Cobb County ESOL

Lexile Analyzer

Do you want to know the Lexile level of the books your students are reading, or the level of your student's writing? Check out the Lexile Analyzer! It is a free tool that can assist you.

Communicating with Gestures

"Very few gestures are universally understood and interpreted. What is perfectly acceptable in the United States may be rude, or even obscene, in other cultures." Check out Judy Haynes' website.

http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/body_language.php

World Language Statistics and Facts

Explore this website to discover interesting statistics and facts about world languages and cultures.

Special Education and ELLs - Colorin Colorado

Colorin Colorado provides great information regarding special education and ELLs.  Check out the following:

Overview and Resources on Special Ed and ELLs

Article on the Reasons for Misidentification (2011)
Article on Some Myths regarding ELLs and Special Education (2011)

A webcast on ELLs and Learning Disabilities: biligual speech-language pathologist Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan discusses effective assessment and instruction strategies for English language learners with learning disabilities, as well as ways to help encourage the active involvement of parents of ELLs with LD in their children's schools.

the sounds of spoken language

The Sounds of Spoken Language website contains animated libraries of the phonetic sounds of English, German and Spanish.  This project was a collaboration between the Departments of Spanish and Portuguese, German, Speech Pathology and Audiology and Academic Technologies at the University of Iowa.

 

The Speech Accent Archive

Everyone who speaks a language, speaks it with an accent. George Mason University's Department of Linguistics has created The Speech Accent Archive, which uniformly exhibits a large set of speech accents from a variety of language backgrounds.

This website is of great use to ESOL teachers, speech pathologists and other school staff as it allows them to explore and compare the demographic and linguistic backgrounds of speakers in order to determine the variables that are key predictors of an accent. This site demonstrates that accents are systematic and not merely mistakes in speech.

 

Article on Second Language Acquisition

"Second Language Acquisition: Information for Educators" is an article that appeared in the National Association of School Psychologists. It discusses issues faced by our ELLs as well as some suggested strategies for classroom teachers. Click here to download: Download second_language_acquisition1.pdf

Many thanks to Diane Lesley, school psychologist at Lindley and Harmony-Leland for sharing this wonderful resource!

 

Language difference or disorder?

The chart below is offered as guidance for effectively determining whether a student may have a language difference or a language disorder. It is very important to gather data and build a file of documentation to support the need for additional testing. ESOL teachers should work collaboratively with qualified personnel such as speech language pathologists.

Adapted from the 2008 - 2009 Georgia Department of Education Title III ESOL Resource Guide.