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Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English

Specially designed academic instruction in English (SDAIE) refers to academic content area instruction provided in English to English language learners (ELLs). Teachers of SDAIE classes provide ELLs with grade-appropriate content by using special techniques to make lessons understandable. They evaluate the students' academic content knowledge, rather than their English language proficiency. When properly understood and implemented, SDAIE can be an extremely effective approach for older English learners. This entry presents a brief overview of the development of SDAIE, compares SDAIE and English language development (ELD), and suggests strategies to support SDAIE instruction.

Development of SDAlE

English as a second language (ESL) instruction has taken many forms over the years, and the goals of programs have changed. At one time, ESL instruction was designed to help students develop basic communicative competence in English. The focus was on the social language students needed to survive day-to-day in and out of school. Lessons emphasized vocabulary, grammar, and correct pronunciation. As a result, many ESL classes were taught much like foreign-language classes.

A major shift in recent years has been toward teaching the academic language of the different content areas rather than teaching social language. In ESL classes, students acquire English as they learn social studies, science, math, and language arts. Support for this content-based approach to language teaching comes from Stephen Krashen's theory of second-language acquisition. Krashen argues that we acquire a second language when we receive comprehensible input: messages we understand that are a little beyond our current level of competence. Students can learn academic content at the same time that they acquire English as long as the instruction is understandable.

Stephen Krashen and Tracy Terrell proposed the natural approach, a content-based method of teaching ESL, applied most often at the elementary level. Teachers use various techniques to make instruction comprehensible as they teach lessons on topics such as families, animals, or nutrition. Students' use of English is mainly oral until learners reach high levels of proficiency. Whereas the natural approach was widely used in elementary grades, educators in the upper grades found the content demand for their subjects was greater and students needed to be able to read and write as well as respond orally to instruction. In addition, teachers of older students used fewer techniques designed to make lessons understandable for ELLs.

Development of Sheltered Instruction

Older students, particularly at the middle school and high school levels, need to learn English and, at the same time, learn content. Teachers of older students often use techniques such as lecturing, and long reading assignments that prove difficult for students with limited English proficiency. These teachers generally have students for single subjects, and they see their job as teaching that subject, not as developing their students' English proficiency.

A program model for older students proposed by Krashen and others included a component called sheltered content. In this model, students are taught some subjects in their primary language, some in sheltered classes, and some in mainstream classes. As students become more proficient, they are transitioned from primary-language instruction to sheltered instruction, and then they are mainstreamed. For example, students might take social studies classes at first in their primary language. Later they would have a sheltered social studies class, and eventually they would be mainstreamed in social studies.

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