Yarmouth Schools is committed to providing supportive and effective English as a Second Language (ESL) services to its English Language Learners (ELLs) and their families. Our goal is not only to help ELLs become English proficient but to also make the content of the classroom more accessible.

English Language Learner (ELL) students in grades K-12 participate in the administration of the ACCESS for ELLs® language proficiency test. ACCESS provides a standardized measurement of academic language proficiency for ELL students throughout the state of Maine and in other states. With this information, we will be able to monitor individual ELL student progress on an annual basis. 

Maine Department of Education - English as a Second Language and Bilingual Programs

http://www.maine.gov/doe/el/

Second language acquisition research claims that it takes many students 1-3 years to learn “social” language (or the language of the playground), and 5-7 additional years to learn academic language [or the language of the classroom (Cummins, 1979)]. Therefore, it can take some students 10 years to be considered fully English proficient, and this does not take into account any additional learning disabilities or challenges, etc.

ELLs have a double cognitive load in school: they are learning English and they are learning in English. Due to the extra efforts, ELLs must exert in the classroom to learn, some ELL behaviors such as delayed responses, struggle for word recall, or distractibility are often mistaken for learning disabilities. Many of these behaviors can be caused by the language acquisition process as opposed to a disability. It is important for teachers and parents of ELLs to understand some of the key components of the second language acquisition process in order to ascertain the ELL's strengths and needs in and out of the classroom.

For Early Production students, questions that require a one-word response, such as yes/no and either/or questions, are acceptable. You also want to begin asking students at this stage questions that require a phrase or short sentence.

Speech Emergence students should be asked to answer questions that require a short-sentence response. It is OK to sometimes ask these students questions requiring a multiple-sentence response, but it is not OK to ask them questions requiring a pointing or one-word response.

How about Intermediate and Advanced Fluency students? It is OK to ask them questions that require a lot of verbal output, but it is not OK to ask them questions requiring minimal verbal output.

You can use tiered questions to include all ELLs in whole-class activities or one on one to check comprehension or content learning. To accomplish this, you will need to know each student's stage of language acquisition.

Links-

http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/26751 (brief overview of the second language acquisition process)

Here are some great websites for practicing English at home:

Pronunciation and spelling practice:

http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/listening/index.html

Listening exercises:

http://www.esl-lab.com/index.htm

Grammar exercises:

http://www.eslcafe.com/grammar.html

http://www.esldesk.com/

http://englishmaven.org/index.html

Idioms:

http://a4esl.org/q/f/x/xz49mjc.htm

A blog post list of great sites:

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/08/07/the-best-sixteen-basic-sites-for-beginning-english-language-learners-revised/

Games:

http://gamestolearnenglish.com/

Organizations

• WIDA Consortium/ ACCESS Test:

• AlternateACCESS for ELLs:

  • English language proficiency standards and ACCESS assessment specifically designed for ELLs with disabilities: 

• Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

• Northern New England TESOL

• Maine Department of Education ESL and Bilingual Programs: 

• Portland Public Schools Multilingual and Multicultural Center

• Colorin Colorado

Books

• Book List for High Interest/ Low Reading Levels

Organizations

• WIDA Consortium/ ACCESS Test:

• AlternateACCESS for ELLs:

  • English language proficiency standards and ACCESS assessment specifically designed for ELLs with disabilities:

• Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

• Northern New England TESOL

• Maine Department of Education ESL and Bilingual Programs:

• Portland Public Schools Multilingual and Multicultural Center

• Colorin Colorado

Games for Language Practice

• Arcademic Skill Builders: Educational Online games for kids - http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/

• Internet TESL Journal - Games: http://iteslj.org/games/ , http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Games/Games_Requiring_JavaScript/ , http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Games/Games_Requiring_Flash_or_Shockwave/

• PBS Kids: Videos, online games and more! http://pbskids.org/

• Starfall - Elementary level online games and activities: http://www.starfall.com/

Learning Tools

• Ed Helper - Website with reading and math worksheets, puzzle makers, and printables: http://www.edhelper.com/

• ESL Flow: Lessons, activities, and printables for ELLs of all ages and abilities - https://eslflow.com/

• ESL Garden: A great website for social studies and history articles and comprehension questions specifically modified for ELLs -  http://www.eslgarden.com/stories/index.html

• ESOL Courses (Practice your English skills using our free interactive listening activities, reading exercises, quizzes and games) - http://www.esolcourses.com/

• Many Things (Skills Practice Website) - http://www.manythings.org/e/easy.html

• Quia (Quintessential Instructional Archive). Quia provides a wide variety of tools, including games for online English practice. Just search the database for activities that target your students' needs: http://www.quia.com/shared/search

• Writing Fun: Printable text organizers and explanations by text type (procedural writing, persuasive writing, narratives, etc.) - http://www.writingfun.com/