TSL 4340: TESOL Methods and Curriculum Case Study
Spring 2022
Given an ELLs’ WIDA proficiency scores which strategies or activities would you need to
consider. What do you need to consider about your language output? How would you mediate
your language?
Given a certain reading, what are the language demands of that reading, and what strategies
would you need to use to help the ELL at a certain proficiency level understand the reading.
Given student profile, what actions would you need to take to integrate the student into the
classroom and build a relationship?
TSL 3080 & TSL 4324
At a birthday party for a sixteen-year-old, the teenager opens a small box from his parents that
contain a set of car keys. The teen thanks the parents and hugs and kisses each of them.
Surface culture?
Deep culture?
In a fifth grade class a teacher begins the day by carefully checking roll. He then sends the
attendance down to the office. One day after he has sent the attendance down, a student,
Jenny, walks in 20 minutes late. The teacher says, “Jenny, you are late again. I’m going to have
to call your parents and scheduled a conference if this behavior continues.”
 Surface culture?
 Deep culture?
A female American teacher reports to an immigrant Latino father that his daughter is doing well
in class—speaking out, expressing herself, taking an active role-he looks down at his lap and
does not respond. Thinking that perhaps he has not understood, the teacher again praises the
girl’s ability to speak out in class and explains that it is very important for children to participate
orally. Looking even more uncomfortable, the father changes the subject. The teacher gets the
impression that this parent is not interested in his daughter’s school success, and she feels
frustrated and a bit resentful. Toward the end of the conference, the father asks, with evident
concern, “How is she doing? She talking too much?” The teacher is confused.
 Surface?
 Deep?

Xiao is a 15 year old sophomore at Gainesville High School. He arrived two years ago
from China. Mrs. Yariv is his teacher who provides ESOL two periods a day (Language
Arts/Reading – “English”). His Social Studies teacher, Mr. Miller, has 8 ESOL students in
his class and was trained to modify his teaching to make language input comprehensible
to the ESOL students.
Mainstream with ESOL pullout and Mainstream with
differentiation
TSL 4340: TESOL Methods and Curriculum Case Study
Spring 2022

Ana is an 8 year old student from Puerto Rico. She has had two years of schooling in her
home country and her first language is Spanish. Ana has two teachers for her third
grade, one who speaks Spanish and teaches Reading and Language Arts in Spanish and
another who teaches Science and Math in English. There are 20 students in her third
grade classroom, 9 are native English speakers and 11 are native Spanish speakers.
Dual language/Two way immersion program
Total Physical Response
The Natural Approach
In a nutshell
1. Teaching according to the Natural approach focuses on communicative abilities.
2. One of its objectives is to help beginners become intermediate.
3. Vocabulary is considered prior to syntactic structures.
4. A lot of comprehensible input must be provided.
5. Use of visual aids to help comprehension.
The Communicative Approach
For example, half of the students can be asked to watch a video on a certain topic
and the other half can be asked to watch a different video, with a different
viewpoint. After learners watch the videos and complete tasks for comprehension, they
are asked to share what they had found out with their peers.
SLiFE
Johnny Romah was 17 on his very first day of school. A member of the Montagnard —
or mountain — people of Vietnam, Romah arrived in Vancouver in 2005 after an
exhausting year spent in a refugee camp in Cambodia.
He'd fled his impoverished village at the age of 16, fearing arrest — even death —at the
hands of Vietnamese government forces, which have long been in brutal conflict with
the country's indigenous people … Before coming to Vancouver, he'd never spent a
single day in a classroom, never read a book, and only once, in the refugee camp, could
he recall ever attempting to put pen to paper.
Consider Monica, who has enrolled in a suburban Chicago high school after she immigrated to the
United States from rural Guatemala. Monica’s local school in Guatemala only offered education for
Kindergarten through Grade 2; the intermediate and secondary schools were located in a city that
was over an hour away by bus. Therefore, like most other children in her community, she stayed
home to help her family after she completed the second grade. The family immigrated to the United
States when Monica was 14 years old, at which point she enrolled in the local school district as a
freshman in high school.
TSL 4340: TESOL Methods and Curriculum Case Study
Spring 2022
Once she enrolled in high school, Monica’s unique educational needs became apparent. While she
did have basic literacy skills in her native language, her academic skills had never progressed much
past the second grade level. It was the responsibility of her new school to help her acquire the
language skills and content area knowledge necessary for success in an American high school,
including becoming proficient in academic English.