
English for Speakers of Other Languages
Newcomers: What to Expect
Listening
- 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.