One of the more traditional methods of training students to communicate in a second language is to ask them questions and have them respond in that language. This method allows the teacher to test the students' comprehension of the language, as well as their pronunciation and grammar. The main drawback to this method is that is has little applicability to real-life situations to which the students may be exposed. The students have little reason to internalize the information for long-term use, and the information they pick up may not be helpful to them outside the classroom.
Structured output activities require students to communicate information to each other in a more open ended and realistic fashion. Students are provided with portions of information, such as incomplete bus schedules, that they must communicate to each other in order to fulfill a task. Structured output activities can be a bridge between teacher modeling and authentic communication, but they tend to lead students to practice using only brief sentences, rather than more complete communication.
Communicative output activities involve more realistic situations for communication. The teacher introduces a role play or a discussion, and allows the students a relatively free hand in coming to a resolution. The situations may resemble encounters that the students may have in the real world, and they require the students to choose language that is appropriate to the situation.
Sheltered English is an institutional approach to teaching English as a second language. Students who are not native English speakers receive a three-tiered system of academic instruction. Some instruction is provided in the student’s native language, some instruction is provided in English in classrooms with native English speakers, and some instruction is provided in English in classrooms with only non-native speakers. In this third type of classroom, the teacher focuses much of the academic instruction upon language and concepts, so that the student gains language skills as well as academic skills. The amount of time the student spends in each type of classroom depends upon how fully developed the student’s English language skills are.