Tiffany Cecere

EDUC 359
There are 5 stages of language acquisition; pre-production, early production, speech
emergence, intermediate fluency, and advanced fluency. In the pre-production stage the student
does not fully speak the language and has minimal comprehension. In the skit presented, the
student was able to repeat what they saw and was able to write down the given number. During
the pre-production stage, the teacher can use the parroting method in which the student repeats
what the teacher is saying. There is also the silent period in the pre-production stage where the
student chooses not to participate. When working with a student in the pre-production stage a
teacher can ask the student to show something, circle something, ask where something is, or ask
who has something. The student can typically draw and point, along with answering yes or no
questions. In the second stage, early production, the student still has limited comprehension but
can begin to form one or two word responses, along with using key words and familiar phrases.
As a teacher during this stage it is important to use visual aids, you can also begin to ask the
student more questions that can be answered in a short phrase or key word. Speech emergence is
the third stage in which the student now has good comprehension, can produce simple sentences
and speak in short words or phrases. This stage is the first step to consistent verbal
communication. When working with a student in this stage, reading is very helpful. When
reading the student, a story, pause and ask questions that can be answered easily. The fourth
stage, intermediate fluency, demonstrates a study with excellent comprehension and makes few
grammatical errors. This student can answer more complex questions, for example, asking a
student to make a prediction or asking why do you think?. At this point the student can
speak using multiple sentences. The final stage is advanced fluency, this is where the student can

hand in their own work that is completed correctly, has complete comprehension, and has
graduated the ELL program!
There are 4 methods of co-teaching; supportive, parallel, complementary, and team
teaching. The supportive method of co-teaching is where one teacher plans and delivers the
lesson, and another teacher circulates the classroom helping individual students and making sure
students are focused. For example, one teacher can be teaching a language arts lesson, and the
supportive teacher can assist an ELL student on the side. A second method is parallel teaching.
This method is used when there is more than one teacher in the room and the teachers can work
with the students in groups. This is a good method to use because each group will receive
attention from the teacher, especially ELL students who need that extra level of attention.
Complementary teaching is a method where one teacher does something to further the instruction
of the other teacher. This is helpful when working with ELL students because a co-teacher can
work with an ELL student going into more detail and explaining the topic of a given lesson.
Team teaching is another method of co-teaching where both teachers plan and teach a lesson.
Both teachers engaged in the lesson and actively involved throughout the lesson. An exampled
used in the skits was where each teacher had an individual class, one drew a shape, one asked the
the students what the shape was, and another teacher asked the students to repeat the name of the
shape.