Build English Fast for Students Learning English as a Second Language

Picture of Peter Barnes
Peter Barnes
English Language Learners, Fast ForWord

Students with limited or no English speaker proficiency need instruction in recognising and distinguishing the sounds of English as compared or contrasted with sounds in their native language.

To be most effective, instruction for ESLs in oral language knowledge, skills, and abilities must be explicit, intensive, and extensive.

Oral proficiency in English (including oral vocabulary, grammar, and listening comprehension) is critical for ESLs to develop proficiency in text-level English reading comprehension.

3 Steps to Fast ESL Results

Step 1: Prepare the brain

Sounds of the world’s languages differ greatly, e.g., English has 44 phonemes and Spanish has 21. By 6 months old, your students’ brains are wiring to sounds of a language other than English. Our software uniquely targets the phonemes of English to build the foundational skills required for all literacy. With brains “wired” for English, listening comprehension and all language development happens faster and easier.

Step 2: Practice English skills, intensively

Using game-like technology designed by neuroscientists, your students complete 1000s of trials practicing grammar, academic vocabulary and listening comprehension skills needed for fast English language development improvement – more practice than is achieved by other interventions or teacher-directed work. Our exercises infinitely adapt to each student to keep them motivated, but challenged just enough.

Step 3: Read English aloud, with support

Students need to apply their newly learned language fundamentals as they read texts aloud. Your students get non-judgemental support from the only software that uses speech recognition technology to “listen” to their English pronunciation, decoding, etc., offering support just when they need it. It includes over 300 non-fiction and fictional reading selections across genres with embedded vocabulary support.

English Language Development Skills Addressed by the Build English Fast Program

Listening

  • Advanced listening accuracy
  • Multi-step directions
  • Language comprehension
  • All forms of English grammar
  • Vocabulary
  • English phoneme discrimination

Speaking

  • Oral reading of texts of various complexity
  • Support practice speaking English aloud
  • Speech production of multisyllabic words
  • Repeated readings to build English language oral and reading fluency

Reading

  • English phonemic awareness
  • Word analysis: suffixes, prefixes, root words
  • close reading
  • Figurative language
  • Academic vocabulary
  • Answer questions about key details in a text (reading comprehension)
  • Abstract reasoning
  • Summarisation 

Writing

  • Spelling
  • Grammar
  • Basic and academic vocabulary
  • Recognising, ordering, and constructing sentences
  • Paragraph completion and ordering
Frequently asked questions 

What age range is the Build English Fast program good for?
Age 7 to adult, at all English levels.

Do ESLs need to be able to read to use this program?
No. Students do no need to read yet in either their native or second language. There are exercises that have no written letters, making it appropriate for pre-readers and readers alike.

Can this help people from english speaking backgrounds who have language development delays?
Yes, the Build English Fast program helps build the entire language network in the brain so it helps both native and second (English) language development. It improves the brain's ability to process language overall.

What about special needs students who are second language learners?
The Build English Fast technology has been studied extensively with students with special needs and now has been found to extraordinarily effective with ESL students. For a child to be appropriate, he/she simply needs to have at least the language skills of a three-year-old in the native language and be able to use a computer or iPad with headphones.

How often do I use the Build English Fast program?
It is recommended that students use the program a minimum of 30-50 minutes/day, 5 days a week.

Get the Build English Fast Brochure

Download button-1