Stages of Language Acquisition

I wanted to give you some information on the general stages of language acquisition so you could work on recognizing them in your ESL students and providing the proper support at each stage. Here are the four stages:

1. Preproduction- this is also called the silent period because the learner is absorbing the sounds and patterns of the new language, tuning into the pace of speech, and starting to pick up on words. Understanding is highly contextualized and the learner often communicates non-verbally. If you have a "silent" student, do some investigating and see if they might simply be in this stage of acquisition. If so, be patient with them; don't force them. Give them low stress opportunities to express themselves.
2. Early Production- the learner attempts words and phrases (single or two/three word phrases)
3. Speech Emergence- learners are a bit more confident and talk readily; begin to use full sentences
4. Intermediate fluency- learners are able to initiate and participate in conversations; they begin to self-correct language errors 

In a later post, I'll give you some ideas on how to match instruction to each of these stages!


Source: Diaz-Rico, L.T. & Weed, K. Z. (2010) The crosscultural, language, and academic development handbook. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.