Discipline Literacy!
What is discipline literacy in the ESL classroom?
Discipline literacy is when students are above basic literacy and intermediate literacy. When students have discipline literacy they are metacognitive and think about their thinking. Good readers are active, purposeful, evaluative, thoughtful, strategic, persistent, productive. These qualities help the students to comprehend the text in a meaningful way.
What makes reading in the ESL discipline complex?
For non-native speakers, reading in the English can be challenging. There are many components of the English language that can hinder their ability to read fluently and accurately. Below are some of the challenging aspects of reading for ESL students:
- Sentence structure
- Comprehension
- Text type
- Lack of vocabulary knowledge
- American culture
- pronunciation and fluency
- Idioms
Some Strategies to Support Learning in the ESL Discipline:
Pre-teaching Vocabulary
It is important to have ESL students become familiar with the vocabulary words in order to help them make more connections during the lesson.
Word Wall
Word walls provide an excellent reference to help support students while they are learning new vocabulary words.
Visuals
Visuals help reinforce the concepts that students are learning. They will be able to make more connections and develop a better understanding if there are multi-modal strategies of learning.