Language Development for ELLs by

What is phonology?

eli5290 — 2025-09-02 18:24:57 UTC

Phonology is the study of sound patterns in language.

What is morphology?

eli5290 — 2025-09-04 02:47:26 UTC

Morphology is the study of small units in a word such as prefixes, suffixes, and root words. When these are put together, they create new meanings to the word.

Importance of Phonology

eli5290 — 2025-09-04 02:48:24 UTC

Phonology helps us with the production of sounds in spoken words. It helps us understand why the sounds are produced in that way based on location within a word. Phonology is important because it aids in pronunciation, spelling, and speaking. ELs benefit from phonology because native languages may have there own set of rules for their language. In English they must follow the phonological rules to produce the correct sounds.

Importance of Morphology

eli5290 — 2025-09-04 02:48:52 UTC

When students understand morphemes, they are able to spell words, decode easier, and comprehend what is being read. Students can also increase their vocabulary knowledge and apply understanding of morphemes to new words they encounter. They can them formulate what the word means. ELs will benefit from instruction in morphology because it will improve their reading skills.

Classroom Activities

eli5290 — 2025-09-04 02:54:19 UTC

* Visual Links: Students create an image representing the part of a word being studied and the meaning. This creates a picture matching exercise to build retention. For example un means not could have an X meaning don't.

* Break down/ Put together words: When reading students can break down the word and look at the parts of a word to interpret the meaning.

* Word sort: Students sort verbs that include all verb tenses. They would then student the endings of the words to determine when to use the ending. For example -ing the ending is used for present tense.

Home Activity

eli5290 — 2025-09-04 04:08:34 UTC

Word Building Game - Using roots, prefixes, and suffixes students can build words at home and provide meaning for each word built. To make it easily accessible, the prefixes and suffixes would have picture cues of what the parts mean. For example "re" would have a do over arrow and "ing" would have an image for right now.

Classroom Activities:

eli5290 — 2025-09-04 04:11:27 UTC

* Odd One Out - Students will hear 3 words. Two of the words will have the same ending sound or same beginning sound. Students will choose which word does not belong.

* Clap the Syllables - Students will hear words said aloud. Students will break apart the word by syllables using clap for each syllable heard.

* Phoneme Sorting - Students will receive picture cards and sort pictures based on where they hear a specific sound such as initial, medial, or final sound.

Home Activity

eli5290 — 2025-09-04 04:11:43 UTC

Read and recite rhyming poems. A child can identify the sound pattern of words within the phrases or find the rhyming words. This exercise will focus on pronunciation of words and helps to isolate the sound being looked for.

What is syntax?

eli5290 — 2025-09-11 07:43:59 UTC

Syntax is the organization of words in a sentence that helps to convey meaning (Reynolds, et. al, 2022).

What is semantics?

eli5290 — 2025-09-11 07:44:24 UTC

Semantics is the meaning of words, phrase in a sentence (Park-Johnson & Shin, 2020).

What is pragmatics?

eli5290 — 2025-09-11 07:44:45 UTC

Pragmatics is how language is used in different settings (Park-Johnson & Shin, 2020).

Importance of Syntax

eli5290 — 2025-09-11 07:45:14 UTC

Syntax is important for language and academic learning because it helps ELLs build sentences that flow which also leads to speaking in correct sequence. It is important to have good organization because then what is being said does not get obscured.

Importance of Semantics

eli5290 — 2025-09-11 07:45:39 UTC

Semantics are important because individual words have meanings and make sense when placed into context (Reynolds, et. al, 2022). When words are stringed into sentences, they are delivering a message. Those messages must be interpreted by readers which leads to comprehension.

Importance of Pragmatics

eli5290 — 2025-09-11 07:45:59 UTC

Pragmatics is important because it helps determine what is appropriate to say in a given setting. In an academic setting, pragmatics gives you how to respond to directions and tasks.

Classroom Activities

eli5290 — 2025-09-11 07:47:08 UTC

* Sentence Scramble: Words for a sentence are given out of sequence. Students reorganize the words to make the sentence complete.

* Sentence Elaboration: The W Questions - Beginning with a subject, a series of questions is asked about the subject. W questions of who, what, where, why, which, and how is asked to expand on the given subject (Sedita, 2020). Students can be prompted by the use of pictures to help generate ideas about the subject.

* Kernel Sentence Elaboration: Beginning with a short simple sentence, students build upon the sentence expanding their thought to make a larger sentence. Sentence frames and prompting can assist all learners.

Classroom Activities

eli5290 — 2025-09-11 07:48:42 UTC

* Semantic Maps: The use of a graphic organizer such as a web to display an unknown word and connect it to other words or phrases within the text being read. It can include pictures, visuals, sentences, or other words to help with building meaning to a word.

* Cloze Sentences with Choices: Provide a sentence with a list of choices as the missing word. The student must choose the best word that fits the sentence. This allows practice of reading skills and helps students to make sense of the sentence.

* Synonym & Antonym Ladder: Choose a word and find the synonyms and antonyms for the word. This allows for students to see the relationship between words and how many different ways you can say words such as pretty, beautiful, cute.

* Word Association Chain: Using a given word, students must think of words that are associated with said word. For example, house - room - kitchen - bedroom, etc. This allows students to build on what language they already know

Classroom Activities

eli5290 — 2025-09-11 07:49:33 UTC

* Role playing: Students can act out scenarios to determine the appropriate outcome. Guided practice with sentence frames can be used to help students at all levels.

* Written Responses: Given a scenario, students can write an appropriate response on how to handle the situation. For example, asking a classmate to play a game. Collaborative discussion can help students generate ideas on how to ask the question.

Resources

eli5290 — 2025-09-11 08:02:57 UTC

Do you want to learn more about the teaching and learning of English language structures?

1. Provided by the Arizona Department of Education. Overview of the Reading Foundational Standards and Skills https://vimeo.com/908693385/f2f26d0b59?share=copy is a video discussing the foundational skills standards in reading and how they align with each grade level. Teaching foundational skills is important as it leads to comprehension of text in all grade levels.

2. Blogpost from A Walk in the Chalk written by ELD teacher and curriculum resource designer Kristen Language Forms and Functions in an ESL Classroom, A Pathway to Language Proficiency

https://awalkinthechalk.com/1136/language-forms-and-functions-in-an-esl-classroom/ discusses how language forms and functions lead to language proficiency. Kristen highlights how to plan out a language function unit and provides examples on how to teach it.