Newcomers: What to Expect

Forms & Functions

Forms A-I

• Student understands some isolated words that sound like those from their native language.
• Words that English has borrowed from their native language
• Words that are used often in social contexts, such as “hello” and “good bye”
• The student has essentially no ability to comprehend even short utterances.

• A newcomer student is able to copy or transcribe familiar words or phrases
• She can reproduce some of those words and phrases from memory.
• Writing skills are limited to the sentence level.

• A newcomer is able to recognize the symbols of the alphabet
• He can occasionally identify isolated words and phrases when strongly supported by context.

• Vocabulary is sufficient only for handling simple, elementary needs and basic courtesies.
• She uses frequent long pauses.
• Oral production consists of isolated words and perhaps a few high-frequency phrases.