What is Wrong with the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model? An Analytical Study of the Model

Abstract

The settlement of immigrants with different tongues in the United States urged the official authorities in the field of education to adopt the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model as a new salvation teaching method in such a way as to help them accelerate their integration in society and at school. The model, which proved its adequacy on the academic level, is an instructional framework that is designed to teach English learners language and content areas alongside with their classmates whose first language is English. However, the SIOP turned out to be a classical-like and a teacher-centered model that restricts the students’ learning, which is counterproductive. Our analysis of a SIOP lesson in terms of the learning components, which should be taken into consideration from the beginning of the learning until the end, unveiled some of its limitations which introduces us to an assumption that is based on the fact that says this is how learning should be handled. Such pitfalls witnessed among non-language teachers in terms of implementation, especially among beginners, sound too exhausting and challenging. Hence, what the SIOP provides turned out to be a set of some well-designed practices that are ready made for use, which questions the utility of the model in terms of its performance as far as the learners’ linguistic needs are concerned. The model provides weak feedback and less interaction among the learners in both content and language classes.

Keywords:SIOP, linguistic needs, English language learners, learning components, best practices, the observation protocol scale.

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-35-04

Publication date: December 31^st 2022