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Definition

Language structure is the rules and conventions used to communicate meaning with one another verbally and in writing using phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

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The Importance of Language Structure for ELLs

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The Importance of Language Structure for ELLs

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There are 6, 912 languages in the world (Reynolds, et al., 2022). All of these languages have aspects of their structure that they share.

Every language uses subsystems to form words with meaning and then use those to form sentences. They all have grammatical rules dictating how to form these sentences, but these are not all the same across all languages.

It is important for teachers to understand language structure of various languages so they know what is similar to English and those connections can be made for ELL students in the lesson. It's also important to address the differences and find impactful ways to teach the ELL students in these area.

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Activities for Language Structure for English Language Learners

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Activities for Language Structure for English Language Learners

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1. Turn-n-Talk-This activity a teacher will give students a question they need to think about then student A will turn to a partner (student B) and talk about his answer giving reasons for his response. Then they switch and student B will tell student A his response to the question.

This activity allows ELL students to practice speaking to their peers in a safe environment.

Teacher can supply sentence stems and translation to support the ELL student.

2. Transformation Drills- The teacher gives the student a sentence and then has the student transform a part of speech in some way. For example, the focus could be on changing a noun from singular to plural by adding "s."

1. The girl went to the movies. --The girls went to the movies.

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3. Use songs or chants that can be slowed down and repeated. Adding gestures to mimic word meaning also helps ELL students understand the meaning of the words.

4. Sentence scramble- Prepare a few bags with words. In each bag will be words to create a sentence. The student will pull all the words out and organize them into the correct order to develop a properly structured English sentence.

1. For beginners start with the basics of a simple noun and verb.

2. Once the simple sentence is mastered then add in additional parts of speech, adjectives and adverbs.

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Pink Cat Games website- This website supports the child in learning the basics in language structure, such as, expressive language using "he is, she is," social language, and vocabulary are just a few choices. Parents can sit with their child and complete the tasks to play the game. There are a variety of games to choose from as well along with holiday games.

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Play fun and engaging educational games for any subject.

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Díaz-Rico, L. T. (2008). Chapter 1 Language Structures and Use. In A course for teaching English learners. essay, Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

DRAGOMIR, I.-A., & NICULESCU, B.-O. (2021). Packing and Unpacking Grammar - Towards a Communicative Approach to Teaching Language Structures. Buletin Stiintific, 26(2), 121–128. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.2478/bsaft-2021-0014

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Reynolds, K. M., Dikilitaş, K., & Close, S. (2022). Introduction to TESOL: Becoming a language teaching professional. WILEY-BLACKWELL.

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Phonology is the study of the sounds in language (Díaz-Rico, L. T., 2008). Learning phonology is important for English Language Learners since English has more phonemes, individual sounds in a language, than most other languages (Díaz-Rico, L. T.,2008). There may be phonemes in English that are not found in other languages making it more difficult for the student.

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The study of the structure of words as smaller parts of meaning (Kieffer, et al., 2010).

Morphemes are roots that can stand alone and prefix and suffixes.

Learning morphology will help ELL students in learning and understanding their academic content, which can be very difficult to learn in another language.

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1. Morphology should be taught in context (Kieffer, et al., 2010).

1. Teach a limited number of morphemes directly.

2. provide opportunities for deeper thinking

3. Scaffold during practice, lots of practice

2. Morphology is taught as a strategy (Kieffer, et al., 2010).

This is a skill students can use over and over not memorization. There are 4 steps to teach (Kieffer, et al., 2010).

1. Recognize that they don't know what the word means

2. Look for morphemes in the word students do know

3. discuss meanings for word parts students don't know

4. check meaning hypothesis against context.

3. Word parts should be introduced in a certain order and way and retaught often (Kieffer, et al., 2010).

4. Instruction is explicit and must be used repeatedly in meaningful context (Kieffer, et al., 2010).

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Kieffer, M. J., & Lesaux, N. K. (2010). Morphing Into Adolescents: Active Word Learning for English-Language Learners and Their Classmates in Middle School. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(1), 47-56. https://doi.org/10.1598/JAAL.54.1.5

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Díaz-Rico, L. T. (2008). Chapter 1 Language Structures and Use. In A course for teaching English learners. essay, Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

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Syntax- The study of the arrangement of words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence (Foorman, et al., 2016).

Understanding grammar rules and structure.

Semantics- The study of the meaning of words and their relationship to each other; how meaning is understood by both listeners and speakers (University of Sheffield a., 2023).

Pragmatics- the study of linguistic meaning and the context in which it is used (University of Sheffield, b., 2023).

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Why these are important to English Language Learners

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Why these are important to English Language Learners

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Syntax- Students need syntax lessons because it helps them to understand how the parts of a sentence are put together. It helps them to understand multiple meaning words and academic language.

Semantics- This is how students use words in written and spoken language and understand it. They need knowledge of semantics to differentiate between important and unimportant words and facts in a text as well as in spoken lectures.

Pragmatics- this is so important for students to understand as it helps students understand and navigate academic language or conversations and social language and conversations. Pragmatics are what helps students read between the lines to gain meaning.

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Foorman, B., Beyler, N., Borradaile, K., Coyne, M., Denton, C. A., Dimino, J., Furgeson, J., Hayes, L., Henke, J., Justice, L., Keating, B., Lewis, W., Sattar, S., Streke, A., Wagner, R., & Wissel, S. (2016). Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade (NCEE 2016-4008). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

University of Sheffield a. (2023). Semantics. Centre for Linguistic Research.

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/linguistics/home/all-about-linguistics/about-website/branches-linguistics/semantics

University of Sheffield b. (2023). What is pragmatics?. Centre for Linguistic Research

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/linguistics/home/all-about-linguistics/about-website/branches-linguistics/pragmatics/what-pragmatics

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A.) Sentence Scramble- Write words on the board or make cards with a word on each and have the words mixed up out of order. Students need to rearrange the words following grammar rules.

1. Start with only 3-4 word sentences

2. Use sentences related to the daily classroom routines, items, or language.

3. Use sentences from text or read-aloud

4. Differentiate by capitalizing the first word of the sentence and adding punctuation after the last word. This helps students who may struggle have visual clues to identify the first word and the last word.

B.) Sentence Frames- Give students sentence starters or fill in the blank sentences by filling in a portion of the sentence. This could be sentences focusing on parts of speech. For example, students are given a sentence with everything except one, two, or three adjectives. Students practice adjective vocabulary as well as adjective order.

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Buzzword- Students use clues to encourage teammates to identify the phrase that reflects the meaning of the provided clue, but also contains the “buzz word” or common word contained in all phrases.

Teams have 45 seconds to guess all 10 phrases.

"Apple of my eye, " "All American dessert, " buzzword is apple.

This helps students to understand meaning by using other words in context.

Idioms- Teach idioms ahead of reading a text. Practice idioms and their meaning by having students draw the literal meaning of an idiom then the figurative meaning.

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Mood Reading- Students partner up or small group and read from a text reflecting different moods. Then the other student/students have to determine the mood using the mood, setting, and fluctuation of tone.

Reader's Theater- students get in a small group and participate in reading a play. After reading the play once challenge students to add facial expressions to match the words. Then, during the third reading challenge students to add movements that would match the words and make sense.

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Word Games- Parents can support their child in learning language structure by playing word games. Examples:

Scrabble, Pictionary, and Charades

Jokes and riddles- Teling jokes helps students to learn pragmatics and expressions. Riddles offer students opportunities to learn multiple meaning words and practice of using the surrounding text to determine meaning.

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Pink Cat Games- Pink Cat games allows your child to work on a variety of language structure areas. From, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. They use fun games to engage your child while learning.

Reading Rockets-

https://www.readingrockets.org/literacy-home/reading-101-guide-parents

AGENDAWEB- English exercises with activities. This website has rhyming activities and various types of reading activities including fairy tales and nursery rhymes. There are also activities for grammar supporting the syntax element of language structure.

https://agendaweb.org/

Games to Learn English- This is a wonderful website with a variety of games your child can play to work on language structure. There are games to support asking questions, grammar, vocabulary, and phrases to practices syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, as well as phonology and morphology.

https://gamestolearnenglish.com/

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Play fun and engaging educational games for any subject.