Sheltered English Immersion & Second Language Acquisition Flashcards

Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) is best described as an instructional approach that:

Answer: Makes grade-level content accessible to ELLs through language supports while teaching in English

SEI delivers content-area instruction in English using linguistic scaffolds — such as visuals, contextualization, and modified speech — so ELL students can access grade-level material while simultaneously developing English proficiency.

A teacher posts both a content objective ('Students will explain the water cycle') and a language objective ('Students will use sequence words such as first, then, and finally') for every lesson. This is a key requirement of which model?

Answer: Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP)

The SIOP model explicitly requires teachers to plan and post both content and language objectives so ELL students develop subject knowledge and academic English simultaneously in every lesson.

Using realia (real objects), photographs, and graphic organizers to reduce the language burden for ELL students is an example of which category of SEI strategy?

Answer: Contextualization and comprehensible input strategies

Contextualization strategies reduce reliance on language alone by embedding meaning in visual and physical context, making content more comprehensible to ELL students at all proficiency levels.

An SEI teacher deliberately increases 'wait time' after posing a question primarily to:

Answer: Give ELL students additional time to process the question and formulate a response in English

Processing in a second language requires additional cognitive time, so extending wait time directly supports ELL students' ability to participate and produce academic language.

Pre-teaching key vocabulary before a reading lesson is an SEI best practice primarily because it:

Answer: Reduces cognitive load so students can focus on content comprehension during reading

Pre-teaching vocabulary activates prior knowledge and reduces the number of unknown words encountered during reading, freeing cognitive resources for comprehension rather than decoding unfamiliar terms.

Cooperative learning structures benefit ELL students in an SEI classroom primarily by:

Answer: Creating structured, lower-anxiety opportunities to practice academic English with peers

Cooperative structures like Think-Pair-Share and Jigsaw provide scaffolded, lower-stakes environments where ELL students can rehearse academic language and content ideas before sharing with the whole class.

Which instructional strategy involves a teacher verbalizing their internal reasoning aloud while reading or problem-solving, making invisible cognitive processes visible to ELL students?

Answer: Think-aloud modeling

Think-aloud modeling makes the teacher's metacognitive strategies explicit and audible, providing ELL students with a linguistic and cognitive scaffold they can internalize and apply to their own reading and thinking.