Build English Fast with ELLs
Are you faced with more English language learners in your class, school or district? You may not know that Fast ForWord® is the top-ranked intervention for English Language Development on What Works Clearinghouse. Our unique Build English FastTM solution incorporates the power of both Fast ForWord and Reading Assistant to accelerate English language development. In one of our most popular webinars this year, Dr. Martha Burns fielded the following questions from educators like you! Click here to view the full webinar.
Q: What is the best age for teaching a second language to benefit the development of the second language?
A: Birth to seven is generally the time when it is easiest to learn and become proficient in a second language. However, that period of time is extended in people who are bilingual, such that bilingual people can learn additional languages extraordinarily well, even at older ages. It seems that just being exposed to two languages when you are young makes your brain more flexible for learning languages in general.
The general rule is that the best time to learn an additional language is before age seven -- but that rule can be broken by lots of different things, including bilingual proficiency.
Q: Does the Fast ForWord program help with native language delays?
A. The Fast ForWord program helps build the whole language network in the brain. In doing so, it improves the brain’s ability to process language and thereby can help the development of both the native language and any second language (such as English).
Q: What about special needs students who are second language learners?
A: The Fast ForWord program was originally designed for use with children with special needs but has been found to be extraordinarily effective with ELL students. The original group of study participants included students with developmental language problems of one kind or another that could be associated with autism spectrum disorder, developmental delays, and specific language impairments. All these groups of children benefited from the Fast ForWord program. The only caveats are that the child needs to have language skills in their native language of at least a three-year-old, and the child must be able to use a computer or iPad with headphones.
Q: What age range is the Fast ForWord program good for?
A: For English language learners, the program can be started as early as age five. There is no upper age limit for program use.
Q: What about kids without basic literacy?
A: Students can benefit even if they are not reading in either their native or their second language. Two of the products that are particularly appropriate for English language learners (Fast ForWord Language for students in elementary schools and Fast ForWord Literacy for students in secondary schools) focus on sounds and oral language, and have no written letters. These are appropriate starting points for students who are not yet literate.
Q: Is there progress monitoring and data to support the program?
A: Yes. A great strength of the Fast ForWord program is the ability of educators to monitor each student’s strengths and weaknesses. Every grammatical error the student makes is recorded, as well as every error in speech sound discrimination, vocabulary, or listening/reading comprehension. Each student’s responses on every item are included in a report.
Q: Is there a pre-test that can be administered to know where to begin?
A: When the program is used in a school setting, there is an assessment called Reading Progress Indicator that typically runs automatically when students initiate use (although it can be turned off during enrollment). This assessment evaluates a student’s early reading skills and determines whether the student has a reading discrepancy. Coupled with the student’s current grade level and education classification, this determines where in the program the child should start. As long as the auto placement option has been selected, the program will place the student at that point and continue to move them onto the next product within the Fast ForWord program as appropriate.
Q: Does it work on all modalities – reading, writing, listening and speaking?
A. The Fast ForWord program and Reading Assistant software work directly on reading, speaking and listening. Although there are no actual writing exercises that use pen and paper, research has shown improvement in writing. For information on this specific research, please see the blog post on our website "Building Better Writers (Without Picking Up a Pen)" by Dr. Beth Rogowsky.
Q: Is this a program people can access at home or just at school?
A: You can access the Fast ForWord program at home or school. The three ways through which the program can be accessed are:
- School district that is using the Fast ForWord program;
- Clinical professional who is trained on the Fast ForWord program and using it, such as a speech and language pathologist. Trained professionals can be found on the Search for a Provider page; or
- Fast ForWord Home online service, which combines the Fast ForWord program with the services of a professional consultant. Learn more about Fast ForWord Home.
Q: Can this program be compared to other ESL programs?
A: Many other programs teach language through sentence structure. A student sees a picture and hears a word or sentence that goes with the pictures. They do not have specific training in speech sound discrimination by itself. The Fast ForWord program complements these other programs by developing some of the necessary foundational skills, including the ability to discriminate between sounds and the ability to identify specific phonemes.
Q: Is the Reading Assistant program helpful for strengthening literacy?
A: Yes, the Reading Assistant program is a literacy product. Students start working with real text leveled around mid-first grade. Initially, students have the stories or the content read to them while they look at a printed page and see the words and phrases highlighted as they are read by the computer. The students then read aloud the text themselves. In order to use the Reading Assistant program, children must be able to correctly read 25 words per minute. For students who use it, Reading Assistant is a wonderful tool for building fluency, reading vocabulary, and comprehension.
Q: How many minutes do you need to use the Fast ForWord program to get the most benefit?
A: ELL students, who have average native language skills, should use the products at least thirty minutes, three times a week. For students whose native language skills are not at age level, the minimum is thirty minutes, five times a week. These protocols are appropriate for both the Fast ForWord Language (elementary school students) and the Fast ForWord Literacy (middle or high school students) products and can be completed in anywhere from 12 to 27 weeks based on the abilities of the student and whether the students use the products thirty minutes for three or five days a week. Students can also use the products for more minutes each day, and thereby reach completion in fewer weeks.
Q: If a child starts in the Reading Assistant program at the first grade level, does it adjust to match the student’s level as he/she does the activity?
A. The Reading Assistant program has many different levels of difficulty, becoming more difficult as students progress. In order to use the software, students must be able to correctly read at least 25 words per minute, which corresponds to a mid-first grade reading level. However, difficulty ranges up through high school with content that aligns with the interest and content material for the corresponding grade levels: K-3, 4-5, 6-8, and 9-12.
Not all students start at the same level. Teachers can select the appropriate level of reading for each student, or students can take the Reading Progress Indicator assessment and be automatically placed in to the appropriate level of the Reading Assistant program.
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