ESL Reading Strategies
Primary Language Instructional Theory Synopsis Reed and Railsback (2003) maintain that a "basic knowledge of languageacquisition theories is extremely useful for mainstream classroom teachersand directly influences their ability to provide appropriate readinginstruction to ESL students. It is especially important in those schoolsor districts where limited resources result in little or no instructionalsupport in a student's native language. In these "sink-or-swim"situations, a committed mainstream teacher with a clear understanding oflanguage acquisition can make all the difference". There are various typesof strategies that have been developed to address the primary instructionof ESL students. Three programs that include various strategies are: * Developmental Bilingual Programs * Two-Way Immersion Programs or Dual-Language or Bilingual Primary Language Instruction (Antunez, 2004) is used to help studentskeep up with academic content, but the focus is on phasing students intoEnglish-only instruction as quickly as possible. Upon the move into anEnglish-only classroom, the student's primary language is not neglected,
By formingsmall discussion groups, the teacher allows more speaking interaction andthe ESL students have opportunities to help summarize the story, clarifymain topics, and understand character descriptions. These instructional methods can exist within nearly everyprogram model depending upon the total needs of the educational setting. Basic decoding skills are many timesoverlooked for ESL students, and teachers do not have the resourcesavailable to individually address the needs of the one student. Thissituation is typical among military installations where one classroom mayhave students who speak Korean, Finnish, Spanish, and Samoan. 1) To design different types of hypertext and then assess and evaluate the effects of each on reading comprehension and performance, 2) To collect feedback from students about which types of hypertext they believe are most helpful, to apply results to revise and refine hypertexts to help students improve reading skills more efficiently, 3) To apply results to teach students more effective strategies for reading and comprehending all texts, whether hypertext or traditional print, 4) To construct and make available on the Internet a body of interactive online texts that can be used to develop students' reading skills. With budgetconstraints, it is not plausible to employ several bilingual instructionalaides, and try to address all languages within this type of school setting(Scarcella, 2004). The teacher will needto explore different methods to discover what will work with each ESLstudent and help them to become interested in not only learning to speakEnglish, but to also read the new language (Garcia, 2000). Teachers need to workto become familiar with the trends, best practices, and discover theresources available to them through their local school boards and stateagencies. While significant professionaldevelopment is necessary to gain a full understanding of Second LanguageAcquisition Theory (Freeman & Freeman, 2001), some key concepts can bequickly understood and applied in the classroom. Second Language Acquisition Theory Synopsis ESL teachers within the mainstream classroom can improve theirunderstanding of second language acquisition instruction and thereforebetter serve the needs of the culturally and linguistically diversestudents within their classrooms. By increasing theinteraction in the classroom, the teacher may check for comprehension. Reading software may be utilized and placed into the classroom, whichwould allow the ESL student time to practice reading skills at their ownlevel (Linquanti, 1999). The Newcomer Programs are designed to meet the needs of incoming ESLstudents with low-level English literacy skills. In its most general sense, these are methods inwhich teachers or paraprofessionals use the ESL student's primary languageto translate unfamiliar vocabulary or clarify lessons taught in English. ESL student's should not be isolated, but provided with many opportunitiesfor meeting new friends, and activities that allow them to become morecomfortable within their educational surroundings.
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Acceptance Essays
