What is Sheltered Instruction?

What is sheltered instruction? In essence, the basic philosophy behind sheltered instruction is that academic language needs to be developed as a significant purpose to use as a relevant output and to learn as much as possible. Where this differs from conventional instruction, however, is that it assumes that students already possess the academic language skills needed to gain meaningful interaction in the real-world context.

So whereas traditional instruction relies on students’ ability to comprehend what is being taught, sheltered instruction assumes that academic language will also need to be learned and used as a means of communication.  A variety of strategies and techniques are also incorporated.

In order to provide this necessary interaction, sheltered instruction relies on two kinds of models. First, there are the content classes that rely on lesson goals, instructional objectives and class rules to guide content development. Second, there are the in-text and at-content model, which vary slightly from content classes in that the in-text model allows teachers to supplement traditional text with spoken words, images, etc., while the at-content model makes use of multimedia, such as listening and seeing the lesson being taught. This difference between content classes and at-content models may seem fairly trivial but it has important consequences for students.

For instance, in the latter model, it becomes necessary for teachers to provide supplemental help in the form of prompts, instructions, or other cues to make sure that students understand the lesson as intended. As you can see, sheltered instruction differs from conventional English language teaching in a number of ways. One of these ways is in the nature of the materials used. Most language instruction guides use books, periodicals, and websites as resources. These materials only serve to reinforce what is taught in textbooks and coursework.

Check out the following link to access frequently asked questions on ESL and Bilingual Law in New Jersey.

https://hctutorial.com/esl-and-bilingual-frequently-asked-questions/