Figure 2.1.

Sample Teacher Prompts for Each Stage of Second Language Acquisition

Approximate Time
Stage

Preproduction

Characteristics

The student

Frame

06 months

Has minimal

Teacher Prompts

Show me
Circle the

comprehension.

Where is ?

Does not verbalize.

Who has ?

Nods "Yes" and "No."

Draws and points.
Early Production

The student

6 months1 year

Yes/no questions

Has limited comprehension

Either/or questions

Produces one- or two-word

Who ?

responses.

What ?
Uses key words and familiar

How many ?

phrases.
Uses present-tense verbs.
Speech Emergence

The student

13 years

Why ?

Has good comprehension.

How ?

Can produce simple

Explain

sentences.

Questions requiring phrase or

Makes grammar and

short-sentence answers

pronunciation errors.
Frequently misunderstands
jokes.
Intermediate

The student

35 years

Has excellent

Fluency

What would happen if ?

Why do you think ?

comprehension.

Questions requiring more than a

Makes few grammatical

sentence response

errors.
Advanced Fluency

The student has a near-native level of

speech.

57 years

Decide if
Retell