitly teach vocabulary, sentence structure, or other content that students will encounter in an upcoming lesson. This is helpful so that students won’t disengage when they encounter a new word/phrase.
What is chunking and when should teachers use it?
Chunking is the practice of dividing a lesson into mentally digestible parts. Teachers can do this in order to ensure students understand the text well enough to comprehend what is next. They can do this by asking questions, inviting students to draw connections, or make predictions.
What is debriefing and when should teachers use it?
Debriefing is a type of lesson summary or wrap up. Teachers should use it to revisit a key point, assess student understanding of a skill, or reinforce the learning target.
What are the important parts of a conversation that an EL needs to learn?
-How to initiate a conversation (greetings and formalities)
-How to respond nonverbally to convo partner (nodding, smiling)
-How to alternate in conversation
-How to extend the conversation with open, closed, or clarifying questions
-How to close a conversation
How can teachers support ELs with summarizing?
Students need to be able to retell an idea, event, or encounter to others in a concise way. Part of paraphrasing includes reported speech. (ex: Joe says “I am sick” and student says “Joe says that he is sick”)
Teachers can practice this with allowing students to interview each other and report out findings. They can also show videos or reports and ask students to summarize findings.
What is register? What are the three distinct registers?
Register is the degree of formality or informality that someone is speaking. The three registers include informal (casual convo between students), neutral (student/teacher interaction), and formal (presentation voice or speaking to an unfamiliar adult).
What do students need to consider in terms of register or subject matter in a conversation?
Neutral or formal registers need to eliminate slang, discourse markers, and avoid hyperbole or repetition.
The subject matter must be considered. For example, you can’t use figurative language when discussing math.
What is the definitional approach to learning vocabulary?
The most traditional approach
Students are given definitions or look up words in the dictionary. They practice them until they are committed to memory.
What is the structural approach to learning vocabulary?
This approach emphasizes the roots, prefixes, and suffixes of a word. When students learn these morphemes, they can find the meaning of a word without context.
