EA Workshop Session 1
EA in ESL Teacher Training Workshops
June 4, 6, & 8, 2007 – 4:45 to 7:45 p.m.
Kapi‘olani Community College
Teacher Preparation Program
Shawn Ford and Veronica Ogata, Facilitators
Friday, June 8
Session 14:45-4:55
Introduction and Overview of Session
4:55-5:10
Review of Previous Material:
5:10-5:40
Working on Word Order Presentation
5:40-5:50
10 MINUTE BREAK
Session 25:50-6:40
Question and Answer Session
6:40-6:50
10 MINUTE BREAK
Session 36:50-7:15
Open Forum: EA discussions and further questions
715-7:45
Wrap-up, Feedback Form, and EA Survey
WELCOME!
Welcome to the last night of the EA in ESL Teacher Training Summer
Workshops, sponsored by the new Teacher Preparation Program at Kapi‘olani
Community College and funded in part by a federal Perkins grant. This workshop series
is prepared for in-service Educational Assistants who work with NEP and LEP students
in the state’s DOE system. The purpose of the workshop is to provide EAs with
additional training in the form of knowledge and strategies that will help them better
facilitate and accelerate the language development of the ESL students who they work
with regularly.
We hope you have enjoyed our program and find the information and ideas
useful for your teaching efforts!
During the workshop, please remember to…
1. Actively participate and be open to new ideas.
2. Stay on task so we can complete the material in each session on time.
Remember, throughout the workshop, we are guided by the following
Language Development Maxims:
1. Language should not be taught in isolation.
Language should always be taught in some sort of context, using meaningful
content. Any attention to discrete skills should arise from content demands.
2. Learner-directed speech should always encompass BICS and CALP.
This can be accomplished by using complete sentences to facilitate interaction.
Repetition and recasting, along with expansion of ideas and the encouragement of
inquiry should be part of all feedback.
Bloom’s Taxonomy:
1
Knowledge: arrange, define,
duplicate, label, list, memorize, name,
order, recognize, relate, recall, repeat,
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reproduce state.
2
Comprehension: classify, describe,
discuss, explain, express, identify,
indicate, locate, recognize, report,
restate, review, select, translate,
3
Application: apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret,
operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.
4
Analysis: analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize,
differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test.
5
Synthesis: arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design,
develop, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, write.
6 Evaluation: appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose compare, defend estimate,
judge, predict, rate, core, select, support, value, evaluate.
Stress:
A great body of research has shown that if a second language learner accurately
produces the stress of the word on the correct syllable, then the learner is better
understood. Take for example the word “accurately”, which has stress on the first
syllable. In some languages, stress normally falls on the penultimate (next to last
syllable), resulting in the pronunciation accurately.
Schwa Shift:
In Standard American English, in unstressed
syllables, the vowels a, e, i, o, and u have a
tendency to be reduced to the schwa, which is
the first sound in the word “enough”.
Common noun- verb pairs of words with this
phenomenon include:
research - research
protest - protest
Vocabulary Profiler:
http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/
EA Workshop Materials:
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~sford/esl/EA_workshop.html
Word Order in Linguistics
The English language follows a very predictable SUBJECT – VERB – OBJECT word
order. Also, when modifying nouns, adjectives always precede the noun. Adverbs are
rather flexible and can occur in most places in a sentence except in front of a noun.
However, other languages may follow other word order rules.

Chinese - SVO

Ilokano – VSO

Japanese - SOV

Korean - SOV

Samoan - VSO

Vietnamese - SVO
Word Order and ESL
Here are some issue to consider for ESL students and word order:

Instruction on word order must be taught in context.

Research on the acquisition of word order shows us that second language students
learn word order, phrase structure and clause structure in predictable sequences.

Decisions about instruction in word order should be driven by naturally occurring
structures in the content.
Linking Word Order to Vocabulary instruction

Any isolated instruction on word order should be with NEP or low-level LEP students
only. Afterwards, be sure to link the word order to context and production.

Try to teach word order from the most basic to the most difficult. For example, teach
the simple SVO order before teaching noun and verb phrases. Teach about noun and
verb phrases before teaching adverbials or relative clauses. LEP students can likely
only understand simple phrases structure anyway.

Focus on word order structures that occur naturally in the content. Try not to follow a
curriculum that teaches word order and phrase order in a strict developmental order.
Sample Activity: Word Order Development
Content: American History – course textbook
Context: 10th grade, Ilokano, Marshallese, and Samoan after-school ESL
Skills: reading, speaking, listening, writing
Lesson Plan Overview:
1. Choose vocabulary items based on the required context
2. Visual recognition of symbols: reading the words
3. Aural distinction of sounds: listening to the words
4. Written distinction of words: writing the words
5. Production: selecting the words + feedback
6. Production: saying the words + feedback
7. Production: writing the words + feedback
8. Awareness-raising & practice:
a. Basic SVO word order
b. Simple noun, verb and prepositional phrase structure
c. Collocations
9. Production: speaking in context
10. Feedback & Reinforcement
11. Production: writing in context
12. Feedback & Reinforcement
Lesson Plan Demonstration: Word Order Development
The United States is sometimes referred to as a "nation of immigrants." You may have
also heard the phrase "melting pot." In its short history the United States has seen many
waves of immigrants come to its shores and borders. For reasons such as political or
religious persecution or in search of better economic conditions, many people have fled
their native lands to live in America, the land of the free. This has resulted in a very
diverse U.S. population. People living here have different heritages, religious beliefs,
ethnicity, languages, and national origins.Though there are these differences,
Americans are bound together by basic political values and principles described in
historical documents.