Vocabulary Strategies with ELL Students - Essay Example

Vocabulary Strategies with ELL Students Various strategies are adopted to help out the ELL students with vocabulary learning. This paper contains an analysis of best practices when using different strategies in teaching vocabulary to ELL students. For this purpose, three articles are examined, which deal with the issue of strategies adopted by teachers to teach vocabulary to ELL students. The first article that is taken for analysis is “The Critical Role of Vocabulary Development for English Language Learners” by August, et al. (2005). The writers describe that for the learners of English language as a second language face problems while learning vocabulary due to which, they are left behind as compared to their class fellows who have English as their first language. Because of adoption of English as a second language, the ELL students have a limited vocabulary to use. Students who have English as their first language learn a lot before joining the ELL classes while students who have to learn English as a second language have restricted vocabulary and have to struggle on a massive scale. According to August, et al. (2005), students of ELL classes can take benefit of their own languages, which means that the first language of students can be used as a learning strategy. Transfer of cognate knowledge is an important strategy that can be adopted for helping English language learners as a good source of vocabulary development. The variations and resemblances that are present in the students’ first language and second language can be employed for enabling students to learn at a faster pace. The writers have given example of Spanish and English. According to them, Spanish language considers a lot many similarities with English language, due to which, the Spanish students of ELL can learn faster if transference strategy of cognate knowledge is carefully used. Oral and written instructions in the lieu of vocabulary learning are also very crucial, as the students are able to comprehend vocabulary and acquire language as a whole. The students are given oral exercises as well as written exercises with the help of which, they show learning at a faster ratio. The oral exercises that were arranged for the students contained reading from book, antonym and synonym exercises and much more. After oral learning, written exercises were performed that included composing ideas related to oral exercises and so on. Students’ usage of first language for learning second language is the best practice for vocabulary learning as students can relate the words with one another. Students should be well equipped with knowledge of basic words as it is essential to excel with prior basic knowledge and for that purpose, transfer of cognate knowledge is required. It can be best implemented by allowing the students of ELL to find similarities and contrasts between their vocabulary of the words of their language and vocabulary of the second language. August, et al. (2005) informs that less efforts are done towards researching the best strategies for ELL students. However, transference of cognate knowledge is effective strategy for learning vocabulary. The second article that is taken for study is “Effective Instructional Strategies for English Language Learners in Mainstream Classrooms” by Susan (2004). According to Susan (2004), SIOP that can be abbreviated as Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol is the best model that can be used for teaching students about English vocabulary. Susan (2004) explains that vocabulary plays an important role in language acquisition but lack of vocabulary appears as an obstruction for students of ELL in reading. There should be a vocabulary program setup for the vocabulary improvement of the English language learners. There are various stages that are described by Susan (2004) in the lieu of SIOP model. The whole exercise of planning and developing a program comes under the category of SIOP model. Word choice, allowance to students to use new words and new combinations and asking students to describe and explain words according to their own understanding, all are employed to teach the students of ELL to learn vocabulary. While using the approach of SIOP, the teachers should not use jargons or difficult words to teach students in order to facilitate them to learn in a comprehensible and easy manner. The best practice in the SIOP model is to prepare vocabulary exercises for the ELL students such as word selection, allowing students to use words on their own choice and much more. It can be implemented for second language learners, as the students need much vocabulary exercises as compared to students with first language learning. The third article that is “Bilingual Word Power – Research-Based Vocabulary Strategies for English Language Learners” written by Laura Chris Green is included. According to Green (2004), the students of ELL should have word power, which should be attained with learning exercises designed for them. Word power or acquired vocabulary is the skill with the help of which, the learners can not only read, write but also use language in a skilled manner in their daily routine. According to Green (2004), the students of ELL can use cognates for vocabulary learning. The students that have to learn English as a second language can make use of their personal language to learn English as a second language with the help of cognates. They have to understand the meaning of the words along with their labels in their own language. The linguistic knowledge of first language can be employed for learning second language. For learning words in second language, the syntax, meaning, pronunciation and spelling, all are required. The students can make use of their first language for doing various exercises related to other language related to meanings and grammar. Vocabulary acquisition can be done best with using cognates. Hence, there are multiple strategies employed for teaching vocabulary exercises to the English language learners. They can make use of their first language by transferring meanings and concept, they can make use of SIOP model for designing vocabulary exercises and they can make use of cognates with their labels and meanings for learning second language. References August, Diane, Carlo, Maria, Dressler, Cheryl and Snow, Catherine. (2005). The Critical Role of Vocabulary Development for English Language Learners. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 20 (1), 50–57. Green, Laura Chris. (2004). Bilingual Word Power – Research-Based Vocabulary Strategies for English Language Learners. Accessed on 12th November 2010 from http://www.curriculumassociates.com/professional-development/topics/ELL/extras/Reading_Assignment_Lesson1.pdf Wallace, Susan. (2004). Effective Instructional Strategies for English Language Learners in Mainstream Classrooms. Accessed on 12th November 2010 from http://www.newhorizons.org/spneeds/ell/wallace.htm Read More