Post 4: 8 Strategies for Preschool ELLs' Language and Literacy Development

The article "8 Strategies for Preschool ELLs' Language and Literacy Development" is produced in combination by Ford (n.d.) and the same company that made the video that I wrote about in my previous blog post. After exploring their website, I found that this article is more descriptive that the video was and provides examples of classroom environment, teaching strategies, and parental involvement. This article opened my eyes to not only learning language, but also learning literacy. Specifically, alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, and print awareness.

See additional articles referenced throughout to supplement key points Ford's article.

Children require multiple exposures to words in order to develop a rich understanding of their meaning and use. Teachers should make a point of introducing interesting new words for children to learn into each classroom activity (Tabors, 2008).

I have summarized my key learnings:

The literacy component of the article was a very interesting component. I had not thought about the literacy aspect of the oral language learning so I was happy to find this information.

• Presenting vocabulary thematically helps children make associations between words and scaffolds students' learning (McGee & Richgels, 2003).

• Read-alouds that include explanations of targeted vocabulary can support word learning (Brabham & Lynch-Brown, 2002; Coyne, Simmons, Kame'enui, & Stoolmiller, 2004), as can dramatic play organized around a carefully chosen theme (Barone & Xu, 2008; Tabors, 2008).

Reflection

I really liked how a number of the teaching strategies in the article allowed for children with different MI to have a number of activities and learning experiences to learn from based on things that they were interested in. I also liked how the activities were scaffolded, to me this really helps ELL learn and build their vocabulary. I learned many valuable teaching strategies from this article and I am confident that if I were too use these strategies, I would find success in the English speaking abilities of my students. It also made me realize how important literacy is to oral language. I had always thought that oral language comes first, before literacy does. But more so now I can see how that would apply to a first language, but how it is important to have literacy involved from day one when learning a new language.

References

Barone, D., & Xu, S. H. (2008). Literacy instruction for English language learners Pre-K-2. New York: The Guilford Press.

Brabham, E. G., & Lynch-Brown, C. (2002). Effects of teachers' reading-aloud styles on vocabulary acquisition and comprehension of students in the early elementary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 465-473.

Coyne, M. D., Simmons, D. C., Kame'enui, E. J., & Stoolmiller, M. (2004). Teaching vocabulary during shared storybook readings: An examination of differential effects. Exceptionality, 12(3), 145-162.

Ford, K (n.d.). 8 Strategies for preschool ELLs' language and literacy development. Retrieved from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/8-strategies-preschool-ells-language-and-literacy-development

Tabors, P. O. (2008). One child, two languages: A guide for early childhood educators of children learning English as a second language (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

McGee, L. M., & Richgels, D. J. (2003). Designing early literacy programs: Strategies for at-risk preschool and kindergarten children. New York: The Guilford Press.