Guest Blogger Week: Verbal Production Takes Time and Practice

Today's post was written by a fellow second grade dual language teacher who is always so incredibly generous in swapping ideas with me! Please welcome, Mrs. Beth T.

----

One thing I have learned about being a teacher of language learners, is that is takes time to produce language.  Just as we have all learned language, or have had the opportunity to witness our own children growing up and first learning to talk, receptive language comes first.  Children learning a second language, have language structure, but need to be supported with their second language.  Many times, I use sentence frames to scaffold their learning.  They need to understand vocabulary and to have time to practice it before using it in more complex setting.  For best success, I usually give them some examples, as I model using the language, using a mentor text as our base.  Then we talk about ideas together as a group.  The students are given some time to think of how they would use the language structures, then, they are given the opportunity to practice with other students.  After more practice and confidence with the new vocabulary and language structures, they are asked to produce it orally or in written form.

Here is a sample of language structures and vocabulary for Cause and Effect:

Written by Beth T.  2^nd Grade Dual Language Teacher from Salem, Oregon