Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners

Abstract

* Designed to train ESL teachers in the most effective practices for instruction of limited English proficient students, Herrell's Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners provides an informative introduction to the field. This teacher training text was based on Herrell's research of the most successful strategies employed to support English language learners in their language acquisition process. She describes the book as a practical manual to provide K-12 ESL instructors with theoretical background and a step-by-step guide to the most effective language teaching techniques. This text is suitable for university-level or volunteer teachers-in-training. The text comprises 50 strategy chapters as well as an introduction, which includes a theoretical overview of second language acquisition theory, a discussion of practice with underlying theory, and a matrix of the 50 strategies with their objectives. Although the theoretical overview is a mere three pages long, it mentions such theories as Steven Krashen and Tracy Terrell's input hypothesis, Merrill Swain's output hypothesis, M. A. K. Halliday's seven functions of language, and Jim Cummins's concepts of basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). The author's discussion of the underlying theory base of instruction is also short but provides newcomers a compact set of five principles to follow: encourage verbal interaction, promote active involvement, support comprehensible input, contextualize language, and reduce anxiety. The matrix of the 50 strategies, which is vital to the use of this text, highlights which of the above principles are primary or secondary objectives of each strategy. The 50 strategies are organized alphabetically throughout the textlike