Feature Article: Teaching Social Language to English Language Learners
By Judie Haynes

Isobel is an English language learner (ELL) from Colombia who attends a suburban middle school. She is a good student who works hard and has quickly acquired academic English. She only socializes, however, with classmates who speak Spanish. Her social language in English is slow and hesitant, and she has difficulty initiating conversation in English. Isobel does not know how to communicate for social purposes during the school day. Her Indian classmate Aditya, on the other hand, is athletic and plays soccer with the boys from his class. Because Aditya interacts with many English-speaking teammates, his social English is quite fluent. He has made an excellent social adjustment to school and has many friends from all different backgrounds.

In many situations, ELLs may need to be taught specific interpersonal skills, such as how to greet people, give and receive compliments, apologize, and make polite requests. They also need to understand nonverbal language and the use of personal space. This goal is important because many ELLs must learn the appropriate voice tones, volume, and language for different school settings.

Let’s watch Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Arena teach her students simple language for social interactions. She stands at her classroom door at the end of the day, shakes hands and says goodbye to students as they leave. She uses each child's name and intersperses her farewells with comments.

“Goodbye, Diego. Have fun at the park,” Mrs. Arena says.

“Goodbye, Mrs. Arena,” replies Diego. “See you tomorrow.”

Mrs. Arena makes an everyday classroom routine a valuable lesson in social interaction and small talk. As students leave the playground after school, they say goodbye to each other using the same farewells modeled earlier by the teacher.

Role playing, teacher modeling, peer modeling, and videos are all good tools for teaching ELLs to interact with their classmates. Teachers can encourage newcomers to observe their peers as models of correct behavior. Teachers should set expectations for these behaviors by using real incidents that come up in the class.

Let’s visit Ms. Paterson in her third-grade class. One of her students, Jae Hyung, is reticent to speak even though he has been in a U.S. school since the beginning of second grade. He is obviously a shy child, who needs encouragement and support.

Ms. Paterson decides to set realistic expectations for routine social exchanges in the classroom. She does not want to single out Jae Hyung, so she adds lessons in social language for the whole class. She begins by explaining that everyone is going to practice greetings with their classmates. When they come into class in the morning, they will say “Hello, how are you today?” to the teacher and to the students who sit at their table. She asks several children to act out the greeting. After a week Jae Hyung successfully participates in this activity. Ms. Paterson gradually adds other lessons with examples of social language needed in the classroom.

Social language comes easier to students who have real reasons to speak with their classmates. Teachers should encourage the ELLs in their classes to join organized school activities, such as sports teams, band, and chorus. Any activities - even informal after-school and playground activities - that facilitate interaction with their classmates, will help ELLs gain social skills in English.

Judie Haynes taught ESL in a K-6 school for 27 years. She is the author and co-author of six books for classroom teachers of English language learners. Judie provides professional development programs to K-12 school districts throughout the United States and her award-winning website www.everythingESL.net just celebrated its 11th year.

© Language Lizard, LLC. 2010.

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