ELL Teaching English Language Learners Thesis

Humanistic theories put learning material into perspective, and cognitive theories allow students to draw meaningful connections between concepts and transcend language.

2. a.

Reads for comprehension. A student who reads for comprehension is practicing a skill in quadrant D: the most difficult for ELLs because of the lack of contextual cues and the cognitive difficulty of the exercise.

A b.

Acts out a historical event. A student acting out a historical event is performing an exercise in quadrant C, because the event itself might seem meaningless but the play-acting is fun.

A c.

Points to items in the classroom. Depending on how the exercise is structured, pointing to items in the classroom is not cognitively demanding and has a high amount of contextual cues. Therefore, pointing to items is a Quadrant a exercise.

A d.

Writes short paragraphs. Writing short paragraphs will be a Quadrant D. activity unless the ELL has already grasped a basic enough understanding of the language.

A e.

Watches a movie with academic content. Watching a movie will also be a Quadrant D. activity because of the lack of contextual cues and the challenging content.

A f.

Participates in a baseball game. Sports fall into Quadrant a.

A g.

Listens to a lecture on the atom. A lecture on atoms is clearly a Quadrant D. activity.

Part Two a. Read with pictures or aloud using contextual cues.

d. Write short paragraphs in a collaborative learning exercise with cognitive supports and contextual cues.

e. Select academic movies with strong visual content that transcends language g. The lecture should contain as many visual cues as possible to provide the necessary context for the cognitively challenging…