English Language Learning (Native Speakers)
Stage/Age
Language Overall
Phonology
Morphology
Syntax
Semantics
Implications on reading and writing
Practical Approaches
Birth -3 mo.
Cries, responds to tone, attentive to special sounds, and begins to vocalize.
Reflexive and diverse cries, coos and gurgles.
Verbal play, some consonants, laughing.
No understanding
Sounds or intensity as opposed to meaning.
Music and talk to child
Double syllables, MAMA, tunefully vocalize
Vocalizes pleasure and pain; initiates speech, reproduces babbles.
Increased sounds and imitation
Very little understanding
Truck red; hungry eat, etc.
Use of words and instructi8ons, jargon and jabber before frequent
Imitates some words, asks questions using intonation, vast improvement in tone and sound.
Stage I morphemes; nomination,
Most language is noun based, finger pointing, usually sentences are 2 words.
Action + Agent, Agent + Object, etc. (Daddy is laughing, I push the truck)
Very imitative stage
Show pictures of nouns and ask questions
2-4 years
Talks to self, asks questions, begins using sentences, large amount of vocabulary acquisition
May omit some phrases or parts of phrases, uses final consonants most of the time fewer omissions and learns to blend.
Present, progressive, location, learning some articles
Learning word order, 1/3 of all spoken words are nouns, utterances have few grammatical markers (no an, the, that); grows to 2-4-word phrases
I am here; Cat on box
Beginning to look at symbols
Help child "trace" letters with hands, show how to hold pencil or chalk, encourage mimicry
5 years
Fluent speech, recognizes past, present and future
Masters most consonants and improves intonation.
Mastering articles; past tense, third person
5-6-word phrases, uses contractions, possessive, past tense, progressive verbs (jumping, running).
An apple, a book, my dog, she went away, he brought the puppy
Move now from symbols (letters) to words and word combinations.
Spend time with pronunciation; cat -- c -- ah -- t, expand to write cat using pictographs
6 years
Has learned to pronounce and sound out, more fluent and confident in speaking.
Voiceless (th, sh, ch) are mastered;...
Is dinner ready?
Increase to sentences and read, then repeat, then write
Flash cards, vocabulary and spelling drills. Conversations leaving out significant portions for child to address
Table 2 - ELL,
ESL Stages of Second
Language Acquisition
Stage/Age
Language Overall
Phonology
Morphology
Syntax
Semantics
Implications on reading and writing
Practical Approaches
Pre-Production.
Silent Stage. Listen attentively, parroting
Learning English sounds
No action
May hear some similarities to native language
Sounds or intensity as opposed to meaning.
Learner benefits from reading and simple conversation
Use flash cards to connect objects to sounds
Early Production
May last up to 6 months while learning a receptive vocabulary of 1000 words
Two word responses
Imitation and can look at pictures to make sounds
Learning common words,
Simple and predictive
Predictive text, familiar phrases
Drill with vocabulary cards and illustrative stories; begin to show mimicry in writing.
Speech Emergence
3,000 words is goal
Short phonetics
Placing phonemes into words
Understands two-step directions
Improved vocabulary now from nouns into verbs
Build vocabulary through multiple types of texts
Write daily, even if short sentences; pose questions, write answers; pose answers, write questions
Intermediate fluency
6,000 words is goal
Omit phrases but can put more complex words together
Learning tense, action and strategies of learning
Learning word order, phrases, writing is difficult
Learns to self-correct from native language
Simple texts, use literary techniques to advance cognition
Use marginalia and colored sticky notes to help identify words that are confusing, themes, and literary devices
Advanced fluency
4-10 years, takes practice and continual reinforcement
Mastering phrases and complex and multisyllabic words
Complex tenses
Gerunds, long sentences, idioms
Learning to be near native
Growth of vocabulary through new texts
Increase literacy through divergent types of texts and
analysis of…
