Post 178: What is SDAIE?

Post 178: What is SDAIE?

SDAIE stands for Specifically Designed Academic Instruction. SDAIE is used to give comprehensible input to ELL.  It is one of the cornerstones of the Acquisition Method stated by Krashen where learners learn language by being exposed to only the target language without translation from the first day of instruction in that target language. It is the teacher's job to provide this comprehensible input to ELL through the use of graphs, realia, pictures, blackboard, body gestures, and other ways of modeling language. I remember learning about SDAIE when I was in Pepperdine University School of Education. I used SDAIE extensively in my ESL training. This is why I always wrote everything I was going to teach that day on the blackboard first so that I could just point to what I was going to say and students of various modalities could all understand the lesson. When I transitioned to online teaching, my blackboard was replaced by my screencast videos and the Adobe Connect white board in the online classroom.

Here are the characteristics of SDAIE teaching:

1. Error correction through modeling. Instead of telling students directly their errors which would make them feel self conscious, SDAIE teachers model the correct way to speak and read. If students make mistakes, the teacher focuses on meaning and not on the error.

2. Modified slower speech. If the ESL teacher is teaching beginning ELL, she would speak slowly and enunciate clearly each and every word so ELL can understand what she is saying. If she speaks too fast, the beginning ELL will not understand the target language.

3. Controlled vocabulary. Avoid using slang, idioms and cliches in your teacher talk because slang is difficult for ELL to learn. Also, avoid jokes and sarcasm because that will be lost on the ELL as well. I remember when I was in Taiwan and I was watching a Chinese comedy with English subtitles, I had trouble understanding the Chinese jokes, so I relied on the English subtitles to understand the movie. The characters would tell the joke, then it took a moment for me to read the subtitle, and by the time I laughed at the joke, I was the last person in the theatre to laugh as everybody else had already laughed at the joke when the movie character told the joke in the beginning of the movie scene.

4. Use cognates.  Use words that appear similar to the target language. For instance, when I have my French students read about how COVID19 is affecting France, I first have them read the same article in English and then when they read about it in French, they can understand the French article through cognates like pandemic in English and pandemie in French.

5. Play charades  Act out the meaning with your body. I know some teacher friends who are very good at acting out what they say so that they can stay in the target language and not cheat and talk in the student first language. You can use realia, graphic organizers, picture clues, context clues, props and manipulatives to help you get your students to understand what you are saying. I used magazine pictures a lot to get across what I was saying in the target language.

6. Formative assessments--I would give them periodic tests and feedback on how well they were speaking, reading and writing in the L2.  I would give students oral tests where I listen for their pronunciation and I listen for how well they can answer that lesson's questions.  I had no problem giving this oral test in a class of 25, but when the school increased the student roster to 50 students in a class, it took more time to give that same oral test. Giving frequent formative performative assessments is the best way to give feedback to student mastery of material rather than giving one time standardized tests.

7. Frequent comprehension checks--As you are teaching the lesson, make time for question and answer time. Check to see if students are understanding what you are teaching. Asi students comprehension questions to check for mastery of material and to check how much students are paying attention to your lecture or your presentation.

8. Repeat..Repeat...Repeat..Repeat...There is no such thing as teaching something too many times especially if the concept is difficult. I remember my science teacher explaining a million times how the planets orbit the sun or how my Research Methods teacher said the word, 'Sampling Sampling, the larger the sampling, the more reliable the results of the scientific study..."

9. Give students the opportunity to do hands on projects so they can have experience using all their senses to learn the L2.

10. Have students work in groups and do group work. Have the more capable students grouped with the less capable students so that the more capable students can help the less capable students in mastering the skill.