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Listening
As ELs listen to the speech of their peers, teachers, and others, they compare new
sounds and sound sequences to those of their home languages. Teachers can help
students distinguish new sounds by soliciting their participation in routine activities
in the classroom, such as circle time, study groups (in which, for example, they listen
to others speak about a book), and games such as role play, group singing, show and
tell, and wordless book stories (Peregoy & Boyle, 2017). One activity that can be
extremely effective in developing listening skills is the game called “One Looks and Dr. Audrey Figueroa
One Draws.” In this activity, students pair off, and a picture is given to one member Murphy is an associate
of each pair (“the describer”), who then tells the partner what to draw. The drawer professor and Program
Coordinator of TESOL
is not permitted to see the picture but must rely on the describer’s words. However, (Teaching English
the describer can see the partner’s drawing and thus can adjust the wording to assist to Speakers of Other
the drawer. After 5 minutes or so, the picture is revealed, and students get to see to Languages) and Bilingual
what extent their communications were accurate (Peregoy & Boyle, 2017). Education in the Education
To assist beginning students in becoming familiar with the sounds of words and Specialties Department
their meanings, it is important to label everything around the classroom. Labeled of St. John’s University
in New York. She is a
objects should be referred to during instruction, both by the teacher and by the ELs member of Alpha Phi
in the classroom. In addition, total physical response, or TPR (Harrasi, 2014; Singh, Chapter of New York State
2011), can be incorporated into daily instruction. TPR involves such elements as Organization, AERA, the
using gestures to support verbal explanations and employing elements of drama, National Association of
pictures, and nonverbal cues in classroom activities. These exercises help ELs to Bilingual Education, as
make meaning out of the language they encounter—which can otherwise seem like well as the former vice
president of New York
disembodied sound sequences—and are usually experienced as something that is State TESOL.
fun for the whole class.
Murphya3@stjohns.edu
Speaking
Speaking is perceived by many to be the most fundamental of the language
domains, and, as noted above, many ELs join their new schools with skill in this
area already in hand. As also noted, however, the burden on learners of the language
of instruction is not only to respond as one would in a conversation but also to
interact effectively using academic language—that is, language similar to what one
encounters in textbooks—and to
participate in processes of inquiry
involving targeted question-and-
...It is now widely response centered on a given
recognized that the learning goal. Thus, over and
above BCIS, students need to
language development and possess what Cummins (2001)

overall academic growth referred to as Cognitive Academic
Language Proficiency (CALP)—
and progress of second- that is, mastery of the vocabulary
and structures that are used in
language students are academic discourse. Indeed, as

the responsibility of all Chamot (2009) pointed out, “…
in addition to practicing academic
teachers. language to communicate with
each other, ELs need to develop
academic speaking skills to
respond to content teachers” (p.

Educators’ Choice 15