Sheltered English Immersion & Second Language Acquisition Flashcards

According to Krashen's Input Hypothesis, language acquisition is most effective when learners receive input that is:

Answer: Slightly above their current level (i+1)

Krashen's i+1 formula states that learners acquire language when they understand input just one step beyond their current level, making it challenging but comprehensible.

BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) typically takes English language learners approximately how long to develop?

Answer: 6 months to 2 years

BICS, the conversational fluency used in everyday social interactions, typically develops within 6 months to 2 years for most ELL students.

Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), as defined by Jim Cummins, typically requires how long to develop in a second language?

Answer: 5 to 7 years

CALP, the academic language needed for school success, takes 5 to 7 years to develop because it requires mastery of abstract, discipline-specific vocabulary and complex text structures.

Which researcher proposed the 'Affective Filter Hypothesis,' suggesting that emotional factors such as anxiety and low motivation can block language acquisition?

Answer: Stephen Krashen

Stephen Krashen proposed the Affective Filter Hypothesis, which holds that high anxiety or low motivation creates a mental block that prevents comprehensible input from being internalized.

The 'silent period' observed in some second language learners is best understood as:

Answer: A natural phase of internalizing language before producing output

The silent period is a recognized developmental phase in second language acquisition during which learners absorb and process input before they feel ready to produce spoken output.

Cummins' Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP) model, visualized as an iceberg, suggests that:

Answer: Academic skills and knowledge developed in one language transfer to support another language

The CUP model holds that while surface features of languages differ, there is a shared underlying proficiency through which skills developed in a first language support acquisition of a second language.

When an ELL student alternates between their home language and English within the same conversation or sentence, this phenomenon is known as:

Answer: Code-switching, a natural and purposeful bilingual communication behavior

Code-switching is recognized by linguists as a sophisticated, intentional behavior that bilingual speakers use to communicate most effectively, not a sign of linguistic deficiency.