What is Language Proficiency?.

All new learners of English progress through the same stages to acquire language. However, the length of time each students spends at a particular stage may vary greatly. •Listening- process, understand, interpret, and evaluate spoken language in a variety of situations • Speaking- engage in oral communication in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes and audiences • Reading- process, understand, interpret, and evaluate written language, symbols and text with understanding and fluency • Writing- engage in written communication in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes and audiences

At the given level of English language proficiency,

English language learners will process, understand,

produce or use:

6- Reaching • a variety of sentence lengths of varying linguistic complexity in extended oral peers 5- Bridging • specialized or technical language of the content areas • a variety of sentence lengths of varying linguistic complexity in extended oral or written discourse, including stories, essays or reports • oral or written language approaching comparability to that of English proficient peers 4- Expanding • a variety of sentence lengths of varying linguistic complexity in oral discourse or multiple, related sentences or paragraphs • oral or written language with minimal phonological, syntactic or semantic errors that do not impede the overall meaning of the communication when presented with oral or written connected discourse with sensory, graphic or interactive support 3- Developing • expanded sentences in oral interaction or written paragraphs • oral or written language with phonological, syntactic or semantic errors that may impede the communication, but retain much of its meaning, when presented with oral or written, narrative or expository descriptions with sensory, graphic or interactive support 2- Beginning • general language related to the content areas • phrases or short sentences • oral or written language with phonological, syntactic, or semantic errors that often impede the meaning of the communication when presented with one- to multiple-step commands, directions, questions, or a series of statements with sensory, graphic or interactive support 1- Entering • pictorial or graphic representation of the language of the content areas • words, phrases or chunks of language when presented with one-step commands, directions, WH-, choice or yes/no questions, or statements with sensory, graphic or interactive support • oral language with phonological, syntactic, or semantic errors that often impede meaning when presented with basic oral commands, direct questions, or simple statements with sensory, graphic or interactive support

Jose Diaz Network Websites

WIDA's CAN DO Descriptors For teachers unfamiliar with the ELP standards, the CAN DO Descriptors provide a starting point for working with ELLs and a collaborative tool for planning. As teachers become comfortable with the Descriptors, the standards’ matrices can be introduced. The CAN DO Descriptors are also general enough to be appropriate to share with students’ family members to help them understand the continuum of English language development.

PreK-K CAN DO Descriptors Grades 1-2 CAN DO Descriptors Grades 3-5 CAN DO Descriptors Grades 6-8 CAN DO Descriptors Grades 9-12 CAN DO Descriptors

Types of Proficiency Conversational Fluency - High Frequency Words/Confidence in the Language Picked up in the playground, tv, movies, etc. in the 1st to 2nd Year. Discrete Language Skills - Ability to decode words/ Grammatical Knowledge from instruction and engaging in language. Academic Language Proficiency - Ability to understand and produce increasingly complex oral and written language. Students need 5 years of exposure to Academic English to catch up to Native Speaker norms.

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