Teacher Think-alouds

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:22:12 -0800

The research makes a strong case for strategy use by English learners. Strategies, like determining meaning from context, can make a significant contribution to language acquisition.

Unfortunately, the majority of ESL/EFL students have never developed cognitive or meta-cognitive strategies. And teaching strategies requires patience and a significant amount of redundancy.

A teacher think-aloud is a modeling technique in which the teacher verbalizes his/her own thought processes, for example, while reading or writing. Think-alouds help students learn how to apply different cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies to reading, writing, and other learning processes.

Here is an introduction to teacher think-alouds and how to use them with ESL/EFL students.

If you have any questions or comments, please send me an e-mail. My address is warren@successfulenglish.com.

Warren Ediger

LEA: Understandable Input for Beginning and Multi-level ESL Classes

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:20:06 -0700

It is often difficult for teachers of beginning adult ESL classes to find reading material that combines high adult interest with appropriately low language demands. The Language Experience Approach (LEA) provides both and opens the door to a variety of compelling language and creative activities.

LEA makes use of the personal or shared experiences of the students to create narratives and, in the process, engages all four language skills – speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The teacher writes the narratives down as the students “dictate” them, and then they read and discuss them together. Since the narratives are the students’, the language is understandable and the interest high. Repeated exposure to their own narratives and discussion of them provide students with rich opportunities to acquire significant amounts of English.

Here are links to four helpful articles about LEA:

Learning Experience Activity Revisited by Adrian Wurr describes the essential LEA process, discusses the theoretical foundation of LEA, and describes the language and affective benefits of using it.

The Language Experience Approach and Adult Learners by Marcia Taylor describes two variations of LEA – personal and group experience – and provides step-by-step instructions for implementing an LEA activity.

In An Adapted Language Experience Approach, Helen Hoffner describes how she adapted LEA to meet the needs of a student with learning disabilities. The adaptation she describes would be appropriate, in many ways, for use with English language learners.

The authors of Digital Language Experience Approach describe a case study in which LEA, enhanced by digital photography and creativity software, was used with a group of children of different ability levels. It provides usable ideas for integrating LEA and technology.

Feel free to ask a question or make a comment. Use the “Add a comment” link below.

Warren Ediger
warren@successfulenglish.com

Using Cooperative Activities with teacher-read texts

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:16:24 -0700

Dr. George Jacobs has written extensively on the use of cooperative activities, teacher read-alouds, and extensive reading in second language instruction. The two texts provided here are excerpted, with permission, from the original articles.

Cooperative Student Activities for Use Before, During, and After Teacher Read-alouds (n.d.). Original article.

Small Group Responses to Teacher Read-alouds (2003). Original article.
Effective alternatives to rote response to dictation.

Feel free to ask a question or make a comment. Use the “Add a comment” link below.

Warren Ediger
warren@successfulenglish.com

Three by Krashen plus Two

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:03:42 -0700

Three recent articles by Dr. Stephen Krashen emphasize the importance of comprehensible, or understandable, input and provide specific suggestions for applying it in the classroom. Dr. Krashen is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Southern California and recognized authority on language acquisition and instruction.

Applying the Comprehension Hypothesis (2004)
A brief review of the comprehension hypothesis – the need for understandable input – and specific suggestions for building a program that makes it possible.

The Case for Narrow Reading (2004)
When students read more than one text by the same author, on the same topic, or of the same genre, they understand more.

Why Support a Delayed-gratification Approach to Language Education? (2004)
Can the process of language acquisition be as pleasurable as the result? “Yes!” answers Dr. Krashen.

Krashen’s short book Explorations in Language Acquisition and Use (2003) summarizes his years of research into language acquisition and instruction and provides a good starting point for thinking about second language instruction. His monograph Foreign Language Education the Easy Way (1997) describes a program and a variety of techniques for effective language instruction.

Feel free to ask a question or make a comment. Use the “Add a comment” link below.

Warren Ediger
warren@successfulenglish.com

Scaffolded Reading Experiences

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:35:48 -0700

The Scaffolded Reading Experience (SRE) is an excellent framework for designing before-, during- and after-reading activities to help make texts more understandable. The SRE framework is described in Scaffolded Reading Experiences: Designs for Student Success by Michael Graves.

The OnLine Reading Resources web site provides an excellent introduction to SRE, including examples. It is also possible to download chapter 2 - What is a Scaffolded Reading Experience? - and chapter 9 - Assessing Text Difficulty and Accessibility - from Graves’ book.

SRE is similar to the into, through, and beyond framework described by Brinton, D., J. Goodwin, and L. Ranks. (1994) Helping language minority students read and write analytically: The journey into, through, and beyond a text to make it more understandable.

Feel free to ask a question or make a comment. Use the “Add a comment” link below.

Warren Ediger
warren@successfulenglish.com