The Four Stages of Language Acquisition

The Four Stages of Language Acquisition

Stage 1: Pre-Production

In this stage, students understand about 500 passive words in the second language (Dam, 2017) and need multiple opportunities to hear English being spoken, read, and written well (Holmes, Rutledge & Gauthier, 2009). This stage is also referred to as “the silent period” and teachers should not force students to speak up. Therefore, utilizing activities which promote students’ comprehensible input is necessary: Using single word or two-word phrases, yes/no responses, names and repetitive patterns (Robertson & Ford, n.d.) and Total Physical Response (TPR) consisting basically obeying commands given by the instructor that involve an over physical response (Krashen, 1995) are effective.

Strategy/Activity for Stage 1:

The goal of this stage is to gain the vocabulary words necessary to understand the relationship between the Sun and solar energy. Students will learn the definitions of each word and the correct pronunciations. The vocabulary introduced here are sunlight, solar, energy, mirror, reflection, shade, temperature, strong, weak, high and low. The teacher will stand up by the window and hold up a mirror in the area where sunlight will hit the mirror. While showing reflection of sunlight, the teacher will introduce the words. Some student volunteers can try making mirror reflection. Then, the teacher will take the temperature of both sunny and shaded areas in the classroom to introduce the difference of temperature caused by sunlight. To review the vocabulary words, the teacher will draw the pictures of the sun, sunlight, a mirror, mirror reflection and a thermometer showing temperature, spell out each word and make sure the pronunciations. Students will do internet research to find translations of the introduced words in their native language. After the research, the students make a list of vocabulary words in both languages.    

Stage 2: Early Production

In the stage of early production, students start to use a few words or short phrases from memory but errors may occur. Their listening comprehension is still developing so they still need to rely on non-verbal aids such as visuals. Their first verbal response in this stage will be a reply in yes or no and the next step integrates the use of “either-or” questions and may go on to ask for identification of items which have been introduced several times (Krashen,1995). In all case the students need to say a single word to answer the question (Krashen,1995).

Strategy/Activity for Stage 2:

The goal of the activity for Stage 2 is to consolidate students’ memory of the introduced words and to be enable students to use them in short phrases. Students will use flashcards which have a spelled word on one side and a picture of the word on the other side. In pairs, one student will hold up the picture side of a flashcard and the other student answers the word. After going through all the cards, the students take turns. The teacher pass out worksheets which will include short sentences with some blanks regarding the relationship between sunlight and temperature. The students will complete the sentences by filling in the blanks. Only the words introduced in the lesson will be used. 

Stage 3: Speech Emergence

In this stage, students have a 3,000-word vocabulary in the second language (Dam, 2017), are able to speak more fluently in longer sentences. However, they still have difficulty expressing themselves (Holmes, Rutledge & Gauthier, 2009) and rely heavily on context clues and familiar topics (Robertson & Ford, n.d.). Since they are more confident, teachers can start asking open ended questions. At this level, students can also build meaning from text when they have extensive background knowledge (Holmes, Rutledge & Gauthier, 2009).

Strategy/Activity for Stage 3:

The goal of this stage is to be able to build meaning from reading and use vocabulary in longer sentences. The teacher will read Curious George Discovers the Sun (Rey, 2015) and ask students some open-ended questions. If there are any words which students cannot understand, the teacher will clarify the meanings. After the question and answer session, the students will try to rewrite the story by creating their dual language book. The students will work in a small group but each student will make one book using both English and his or her native language. The use of the Internet will be allowed for word search.

Stage 4: Intermediate Fluency

Students at this stage have a 6,000-word vocabulary (Dam, 2017) and can communicate with fluency and fewer errors. They are also able to demonstrate higher order thinking skills by giving opinions or analyzing a problem (Ford & Robertson, n.d.) and locate specific facts within texts (Holmes, Rutledge & Gauthier, 2009) when they read.

Strategy/Activity for Stage 4:

The goal of this stage is to be able to use English in more complex manners. Therefore, small group activities will be useful to encourage students to listen, speak, write, and interact. At the beginning of the lesson, students will make a small group and create KWL charts describing what they know about the theme and what they want to know through the lessons. They will discuss what they have learned and fill up L section in the end of all the lessons. The teacher will pass out prediction worksheets about the relationship between sunlight and temperature and each student fill in the sheet in a small group. Still in the same group, they will conduct fieldwork: They will go outside and take the temperatures of sunny and shaded areas and spotted area by mirror reflection to find out whether sunlight affects temperature. Each group will wrap up its findings in a chart and discuss the relationship of solar energy and temperature. At the end of the whole lessons, each group will make a presentation using the chart. As an extra fun experimental activity, students will make a solar oven using a pizza box, aluminum foil and plastic wrap. They will cut a flap in the top of the pizza box leaving a two-inch border on the sides and front and wrap the bottom side of the flap and the interior of the box with aluminum foil and tape in place (Homer, 2012). They will cover the opening created by the flap with plastic wrap and tape into place and place food to be cooked in the solar oven, keeping the flap open with a ruler in position to reflect the sun into the oven (Homer, 2012). The students will enjoy the food after the experiment.