Module Three
Instructional Strategies that Work

Continued from Part 3. . . . . this is Part 4

Competency Based Approach

This approach stems from the audio-lingual approach, but is less rigid. The first step in presenting dialogue and role-play to adult ESL learner is to select a topic and then a competency. Student involvement in these choices creates immediate response and interest among students. For instance, the topic might be transportation, and the competency might be that a learner will be able to read a bus schedule. Or the competency might be to orally identify modes of transportation, or to ask questions using transportation vocabulary.

When introducing a new competency, you will discover that a dialogue can be very useful. It is an effective way of practicing unfamiliar vocabulary and structures while simultaneously checking for comprehension. All practice should move quickly from teacher-directed to student-directed, from group learning to individual learning. LET THE LEARNERS DO THE TALKING!!! Such dialogue may be teacher-written or taken from a textbook. It is important, however, that it be written at the appropriate level and is relevant to the students.

After mastering a dialogue, students will be ready for role play. This is the culminating part of the lesson. Based upon the dialogue itself, students are assigned roles that place them in real-life situations. They should be encouraged to use structures and vocabulary from the dialogue in addition to any other language they know that is appropriate to their roles.

DO NOT correct errors during the exchange of roles. Note the mistakes and practice corrections with the entire class after the exchanges in roles have been completed. Be careful to not over-correct.

As with all language learning activities, you will need to review the dialogue. Repetition, writing a paragraph, or a cloze exercise are ways to review while at the same time check mastery.

The Whole Language Approach

Educators first used this term in their work in first language reading education. They conceived that language is a whole, and any attempt to fragment it into parts destroys it. Therefore, the traditional grammar, vocabulary lists, or phonics approaches which divide language into separate pieces are not effective. Furthermore, according to whole language theory language is not split into oral and written because in a literate society the use of written language is as natural as conversation.

The strategies for Whole Language approach are:

A. Shared Reading/Reading Aloud

If students are to read, they must find reading a pleasurable activity. Good literature, written at the student's level, can be the source for language development, creative thinking, and learning. Teachers and students read together.

1. Introduce story (title, key vocabulary, author).
2. Read the story while students follow along.
3. Re-read the story, making certain students are comprehending.
4. Let students read portions of the story.
5. Have students read story aloud. (This can be done in pairs or as a class.)
6. Follow-up the oral reading through role play, illustrations, changes in the ending.

1. Guided
2. Individualized

Students need to have time set aside to read and write without interruption. Ideally, everyone reads during this time, including the teacher.

1. Create library from which students can choose books or magazines of interest.
2. Provide time for silent reading.
3. Check on student's progress occasionally.

• What I think about, I can talk about.
• What I say, I can write (or someone can write for me).
• What I can write, I can read (and others can read too).
• I can read what I have written, and I can also read what other people have written for me to read.

This is an integrated approach which uses the experience, the oral language, and the interests of the students to develop writing and reading skills. First, have students dictate the story derived from their common experience to the teacher. The teacher writes it on the board/chart using the language of the students as faithfully as possible, but unobtrusively revises the form as needed to make the story simple but correct. Later, the students write.

1. Choose stimulus for writing. (Stimulus activity can be taken from any topic or experience.)
2. Discuss the activity.
3. Compose the exact words of the Language Experience Story.
4. Teacher and students read the story.
5. Follow-up with variation activities (e.g., sentence strips, vocabulary work, grammar explanations, story dictation).

D. Dialogue Journals

Dialogue journals consist of a written conversation between each student and the teacher. It is a student's private communication with the teacher on any topic of interest to the student. There must be no error correction, but in the teacher's response, the appropriate form is modeled. This activity can have a strong, effective, and social impact.

Recommended Reading:
Dialogue Journals: Interactive Writing to Develop Language and Literacy
The Language Experience Approach and Adult Learners
Reading and the Adult English Language Learner

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Continue on to (Part 5) Instructional Strategies

This web-based training program was developed through an Adult Education State Leadership Grant from the Florida Department of Education, Division of Community Colleges and Workforce Education.

Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this web-based training component, it is not an official publication of the Florida Department of Education.