# data[].attributes.body
Here we explain what comprehensible input is, why it is important for ELLs, and how technology can help teachers make their lessons more successful and inclusive.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
* * * On the Internet * * *

November 2018 - Volume 22, Number 3

Andrea Stairs-Davenport, PhD
University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine, USA
<andrea.stairs maine.edu>

Beth Skotarczak, MSEd
Westbrook School Department, Westbrook, Maine, USA
<skotarczakb westbrookschools.org>

Introduction

As educators working with English language learners (ELLs), the authors of this article have come to understand the importance of technology in supporting ELLs' classroom learning and attention. In particular, we believe that technological tools can be leveraged to improve comprehensible input for ELLs, a critical factor in their language acquisition and subsequent academic success.

Research in the field of English as a second language (ESL) on the topic of multimodal teaching and learning including technology is growing (e.g. Choi & Yi, 2015). Educators who work with ELLs daily know that "making the core curriculum comprehensible is central to preventing new English learners from becoming long-term English learners" (Echevarria, Frey & Fisher, 2015, p. 23) and we find that incorporating technology is key.

Andrea is a former secondary English teacher and literacy coach who has worked in diverse U.S. school settings with classrooms comprised of 50% or more ELLs. Now she is a professor at the university level with a professional interest in supporting mainstream teachers in increasingly diverse school settings to provide comprehensible, meaningful instruction to native English speakers and ELLs alike. Beth is a former elementary classroom teacher in the U.S. who has moved into full-time ESL teaching at her school. Her teaching is in a pull-out program, meaning that ELLs attend separate ESL classes with her. She also supports mainstream teachers in learning to differentiate instruction for ELLs when they are pushed into their classes, which is for most of their school day.

The two authors began collaborating when Beth was a student in Andrea's graduate program, and she shared how she used technology regularly to meet the needs of her diverse classroom population. We learned that we both have a passion for supporting mainstream teachers in their work with ELLs, and as a result, have become colleagues and friends who enjoy working together on this topic. Between us we have nearly 40 years of teaching experience.

Here we explain what comprehensible input is, why it is important for ELLs, and how technology can help teachers make their lessons more successful and inclusive. Then, we highlight technological tools that Beth has used in her mainstream and pull-out ESL classroom settings to make content learning comprehensible.

Comprehensible Input Defined

Comprehensible input is a term coined by applied linguistics scholar Stephen Krashen (2009). Krashen explained that for students to acquire a new language, they must be exposed to the language in simplified terms that they can understand. Research suggests that there are many ways to make speech more comprehensible to language learners: "1) slower rate and clearer articulation, which helps acquirers to identify word boundaries more easily, and allows more processing time; 2) more use of high-frequency vocabulary, less slang, fewer idioms; 3) syntactic simplification, shorter sentences" (p. 64). Comprehensible input "involves a conscious effort to make the lesson accessible through a variety of means" (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2017, p. 104), including technology.

Comprehensible input is important for ELLs in the most basic terms because these students will not have access to content learning without being exposed to language they understand. Comprehensibility is fundamental and necessary for language acquisition to occur. In his seminal work on comprehensible input, which first appeared in 1982, Krashen (2009) argued that the optimal output by the teacher is comprehensible because "when the acquirer does not understand the message, there will be no acquisition ... incomprehensible input, or 'noise' will not help" (p. 63). Essentially, Krashen's point is that that students will not learn English simply by sitting in classrooms with English being spoken around them. He goes on to add that "the defining characteristic of a good teacher is someone who can make input comprehensible to a non-native speaker, regardless of his or her level of competence in the target language" (p. 64). Students at the earliest stages of language acquisition have the potential to learn content in subjects taught in school with appropriate attention to comprehensible input. Comprehensible input is so important that it has been identified as one of the 8 essential features in planning and delivering effective lessons for ELLs in the well-researched and implemented Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, or SIOP Model, an approach for integrating the teaching of content and language in classrooms with ELLs (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2017).

Leveraging Technology for Comprehensible Input

Technology provides many avenues for improving comprehensible input in classroom discourse. As is evident in Tables 1 and 2 below, there are numerous tools and applications which can make the English language more understandable for ELLs. In addition to technology providing visuals (photos, illustrations, diagrams, videos), auditory components, and differentiation of content, these tools present an engaging way to interest students in content learning. This is particularly important for ELLs whose attention is constantly shifting from understanding the language of the classroom to understanding the content of the curriculum.

The daunting task of simultaneously processing language and content could lead some ELLs to simply tune out, particularly if the teacher is talking at students for long periods of time and not providing tools that increase comprehensible input. Limited use of technology may lead to language overload for ELLs and less attention to content learning. Technology that is engaging and student-centered has the potential to reduce the stress produced by the learning environment and, as a result, reduce ELLs' affective filter: "Learners who are comfortable and have a positive attitude toward language learning have their filters set low, allowing unfettered access to comprehensible input" (VanPatten & Williams, 2015, p. 27).

Beth has been teaching at the intermediate elementary level in the United States for over 15 years. She has witnessed her student population increasingly grow linguistically and culturally diverse to where ELLs comprise about 20% of the school population today. Her interest in meeting the needs of her ELLs lead her to a graduate program in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and now she is certified and teaches ESL full time at her elementary school. She has seen a shift in technology usage from being teacher-centered and focused on creating elaborate and alluring lessons, to student-centered and focused on making the content and language in the classroom accessible and comprehensible for all learners. Instead of spending hours creating presentations to use once and usually with the whole class, technology is now being used with groupings ranging from whole class to small groups, and even at the individual student level, based on what students need in the moment. This is appropriate in our local context because the expectation is that teachers spend more time differentiating instruction based on each student's learning needs and less time teaching whole class lessons, a change that has been driven by standards-based reform expectations.

In discussing applications that can help with comprehensible input, we distinguish between free tools that lend themselves to use at any time by classroom teachers and tools which require payment of a fee for using the tool at a given site location. There are numerous free tools available to teachers to use right away in their classrooms, as seen in Table 1. When reading an article or giving a workshop, we always like to think about what teachers can use in their classrooms tomorrow. These free resources are easily accessible by simply creating a username. There are also membership tools available if a teacher or district is able to pay the applicable fees, as seen in Table 2. Some of the tools are great for whole class lessons and introductions to units of study, allowing for content to be more comprehensible for ELLs. Other apps and sites are available for individual students and allow for progress monitoring and data collection. We especially like membership tools that help support science and social studies in the classroom because these often have engaging content in organized units of study.

In the next section, we will describe how some of the free tools can be used to support ELLs' learning by improving comprehensible input. In the section after that, we will describe how some of the membership tools can be used. Though we only discuss a handful of tools listed in the two tables, Beth has tried them in her teaching and gives her reasons for recommending each one.

Free Tools

There are two free Google products that may be used throughout the day and across content areas to improve comprehensible input: Google Translate and Google Slides. Freckle Education also supports teaching across the content areas, and Starfall focuses on early reading skills.

Google Translate

Beth uses Google Translate throughout the day with her ELLs. Using a mobile device such as a smartphone, the Google Translate app can be used quickly for asking questions and giving simple directions. With Google Translate, the student can speak into the phone's app using the built-in microphone, and that speech translates to English. One particular student who was literate in her native language chose to read the given translations instead of listening to them.

This app is also used to make the regular business of school comprehensible to ELLs. For example, in one of Beth's recent classes, a newly arrived immigrant with very little English arrived, got settled in, and took a seat at her desk. Beth called her up to her computer to view Google images of the lunch choices and supported this with Google Translate. Gone were the days of having to sort through a large stack of downloaded, printed, and laminated pictures to show students what lunch choices were offered.

This newcomer ELL was a strong math student and Beth often provided math as morning work while the kids ate their breakfast. The class had begun studying multiplication, but she was getting confused between multiplication and addition. Using Google Translate and illustrations on paper, Beth was able to explain the difference between the two operations. This student then was able to successfully complete the multiplication work that morning. Beth also used the app to explain the scientific vocabulary and concepts within a science unit on living things; e.g.: producer, consumer, decomposer, and scavenger. Using the app in addition to visual supports helped make the content comprehensible and connect to the student's L1. This same student was with Beth reading a book. The student was trying to explain a word that was red and pointed to the text repeatedly. Using the app's speaking portion, the student spoke the Arabic word into the microphone and it was then translated to English. The word the student was trying to explain and connect the book to was ketchup. The student then said, "ketchup" and acted out dipping a French fry into the ketchup and eating it. Though the app is not always perfect in its translations, Google translate is a simple yet powerful tool for communicating social and academic language in the classroom.

Google Slides

Google Slides is another free Google product that is similar to PowerPoint and used to create slideshows. Students in Beth's classroom meet in guided reading groups or book clubs during reading workshop. In one such grouping, the group consisted of two intermediate-level ELLs and two native English speakers who were to meet for the first time about a new book they would be reading called Stranded by Jeff Probst. Beth made a series of Google Slides that included photos to hook students early on, to build background knowledge, and to make the text more accessible.

Some of the pictures included were a map of the South Pacific Ocean and its relative location to Hawaii and Australia as landmarks. Also included were photos of a sailboat similar to what the characters would be on, an isolated beach so the students could have a picture of where the characters would become "stranded," and a satellite phone that the characters would use to communicate in the story. The students were able to see that a satellite phone was a large cell phone that needed to work in the middle of the ocean. Providing images and vocabulary on Slides while having a small group lesson prior to beginning the book prepared ELLs to better comprehend their reading.

Beth incorporated Google Slides into another group before reading books about extreme weather. Photos and videos were put on slides to show various extreme storms and Earth events including: tornado, hurricane, tsunami, earthquake, and blizzard. Beth met with students prior to the start of the reading unit with printouts of the Google Slides as well as the laptop ready to show videos. Students made observations about the pictures and video and wrote notes for each slide. The discussion was beneficial as it helped clarify understanding of each Earth event or storm, and helped students think more deeply about what it would be like to experience these events firsthand, preview key vocabulary, and access the students' background knowledge.

Freckle Education

Freckle Education, formerly Front Row, is a website that individualizes content in the four core content areas: language arts, math, science, and social studies. Every child has an individual login under their class profile. Students take an initial assessment for baseline data about their content knowledge in the discipline and then lessons are individualized from the assessment results. The lessons have questions embedded that allow for formative assessment of student learning. Each student's data is tracked on their own profile accessible to the teacher through the teacher dashboard. By looking at this data, a teacher can look to see what gaps a student may have and correlate to a standard for grade levels starting with Kindergarten through twelfth grades. A teacher may have a third grade student who showed gaps with a patterns standard within the first grade strand, as mathematical concepts and gaps may occur across grade levels. The student then has various lessons to choose from to try and bridge the gap, and the content differentiates based on their performance on questions related to the lesson. If a student is having difficulty with a concept, Freckle will show video tutorials to build the student's skills and content knowledge in that area. Students taking the lessons on a particular topic are tracked on how they answer questions and whether they move to another concept or whether they need further reinforcement.

At the end of a lesson, students see their performance as a percentage. For example, if Beth's ELL students were struggling with Base 10 in math, they would view a video tutorial and then practice on the interactive website. The teacher receives a report on how each student in the class is performing. Beth has found the language in the lessons to be appropriate for students with intermediate language proficiency.

Starfall

Starfall is geared for early readers to develop phonemic awareness and phonics skills, the building blocks of reading. There are also digital books with text read aloud and highlighted for students to follow along in their initial reading. Beth has used it in her reading instruction to help all students, including ELLs. Most students use the program individually with laptops and headphones.

For example, the practice on segmenting sounds is engaging and colorful with visual and sound effects. Students are encouraged to listen and then repeat the words as the sounds are blended. Beth has found her ELLs really enjoy listening to the nursery rhymes included, another simple way for them to be exposed to English in a lively and fun way. The Common Core State Standards in the U.S. emphasize foundational skills as the building blocks of literacy. Skill development can seem repetitive, but Starfall makes the process varied and engaging. Even for ELLs who are new to the country and English, this site is comprehensible.

Other Free Tools That Support ELLs' Comprehensible Input

Included in the table below are the free tools discussed above, as well as others Beth and Andrea are familiar with. As noted in the table, these tools support ELLs' learning of content and language by improving comprehensible input in one of at least four ways: 1) making materials easier to comprehend in general, 2) providing differentiated lesson materials to simplify complex content concepts, 3) presenting language with other graphics or comprehension helpers, and 4) providing leveled readings or individualized instruction.
Table 1: Free Tools
Tools With Membership Fees

In a quick search on the Internet, teachers will find many, many sites that appear to have useful content for lesson planning and improving comprehensible input. We have discovered that some are better than others, and we highlight the best tools that Beth has tried in her classroom in this section. Flocabulary is an academic vocabulary building tool, Mystery Science leads students through inquiry-based units of study, and Reading A-Z supports independent reading.

Flocabulary

In one unit Beth taught, students were studying animals within their habitats. To make the point about how an animal survives in its habitat using adaptations, an engaging video from the website Flocabulary was used to serve as a digital jumpstart to the day's lesson (Rance-Roney, 2010). The habitat video featured animation and a captioned rap song being sung that included the key word, adaptations, numerous times. Any other important words in the video were highlighted in color, bold, or a different font. In addition, examples of adaptations were illustrated so students could see how that feature helped a particular animal. In the debrief discussion at the end, ELLs were able to define and give examples of adaptations, as well as make predictions and connections to the animal they were studying for their research project. Flocabulary was used on many occasions throughout the school year, so students were familiar with the site and enjoyed its featured rap songs and lively videos. Flocabulary is $96 U.S./year for an individual membership and $2,000 for a school membership; a 45-day free trial is also available.

Mystery Science

Mystery Science can be used whole class or for small group instruction. The Mystery Science curriculum is aligned to the Next Gen Science Standards and the Common Core State Standards, which are used in classrooms across the United States. Focused on grades Kindergarten to five, this inquiry-based website presents an overarching unit that is followed by a series of lessons. Every lesson has videos and thought prompts to provide students the opportunity to build background or to reflect, think deeper, and respond. In addition, the lessons include hands-on activities, and the preparation is easy for teachers as it comes with a list of handouts and supplies needed. Using this website, Beth led a whole-class science lesson on animal and plant migration by examining videos and images of fossils which appeared to be in unusual and unnatural places around the world. The video and narration were engaging and clear. Even her newcomer ELL student could understand the concept of migration by looking at the images of fossils in different parts of the world and determining their origins. The class participated in the thought prompts provided and were able to understand that a plant or animal's migration varies on reason and method. Mystery Science is $99 for a classroom membership and $499 for a school membership.

Reading A-Z

Reading A-Z has printable texts that are leveled so that any of Beth's students may practice reading at home, even if the family has few books written in English in the home. This is a positive for families who have limited access to books, but more importantly, lack leveled texts that are just right for their child. The cost is $109.95 for a classroom. This site is unique as membership may also be purchased by a family; however, the price is the same as a classroom subscription, which would be cost-prohibitive for many families. When Beth uses the books in class, she previews the challenging vocabulary and reads them with the students. They discuss the text during and after reading to build comprehension. The students are then able to take the books home to read independently or with their families. In this case, technology becomes the tool that allows for a traditional print reading experience that is differentiated and comprehensible for each student. Reading books at the appropriate level improves students' fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, and having books accessible at home is correlated with improved literacy performance (Allington, Camilli, Williams, Graff, Zeig, Zmach, C. & Nowak, R., 2010).

Other Tools With Fees That Support ELLs' Comprehensible Input

Table 2 includes tools with fees we have discussed in this article, as well as others we are familiar with. As in Table 1, the right-hand column notes how the tool helps ELLs in general and improves comprehensible input.
Table 2: Tools With Membership Fees

A website that includes videos with recognizable characters addressing a wide variety of topics in the content areas; supplemental resources are available.

Engaging video and audio, allows for ELLs to have a preview of content, focus on important vocabulary for each lesson; CI is enhanced by differentiating lesson materials to simplify complex content concepts.

Conclusion

We argue that incorporating technology is useful and necessary for ELLs to better comprehend what is going on in their classrooms. We hope teachers take away from this article that they need not spend much time adapting content for ELLs to make it comprehensible. Simple-to-use technologies described here make the classroom a welcoming and educational environment even for ELLs who are new to the country and new to the English language. In fact, the tools recommended here are useful for native-English speaking students, as well. Johnson (2015) argues, "Using technology is one of the best means for adapting materials for diversity and gathering information about many cultures. In some cases, it may be the only way to do so" (p. 81). We concur, and we urge educators of ELLs to consider how technology might make their lessons more comprehensible in order to improve students' content and language learning.

References

Allington, R.L., Camilli, G., Williams, L., Graff, J., Zeig, J., Zmach, C. & Nowak, R. (2010). Addressing summer reading setback among economically disadvantaged elementary students. Reading Psychology, 31, 411-427. doi:10.1080/02702711, 2010.505165

Choi, J., & Yi, Y. (2015). Teachers' integration of multimodality into classroom practices for English language learners. TESOL Journal, 7(2), 304-327.

Echevarria, J., Frey, N., & Fisher, D. (2015). What it takes for English learners to succeed Educational Leadership, 72(6), 22-26.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. J. (2017). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP model. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Johnson, D. (2015). The culturally proficient technologist. Educational Leadership, 72(6), 81-82.

Krashen, S. (2009). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Retrieved from http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/books/principles_and_practice.pdf. (Original work published 1982)

Rance-Roney, J. (2010). Jump-starting language and schema for English-language learners: Teacher-composed digital jumpstarts for academic reading. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 53(5), 386-395.

VanPatten, B., & Williams, J. (2015). Early theories in SLA, in B. VanPatten & J. Williams (Eds.), Theories in second language acquisition: An introduction, 2nd ed (pp. 17-33). New York: Routledge.

Appendix

List of websites referenced in this article with links spelled out, presented alphabetically

Bitsboard

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bitsboard-flashcards-games/id516842210?mt=8

BrainPop

https://www.brainpop.com/

BrainPop ELL

https://ell.brainpop.com/

BrainPop Jr.

https://jr.brainpop.com/

EF High Flyers

https://highflyers.ef.com/

Epic!

https://www.getepic.com/

ESL Games Plus

https://www.eslgamesplus.com/

Flocabulary

https://www.flocabulary.com/

FluentU

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fluentu-learn-languages/id917892175?mt=8

Freckle

https://www.freckle.com

Futaba

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-games-for-kids-futaba/id426517722?mt=8

Google Slides

https://www.google.com/slides/about/

Google Translate

https://translate.google.com/

Imagine Learning

https://www.imaginelearning.com/

Kidblog

https://kidblog.org/home/

MobyMax

https://www.mobymax.com/

Mystery Science

https://mysteryscience.com/r1

NewsELA

https://newsela.com/

Play Factile

https://www.playfactile.com/

Raz-Kids

https://www.raz-kids.com/

Reading A-Z

https://www.readinga-z.com/

ReadWorks

https://www.readworks.org/

Starfall

http://www.starfall.com/

TweenTribune

https://www.tweentribune.com/

Unite for Literacy

https://www.uniteforliteracy.com/

© Copyright rests with authors. Please cite TESL-EJ appropriately.

Editor's Note: The HTML version contains no page numbers. Please use the PDF version of this article for citations.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Improving Comprehensible Input for ELLs through Technology

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
* On the Internet * * * Andrea Stairs-Davenport, PhD University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine, USA Beth Skotarczak, MSEd Westbrook School Department, Westbrook, Maine, USA As educators working with English language learners (ELLs), the authors of this article have come to understand the importance of technology in supporting ELLs' classroom learning and attention.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Part 8 of WIDA's Essential Action Series. Click here to return to the first article in the series.

Did you get to read about Ayaka's story in the previous article? It illustrates how Entering ELs can engage in critical thinking activities even though they are completely new to English. In Ayaka's case, we focused on what we could do to help her learn and ignored all the rest until later. As I worked with Ayaka, I only had two priorities - first develop comprehensible input, then foster engagement.

This is teacher speak for: Students can participate if they understand the content and the instructions.

My first priority was to help Ayaka comprehend the instructions so that she can engage with the content. As her content knowledge grew, my role switched from translator to conductor - helping her communicate and apply her understanding. Ayaka's story demonstrated how these priorities directed my work with Entering ELS, and now we'll use the same framework to learn how to instruct ELs along a spectrum of language development.

The Diagram

The diagram below, divided into two sections, is the visual embodiment of these two priorities. The sky blue section represents the strategies that cultivate comprehensible input, which is the belief that students must understand what is being communicated in order to learn (Krashen, 1981). Comprehensible input is broken down into categories based on teacher involvement: Direct Instruction, Joint Construction, Coached Construction, and Monitoring. The most involved teaching occurs during Direct Instruction and is gradually reduced over the next three phases until students can independently use strategies to understand content and instruction.

The turquoise section denotes ways students themselves can demonstrate understanding, known as comprehensible output (Haynes, n.d), which I'll explain in the next post. This section categorizes ELs into four groups: Beginning, Developing, Expanding, and Bridging. This sequence also represents ELs' increasing mastery of English. The more skills an EL has internalized, the less teacher involvement is needed.

Comprehensible Input: What Teachers Can Do

Direct Instruction

At this phase of involvement, teachers are demonstrating strategies that develop comprehension. It's often called "Watch Me Do" or modeling.

My favorite strategy is using ELs' home languages to build understanding of the content and instructions. Teachers can use Google Translate as a tool that uses ELs' home languages like in the image below.

When our history teacher needed Zhang Ho, an Entering EL from China, to understand a project, I used Google Translate to make the directions accessible for him.

I directly taught Zhang Ho to use Google Translate as a temporary crutch to aid his comprehension. Although he watched as I modeled the strategy, I didn't ask for or incorporate his input.

Joint Construction

Once the teacher demonstrates these strategies, his role shifts from modeling to inviting students to participate in developing understanding. It's often referred to as "We Do".

This joint venture of constructing meaning is most appropriate for Developing ELs because they have cultivated enough social language to follow somewhat complex instructions but still require the guidance of an educator.

The main tool used in this phase is prompting. As a strategy is being demonstrated, the teacher gradually invites the students to contribute ideas. I use Joint Constructing to teach students reading strategie s. Below is a dialogue of what that sounds like:

[reading aloud a text] Women in Athens generally had no legal or political rights such as the right to own land and to vote. To summarize a sentence, we have to use our NVD strategy. What does the "N" stand for?
Student: It stands for noun. Mr. Tan: What is the most important noun in this sentence? Student: I think it's women in Athens.
Joint construction is key to an ELs' development because it shows them how to apply the strategies, and it weans them off their dependence on teachers to construct meaning.

Coached Construction

In this phase, the teacher coaches students to practice constructing meaning by reinforcing the strategies they have already learned. This phase is often called, "You do; I observe".

Coached Construction is most appropriate for Expanding ELs because they're capable of making meaning with growing independence.

By observing direct instruction and practicing joint construction over and over again, they've begun to internalize the need to use these comprehension strategies. Now, the teacher observes the students applying strategies on their own and offers suggestions only as needed.

Let's return to the guided reading from above. As students read the next section in pairs or small groups and work together to construct meaning, I observe and prompt them of strategies they could use. It might sound like this:
Airy: Wait, I'm confused by this sentence: "They could not hold (have) public office (work for the government) or go shopping. Dexter: Yeah, me too. I don't understand this symbol " ( ) ". Mr. Tan: Before you worry about the parentheses, let's focus Airy: Oh yeah, we have to find what "they" means. Dexter: Mr. Tan said we have to go back to the last sentence Airy: [reading the previous sentence]. Oh, I think the "they" means "Athenian women". to find the "they". on the word "they".
Monitoring

In contrast to Beginning, Developing, and Expanding ELs, Bridging ELs only need to be reminded of the strategies that establish comprehension. It can also be called, "You do; I check in".
Mr. Tan: Hi, Jessica and Jake. Can you tell me how your reading is going? Jessica: We're at this point in the text. Jake: It's about the housing in Athens. Mr. Tan: What part is challenging? Jessica: The words are easy but there's lots of details. Jake: Yeah. It's like hard to see all the details. Mr. Tan: What strategy did you use to "see" all the details. Jessica: We drew a picture of what the house to show all the details. Mr. Tan: How effective was that strategy? Jake: It helped us understand the details better.
No longer requiring constant supervision, Bridging ELs are usually the most independent ELs and can apply solutions to help cultivate understanding.

I use two methods to monitor Bridging ELs' understanding: 1) Quick Writes and 2) mini-conferences. Both of these approaches provide data on the ELs' progress, and both emphasize the need to provide daily, mini-opportunities for checking in. I'll return to the reading example above to explain what mini-conferences look like.

Takeaway

Nothing robs students of their enthusiasm for school more than the inability to understand instructions. Schools become isolating and disempowering places when students are unable to participate in activities with their peers.

No student should be stranded on an island surrounded by a sea of unfamiliar words.

As English language teachers, we can send liferafts their way. These liferafts are the strategies that make instructions understandable and content accessible. Every time we teach these strategies, ELs are less adrift in a sea of confusion. No matter how far an EL might seem from fully understanding English, we can light their way by making instruction comprehensible.

Next Post

In the next article, we'll explore the second priority when working with ELs - fostering engagement that honors the language skills they do have. I'll return to the diagram to describe the differences between what a Beginning EL can do compared to a Bridging EL and provide specific examples for helping them communicate.

References

Krashen, S. D. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning . Oxford: Pergamon Press.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
#27. Comprehensible Input: What Teachers Can Do - ELL Strategies | TanKHuynh

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Comprehensible input is how teachers can provide instruction that ELs understand. Using Direct, Coached and Joint Construction to help develop meaning.

# data[].attributes.body
Watch me do---teacher

# data[].attributes.headline
8 Keys for bringing in comprehensible input

# data[].attributes.subject
8 Keys for bringing in comprehensible input

# data[].attributes.body
1. Diversify the sources of input

2. Use labels and visual tools

3. Have story time

4. Adopt fluent as a teaching tool

5. Try narrow reading

6. List work

7. Songs and nursery rhymes

8. Play games- try Simon say

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Your job as an ESL teacher is to give your students the correct input. That way, you'll get the right output-properly-learned language!

That means you need to present new ideas to your students at the most linguistically appropriate level to help them improve their English skills and understand more information.

And that's why comprehensible input is a critical element in every ESL classroom.

Here are eight ways to include comprehensible input in your ESL curriculum!

Contents

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

What Is Comprehensible Input?

Comprehensible input is language that a learner can understand even if they don't know all of the vocabulary words or grammar structures involved.

In fact, comprehensible input should be just one level above that of the language learner. If your student reads at a "Level 3," the comprehensible reading input should be a Level 4.

It should integrate new and unknown words and structures with familiar ones so the student has enough known information to be able to interpret and comprehend the new linguistic cues.

In other words, a successful comprehensible input means that students understand most-but not all-of the given information and are challenged to expand their language knowledge. This could be in any form-audio, video or written language.

First proposed by Stephen Krashen in 1977, the idea of integrating comprehensible input into second language curriculums has received great popularity for its overall effects on ESL instruction.

Here's how to do it.

1. Diversify the Sources of Input

Comprehensible input is more than just language development and curriculum content.

Language is a practical, flexible and living tool that assumes various purposes and forms in our lives. The input you provide to students should reflect that.

ESL teachers should emulate the various types of input that students receive on a daily basis -stories, videos, social media and beyond.

In particular, make sure to diversify input sources enough that students aren't only getting comprehensible input from you. In class, they should also be getting input from each other.

Create opportunities for discussions and debates. Provide level-appropriate reading and listening materials. Watch videos and talk through them as a class afterward.

Review the content of your sources to ensure it is actually comprehensible. Make sure it also gives students room to explore and experiment with the English language.

2. Utilize a Variety of Visual Tools

When developing a comprehensible learning environment, both content and context are important.

Besides carefully controlling the vocabulary and discussion topic, ESL teachers should also use graphic organizers, tangible objects and other visual aids to enhance understanding.

Visual tools can help students:

understand complex terms.

sequence information more easily.

connect related concepts.

develop personal ideas.

Visual aids may be whiteboard doodles, charts or picture cut-outs. You can also label items and pictures.

Whatever you use, it should add color and energy to your ESL curriculum, enrich learning and broaden students' understanding of new concepts.

3. Include Regular Story Time

Stories are full of possibilities and adventures. They're exciting. They encourage our imaginations.

They're also a great way to provide comprehensible input to your ESL students.

Stories provide context and detailed information -exactly what language learners need. And stories that will resonate with your students on a personal level will work best.

When selecting stories, make sure they are:

Linguistically appropriate. Students should understand most of the words, terms, phrases and sentence structures. There is no overly complex plot development or characters. You should clarify special nouns, locations or other proper names in advance, including main characters.

Related to culture. Cultural stories are interesting, broaden students' worldview and teach them to present their personal beliefs in a respectful manner. Allow for discussions and consider holding related events, like a special cultural food day.

Examples of good social behavior. Stories can show students how to react in certain situations. What do you say in a job interview? How do you host a holiday party, or ask someone on a date? Provide stories that increase students' social understanding in realistic and practical ways.

Incorporating regular story time into your ESL class, whether daily or weekly, will show your students just how much they can learn from stories.

4. Use Media-based Teaching Programs

Another way to find diverse input is with FluentU.

FluentU has tons of English videos made by and for native speakers-like "Friends" episodes, "The Hunger Games" movie trailers, documentaries, broadcast news, interviews, music videos and more. The included learning tools can help ESL students understand these videos.

If a learner hears a word they don't know, they can hover their cursor over the subtitled words to see the definitions. Clicking on a word will show example sentences and give the user the option to add the word to their own personalized vocabulary list for later practice.

As an ESL educator, you can use FluentU for in-class exercises or assign videos, audio or flashcards as homework. If the pre-made vocabulary sets aren't quite right for your class, you can create your own.

FluentU's features are designed to make English input comprehensible for learners. So once you find videos your class will enjoy, you'll be good to go.

5. Introduce Narrow Reading

Instead of reading a bunch of books, articles and essays on a variety of subjects, try narrowing it down to master just one subject.

Use materials written about the same topic by different people to practice narrow reading. Your ESL students will learn to recognize the sets of words and structures commonly used to express certain ideas.

Supplement your narrow reading exercises by incorporating related podcasts, audio programs and movies into your class. You can also encourage your students to choose a specific topic they enjoy to read about in their free time.

Narrow reading enhances comprehensible input efforts. Reading about the same subject repeatedly builds up students' background knowledge while improving their vocabulary and semantic and syntactic understanding in the area.

6. Help Students Teach Each Other

Design activities where students help each other learn new information.

For example, you might try an activity that I call "List Work." Students work in pairs to accomplish a multi-step task.

To play, you'll need to:

Create a list of instructions. For example: How to complete a craft or cooking project.

Assign or allow students to choose partners and roles. One partner will be the Teacher, and the other will be the Student.

Give each Teacher a copy of the instructions list. The Teacher will verbally tell the Student what to do.

To be an effective comprehensible input activity, you'll need to include some new vocabulary, pictures and symbols in the list for the Teacher to decipher.

Keep the directions short so the Teacher will be encouraged to explain things in their own words.

7. Teach Songs and Nursery Rhymes

Homophones and words that rhyme can be a headache for ESL students.

To help your students distinguish between similar-sounding words, provide context to illustrate their usages and meanings.

Songs and nursery rhymes often involve words with similar sounds in constrained contexts. As long as you assess the vocabulary beforehand, children's rhymes and easy songs are great sources for comprehensible input.

Plus, music can be a powerful language leaning tool for many reasons.

Through simple lines and consistent repetition, your ESL students will learn to recognize those phonologically-similar words.

8. Play Games with Your Class

Games can hold students' attention while challenging them to understand the words involved and respond appropriately.

"Simon Says" is a fun game you can play with your ESL students.

The ESL version of Simon Says integrates the idea of comprehensible input by using vocabulary that has been recently studied and dictating a sequence of actions for students to perform.

For example:

When students can make meaningful associations with their English lessons, they'll come to enjoy them that much more.

And at the end of the day, promoting comprehensible input in your ESL classroom should be meaningful and fun for you and your students.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Comprehensible Input: 8 Teaching Strategies for Your ESL Classroom | FluentU English Educator Blog

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Comprehensible input is English input that ESL students can understand-even if they haven't learned all the vocabulary and grammar just yet. And it's a great teaching method for your ESL classroom. Click here to see 8 strategies for successfully teaching English with comprehensible input.

# data[].attributes.body
What is the appropriate "think time" for ELL? How can we scaffold this effectively?
"so these activities incorporate ‘thinking time’ during which learners can prepare for speaking by planning what they are going to say, and asking the teacher or using a dictionary to look up missing vocabulary"

- Translate
- Process
- Process
- Formulate
- Build courage
- Raise their hand

# data[].attributes.body
Is this similar to "Trying to understand language slightly above their level encourages learners to use natural learning strategies such as guessing words from context and inferring meaning."
- Does this strategy support their survival vocabulary? Is this how an ELL acquire new words?
--- If so, do they understand the context/ meaning of the wor

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Comprehensible input is language input that can be understood by listeners despite them not understanding all the words and structures in it. It is described as one level above that of the learners if it can only just be understood. According to Krashen's theory of language acquisition, giving learners this kind of input helps them acquire language naturally, rather than learn it consciously.

Example
The teacher selects a reading text for upper-intermediate level learners that is from a lower advanced level course book. Based on what the teacher knows about the learners, the teacher believes that this will give them 'comprehensible input' to help them acquire more language.

In the classroom
Trying to understand language slightly above their level encourages learners to use natural learning strategies such as guessing words from context and inferring meaning. As the example suggests, a teacher needs to know the level of the learners very well in order to select comprehensible input, and in a large class of mixed ability, different learners will need different texts.

Further links:
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/motivating-speaking-activities-lower-levels https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teaching-mixed-ability-classes-1 https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/adapting-materials-mixed-ability-classes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Comprehensible input is language input that can be understood by listeners despite them not understanding all the words and structures in it. It is described as one level above that of the learners if it can only just be understood.

# data[].attributes.body
What does this look like in my classroom?
What strategies can i implement on a regular basis?
- Instructional/ Environmental
- Resources
- Materials