Based on David’s case, he is between stage II, early production, and stage III, speech emergence, in terms of English acquisition. During stage III, the child is a beginner but can still function on a social level (Smiley & Salsberry, 2007). David’s English is currently at a basic conversational level. He is speaking in sentences, which falls under being in stage III. David’s social skills are mentioned in the case, with him being able to speak English with his classmates. Not only is he able to function on a social level when speaking English, but also in his native language of Spanish. David is also able to watch SpongeBob in English, which shows an increase in listening comprehension, which falls under stage III, speech emergence (Smiley
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The case does not give us any information on how David’s language skills are in his native tongue of Spanish. Ms. Smith believed reading “Dolphins at Daybreak” would be easy for David, but it was not. It is unknown how well his literacy skills are in Spanish, but being proficient in Spanish will enable him to transfer skills to his acquiring of English (Lucas, Villegas, & Freedson-Gonzalez, 2008). It can be possible that David was not familiar with the information in the book, such as the beaches’ sand being pink. If he is unfamiliar about the topic of a pink island and mini-subs in Spanish, then it would be difficult for him to understand the text without previous knowledge. If David’s Spanish language ability was known, Ms. Smith would possibly be able to support his learning more …show more content…
There are also some concepts in the text that an ELL student, who is just becoming an emergent learner, will not understand without previous knowledge. Not only was the word, “riddle”, difficult for David to decode but it appeared as though he had never seen the word before. Him saying “rid…lee”, showed hesitation, and him continuing to read riddle in that way showed confusion. I order to understand the chapter, previous knowledge on riddles was needed. Without knowing what a riddle is, the entire first page would make no sense, as a riddle takes up most of the page. To figure out the answer of the riddle, prior knowledge on oysters and pearls is needed. Ms. Smith asked David if he had an idea of what the answer of the riddle could be. However, if a student does not know that pearls, a great beauty, come from oysters, which are rough and gray, then they will not be able to solve the
The case does not give us any information on how David’s language skills are in his native tongue of Spanish. Ms. Smith believed reading “Dolphins at Daybreak” would be easy for David, but it was not. It is unknown how well his literacy skills are in Spanish, but being proficient in Spanish will enable him to transfer skills to his acquiring of English (Lucas, Villegas, & Freedson-Gonzalez, 2008). It can be possible that David was not familiar with the information in the book, such as the beaches’ sand being pink. If he is unfamiliar about the topic of a pink island and mini-subs in Spanish, then it would be difficult for him to understand the text without previous knowledge. If David’s Spanish language ability was known, Ms. Smith would possibly be able to support his learning more …show more content…
There are also some concepts in the text that an ELL student, who is just becoming an emergent learner, will not understand without previous knowledge. Not only was the word, “riddle”, difficult for David to decode but it appeared as though he had never seen the word before. Him saying “rid…lee”, showed hesitation, and him continuing to read riddle in that way showed confusion. I order to understand the chapter, previous knowledge on riddles was needed. Without knowing what a riddle is, the entire first page would make no sense, as a riddle takes up most of the page. To figure out the answer of the riddle, prior knowledge on oysters and pearls is needed. Ms. Smith asked David if he had an idea of what the answer of the riddle could be. However, if a student does not know that pearls, a great beauty, come from oysters, which are rough and gray, then they will not be able to solve the