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January 2006Welcoming Hispanic Children and Families to Preschool ProgramsCristina Sanchez-Lopez, Education Consultant

**Stages of Second-Language Acquisition**
Level of English Production	Student Characteristics and Needs	How Student Learns	Most Effective Language for Learning Literacy and Concepts
Pre- Production	Silent Period: No speaking Responds to instructions and commands Need for environments where they can understand teachers and peers	Learns by listening and watching Points, gestures, draws, or re-creates something to show understanding	First Language
Early Production	Speaks using one or two words Gives "yes" or "no" answers May mix languages (this is part of normal development) Need for environments where they can understand teachers and peers	Learns by listening, watching, and speaking using one or two words Points, gestures, draws, or re-creates or responds to questions with one- or two-word answers to show understanding	First Language
Speech Emergence	Speaks using more than one or two words to express a thought and can retell a story or event Responds to open-ended questions Ready for formal reading and writing instruction in English Need for environments where they can understand teachers and peers	Begins to ask questions Utilizes basic literacy skills Participates in discussions and responds to questions using emerging syntactic structures (grammar)	Sheltered English & First Language
Intermediate Fluency	Ready for more advanced reading and writing in English Needs considerable help with vocabulary development in math, science, and social studies Need for environments where they can understand teachers and peers	Uses more advanced literacy skills Builds on content learned through discussions using more advanced syntactic structures	Sheltered English
Fluency	Language and learning skills are comparable to those of a native English speaker in academic settings		English

*Adapted from Krashen, S. D., & Terrell, T. D. (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisition ini the classroom. New York: Pergamon Press.

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