Out of Her Mind -- Musings on Education and Life

Summary of Fitzgerald’s “English-as-a-Second Language Learner’s Cognitive Reading Processes: A Review of the Research in the United States”             In this article, Jill Fitzgerald reviews the research on English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) learners in the United States to date (1995) [1] .   She notes that ethnic and racial diversity continues to increase in our country; thus educators’ concerns about ESL students and their instruction continues to rise.   Out of necessity, there has been a growth in ESL research, research that explores various aspects of the ESL learner and instruction.   This article is mainly concerned with characterizing and making sense of research pertaining to ESL learners and their cognitive processes during reading.             In this research review, Fitzgerald uses the federal definition of ‘limited English proficient’ as give...

What Is Comprehensible Input? Comprehensible Input Is… Communication made clear --it’s all about comprehension-- & Can be achieved by: --enunciating --speaking more s-l-o-w-l-y --reducing the complexity of speech with simple sentence structures (subject-verb-object)   “You circle the answer” NOT “Circle the correct answer.   Only choose one.   Eliminate some answer choices” –at least not for beginners OR CONFUSION ensues! --avoiding idioms --paraphrasing (say it another way) --repetition --oral and written directions (crystal clear expectations) modeled, step-by-step --teaching homographs & homophones, synonyms & cognates --using multimedia, gestures, body language, pictures,  & objects --previewing material --providing graphic organizers, taped texts, & sentence strips Comprehensible input is --repeated exposure --in a variety of ways --in a variety of contexts ...