"Go to's" for Newcomers
Newcomer EL's are a specialty area for me. Not just because I have worked with EL's for several years, but because I have adopted 4 boys from Taiwan (each came with a various degree of English Language Development). Newcomer EL's have a very personalized set of "go to's" both in behavior and language, that can often be mistaken for misbehavior, rudeness, lack of understanding of non-compliance. Edward, my 13 year old son, has been with us now in the U.S. for 5 weeks and 3 days. With a very short list of fully comprehensible words, he has had to rely on his new big brother (18 yrs old) and Google translate installed on his kindle. We are still in the short phrase listening and speaking level of understanding, with a growing list of vocabulary. As I said, behavior and language "go to's" with vary from learner to learner, I believe sharing Edward's will shed some light on what you may see with EL newcomers you encounter. Let's start