Second Language Acquisition

Blog post on ESL Strategies Course: Session #2 

We started this session discussing how important it is to have an understanding on how second language acquisition (SLA)  works. From a student perspective I can tell you that knowing and understanding the process of acquiring and reaching proficiency in a targeted language has a process and it must be respected. It sure takes a huge burden off our students' shoulders when they learn that it takes time and we can always start with basic before mastering the academic language.
For teachers, understanding SLA is important so when we plan our lessons, we plan strategically to support each student at his/her specific level of language process.  

• Activating Background knowledge on SLA 

We have teachers mixed statements and they were to sort the statements. We quickly explained Basic Interpersonal Communicative Social Language (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). Teachers did a great job sorting the statements. There were a couple we had to discuss and place in the correct column. 

• Content: 5 Stages of SLA  

Teachers worked with a partner - each partner took a stage in the language learning continuum from THIS article and created a poster to share with the rest of us. 

This were the amazing posters they created to show their learning. ​

For homework assignment, teachers were to read the provided articles and power point presentation and share thoughts on our padlet. 

Everything you need and more for this pd is in the Wakelet below!

Thank you so much for reading.