Scenario Response 1

This ELL students is acquiring language in the manner predicted by those who believe that language acquisition is brain-based or naturalist. The student has moved on from stage one, the silent learner, who is just absorbing language, to the second stage, which involves making short responses to questions (yes or no), pointing at various objects and perhaps naming them. This student is ready to begin working on language acquisition in small groups, responding to various questions/scenarios in the relative safety of the small group, where he or she can test out new vocabulary and even short phrases and get immediate feedback. The questions I would embed in the teaching process would be tiered, beginning with simple yes and no answers, and moving to answers of a phrase or more. Additionally, since vocabulary is key at this stage, I would have the student create a “dictionary” of new words that he/she encounters. I would also play various scavenger hunt games, where the objective is to identify objects and name them. It would also be fun and productive to take this student and the others on a small field trip to the supermarket and apply new situational vocabulary.