The document discusses teaching English as a second language. It explains that as communities become more multicultural, teaching English must become a more important part of the curriculum. It also discusses different methodologies for teaching listening, speaking, reading and writing skills to English language learners from elementary through high school levels. These include developing basic interpersonal communication skills as well as cognitive academic language proficiency. Understanding theories of second language acquisition, such as Krashen's theory, is important for instructors to effectively teach English skills.

1. OVERVIEW
The ESL (English as a Second Language) program has become an essential part of our educational
system today. As our communities grow more and more multi-cultural, there is a need to make
teaching English a more vital part of our curriculum. The following section will discuss different
methodologies, strategies, and activities for teaching ESL to elementary through high school-aged
students.
Second language teachers need to understand the basic principles of the process of language
acquisition, which include BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communications Skills) and CALP (Cognitive-
Academic Learning Process) (Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Colin Baker,
p. 11) as well as the Iceberg Analogy [Baker, p. 134].
Second language acquisition can be compared to first language acquisition. In fact, if a teacher thinks
through the process of learning a language from infancy, he/she will better comprehend second
language acquisition.
When a child is born, he/she has no language. The baby goes through what is known as a silent
period—he/she listens to language spoken to him/her and process the sounds, without attempting to
produce any of his own. As the child grows and becomes more comfortable with the language, he/she
begins to produce sounds. From monosyllabic sounds the baby moves to two-letter syllables and
finally to words. He/she then begins to put the words together into short phrases and eventually,
sentences. This process takes one to two years. When applied to second language acquisition, this
stage of development is called BICS. Research tells us that LEP children will move from the silent
period to language production in one to two years. However, it is very important to remember that,
even though a child has BICS (they can carry on a conversation with you), they are not at this stage
capable of meeting academic challenges in their new language. One must keep in mind that a child
who has learned English from infancy enters school having to then learn academic concepts.
Therefore an LEP child needs one to two years in school simply to develop the verbal language that a
native English-speaking child possesses upon entering school. Unfortunately, in actual educational
situations, due to necessity and lack of time, LEP children are usually forced to move to production
much more quickly. Once a child has BICS, he/she is ready to begin learning academics. According
to Cummins, it takes a minimum of five to seven years to reach native proficiency in CALP and to be
able to function successfully without help in a monolingual English classroom. During the time that
an LEP student is developing CALP, the teacher should be working with him/her on reading and
writing techniques and strategies, as well as specifics about the structure of the English language.
There are many different approaches that an instructor can take when building CALP. The following
section explains a number of approaches. It is divided into four sub-sections: listening, speaking
reading, and writing. Under each section you will find methodologies, strategies, and simple activities
for each. A good instructor is an eclectic one; one who uses different strategies when appropriate.
There will never be “one way” to teach ESL. The teacher must know his/her students: the stage of
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language they are in, and which method or strategy will work best for the material that each
individual needs at the time (see continuums).

3. FIVE HYPOTHESES ABOUT SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
KRASHEN’S THEORY
1. The Acquisition I Learning Hypothesis
We have two different and independent ways of developing ability in second languages.
 Acquisition - a subconscious process similar, if not identical, to the way children
develop ability in their first language.
 Learning - conscious knowledge of the rules of grammar of a second language and
their application in production.
2. The Natural Order Hypothesis
Acquisition of grammatical structures (primarily morphemes) proceeds in a predictable order
when that acquisition is natural (i.e., not via formal learning). This order can be altered by
first language (L1) influence but not by the effects of instruction.
3. The Monitor Hypothesis
Acquisition is the sole initiator of all second language (L2) utterances and is responsible for
fluency, while learning (conscious knowledge of rules) can function only as an “editor” or
“monitor” for the output. This monitor operates only when there is sufficient time, the focus
is on form, and the language user knows the rule being applied.
4. The Input Hypothesis
Acquiring understanding by:
 Aiming for meaning (focusing on what is said, not how it is said).
 Applying our knowledge and experiences of the world into a new context.
 Going through the silent period and increasing the accuracy of speaking in the second
language by listening and comprehending.
 Applying the new input presented to the developmental language structures that have
been innately acquired since birth.
5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis
Comprehensible input can have its effect on acquisition only when affective conditions are
optimal. The following affective variables are related to success in L2 acquisition:
 Anxiety - The lower the level of anxiety, the better the language acquisition.
 Motivation - Higher motivation predicts better L2 acquisition.
 Self-confidence - The acquirer with more self-esteem and self-confidence tends to do
better in L2 acquisition.
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4. SURFACE AND DEEPER LEVELS OF LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
CUMMINGS’ THEORY
Cummings, J. (1984) Bilingual and Special Education: Issues in Assessment and Pedagogy.
San Diego: College-Hill.
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5. CHECKLIST OF LANGUAGE SKILLS FOR USE WITH
LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENT STUDENTS
Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS)
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Listening
Sp. Eng.
1. Follows classroom directions.
2. Points to classroom items.
3. Distinguishes items according to color, shape, size, etc.
4. Points to people (family relationships).
5. Distinguishes people according to physical and emotional states.
6. Acts out common school activities.
7. Distinguishes environmental sounds.
Speaking
Sp. Eng.
1. Gives classroom commands to peers.
2. Exchanges common greetings.
3. Names classroom objects.
4. Describes classroom objects according to color, shape, size, etc.
5. Describes people according to physical and emotional states.
6. Describes what is happening when given an action picture of a
common recreational activity.
7. Appropriately initiates, maintains and responds to a conversation.
8. Recites ABCs, numbers 1-10.
9. Appropriately answers basic questions.
10. Participates in sharing time.
Reading
Sp. Eng.
1. Recognizes common traffic/safety signs.
2. Recognizes familiar advertising logos. (e.g., McDonalds, HEB)
3. Recognizes basic sight words.
Writing
Sp. Eng.
1. Writes personal name.
2. Writes ABCs, numbers 1-10.
3. Copies shapes.

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Cognitive/Academic Language Proficiency (CALP)
Listening
Sp. Eng.
1. Follows specific directions for academic tasks according to
curriculumguide.
2. Understands vocabulary for academic tasks according to curriculum
guide (i.e., word meaning, word synonyms for operations).
3. Understands teacher’s discussion and distinguishes main ideas from
supportive details.
4. Understands temporal concepts (e.g., do this first, second, last).
5. Distinguishes sounds for reading readiness activities.
6. Listens to a movie or other audio-visual presentation with academic
content.
Speaking
Sp. Eng.
1. Asks/answers specific questions regarding topic discussions.
2. Uses academic vocabulary appropriately.
3. Uses temporal concepts appropriately.
4. Asks for clarification during academic tasks.
5. Expresses reason for opinion.
6. Actively participates in class discussions.
7. Volunteers to answer questions in class regarding subject matter.
Reading
Sp. Eng.
1. Uses sound/symbol association.
2. Uses mechanics of spatial skills (i.e., top-to-bottom, left-to-right).
3. Understands rules of punctuation/capitalization.
4. Understands reading as a process (i.e., speech-print relations,
syllables).
5. Reads for comprehension.
6. Follows along during oral reading activity and responds at his turn.
7. Appropriate use of text (i.e., index).
8. Demonstrates an interest in reading.
Writing
Sp. Eng.
1. Completes written expression activities according to curr. guide.
a. Completes simple sentences frames.
b. Generates simple sentences.
c. Writes fromdictation.
d. Writes short paragraphs.
2. Transfers from print to cursive at the appropriate grade level.
3. Understands spatial constraints of writing (i.e., lines, top-to-bottom,
left-to-right).
4. Understands the mechanics of writing (i.e., punctuation,
paragraphing).
5. Demonstrates an interest in writing.

7. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DEALING WITH ERRORS
Recommendations For Teachers
1. Try to analyze errors.
 Remediate errors which
 Are the result of incorrect learning.
 Seriously interfere with comprehensibility.
 Are inappropriate at the learners’ stage of development.
 Don’t worry about errors which
 Are signs of incomplete learning.
 Do not interfere with communication.
 Are persistent for all learners.
2. The learner’s ability to “monitor” is limited at first. Expect that the learner will not have
conscious control over more than a few features of the language. Teach one thing at a time.
3. Avoid direct methods of correction.
 Identification
 Explanation
 Correction
4. Attempt to use indirect methods.
 Use of peers
 Opportunities for communication and interaction
 Clarifying accuracy
 Modeling
5. Be aware that many errors are a result of the affective -emotional state and feelings of confidence.
Drawing attention to errors does little to promote a learning environment in which language
acquisition is accelerated.
6. Identify situations in which formal accuracy is important. Teach editing and proofreading skills,
use of reference books, daily journals, etc., to be used when the need arises.
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8. THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING LANGUAGE
Language is everywhere. It permeates our thoughts, mediates our relations with others, and even
creeps into our dreams. Most human knowledge and culture is stored and transmitted in language,
which is so ubiquitous that we take it for granted. Without it, however, society as we now know it
would be impossible.
Despite its undeniable importance in human affairs, language is poorly understood. Misconceptions
about it are legend, even among well-educated people, and not even professional linguists can claim
to understand it fully. It is a radical mistake to assume that the nature of language is self-evident or
that we know all about a language just because we speak it. Gradually, however, linguists and other
scholars are gaining a better understanding of this remarkable instrument of human communication.
The purpose of this book is to summarize a significant portion of what is known about language for
the benefit of those with little or no previous training in linguistics. An accurate appreciation of
language is worth acquiring for several reasons.
First, many serious problems in today’s world involve language in an essential way. To what
extent are language differences barriers to understanding? Is a universal language feasible or
desirable? Should a massive reform of English spelling be undertaken? How should children be
taught to read? Should the writers of dictionaries bow to popular usage? Is it worthwhile for the
government of a multilingual nation (like India) to try to impose one language on all speakers as
an official national language? If so, which one? At what level should foreign languages be taught
in our schools? To what extent are the members of minority groups and the lower classes
handicapped in their social and economic advancement by their speech? It is not our concern here
to provide answers to these very difficult questions, but anyone interested in finding valid answers
to them should not set out without at least a minimal understanding of language.
Second, insights about language are of immense intellectual significance, with direct and indirect
relevance to other disciplines. Philosophers, for example, are greatly concerned with language. It is
important for our view of man that we know whether language is entirely learned or largely innate.
Language, in other words, could be one of the grounds on which to settle a long-standing debate
between rationalists and empiricists.
a) The rationalist claim is that people are born with innate ideas, that much of an individual’s
psychological organization is “wired in” and genetically transmitted.
b) Empiricists, on the other hand, claim that a person is born as a blank slate, psychologically
speaking, and that psychological organization is determined almost entirely by experience,
not by genetic inheritance. Both rationalists and empiricists have turned to language to find
support for their views on this important question. Philosophers are also concerned with
language as an instrument of philosophical analysis. Are human languages viable as the
media of philosophical inquiry and theory? Can philosophical errors be attributed to the
misuse of language? What is the relationship between language and logic?
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c) Language is also relevant to psychology in a number of ways. In fact, since language is a
largely mental phenomenon, its study may be considered a branch of psychology. Any
adequate theory of human psychology must give some account of thought processes;
language is of central importance here because so many of our thoughts assume linguistic
form. The relationship between language and concept formation is of great interest to
psychologists, since many, if not most, of our concepts are given verbal labels of some sort.
Language also provides a significant test for theories of psychological organization.
Languages are highly structured, and we have learned to identify and describe their
structures in considerable detail; any theory of psychological organization, therefore, must
adequately accommodate the kinds of structures we know to be characteristic of human
languages.
The concepts and techniques of linguistic analysis have also influenced the other social
sciences to some degree, anthropology in particular. Since language is more obviously
structured than other facets of human psychology, such as systems of belief or networks of
social organization, social scientists interested in these other domains may learn something
of value from the analysis of language.
Third, an introduction to the nature of language is important to anyone interested in the practical
applications deriving from linguistic research. Fundamental insights about language should
certainly prove valuable to anyone studying or teaching a language (even the native language of
the student or teacher). Accurate machine translation, if it can be accomplished at all (and this
appears quite doubtful at present), can hardly be programmed without a reasonably sophisticated
knowledge of language on the part of the programmer. Anthropologists must know the language
of a people for their investigation of its culture to be most fruitful. Missionary work in uncivilized
areas requires a great deal of practical and theoretical knowledge about language; the language of
the natives must be learned quickly and well, and considerable understanding is needed to devise
and teach an adequate writing system for the native tongue.
Fourth and finally, an accurate appreciation of language is valuable since no one can be
considered truly well educated if he remains ignorant about the instrument of so much of his
instruction. Since language permeates virtually all human affairs and is central to so many of
them, an appreciation of language can hardly be considered peripheral. An introduction to
language really needs no other justification. Anyone who wishes to know and understand himself
must come to understand in some measure the character of the linguistic system that plays such a
fundamental role in his mental and social life. In short, language should be understood “because it
is there.”

10. LEVELS OF LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
B
I
C
S
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asic
nterpersonal
ommunication
kills
Language proficiency needed to function in everyday interpersonal contexts
 Pronunciation
 Grammar
 Vocabulary
Communicative capacity, which all normal children acquire; it reaches a plateau soon after a child
enters school.
 Not related to academic achievement
 Universal across all native speakers
 BICS are attained after two years in host country.
C
A
L
P
ognitive
cademic
anguage
roficiency
 Language proficiency needed to function in decontextualized, academic settings
 Skills needed to manipulate language outside of the immediate interpersonal context
 Dimension of language related to literacy skills
 CALP in L1 and L2 overlap, in spite of important differences in the “surface features” of
each language.
 CALP develops throughout the school years, following a general curve for cognitive
development.

11. CONVERSATIONALAND ACADEMIC LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
BICS CALP
Length of time required to achieve age-appropriate levels of each type of proficiency in a second
language.
Legend
- - - - Native
English
Speakers
ESL
Learners
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12. LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
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13. “DUAL ICEBERG” REPRESENTATION
OF BILINGUAL PROFICIENCY
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14. LANGUAGE
What is Language?
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association defines language as a complex and dynamic
system of conventional symbols used in various modes of communication and thought.
A SYSTEM is organized, governed by rules, and works toward a purpose. Automobile engines and
the digestive tract are examples of systems. LANGUAGE is a system - it is ordered and purposeful.
The essential purpose of language is COMMUNICATION.
Language is an orderly combination of conventional symbols. The symbols are the words we use to
label objects, actions, and ideas that we perceive in our reality. These symbols are conventional–that
is, we assign a socially agreed upon symbol to objects and ideas so we can talk about them. We all
agree on a name for a particular object or idea for purposes of communication.
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The Nature of Language
Some Basic Premises About the Nature of Language
 Language is a uniquely human activity.
 Language is universal and has universal properties.
 Every language has its own system or code and
o is sufficiently complete for its speakers to carry out their daily activities.
o reflects the socio-cultural organization and environment of its speakers.
o is composed of a limited number of distinctive sounds with which its speakers can
form an unlimited number of words and utterances.
o has devices which allow speakers to talk about themselves and others, to ask
questions, and to express denial or acceptance.

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Some Major Functions of Language
Personal - to express one’s emotions, needs, thoughts, desires and attitudes
Interpersonal - to maintain good social relations with individuals and groups; expressions of praise,
sympathy, joy at another’s success; inquires about health
Directive - to control the behavior of others through advice, warnings, requests, persuasion,
discussion
Referential - to talk about objects or events in the immediate setting, environment or culture
Meta Linguistic - to talk about language (e.g., What does mean?)
Imaginative - to use language creatively in rhyming, poetry

16. LEVELS OF PROFICIENCY
Level I (Pre-Production Stage)
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 Minimal comprehension
 No verbal production
listen
point
move
mime
match
draw
select
choose
act/act out
circle
Level II (Early Production Stage)
list
categorize
tell/say
answer
 Limited
comprehension
 One/two word
response name
label
group
respond
(with one/two words)
Level III (Speech Emergence Stage)
 Increased comprehension
 Simple sentences
 Some errors in speech
recall
retell
define
explain
compare
summarize
describe
role-play
restate
contrast

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Level IV (Intermediate Fluency)
 Very good comprehension
 More complex sentences
analyze
create
defend
debate
complete
evaluate
justify
support
example
describe

18. The Cummins’Model
With Show, Tell, Try, Do Incorporated
Check Your Delivery
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19. UNDERSTANDING THE DEMANDS OF
CONTENT AREA INSTRUCTION
Cognitively Undemanding
Cognitively Demanding
a = The concepts are not mentally demanding and the context is
experiential, and related to concrete items. “Hands on” type activities are
examples of “a”; this is the earliest area for students.
b =
c =
d =
The concepts are not mentally demanding but because the context is not rich
(textbook, printed material) this area is more difficult.
The concepts are mentally demanding but the context is concrete, experiential,
“hands on.” This area is next to the easiest.
The concepts are mentally demanding and the context is reduced, not concrete, more
abstract. This is the hardest area.
C E
a b
C R
O M O E
N B N D
T E T U
E D E C
X D X E
T E
D
c T D
d
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How would you rate these activities? a b c or d
Drawing sequential pictures
Projects (e.g., Relief map, building a dam, experiments)
Fill-in-the blank using vocabulary
Using a dictionary to find guide words, pronunciation, definitions or sentences with
words in contexts
Telling someone else how to do an activity
Classifying (grammatically or semantically), (e.g., rock, stone, pebble, or hard,
rough, round, large)
Using charts, graphs, maps, pictures
Matching words to pictures
Retelling an experience or lesson to a peer, teacher, or a tape recorder
Matching words with an example, (e.g., vehicles, car, bus, train)
Student summarizing a lecture or discussion or tutor (or student) writeing it down
Outlining