Connecting Content and Language for English
Language Learners
Chapter 6: Developing Languages Across Curriculum
Adela Troncoso
San Juanita Franco
Griselda Alvarez
Javier Villanueva
“English Language Development is part of a
student’s entire day as he or she tries to make
sense of spoken language, written language,
complex content vocabulary and concrete and
abstract concepts.”
(Mora-Flores, 2011,123)
There exists lots of confusion around the
definition and purpose of the following:
1. English Language Development (ELD),
2. Content ELD, and
3. Academic Language Development (ALD)
1. English Language Development
(ELD)
NOTE: ELD/ESL are used synonymously depending on where and the level you teach.
“The purpose of ELD/ESL is to enable English Language Learners to master
the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English to the extent
that they are able to use the English language appropriately and effectively
for authentic communicative purposes and to achieve academic success in
English-Language mainstreamed classrooms”
(Wright 2010,82)
Time and Grouping for ELD
 ELD times vary from state to state and district to
district, from 35 min. in kindergarten to an hour in
grades 1st-5th.
 Some school districts provide ELD instruction to a
mixed group of ELL’s.
 Other districts cluster students based on their ELD level.
Eugenia Mora-Flores, author of this book, has
found that clustering students during ELD to be
most effective, but only when ELL’s are mixed
throughout the rest of their instructional day.
ELD Instruction
What happens during ELD varies greatly. What we know is that
students must receive explicit instruction in:
• Academic vocabulary
• Functions and forms
• Opportunities to develop Oral Fluency
• Opportunities to develop Written Fluency.
Grammar, reading comprehension and writing development are also a
large part of ELD instruction.
ELD Framework
• ELD Framework was developed by Dr. D. Beltran and Dr. L.
Sarmiento in 2010.
• It is based on three overlapping and interacting dimensions: talk,
thought, and interaction.
• This framework guides teachers as they think about “how” to
implement lessons that can effectively develop academic English.
Every lesson is designed to support English Language Learners and must
include talk, thought, and interaction.
Talk
Students need opportunities to engage in oral
discourse. They need to hear language models
and use language themselves to develop oral
fluency. Providing students with engaging
activities across the curriculum where they can
share their thinking and learning with one
another exposes them to academic language.
They hear what it sounds like to use language
for a variety of purposes and hear vocabulary
used in context.
Thought
The connection between language and thought is
evident when students are provided opportunities
to develop high levels of cognition, engage in
critical thinking, and share their thinking with one
another. The thinking we require of students leads
to the talk that they will use to share their
thinking.
Interaction
The dialogic and mediated exchanges between
users of a language create authentic opportunities
to acquire language. Social interaction plays an
important role in second-language acquisition,
including exchanges between teacher and student
and between students.
Strategies for Teaching ELD
- Tea Party
- Travelers and Talkers
- Lines of Communication
- World in a Bag
- Four-Corner Literature Review
2. Content ELD
Content ELD focuses on the development of English with
clear language objectives, but is taught within a content
area.
Language and content must balance each other out in
order for students to excel academically and acquire
Content ELD.
Content
Language
• A content ELD approach supports English Language Learners by
providing a meaningful context within which students can develop
English.
• Content ELD is intentional, explicit language objectives and has
many opportunities for students to use English orally and in
writing.
• Content ELD can become your Science or Social Studies time of
day as well, therefore, it must also contain clear content and
measurable objectives with ample opportunities to explore,
understand and make meaning from content.
3. Academic Language Development
(ALD)
• The difference between ELD and ALD is the focus on teaching
content, while making language development a by-product.
• Critical to ALD is that teachers provide comprehensible input to
support students’ content knowledge and provide opportunities for
guided comprehensible output.
Conclusion
 ELL’s are exposed to complex language throughout the
school day.
 ELL’s need ongoing support to make meaning when
they encounter language used for a variety of purposes.
 Teachers must understand what it means to teach
language and through language.
 This includes knowledge of ELD, Content ELD, and
ALD.