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Last Updated on: February 1, 2018
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Translation Service Discontinued - Everything After Z by Dictionary.com

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Dear Valued Customers, Unfortunately, we will no longer be supporting Translate. It is our mission to provide the best possible experience for our customers and as a result we've decided to focus our efforts on core products and remove features that have limited use. We apologize for any inconvenience.

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Is my topic too broad?

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How can I show growth when my problem is not that students aren't understanding content?

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What do I do if parents don't want their child to participate?

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How can I get consent for students to participate?

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I teach a class of 31 students. Three of my students are classified as cognitively impaired, two are emotionally impaired, and two have a learning disability. In my classroom, I have six students who are English language learners. Three of my students speak Ukrainian at home, two speak Spanish, and one speaks Polish. My fourth grade teaching partner has two ESL students, who I teach in math and science. We group our students in math based on ability level. Of the eight ESL students, seven placed into the more advanced group, with the outlier being a child who has a learning disability. I have found it difficult to push these students as mathematicians and assess their understanding of the content accurately. I feel that the language barrier has played a role in these struggles. I also have a hard time making connections with these families.

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How can I help my English language learners better access our math curriculum?

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Supporting ESL students is a collaborative effort

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Supporting ESL students is a collaborative effort

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Emotional support must accompany academic support

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Emotional support must accompany academic support

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Visuals and simplified language support ESL students' understanding

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Visuals and simplified language support ESL students' understanding

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Incorporating students' native language is beneficial

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Incorporating students' native language is beneficial

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The percentage of ESL students is increasing throughout the U.S.

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The percentage of ESL students is increasing throughout the U.S.

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ESL support is best utilized with a "push-in" model

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ESL support is best utilized with a "push-in" model

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Teachers need to focus on the individual child's strengths and culture

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Teachers need to focus on the individual child's strengths and culture

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As a former English language learner, Puccio (2012) is now a language arts teacher who also focuses on language development in his district. He highlights three integral pieces that are essential for the success of English language learners. The first is that these students need support academically, as well as with their language development. Puccio notes there are countless successful interventions available, and that they key is focusing on the individual child. The second component is to support students’ social and emotional needs. Incorporating students’ prior knowledge and personal cultures is one key way to do so. The last piece is to celebrate victories and focus on continued improvement.

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Puccio, S. (2012). Acculturating into the American School System: Supporting our English Language Learners. Social Studies Review, 51(1), 84-88.

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Fourth grade educators experimented with ways to support their English language learners in math class (Banse, 2016). Their attempt to incorporate a math calendar into the curriculum did not prove to increase student collaboration and discussion in this content area. There were, however, other modifications made that helped these students join meaningful mathematical conversations.  These included providing visuals of questions asked, summarizing other students’ responses, valuing self-talk, and demonstrating how to correctly use necessary math vocabulary. These practices can increase student participation and understanding during math discussion.

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Banse, H. W., Palacios, N. A., Merritt, E. G., & Rimm-Kaufman, S. E. (2017). Scaffolding English language learners' mathematical talk in the context of Calendar Math. Journal Of  Educational Research, 110(2), 199-208.

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Nemeth, K. N. (2015). Comprehensive Support for Young English Learners. Principal, 94(5), 26-30.

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As the number of students who are English language learners continues to rise in American schools, one thing is often misconstrued. Nemeth (2015) found that educating these students is not the job of the specialized staff, but rather the district as a whole. They found the use of dual language learning, or education in their native language and English, proved to be a determining factor in student success. Educators need to understand the knowledge and skills developed in students’ first language and utilize these components to develop their understanding of a second language. Schools needs to create a comprehensive language plan to support students at school and help them in developing their English language proficiency.

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After receiving a surge of English language learners in their Colorado school, this building looked for new approach to reach their learners. They abandoned the “pull out method” for language support and began using their English language educators as co-teachers in the general education classroom. The three main components to this trial were that students were receiving core instruction for 100% of the day, general education and English language learners’ teachers shared responsibility over student progress, and there was targeted instruction integrated into both reading and math for ESL students. They placed a heavy emphasis on the incorporation of scaffolding into their daily instruction and found that student success, as well as teacher growth, were apparent from their new learning plan (Beninghof, 2016).

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Beninghof, A. a., & Leensvaart, M. m. (2016). Co-Teaching to Support ELLs. Educational Leadership, 73(5), 70-73.

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According to Gann (2016), teachers instructional decisions are strongly based on preconceived beliefs that teachers possess. There is currently an achievement gap between English language learners and students who call English their home language. Personal biases and beliefs that math instruction is not affected by language can cause this achievement gap to widen. It can be beneficial to incorporate students’ language and cultures into the math instruction to increase their chance of academic success. Teachers must be acutely aware to the individual students they are teaching and make necessary accommodations to include them in the curriculum.

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Gann, L., Bonner, E. P., & Moseley, C. (2016). Development and Validation of the Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs About English Language Learners Survey ( MTBELL). School Science & Mathematics, 116(2), 83-94.

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Studies show that students who are being taught in a language that is foreign to them not only perform worse on reading assessments, but mathematics assessment as well (Alt, 2014). ESL students performed better on assessments with simpler language, than those whose language were complex. They also were able to fix mistakes made on assessments by being allowed to respond in their native language. This indicates that their cognitive ability is present, but the language barrier is inhibiting our ability to accurately assess them. Another possibility is that when these students are “switching” languages in their head to solve problems, they are leaving more room for error to occur.

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Alt, M. m., Arizmendi, G. D., Beal, C. R., Nippold, M., & Pruitt-Lord, S. (2014). The Relationship Between Mathematics and Language: Academic Implications for Children With Specific Language Impairment and English Language Learners. Language, Speech  & Hearing Services In Schools, 45(3), 220-233.

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While word problems are known to be difficult for students in mathematics classes, they pose and even greater challenge to those students who are ESL learners. Two main techniques have been shown to be helpful in this area, as found by Cwynar and Hewett (2010). The first is having English proficient students aid the ESL students. It is the best case scenario if they are able to translate, but has also been successful for them to work one-on-one and provide mentoring services. Another helpful strategy is have your ESL students create “foldables” where they write key academic vocabulary on the outer sleeve and the definition on the inner tab. This way, they are practicing reading, writing, and have a resource they can access to help them solve tricky word problems.

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Cwynar, D. P., & Hewett, S. (2010). Helping ELLs master the dreaded word problem. Middle Ground, 14(2), 34.

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Maxwell (2014) focused his research on a teacher who was struggling to meet the needs of her ESL students. She reached out to the school’s ESL teacher for support. Together, they analyzed standards and broke them down into basic, fundamental knowledge. The general education teacher realized that, regardless of the core content area being taught, language is an integral piece of the puzzle. Having ESL teachers push in to support general education can help reduce the barriers these students face and provide support for both learners and teachers. In order for this system to be successful, ESL teachers should be familiar with content standards and general education curriculum to best reduce the achievement gap and help all students find success.

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de Oliveira, L.,C. (2011). In their shoes: Teachers experience the needs of english language learners through a math simulation. Multicultural Education, 19(1), 59-62.

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Maxwell, L. A. (2014). ESL and classroom teachers team up to teach common core. The Education Digest, 79(5), 4-9.

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Aside from learning successful strategies for teaching English language learners, teachers must also develop empathy for these students, according to de Oliveira (2011). Teachers were required to sit through a lesson that was conducted in a foreign language. The first time, this was done without using any common ESL strategies. The teachers involved in the study expressed feeling frustrated and uncomfortable. During the second phase, ESL supports were in place. Some of these included enunciation, using intonation, body language, hand gestures, written expression, short sentences, visuals, manipulatives, review, and “acting out”. Teachers reported feeling less frustrated, less anxious, and more confident. Teachers were much more likely to reach understanding when the ESL supports were in place and they left feeling a greater sense of awareness for their ESL students and their needs.

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Keengwe, J., & Hussein, F. (2014). Using computer-assisted instruction to enhance achievement of english language learners. Education and Information Technologies, 19(2), 295-306.

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Keengwe and Hussein (2014) discuss how computer assisted instruction, or CAI, dramatically increases academic success of English language learners. This supplement to traditional instruction resulted in higher scores on national assessments, compared to ELL students who did not receive CAI. The CAI gives students additional practice time, training sessions, simulation activities, and games. Students involved in this studied demonstrated positive attitudes toward learning, engagement, motivation, and positive collaboration.