Instructing an ELL Student on the Art of Conversation

SOLOM

The student observed for the SOLOM (Student Oral Language Observation Matrix) is a female sophomore in high school. Her native language is Spanish and her SOLOM score for the observation was a 20/25 with limited English proficiency.

The observation took place in a classroom setting on May 10th, 2006, and the activities we utilized in the classroom included reading out loud, discussing what we had read, identifying key words in the reading, using visual aids to reinforce concepts, practicing spelling vocabulary words and pronouncing them, and practicing composition with students writing a short paragraph about what they had read.

My initial thoughts about the girl observe for this study are that she shows some promise in terms of learning the English language and becoming better at it. She understands key concepts and grammatical rules; it is only her inexperience with the language that appears to be a barrier at this point. I think that with more time spent in the classroom and reading and writing and speaking on her own, her limited proficiency will improve and she will soon be in possession of full proficiency and command of the English language.

I can see in the classroom that language is influencing the student's interactions both academically and socially because she is able to interact more cheerfully with others as she feels more confident with her ability to use the language and to understand others. I am always encouraging and never critical when she uses the language improperly, because I always point out that even native English speakers use the language improperly or do not know the correct grammatical rules when writing or speaking; she also senses this and it gives her confidence knowing that she knows more about the English language in her limited proficiency than even many native English speakers. This is the kind of encouragement that I think would have helped Moises in Immersion (Levien, 2009). I do not like to see students isolated from others because of an inability to speak the common language and I try to erase that fear because in my view we are all learning the language together -- and even I am still learning, so there should be no fear about looking silly or inferior.

The instructional strategy I chose to use with the student was the differentiation-based strategy of language-related lesson modifications: I used visuals and direct experience to "convey lesson content" which for that day included the art of conversing (Peregoy, Boyle, 2013, p. 86). For the direct experience lesson, we entered the hallway and I had her simply listen to how others in the hall were conversing; she noticed that every group conversed differently, that there was a style and idiom used by each -- by boys, girls, different ages, teachers, students, etc. This experience helped her to see that there is no one way to speak that works across the board and that formality in language is not as common as one might think and is primarily reserved for interaction with adults or authority figures like teachers or principals.