INTRODUCTION

For English Language Learners (ELLs) in U.S. schools, developing proficiency in oral English is essential for academic and future professional and personal success. Developing proficiency in oral English involves acquiring vocabulary, gaining control over grammar, and developing an understanding of the subtle semantics of English. At the same time, acquiring proficiency in English involves learning how to use the language to interact successfully with other speakers of the language. Oral interactions can vary considerably from exchanging greetings to initiating and sustaining conversations to negotiating collaborative tasks to giving and/or receiving directions to telling or listening to stories to delivering or comprehending lectures.

While the design of programs for ELLs varies in terms of the use of L1, many programs (that is, ESL pull-out, English immersion, transitional bilingual, developmental bilingual, and two-way immersion) recommend daily oral English language instruction until students achieve at least a minimum level of proficiency in English (see Genesee, 1999, for a description of alternative programs). Moreover, while there are different theoretical views about the minimum level of English oral proficiency necessary for successful participation in classrooms with English reading, writing, and content area instruction (Baker, 1998; Cummins, 1979; Fitzgerald, 1995; Krashen, 1996), there is no controversy about the fundamental importance of English oral language development as part of the larger enterprise of educating ELLs.

Despite the centrality afforded English oral language development in both theory and practice, the empirical literature on oral language development in ELLs is small.