Students in the beginning stage of acquiring a second language start developing BICS through low-risk activities that are based on content related to their own lives and immediate needs. The following instructional strategies are essential for beginners:

• comprehensible instruction, supportive feedback, strategic use of students’ languages, cooperative learning, functional language, visual support, copying and labeling, physical activity, choral work, songs and role plays, experience based learning, a rich print environment, language experience stories and stories on tape and in the language lab.

Students will benefit from:

• games and puzzles, develop survival vocabulary, follow demonstrated directions, participate in art, music, physical education, and some vocational education classes, engage in face-to-face interactions, practice oral exercises and communicative language functions and answer lower level questions.

Students beyond the beginning stage can begin working on some tasks in Quadrant B even before they have completely acquired BICS.  Many students who have studied English in their home country are ready to work on tasks in Quadrant B.  As learning tasks become increasingly demanding, the following strategies and approaches continue to be important:

• comprehensible instruction, supportive feedback, strategic use of students’ language and cooperative learning.

In addition to the following differentiated strategies, provide scaffolding that enables learners to begin developing CALP as well as learning strategies that will help them become effective language learners:

• key visuals, guided reading, integrated vocabulary and grammar instruction, writing scaffolds, the writing process, journal keeping, guided projects, Arts integration and alternative resource material.

Students will also benefit from:

• engaging in predictable telephone conversations, developing initial reading skills: decoding and literal comprehension, reading and writing for personal purposes: notes, lists, recipes, etc., reading and writing for operational purposes: directions, forms, licenses, etc. and writing answers to lower level questions.

Though tasks are cognitively undemanding, they may be incomprehensible to many English language learners.  Cognitively undemanding activities are unlikely to promote language acquisition. Examples of Quadrant C activities include the so-called "busy work" that is sometimes given to beginners.

These activities may include coloring pictures that have little relevance to the academic program and copying notes and other material that students do not understand.  Even activities that are intended to be academically challenging, such as research projects, can become Quadrant C tasks of students do not receive the necessary guidance and support. Teacher scaffolding is needed.

English language learners and native speakers alike should spend relatively little time on Quadrant C activities.

Students will benefit from:

• developing academic vocabulary, understanding academic presentations accompanied by visuals, demonstrations of a process, etc., participating in hands-on-science activities, making models, maps, charts, and graphs in Social Studies, solving math computation problems; solving Math word problems assisted by manipulative and or illustrations, participating in academic discussions; making brief oral presentations, using higher level comprehension skills in listening to oral texts, understanding written texts through discussion, illustrations, and visuals, writing simple Science and Social Studies reports with format provided, and answering higher level questions.

Students who have achieved high-intermediate proficiency in English after several years of intensive ESL instruction in their home country or their new country are ready to be challenged by Quadrant D tasks, which are both cognitively and linguistically demanding.  By this time, student’s development in their first language may have fallen behind, and they must rely completely in English for further learning.  Students in Quadrant D are able to work with the grade-level curriculum expectations and resources, as long as they continue to receive support, especially when culturally demanding material, such as a history textbook that assumes that students possess certain background knowledge, is involved.

The following strategies continue to be important:

• comprehensible instruction, supportive feedback, cooperative learning, key visuals, guided reading, integrated vocabulary instruction, the writing process, journals, guided projects.

The amount of scaffolding is gradually reduced over a period of two or more years, but should never be discontinued completely.  All students benefit from scaffold instruction.

Students will benefit from:

• understanding academic presentations without visuals or demonstrations, making formal oral presentations, using higher level reading comprehension skills: inferential and critical reading, reading for information in content subjects, writing compositions, essays, and research reports in content subjects, solving Math word problems without illustrations, writing answers to higher level questions, and taking standardized achievement tests.