Teaching English Language Learners (ELLs) requires the teachers to utilize different strategies to increase the level of understanding of the students. Young children acquire their native languages quickly and may not need any formal teaching. However, a teacher must consider ethnicity's impact and how non-native status impacts learning a new language. While this may seem challenging at first, here are avid strategies that can enhance a teachers' capacity to build the ELLs vocabulary. Cole (2008) suggests that teachers can utilize kit inventories, word walls, word charts, cloze activities, and word sorts.
Before embarking on a teaching session with ELLs, a teacher must stock the material that the students will be used repeatedly during the unit. In this way, the students can be introduced to the vocabulary of the leaning material early enough that the words or names of these materials do not become a challenge for them in the lesson's advanced stages. The basic understanding of the words relevant to the entire unit would enable the students to identify pieces of information that they otherwise would not.
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The use of world walls would also enable the students to recognize specific challenging words, muster their spelling, and boost their vocabulary development. It is appropriate for a teacher to create a separate space on the wall for noting specific words and updating them with each new topic. Sometimes the words can be accompanied by pictures or images to enhance faster comprehension. The very presence of the words on the wall inspires a continual reminder to the children about the material that study.
Like world walls, the teachers can also pin word chats on the wall that contain word clusters. Word chats work the same as word walls in reinforcing the ELLs' vocabulary development. In particular, they help the students connect three or more clusters of words and create sentences using these words.
The teacher can further let the students classify vocabularies into word sorts that bear relationship concepts. The ELLs can group the words based on the criterion provided to them by the teacher. Sometimes the students can make use of Venn diagrams to do the word sorting. This strategy would enable the teachers to encourage the EELs into divergent thinking by learning how specific words fit into specific groups.
The students can also enhance their language acquisition during the production period by using cloze tests. The cloze test strategy develops specific contextual words from a passage so that the students can fill in the missing words based on their overall understanding of the topics under study. The cloze test activities enhance the ELLs' language development by enchaining memorization and contextual application of the words they have learned. Only when a student learns about a new word and applies, it minimizes the chances of forgetting.
The applicability of these strategies to my teaching is consistent with the assertions of Sibold (2011). Sibold (2011) specified that the most vital aspect of passing knowledge is undressing the leaner. As a teacher, understand the learner is a three-fold process that entails awareness, autonomy, and authenticity ( Wilson & Peterson, 2006) . Under awareness, the teacher and the student acknowledge what they are doing and reflect on the learning process. Autonomy implies that different students will learn through different channels and at a different pace, hence using many strategies to enhance vocabulary acquisition. Authenticity entails the need to teach the language as it applies in real life. These strategies reduce the vocabulary's complexity, thereby enhancing the student's awareness of what they are leaning. The students also have accompanying illustrations to make the words they learn relevantly.
References
Cole, R. W. (2008). Educating everybody's children: We know what works—And what doesn't. Educating everybody's children: Diverse teaching strategies for diverse learners , 2 , 1-40.
Sibold, C. (2011). Building English Language Learners' Academic Vocabulary: Strategies and Tips. Multicultural Education , 18 (2), 24-28.
Wilson, S. M., & Peterson, P. L. (2006). Theories of Learning and Teaching: What Do They Mean for Educators? Working Paper. National Education Association Research Department .
