1. Pre-Production Stage:
This first stage of the Natural Approach model is also referred to as the silent period. This stage has the potential to last up to six months. Students do not have significant comprehension and tend not to verbalize. Instead, students are practicing their listening and observing skills in the environment around them in order to make sense of it. At this time, students are able to respond by nodding yes or no, or pointing to objects. One specific strategy used to assist students is Total Physical Response (TPR). Dam (2017) explains that TPR is used to develop listening comprehension by modeling specific commands and having students participate. 2. Early Production During the early production stage, students demonstrate limited comprehension but are able to produce one word or short phrase responses. Hill and Flynn (2006) explain that this stage may last for six months to a year and students use familiar words and phrases, as well as present tense verbs. Students are able to transition from the preproduction to the early production stage easily if they are frequently exposed to the language and provided with ample opportunities for language production. Students also progress to begin answering “either-or” questions. Depending on the literacy level of their first language, students may also be able participate in activities that require them to interpret charts, simple advertisements, and interviews (Krashen & Terrell, 1983, pg. 80). 3. Speech Emergence Students are progressing and developing good comprehension during this third stage. By this time, students have obtained about 3,000 vocabulary words (Dam, 2017). Students are typically in this stage for one to three years. Students use more words and produce simple sentences, making their meaning more clear. Errors in pronunciation and grammar are common, as well as the inability to understand jokes (Hill & Flynn, 2006). 4. Intermediate Fluency At the last stage, students demonstrate excellent and a noticeably higher level of comprehension and make few grammatical errors. The intermediate fluency stage occurs after about three to five years of exposure to the language. Students are beginning to further develop their Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), or academic language. They are going beyond responding with one word or simple phrases and transitioning to engaging in extended dialogue. In this stage, students are able to justify their answer to more complex questions that require them to evaluate or analyze content. Although students are able to illustrate a deeper meaning, they continue to require further support in the academic language in order to develop adequate proficiency. |
*Strategies to support ELL students in each stage of the Natural Approach Model.*
Pre-Production Stage
Early Production
Intermediate Fluency
|