TELL 410 - Understanding Language Aquisition

This is the second of seven courses that lead to an ESL endorsement. Educators interact with growing numbers of language minority students and must be able to promote content and language learning. This requires a sound understanding of second language acquisition.

This course explores the concepts of Communication, Pattern, and Variability in second language acquisition, and their defining principles: input, interaction, stages of development, errors/feedback, types of proficiencies, and types of performances.

This second language acquisition framework is presented with research-based teaching practices for diversity, as developed by the Center for Research in Education, Diversity & Excellence (CREDE). CREDE has articulated five Standards for Effective Pedagogy as a way to attend to language minority students' development in teachers' everyday teaching practices.

• Establishes Communication (input and interaction), Pattern (stages of development and errors/feedback), and Variability (types of proficiencies and types of performances) as a framework for understanding the SLA processes.
• Prepares teachers to use student work in second language learning to guide them in planning for and assessing instruction.
• Identifies teacher work for supporting SLA through planning for variety in teaching and assessing, attending to individual differences, and focusing on language development.
• Presents the Standards for Effective Pedagogy: Working Together, Language and Literacy Development, Contextualization, Cognitive Challenge, and Instructional Conversation.

Program Materials List

Items marked with an asterisk (*) must be purchased from the publishers.

Understanding Language Acquisition—Instructional Guide ($40)
Understanding Language Acquisition—Video Segments (obtained via licensing agreement)
Second Language Acquisition Case—CD-ROM (3-CD set) ($40)