19 Tex. Admin. Code § 120.20 - English Language Proficiency Standards, Kindergarten-Grade 3, Adopted 2024
(a) Implementation. The provisions of this
section shall be implemented by school districts beginning with the 2026-2027
school year.
(b) General
requirements. In fulfilling the requirements of this section, school districts
and charter schools shall:
(1) identify the
student's English language proficiency levels in the domains of listening,
speaking, reading, and writing in accordance with the proficiency level
descriptors for the pre-production, beginning, intermediate, high intermediate,
and advanced levels delineated in subsection (e) of this section;
(2) provide instruction in the knowledge and
skills of the foundation and enrichment curriculum in a manner that is
linguistically accommodated (communicated, sequenced, and scaffolded)
commensurate with the student's levels of English language proficiency to
ensure that the student learns the knowledge and skills in the required
curriculum;
(3) provide
content-based instruction, including the cross-curricular second language
acquisition essential knowledge and skills in subsection (d) of this section,
in a manner that is linguistically accommodated to help the student acquire
English language proficiency; and
(4) provide intensive and ongoing
foundational second language acquisition instruction to emergent bilingual (EB)
students in Kindergarten-Grade 12 who are at the pre-production, beginning, or
intermediate level of English language proficiency in listening, speaking,
reading, or writing as determined by the state's English language proficiency
assessment system. These EB students require focused, targeted, and systematic
second language acquisition instruction to provide them with the foundation of
English language necessary to support content-based instruction and accelerated
learning of English.
(c)
Introduction.
(1) The English language
proficiency standards (ELPS) outline student expectations and proficiency level
descriptors for EB students in English. The ELPS are organized across four
language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
(2) Language acquisition is a complex process
that consists of several interrelated components, including phonetics,
phonology, semantics, syntax, morphology, and pragmatics. As students develop
proficiency in these language structures, they are able to make connections
between their primary language and English.
(3) Classroom contexts foster social and
academic registers, which are types of language appropriate for a situation or
setting, to support language proficiency. Informal (social) language consists
of English needed for students to effectively interact, exchange ideas, and
engage in various settings and contexts. Formal (academic) language consists of
oral and written language used to build knowledge, participate in
content-specific discourse, and process complex academic material found in
formal school settings and interactions.
(4) The progression of skills in the four
language domains are developed simultaneously and can be divided into two
categories: receptive skills and expressive skills. Listening and reading are
the receptive (input) skills. Students' development in receptive skills is
necessary for comprehension and attainment of the English language and content.
Speaking and writing are the expressive (output) skills. Students' ability to
express and share their personal ideas and content knowledge allow teachers the
opportunity to check for understanding and adjust instruction. Effective
content-based language instruction involves engaging EB students in scaffolded
opportunities to listen, speak, read, and write at their current levels of
proficiency while gradually increasing linguistic complexity.
(5) In order for EB students to be
successful, educators must create an environment that welcomes and encourages
students to leverage their unique cultural and linguistic experiences as they
develop English language skills and learn academic content. Educators must
cultivate an approach that integrates students' and their families' funds of
knowledge into the classroom instructional practices. Culturally and
linguistically sustaining practices leverage and celebrate students' cultural
heritage and backgrounds while elevating their cultural and linguistic
identities. Teaching and learning cognates that connect both (or multiple)
languages can also construct bridges between languages and increase confidence
as English language acquisition progresses.
(6) The ELPS student expectations are the
knowledge and skills students must demonstrate. They indicate what students
should know and be able to do in order to meet academic content standards.
Proficiency level descriptors describe behaviors EB students exhibit across
five proficiency levels as they acquire English. EB students may exhibit
different proficiency levels within and across the domains of listening,
speaking, reading, and writing.
(7)
The ELPS demonstrate an asset-based approach to address the affective,
linguistic, and cognitive needs of EB students in accordance with §
89.1210(b) of
this title (relating to Program Content and Design) as follows:
(A) acknowledge and leverage the existing
funds of knowledge students possess, including linguistic repertoire, cultural
heritage, and background knowledge;
(B) demonstrate targeted and intentional
academic language skills to ensure content-area teachers are able to accurately
evaluate the abilities of EB students and scaffold toward the increasingly
complex English that students hear, speak, and are expected to read and write;
and
(C) provide an exact and
incremental measure of the stages of English language acquisition with
attention to the fact that EB students at all levels of proficiency can engage
in cognitively demanding tasks and master the required essential knowledge and
skills with appropriate language support.
(8) The proficiency level descriptors are
organized into general proficiency level descriptors and content-area
proficiency level descriptors. General proficiency level descriptors are
descriptions of a broad scope of student behaviors that can be observed in a
variety of educational settings and across content areas. Content-area
proficiency level descriptors describe student behaviors and language
associated with discipline-specific learning in English language arts and
reading, mathematics, science, and social studies.
(d) Cross-curricular English language
acquisition student expectations.
(1) Student
expectations--listening. The EB student listens to a variety of speakers,
including teachers, peers, and multimedia, to gain an increasing level of
comprehension in all content areas. The EB student may be at the
pre-production, beginning, intermediate, high intermediate, or advanced
proficiency levels in listening. The student is expected to:
(A) distinguish sounds and intonation
patterns by responding orally, in writing, or with gestures;
(B) demonstrate an understanding of
content-area vocabulary when heard during formal and informal classroom
interactions by responding with gestures or images, orally, or in
writing;
(C) follow oral directions
with accuracy;
(D) use context to
construct the meaning of descriptive language, words with multiple meanings,
register, or figurative language such as idiomatic expressions heard during
formal and informal classroom interactions;
(E) demonstrate listening comprehension from
information presented orally during formal and informal classroom interactions
by recalling, retelling, responding, or asking for clarification or additional
details; and
(F) derive meaning
from a variety of auditory multimedia sources to build and reinforce concepts
and language acquisition.
(2) Student expectations--speaking. The EB
student speaks using a variety of language structures for a variety of purposes
with an awareness of different language registers (formal/informal) using
vocabulary with increasing accuracy and fluency in all content areas. The EB
student may be at the pre-production, beginning, intermediate, high
intermediate, or advanced proficiency level of English language acquisition in
speaking. The student is expected to:
(A)
produce sounds of newly acquired vocabulary such as long and short vowels,
silent letters, and consonant clusters to pronounce words with
accuracy;
(B) speak using
content-area vocabulary during formal and informal classroom interactions to
demonstrate acquisition of new words and high-frequency words;
(C) speak using a variety of language and
grammatical structures, sentence lengths and types, and connecting
words;
(D) speak using appropriate
register to convey a message during formal and informal classroom interactions
with accuracy and fluency;
(E)
narrate, describe, or explain information or persuade orally with increasing
specificity and detail during formal and informal classroom interactions;
and
(F) restate, ask questions
about, or respond to information during formal and informal classroom
interactions.
(3) Student
expectations--reading. The EB student reads a variety of texts for different
purposes with an increasing level of comprehension in all content areas. The EB
student may be at the pre-production, beginning, intermediate, high
intermediate, or advanced proficiency levels of English language acquisition in
reading. For Kindergarten and Grade 1, certain student expectations apply to
text read aloud for students not yet at the stage of decoding written text. The
student is expected to:
(A) demonstrate
awareness of print concepts and directionality of reading as left to right and
top to bottom;
(B) decode words
using relationships between sounds and letters;
(C) use high-frequency words, cognates, and
content-area vocabulary to comprehend written classroom materials;
(D) use context to construct the meaning of
figurative language such as idiomatic expressions, descriptive language, and
words with multiple meanings to comprehend classroom materials;
(E) use pre-reading strategies, including
previewing text features, connecting to prior knowledge, organizing ideas, and
making predictions, to develop comprehension;
(F) derive meaning from and demonstrate
comprehension of content-area texts using visual, contextual, and linguistic
supports;
(G) demonstrate reading
comprehension of content-area texts by making connections, retelling, or
responding to questions; and
(H)
read with fluency and demonstrate comprehension of content-area
text.
(4) Student
expectations--writing. The EB student writes using a variety of language
structures with increasing accuracy to effectively address a variety of
purposes (formal and informal) and audiences in all content areas. The EB
student may be at the pre-production, beginning, intermediate, high
intermediate, or advanced proficiency levels of English language acquisition in
writing. For Kindergarten and Grade 1, certain student expectations do not
apply until the student has reached the proficiency level of generating
original written text using a standard writing system. The student is expected
to:
(A) apply relationships between sounds
and letters of the English language to represent sounds when writing;
(B) spell words following conventional
spelling patterns and rules;
(C)
write using high-frequency words and content-area vocabulary;
(D) write using a variety of
grade-appropriate sentence lengths and types and connecting words;
(E) write formal or informal text using
conventions such as capitalization and punctuation and grammatical structures
such as subject-verb agreement and verb tense; and
(F) write to narrate, describe, explain,
respond, or persuade with detail in the content
areas.
(e)
Proficiency level descriptors.
(1) The
following five proficiency levels describe students' progress in English
language acquisition.
(A) Pre-production. The
pre-production level, also known as the silent period, is the early stage of
English language acquisition when receptive language is developing. Students
develop comprehension when highly scaffolded instruction and linguistic support
are provided. Student responses are mostly non-verbal.
(B) Beginning. The beginning level is
characterized by speech emergence (expressive language) using one word or
two-to-three-word phrases. Students at this level require highly scaffolded
instruction and linguistic support. Students at this level begin to
consistently use present tense verbs and repeat keywords and familiar phrases
when engaging in formal and informal interactions.
(C) Intermediate. The intermediate level is
characterized by the ability to use receptive and expressive language with
demonstrated literal comprehension. Students at this level need moderately
scaffolded instruction and linguistic support. Additional visual and linguistic
support is needed to understand unfamiliar or abstract concepts such as
figurative language, humor, and cultural or societal references. Students at
this level begin to consistently use short phrases and simple sentences or ask
short questions to demonstrate comprehension during formal and informal
interactions.
(D) High
intermediate. Students at the high intermediate level begin to consistently use
a variety of sentence types, express opinions, share thoughts, and ask for
clarification. Students at this level have an increased level of literal and
abstract comprehension. Students may need minimal scaffolded instruction and
linguistic support to engage in formal and informal classroom
interactions.
(E) Advanced. The
advanced level is characterized by the ability of students to engage in formal
and informal classroom interactions with little to no linguistic support.
Students at this level engage in discourse using content-area vocabulary and a
variety of grammatical structures with increasing accuracy.
(2) The Kindergarten-Grade 3 proficiency
level descriptors are described in the figure provided in this paragraph.
Notes
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