The Word-MES Strategy
The Word-MES formula is another strategy you can use to enhance language development. Jane Hill, one of the authors, named this formula based on her experiences learning to speak Spanish in Mexico and Spain. She knew what she wanted to say, but when she tried to say it she ended up in a big word mess—entangled in an utterance of disjointed nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Today, when she works with ELLs on language development, she uses the phrase “Word-MES” to remind her to
1. Work on word selection with Preproduction students,
2. Model for Early Production students,
3. Expand what Speech Emergence students have said or written, and
4. Help Intermediate and Advanced Fluency students “sound like a book.”
Here is how the 1st grade teacher in our classroom example can employ the Word-MES formula with ELLs at different stages.
Preproduction
Students need help with word selection. They need to learn vocabulary words such as “wolf,” “pig,” “house,” “straw,” “bricks,” and “blow.”
Early Production
Students benefit from you modeling good English. If a student says, “Wolf blowed,” you can say, “Yes, the wolf blew and blew.” Note that explicit corrections should not be made.
Speech Emergence
Students should focus on expanding oral and written sentences. If a student says, “He blew the house down,” you can say, “Yes, he blew the straw house down.” You have expanded by adding an adjective.
Intermediate and Advanced Fluency
Students should sound like a book. You can help them achieve this by exposing them to words beyond their current repertoire.
Furthermore, in the early grades, students acquire vocabulary through repeated readings of the same book or singing the same chants and familiar songs over and over. Word walls are a way for all ELLs to increase word knowledge while engaged in such activity. See Figure 1 in the stages of second language acquisition summary for a word wall based on The Little Red Hen.
