انجمن علمی زبان دانشگاه آزاد یزد

Sheltered English Instruction

Sheltered instruction is a commonly used approach today. It uses English as the medium of content area instruction. The instructor can be an ESL teacher or a content-area-trained teacher to use a variety of strategies and techniques to make the instruction comprehensible for ELLs.

Structured immersion classrooms may include both ESL and English-proficient students. Sheltered English instruction serves as a bridge and connects the ESL instruction with the academic mainstream instruction (e.g., regular math instruction designed for English-fluent student). It provides subject instructions to ESL students while emphasizing development of English language skills.

In addition, all students and teachers in class socialize with culturally appropriate classroom behaviors. However, this approach requires students to have already acquired some English language skills. Teachers are also required to have some appropriate training in sheltered English instruction before teaching the class.

In sheltered English instruction, teachers create a stress-free learning environment and use multiple sources, such as physical activities, visual aids, and body language, to teach key vocabulary for concept development in subject areas. Teachers not only adopt multiple techniques to make content area materials comprehensible for ESL students but also understand ESL students' second-language-acquisition process and cultural differences.

The sheltered English instruction approach may include a primary language instruction component. Teachers make effective use of students' native languages in the classroom in order to make lessons taught in English more comprehensible. Interactions with English-proficient students may also be incorporated in lesson to increase ESL students' opportunities of practicing English in a natural way.

Sheltered English instruction is a key component in most bilingual education models, as it is used to gradually increase English content area instruction as students make the transition from native language to English language instruction.

   Source: SAGE REFERENCE ONLINE