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English Language Proficiency Standards - these are important to include in the language objectives when lesson planning and for determining which language domains are begin addressed with the lesson.

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Proficiency Level Descriptors - these are important to refer to when monitoring the progress of the English learners. They also serve as reminders of what students can do at each level of proficiency within each domain of language.

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Using Educational Technology — 21st century supports for English learners

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Using Educational Technology — 21st century supports for English learners

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This gives you an overview of the technological benefits and options for instructing English learners. It explains all the different features technology has to offer (auditory, visual, etc.).

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Technology integration to support language development

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Technology integration to support language development

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This link gives insight into a type of learning instruction called in-flipped classroom. It talks on students watching videos at home, and then coming to the classroom to practice it.

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One of the most challenging aspects for educators of English language learners (ELLs) is accurately assessing language development over time - oral language, in particular. Due to the conversational nature of language, it can be incredibly difficult to assess oral language while simultaneously engaging in conversation, not to mention recording the data as you go.

While the speaking and listening domains can be the hardest to objectively assess over time, reading and writing shouldn't be overlooked. ELL educators are always looking through two lenses - content knowledge and English language development (ELD).

A few savvy strategies coupled with technology integration can enhance not only English language learning within the four domains (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) of ELD, but your assessment of language development over time as well.

The In-Flipped Classroom

When you're facing the teacher time crunch, the in-flipped classroom can be your best friend. A traditional flipped classroom has students watch lessons at home and come back to school for practice. Unfortunately, not all of our ELLs have the resources at home to make this model work. With an in-flipped classroom, students watch the lesson in school ahead of direct instruction. Whether you're a classroom teacher looking to push content ahead of a lesson, or a resource teacher looking to maximize your time, recording your lessons ahead of time can greatly impact the growth that your ELLs make.

The short video clip above is a read-aloud lesson that was taped before the teacher came into the class. Notice how the classroom teacher is able to monitor not only the students' on-task listening progress with the "Easter eggs" hidden in the video, but by asking the students to demonstrate actions from the video, the teacher can embed new vocabulary like "rapping on a desk" in an authentic way. When the teacher sits down, students are ready to dive into the discussion portion of the lesson, maximizing the amount of time ELLs can spend speaking and listening.

Videos like these can be used for reteaching or review, too. Students have the ability to take control of their own learning when they can independently access lessons they need to spend more time on. It's also particularly useful for fostering a home-school connection. When parents have access to lessons taught in class, they have a good understanding of what's happened during school and are better able to help at home.

Guided Reading

Primary ELL teachers know that reading, reading, and re-reading are the keys to early literacy success, but listening to every reader in a group can be a challenge. Round robin reading doesn't provide a natural reading setting, yet making sure every reader gets the attention they deserve can be difficult.

Luckily, there's an easy solution. Using PDF books with an app like Explain Everything gives early learners access to digital content in a kid-friendly way. Students can record themselves as they read, and you can go back later to assess their reading more closely and accurately with a running record. An added benefit? Students can listen to themselves reading and are motivated to read it again until it's perfect. It's a great way to motivate a reluctant re-reader!

While this is particularly useful in giving ELL students repeated exposure to new reading, it's a great trick for any reader. Don't forget to add a few blank pages at the end of the PDF. Students can write about their reading for a balanced literacy connection. Here are two examples that show different levels of kindergarten writing at the end of this guided reading book:

Formative Assessments

ELL teachers are always looking for authentic ways to assess what new vocabulary their students have learned in the course of a lesson. Why not have students record their learning as an exit ticket?

In the video above, you can hear all kinds of new academic language like disc, shaft, ramp, and wobbled. This student is also adding modifiers like red, beside, and straight to describe her experiment. We can hear her accurately using plural nouns, adverbs, and prepositions like across the room. By recording her response we have a clear understanding of not only this student's content knowledge, but also the sophistication of her English language development as well. Not bad for second grade!

Summative Assessments

Having students orally demonstrate their learning can be a great way for them to show what they've learned and to practice their oral language at the same time. However, for your shyest ELLs, it can be an intimidating experience. Why not let them try pre-recording their summative assessment ahead of time?

Students can add their own pictures and record their voices at the same time. This first-grade clip not only has a lot of academic vocabulary, but also gives the teacher a recorded example of how this child's English language development has progressed. Her use of language is sophisticated for a first grader, but she is misusing prepositions when she says, "This is a closer look of krils." It's a small mistake, but the perfect place for reinforcement on when to use of and at in English. For an older student, it might be the right place for direct instruction on the use of prepositions.

ELL teachers are always evaluating student progress through two lenses: assessing content knowledge and the progression of English language development. Why not use technology to make the task a little easier? Try these four strategies to accurately assess English language development over time.
For more ideas on helping your ELLs with English language development, see
What strategies do you find useful to evaluate both content knowledge and the progression of English language development? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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Technology Integration to Support Language Development

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A few strategies coupled with technology integration can enhance English language learning in the primary classroom.

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Preparing an Engaging Social Studied Lesson for English Language Learners

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Preparing an Engaging Social Studied Lesson for English Language Learners

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This article goes into detail about how to prepare English Learner students for social studies lesson. They talk about activating background knowledge, looking at multiple perspectives, and teaching academic language and vocabulary.

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Consider the following scenario:

A fifth-grade teacher was preparing her class to learn about the American Revolution. She enlisted the students' help in acting out the events that led to the Revolution with elaborate props and exercises. When the class ended, the students were told they would read more about the Revolution the following day. As they left the room, an ESL student stopped and asked urgently, "But who won?"

This situation highlights some of the challenges that teachers face when helping English language learners, or ELLs, master social studies content:

Background knowledge
ELLs may not have the same background knowledge that their peers have or that textbook authors take for granted, as explained in this video clip with ELL teacher Amber Prentice.

Different perspectives
ELLs bring their own valuable and important experiences to the classroom. Often those experiences can be connected to the content in meaningful ways; however, if different points of view or ideas aren't expressed or identified, students may miss key concepts and ideas in the lesson.

Academic language and vocabulary
ELLs must learn the academic language and vocabulary needed to comprehend and produce new content - all while learning the new content and concepts at the same time!

For content-area teachers with limited experience working with ELLs, planning a lesson that engages them and helps them learn new material may seem daunting. The good news is that there are a number of ways to engage ELLs with social studies content and draw on their own unique background knowledge and perspectives. This article will describe some strategies for planning social studies lessons with ELLs in mind.

In addition, I recommend taking a look at the following resources:

Note: Lesson Planning to Ensure Optimal Engagement of ELLs (Chapter 2 of Teaching English Language Learners Across the Content Areas), is available online and provides a number of helpful resources, including a checklist for modifying lesson plans for ELLs. In addition, Appendix Two of the book (not available online) provides a lesson modification worksheet.

Lesson Planning Strategies

Identify key concepts necessary for understanding the lesson

When choosing your key concepts, keep in mind the following:

Background knowledge
ELLs with limited or interrupted schooling may not have that same level of knowledge as their peers, especially when it comes to historical or cultural topics. When starting a new lesson, look for references or concepts that may need to be explicitly explained.

Language proficiency
Students may already possess content knowledge that they cannot yet demonstrate in English. Look for opportunities to make associations between students' experiences and new content.

Perspective
Students may have a different perspective on the content than their peers. These differences provide an important opportunity for class discussion and learning as long as they are handled in a sensitive and respectful ways.

In addition, plan to find out what students know about the topic you are teaching before getting started. This will help you fill in gaps and build on prior knowledge. A great tool for this activity is a Circle Map, in which you place the main topic in a small circle and add student ideas in a bigger circle around the topic. You may wish to allow ELLs to use their native language with peers for a quick brainstorm before presenting their ideas to the whole class.

Identify content and language objectives

These objectives are a great way to focus on the most important information and language structures you want your students to master. Content objectives focus on the material while language objectives focus on vocabulary or language structures that students should be able to use throughout the lesson (Haynes and Zacarian, 28).

Think about how you are going to:

introduce these concepts using simple language,

break the concepts down into the most basic elements,

keep the objectives visible to students during the unit (i.e., post them on the board or provide a simple outline to keep in binders).

Identify key vocabulary and academic vocabulary

Identify key terms, words, idioms and phrases - TWIPS, according to Dr. Zacarian (19). Choose the vocabulary that your students need to know in order to support their reading development and content-area learning, in addition to key content vocabulary. Remember to prepare student-friendly definitions for TWIPS ahead of time. It may be helpful to look at other social studies vocabulary lists as well.

In addition:

Look for problem areas
Clarify potential areas of confusion, such as homonyms or words with more than one meaning.

Include signal and directional words
Remember that students may also need explicit instruction in signal or directional words ("because" and "explain"), especially those words that are likely to appear frequently in the content materials or activities.

Don't overlook the basic words
There may be many words used through a lesson that native English-speaking students will understand but that ELLs don't know. Keep an eye out for these words, no matter how basic, and make a list of words that your students have questions about so that you can refer back to it when teaching the lesson in the future.

Use visuals and manipulatives when possible
Having a visual reference for new words is particularly helpful for ELLs.

Keep words visible and accessible to students
Post words on a word wall, or try using a "portable word wall" chart that students can put in their binder. The chart might include categories such as new words, old words, people, everyday words, words to review, etc. (Haynes and Zacarian, 59-60).

Remember to include lots of student practice
For students to really know a word, they must use it - or they will lose it. Use new words in class discussions or outside of class in other contexts if appropriate, such as on field trips. Give the students as many opportunities to use and master the new vocabulary as possible, both in writing and speaking activities. You may find this six-step process for teaching academic vocabulary from Dr. Robert Marzano helpful.

Prepare to preview the text

One strategy is a "chapter walk", where students predict what the chapter will be about based on pictures and highlighted features of the textbook.

An activity like this may take some time at first because it's time-consuming to teach. If you use it with regularity, however, it will become easier and quicker, and students will be able to do this on their own at the beginning of a new chapter.

You can also use the "BIG FOX" strategy, published by McGraw-Hill. This graphic organizer helps students pick out important terms and pieces of information before reading. I recommend practicing this strategy with some simple readings about familiar topics before jumping in with the textbook. The students will understand the strategy better if they start out with concepts that they understand.

Prepare multimedia, visuals, and related readings

These resources can be used to build background knowledge and provide context for ELLs, especially when students are learning new concepts and words. Ideas include:

Using photos from books, magazines, or the Internet to supplement textbooks.

Showing brief, focused video clips of history or social studies programs.

Listening to a short podcast or radio clip of an interview or speech.

Discussing additional readings such as related articles, poems, letters, and graphic novels.

Enlist native language support when possible

These strategies can help students identify content they already know, or master new concepts before transferring those ideas and learning how to express them in English:

Collaborate with a bilingual paraprofessional and identify areas where bilingual language support will be most helpful.

Look for related content materials in the students' native language from publishers like Scholastic or National Geographic/Cengage.

Plan group work in which students can use their native language with peers to discuss main ideas or vocabulary words.

Plan to include group work throughout the unit

Peer learning activities such as Reciprocal Teaching and Think-Pair-Share can be powerful tools for engaging ELLs with content learning.

Use modeling and clear instructions to ensure students understand:

how the activity works

their role in group work

the objective of the activity

any key vocabulary or phrases they should be using.

Here are some other tips on group work for ELLs from Haynes and Zacarian:

Assign students group roles that match their language ability (37).

Promote students to new roles as their language skills improve (42).

Make sure that mainstream students understand that they will be working in diverse groups, and that everyone's contributions are important (41).

Keep an eye on the balance of student participation; if some students are speaking more than others, ask them to think of some ways to even participation out (42).

Ask students to reflect on their group work after they have finished an activity. Haynes and Zacarian include a chart in their book with some guiding statements for student reflection (48).

Plan plenty of opportunities for students to interact with the content

Give students lots of opportunities to engage with and review the material in different ways:

Graphic organizers
Use graphic organizers to review key concepts and vocabulary words.

Flash cards
Have students make their own flash cards with pictures, definitions, key facts, etc.

Working with the text
Teach students to underline, highlight, and make notes. You may also find that sticky notes, Wikki Stix, and highlighting tape are a big hit with students (68). According to Haynes, some school districts order extra textbooks for their ELL classes so that teachers can keep a highlighted copy on hand as a student reference.

Use acting
Have the students write skits about the material they are learning, or create an activity in which students provide a physical representation of a particular event or vocabulary word.

Be creative and flexible with writing assignments

Writing can be an important way for students to show what they've learned:

Be creative and flexible
When choosing writing activities for students, be creative and open to different ways for students to express their new knowledge. I have seen students successfully convey what they learned by writing letters, poems, news articles and mosaics with vocabulary key points. Writing an essay may be more difficult for ELLs, and although they need to learn how to write a good essay eventually, they should be allowed to demonstrate their learning through a variety of writing activities.

Look for writing exercises that relate to the topic at hand
This may include a biography or autobiography, a letter from the point of view of a historical figure, or a short news article about a famous event.

Provide models
Give ELLs explicit structures and sentence frames to follow. Frames may vary in complexity and specificity, but they will help students to model correct structures and usage from the beginning.

Plan to adapt homework and assessment as needed

While it's important to have high expectations of ELLs, it is also important to have realistic expectations of the amount of work they can do. Haynes and Zacarian note, "The teacher's goal should be to making learning accessible and meaningful for every student without lowering expectations or sacrificing rigor" (104-105).

They continue in Chapter 7 of their book to provide a number of helpful rubrics and step-by-step procedures for evaluating your homework and assessment activities with ELLs in mind. In Twenty-Five Quick Tips for Classroom Teachers, Haynes suggests that teachers "adjust homework assignment to your ELLs' English language proficiency (and) modify assessment so that your ELLs have an opportunity to show what they have learned."

As you look for ways to help your students learn this new content, remember that you aren't just teaching them required social studies standards - you are helping your students adjust to a new life and country. That preparation has a potentially significant ripple effect because your students may be helping their own parents navigate this new country as well, and they may need to prepare for a U.S. Citizenship exam one day in the future.

Through social studies lessons, you also can prepare your students to be engaged and well-informed participants in our society and democracy, an opportunity they might not have had in their own country due to their religion, gender, or ethnicity. When you think about it that way, teaching ELLs to master new social studies content is so much more than adapting a lesson plan - it's a chance to prepare a new generation of young people to lead us into the future.

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Preparing an Engaging Social Studies Lesson for English Language Learners

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Consider the following scenario: A fifth-grade teacher was preparing her class to learn about the American Revolution. She enlisted the students' help in acting out the events that led to the Revolution with elaborate props and exercises. When the class ended, the students were told they would read more about the Revolution the following day.

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Using science to develop ELL's Language Skills

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Using science to develop ELL's Language Skills

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This article talks about different scaffolding techniques you would use in a science classroom that would be beneficial for English Learning students. For example, graphic organizers, hands-on activities, drawing, labeling, etc.

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Using Science to Develop ELLs' Language Skills

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"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka! I found it!' but 'That's funny...'" - Isaac Asimov "Oh, you mean the life cycle." This was my pre-school daughter's response to my long explanation of the metamorphosis of the butterfly.

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7 Strategies for Teaching Math students who are learning English

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7 Strategies for Teaching Math students who are learning English

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This website is great, it gives 7 strategies for teaching math to students who are learning English. Some of those strategies include: using routine, focusing on mathematical vocabulary, sentence frames, visual models, etc.

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Mathematics is sometimes regarded as a "universal language," as it is grounded in abstract concepts such as numbers and shapes. And there is some truth to that! After all, two people who speak different languages may still be able to solve the same math problem and get the same solution. However, language is nevertheless essential for teaching math, as mathematics is inextricably linked to the language in which it is taught.

Proficiency in any language relies on two factors: language comprehension and language production. When it comes to teaching math to ELL students, we can look closely across lessons and consider, "What is the language load at this moment? Comprehension or production?" Then we can leverage targeted strategies to promote academic language development while also deepening mathematical understanding.

Students learning English carry a different cognitive load when they are also learning mathematics. What follows are ELL strategies for math that lighten the students' cognitive load so that they can show mathematical understanding while you maintain rigor in the lesson.

A note on language: we employ the common phrase English language learner, along with the acronym ELL, but we also recognize that this is imperfect nomenclature. Students who are learning English do not fit neatly into a single label.

ELL Strategies for Math: Language Comprehension

1: Use Routines That Break Down Word Problems

Word problems present an especially tough problem to students learning English. They're hard enough for students who are further along in their English language development! Word problems demand that the reader parse plenty of non-mathematical vocabulary such as names, objects, jobs, and places.

Mathematics instruction will always include word problems, as that is how to articulate complex mathematical situations. Strategies like Three Reads, Stronger and Clearer Each Time, and Compare and Connect help break down the context of a problem and guide students in focusing on one aspect of the language at a time.

2: Focus on Mathematical Vocabulary

Learning mathematics is so much more than learning mathematical vocabulary. Spend time on the words.

For multilingual learners, vocabulary can sometimes be an entryway into the math. Students may have existing notions about words such as product, times, and one, for example, and by discussing them, you are connecting about ideas on both language and mathematics. Your students will help you learn other languages as you help them learn math, a symbiotic relationship.

Provide vocabulary instruction upfront both for mathematical vocabulary and non-mathematical vocabulary that appears in word problems students will confront in the lesson. Vocabulary instruction involves more than just reviewing definitions. It can include playing vocabulary games, reading math readers, and using tools such as word banks.

What would engage your students, regardless of language? Think about what sports they play, music they listen to, TV shows they watch, food they eat, or holidays they celebrate (to name a few). If you can draw on your students' cultural knowledge, you can open paths to engage them even when language serves as a temporary barrier.

Look for ways to modify contexts of word problems and possible bridges between math that they understand and the content you're trying to teach. Position your students as mathematically competent regardless of how well they can articulate their reasoning in English. If you can, let them make up their own word problems! Then you learn more about what is familiar to them.

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7 Strategies for Teaching Math to Students Who Are Learning English

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These ELL strategies for math instruction will help you with teaching math to English language learners and supporting math learning for multilingual students.

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4 strategies to help English learners master new math skills

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4 strategies to help English learners master new math skills

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This website gives advice for helping ELL students in the math classroom. For example, rereading a problem multiple times and then discussing it, building strong vocabulary skills, allow the student to use their home language first, and validate students prior knowledge.

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4 Strategies to Help English Learners Master New Math Skills

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Developing new math skills for students learning English means keeping them on grade level and building on their existing speaking, reading, and writing abilities.

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Using ELL strategies in the science classroom

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Using ELL strategies in the science classroom

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Similar to the first article, this one continues to give different scaffolding techniques that would be beneficial in a science classroom for ELL students. Some examples are student think pair share, vocabulary puzzles, fishbowl discussions, etc.

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How science teachers can use ELL strategies to help students have a better grasp of the vocabulary of science.

Middle school science students filter into the classroom, gradually transitioning to speaking English as they finish conversations in their first language, Korean or Chinese. One of a series of slides is up on the board, each cuing an activity to get them talking about the subject in the target language, preparing them for the challenge of the vocabulary-dense content area of science.

The volume of science terms discourages many students early on, especially students who don't often see themselves reflected in the content, particularly girls and students of color. To address the needs of the large language learner population at our school, the two of us-English language learner teacher Kent and science teacher Gina-teamed up to create resources to support students as they grow as both scientists and English speakers.

While these resources were designed with language learners in mind, the activities have proven highly effective in increasing confidence with science vocabulary for native English speakers as well.

Teachers can easily modify each of the resources below to fit different science units or even different content areas and support learners as they transition away from figuring out what to do and instead focus on content, skills, and vocabulary, reducing the amount of time needed for instructions. For example, when students see a vocabulary puzzle in class, they discuss with a partner or small group (in English or their first language) the multiple ways to approach it and then immediately get to work.

Supporting English Language Learners in Science Classes

Interactive student-to-student talk: Using the target language for frequent student vocalizations and student-to-student interactions is a primary goal and the main area we focused on when we developed these resources. Each class starts with an opportunity for students to warm up their science vocabulary, activate schema relevant to the day's lesson, or retrieve previously learned content, all while practicing their academic interpersonal English skills. We have slides and activities to engage students in partner talk using unit vocabulary, and teachers can easily adapt them for a range of content.

Vocabulary puzzles: Vocabulary puzzles tap visual, kinesthetic, and interpersonal modalities and can be differentiated with little difficulty. Teachers can scaffold the puzzles for different linguistic levels by cutting them into fewer larger pieces before tackling all the pieces separately. Students can also lay pieces on top of the completed puzzle, using it as a key. Once students are confident with the vocabulary, they can use the cards in a dominoes-style game where students make connections between different terms to build an interconnecting board.

Student roles in jigsaw discussions: Dividing up content using a jigsaw strategy gives students the chance to dig in more deeply with a smaller amount of information and offers all learners the opportunity to feel more like an expert about specific content material. This also allows for the leveling of source material to give every student an entry point into the topic. Clear student roles in the discussion ensure that every student is contributing and is engaged during the interactive portion of the jigsaw.

These tools also support effective collaborative talk as students are tasked with asking questions, summarizing main ideas, and using a recording tool to offer a window into their conversations. The teacher can easily change the roles to meet the needs of the students, content, or task.

Fishbowl discussions: Once students feel comfortable with the content vocabulary, it's important that they get an opportunity to apply it. Fishbowl discussions consist of a small group of students conversing about a unit-related topic while another group of students observes the discussion. Topics are designed to prompt debate, deep thinking, and connections to student experiences, as well as promote the application of unit content and vocabulary.

Tailoring both the student preparation sheet and the observation sheet gives the teacher the opportunity to guide students toward the right content and discussion norms. For example, after noticing that girls were often excluded from discussions involving groups that had a majority of boys, we added an "invites quieter member to share" section to the observations sheet.

The fishbowl format facilitates high-level discussions in the target language and supports students in developing academic and collaborative discussion skills. In classroom reflections, students often point to fishbowl discussions as the activity that really pushes them and helps them learn.

Students thrive in learning spaces where they can be engaged and successful-where they can feel themselves learning. Integrating activities like those above into a science or other content class gives every student entry points for success and the tools to support them in making progress. We encourage teachers to give these strategies a try, measure how classroom interactions shift, and plan their next steps in supporting all learners in communicating about scientific topics.

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Using ELL Strategies in the Science Classroom

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How science teachers can use ELL strategies to help students have a better grasp of the vocabulary of science.

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3 strategies to support English language learners in social studies

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3 strategies to support English language learners in social studies

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This website talks about the difficulties in teaching social studies to ELLs, and how there are things as teachers we CAN do to make it easier. They go over three strategies of: comprehensible input, SWIRL engagement, and structure output.

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3 Strategies to Support English Language Learners in Social Studies

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Scaffolding such as visual guides and templates can make it easier for ELLs to grasp material in courses with complicated vocabulary.

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This document does a wonderful job of helping teachers to differentiate between language differences and disabilities. It is hard for a teacher to work with an ELL student who may be at a beginner proficiency and indicate whether they may require services, but this document helps to separate the two.

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Tools and resources for addressing ELs with disabilities

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Tools and resources for addressing ELs with disabilities

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This document talks about the necessity of quickly determining if an ELL student has a disability and some of the misidentifications in identifying a student as having a disability. It talks more in detail about the process of identifying an ELL student with a disability, and making sure that you are doing all that you can for following the students services for language and disability if required.

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Comparing and Contrasting First and Second Language Acquisition: Implications for Language Teachers

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Comparing and Contrasting First and Second Language Acquisition: Implications for Language Teachers

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This research article gave the ins and outs of the differences between first and second-language acquisition. It also gives various theories such as interlanguage theory and foreign language teaching advice.

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First and Second Language Acquisition Theories

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First and Second Language Acquisition Theories

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I liked this website as it would explain different theories in the sense of how it relates to your brain, but also how it helps ELL students. It suggested a lot of useful classroom management strategies.

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ELT Concourse teacher training

What's the relevance of First Language Acquisition to teaching an additional or second language?

Good question. There are a number of reasons we should know a little about First Language Acquisition (FLA, in the trade):

1. It provides a kind of benchmark for theories of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). The theories are parallel in many ways.

2. A good deal of methodology in SLA has been premised on the theory that we will acquire a second or additional language in the same way we acquired our first language(s).

3. The way the human brain operates in language learning is not radically different (so some theories assert) whether we are learning our first or additional language(s).

At each stage in what follows, we'll be considering how theories of first language acquisition are relevant to teachers of additional languages.
Here, then is a run-down of some major theories and hypotheses concerning how people acquire their first language(s).

You were not born with the ability to speak, ride a bicycle, play the piano, type, play chess, walk or dive for pearls. What concerns us here are the abilities you naturally develop as opposed to those which you are taught.

Some of this is quite easy. Divide this list into learned (i.e., taught or self-taught) abilities and those which naturally develop in all normal children:
Click on the table when you have done that.

It is clear that some behaviours, such as the ability to grasp objects or walk are biologically determined because all children, regardless of their culture, learn to do it pretty much at the same stage in their development. For example, most babies learn to sit, then roll over, then crawl and finally walk between the first 9 to 12 months of life (some take a bit longer and some skip the crawling bit, preferring a bottom shuffle). None, however, has to be taught the skill.
Babies in all cultures learn to talk between 18 and 28 months of life.
Some behaviours are never naturally acquired so if you never learn to ride a bicycle or play a decent game of chess, you will not magically develop the ability to do so, no matter how long you live.

The question for this guide is whether using language to communicate is in the same category as walking or the same category as playing the piano.
This has fairly profound implications but don't expect the definitive answer here.

Aitchison (1989:67 et seq.), drawing on Lenneberg, suggests there are 6 characteristics of biologically determined behaviour. As you look through the list, ask yourself whether speaking a language meets each of the criteria.
Then click on the to reveal some comments.

The behaviour emerges before it is necessary

The behaviour appears without the individual making a conscious decision

The emergence of the behaviour is not triggered by external events (although the environment needs to be sufficiently rich for it to develop)

Direct teaching and intensive practice have relatively little effect

There is a regular series of milestones as the behaviour develops, and these can usually be correlated with age and other aspects of development

There may be a critical period for the acquisition of the behaviour

Lending weight to the innateness theory is the often-observed milestones which all children go through on their journey to fully competent language use.
The usually cited milestones for first language acquisition are as follows but evidence is not apparent that the same sequence is observable in second-language acquisition. There are some similarities but the parallels are not close.

Birth to 3 months

crying, gurgling, non-speech noises

6 to 12 months

intonational babbling

12 to 18 months

words and set phrases

18 to 24 months

increasing vocabulary and rudimentary grammar

24 to 36 months

inflexions and transformations

36 to 60 months

approximation to adult speech patterns

(From Todd & Hancock, 1986:11)

Firstly, while there is strong evidence that some language-learning ability is innate, a good deal of the theory has been based on just one language, English. From that, theorists of universal grammar have averred that the essential building blocks of language structure are common across all languages and that these items are what the language acquisition device is aimed at: noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases and so on.
This ignores the enormous diversity of structural phenomena across the range of some 6000 to 7000 languages on earth, many of which are poorly if at all described. Some, it has been persuasively demonstrated, get along quite happily without adjective or adverb phrases at all, for example, choosing to inflect the noun phrases or verb phrases instead.

Secondly, innateness theories fail, it has been argued, to explain the great differences between spoken and written language. If we are genetically programmed to learn language, whence come these differences?

Thirdly, innateness theories have been criticised as greatly underestimating the effects of culture and community on the language-learning process. In many languages, males and females speak differently and employ different grammatical structures and in some, children's language is substantially different from the language of adults. It is difficult to account for these differences on the basis of inheritance of language-learning abilities or pre-programming for language at all.

Fourthly, we need to ask how this innate program arose. If there is indeed a language learning module hard-wired into the brain of humans, how did it evolve? The genetic changes which would have had to occur are dramatic and it is difficult to see how they could have arisen gradually in the usual piecemeal fashion which evolution favours.

Finally, there seems to be some evidence that different language modules are acquired at different times and in different ways. Critics of the critical period hypothesis point to the fact that some language-deprived children well past the assumed critical period actually do manage to learn the lexicon and syntax of a language (although others don't) and it has often been noted that second-language learners can often acquire native-like vocabulary and syntactical abilities but may never acquire the phonological system of a foreign language.

Nevertheless, the conclusion that many have reached, based on the evidence, is that the ability to acquire language is, indeed, innate to humans (and only humans).
For a little more on that debate, see the guide to language evolution, linked below.

There are a number of implications for ELT professionals, of course. They come down to the assertion that we should not assume that a second or subsequent language can be acquired using wholly different mental processes from the ones used to acquire one's first language. It is not, after all, as if human mental processes are fundamentally altered in any way as we grow up.

teaching children

If the innateness theories are right, then what is required is simple exposure at the right time to a rich linguistic environment rather than explicit instruction. Instruction may, in fact, be counterproductive or, at least, pointless.
Teachers of children should also bear the acquisition order in mind and not expect or try to demand production of certain forms before the child is 'ready' to learn them.
Practice and correction, too, are pointless.

teaching older children and adults

Again, if the theories are right, especially concerning the critical period hypotheses, then we should not expect adults to acquire language simply by exposure.
We should also expect them never to acquire wholly native-like production if instruction is carried out after the critical period. There is, indeed, some evidence to suggest that in pronunciation especially, older learnersnever acquire native-like production skills.

The influence of innateness theories is readily seen in some methodological approaches which rely on rich input and exposure to language alongside the abjuring of formal practice and instruction.
For more in this area, see the guides to Krashen and the Natural Approach and Chomsky, both linked below.

This theory rests on the fact that children speak the language(s) in which they were raised. A child taken from an English-speaking environment at an early age and raised in an Urdu-speaking environment will acquire Urdu as its first language just as indigenous children will. The child's genetic background is wholly irrelevant.
The theory is that imitation must have a role to play because the connection between a word's sound and form and its meaning is arbitrary: you cannot infer the meaning of a word from its form so you must hear it spoken in a clear context to be able to imitate its use.
For example, you may know, through learning at an early age that the word frog refers to a small amphibian creature but there is nothing in the written or spoken form of the word that can tell you that. All languages exhibit this sort of arbitrariness so the same animal is represented as:
rana (Spanish)
broască (Romanian)
padda (Afrikaans)
granota (Catalan)
varde (Latvian)
żrinġ (Maltese)
and so on.

Unfortunately, however, Imitation Theory explains little else of what we know about language acquisition.

They go on to explain three major problems with Imitation Theory. From reading what has been said above, what are they? Click here when you have an answer.

1. Children's speech is different from adults' speech
Children do not produce fully formed sentences. The evidence is that they progress from 1-word utterances (acquired around 12 months) to 2-word utterances (around 18 months) and then go on to more complex utterances with longer sentences until they start to make rare or complex constructions around 5 years of age.
Indeed, children will often reduce an adult's statement to comply with their current productive capacity. On hearing, for example, something likeThe train goes through the tunnel an 18-month-old child might reduce it toTunnel train and an even younger child might reduce it to one imperfectly formed word such astrai'. Children routinely reduce what they hear to conform to their current Mean Length of Utterance or MLU.

2. The U-shaped learning curve (see below)
If imitation were all there was to acquiring language, then the U-shaped curve, going from correct production of irregular forms to overgeneralisation of the rule to recognition of the irregularity (e.g., fromwent via goed and then back towent) simply would not occur because a child would very rarely, if ever, hear the incorrect form in order to imitate it. Children must, therefore, be actively forming hypotheses about language structure.

3. Innovation
Both children and adults are capable of forming utterances they have never heard. In fact, the number of possible utterances in a language approaches infinity. A child might, for example, sayCow river fall even though no adult has ever said it to her. Adults, too, produce language never before heard. For more, see the guide to Chomsky, linked below.

This refers to a phenomenon which has been frequently observed and researched.
English exhibits a number of irregularities in inflexions, notably the changing of the middle vowel or consonant to make a past tense form (as in make-made, buy-bought rather than *maked, buyed etc.) and in irregular plurals (such as child-children, mouse-mice etc.)
Children often acquire the irregular form and then revert to an inaccurate regular form before once more acquiring the irregular form. So, for example, a child may produce The mice ran up the clock, then begin to say The mouses runned up the clock before settling on the correct version later.
If this is true, the importance is obvious: it means that language cannot be being acquired by simple imitation and practice. If it were, children would never produce something like * comed instead of came for the simple reason that they would never hear it. In other words:

There is not a shred of evidence supporting a view that progress towards adult norms of grammar arises merely from practice in overt imitation of adult sentences.
Ervin, (1964:172) cited in Aitchison (1989:74)

A number of approaches to and techniques in teaching languages appear to be based on the assumption that people learn language by a process of imitation of a model.
Behaviourist-based approaches in particular, such as Total Physical Response, Situational Language Teaching and audiolingualism emphasise the need for learners to repeat (and be rewarded for) correct models set in a clear context.
Why do you drill in a classroom if you don't believe imitation and repetition are effective?
If the aim is to reflect how a person's first language is acquired and Imitation Theory is so flawed, then any methodology based on it will be similarly imperfect.

The theory claims that children learn to produce correct language because they are praised and rewarded (by adult approval) when they do and are corrected when they don't.
It has, of course, close connections with Imitation Theory (because correction demands imitation, for one thing) and with behaviourist theories of learning. Behaviourist theories assert that learning takes place by the alteration of habitual behaviour. Here's a very brief summary:

1. The process starts with a stimulus, say, a question from a carer such as Who did you see? put to the organism (in this case, a child). The stimulus can elicit a variety of responses but only the 'right' one will be reinforced.

2. So, for example, if the child responds with I seed Tom the carer will negatively reinforce it withNo, say I saw Tom.

3. If, eventually, the carer can persuade the child to produce a correct utterance, the response will be rewarded (i.e., reinforced) with something like Oh! That's lovely! and the child will learn the form.

4. Enough Stimulus > Response > Reinforcement cycles will see the habit instilled and the language acquired.

There are three fundamental problems with the theory. From what has already been said, what are they?
Click here when you have an answer.

1. Carers do not focus on form; they focus on content
For example, if a child produces a well formed but untrue statement, carers are more likely to correct it or at least avoid reinforcing it. So a true but incorrectly formed statement may receive praise and a correctly formed but untrue statement will receive censure of some kind.

2. Cuteness will be reinforced
Carers and other adults have frequently been observed reinforcing false structure and lexical use simply because it is cute and endearing. ThusChoo-choo Bang-bang! while meaningless, uncommunicative and poorly formed may produce a positive response in doting adults.

3. Even when adults do focus on correcting form, the research shows that it is almost wholly ineffective. Here's an example (from Bergman et al, op cit.: 316):
Note that the child is not producing random forms. The child is clearly operating to a rule but the rule differs from the adult's rule and direct attempts at instruction fail.

Much that is recommended in classrooms in terms of praising learners and error correction is based (even implicitly) on this kind of behaviourist theorising. It is a short step from asserting that all learners respond positively to praise and that praise motivates them to perform better to suggesting that reinforcing acceptable language will lead to the instilling of correct language habits.
In other words, a teacher wedded to a cognitivist view of learning may be using the praise to motivate while one coming from a behaviourist direction will be using praise to reinforce a response. You can't tell by watching and it may be the case that the learner is responding in one way, another way or both ways.

This theory " holds that children actually invent the rules of grammar themselves"

The theory is allied to Innateness theory insofar as the ability to develop rules is presumed innate but the rules themselves will depend on the structure of the language which children hear around them.
It has been compared to a kind of switchboard effect which operates on the data the child hears.
So, for example, a French child will notice that in the language it hears, the adjective normally follows the noun ( un évènement fantastique) and the switch for noun-adjective ordering will be thrown. A child in an English-speaking environment will hear, by contrast, a fantastic event and throw the switch the other way (for an adjective-noun language). Enough exposure will result in the switch becoming permanently fixed but French and English children will still have to be aware of the restriction to the rule in order to be able to produce un petit problème and the people responsible correctly.
Such hypothesising about language form neatly explains the U-shaped learning curve described in this guide. When first acquired, the rule is applied indiscriminately and then it is later amended to account for exceptions.

The theory, of course, depends on the assumption that small children have well developed cognitive abilities and that is by no means demonstrated by a number of studies. For example, the ability to recognise that the length of an object is not dependent on its position or that the volume of a container is unaffected by its shape are not shown by very young children (and indeed by all adults).
The fact, too, that all children seem to develop language in more or less the same stages at the same ages would lead one to believe that all children everywhere and in all environments have exactly the same cognitive ability to form and amend hypotheses about language as they hear it spoken around them. That is not borne out by the data.

If learners (of whatever age) of a second or subsequent language are applying this kind of cognitive rule-forming behaviour to the language they encounter then concepts such as noticing and the positive role of error in the refinement of language theory in the minds of learners become even more important. See the guides to noticing and to error, both linked below in the table of related guides, for more.

Connectionist theory is based on the assumption that as we learn, we create neural connections in the brain which reinforce the learned behaviour.
For example, if a child encounters the word mouse in relation to operating a computer frequently, the connection between computer control and a mouse will be formed and the more often the word is met in this context, the stronger the connection will become. If, later, the child encounters the same word as descriptive a small, furry rodent, then a different network connection will be made to accommodate the newly discovered use of the word.

A problem for the Active Construction of Grammar Theory is the starting point. That theory explains the production of false items such as feets, He showeds me or mouses as evidence that learner is making overgeneralisations from rules imperfectly acquired in terms of their restrictions.
Anecdotally, you may be able to think of the same phenomenon occurring with learners of English as an additional or second language.
However, when children are asked to make past tenses or plurals from nonsense words which resemble real but irregular forms, they do not, apparently, apply the grammar rules but respond in terms of statistical likelihood. It is conceivable that, having learned that the plural of mouse is mice that children will assume that the plural of the nonsense word flouse will not be flouses as active construction theories would suggest but may opt instead for frice by analogy with mouse-mice.
Another example (again, from Bergman et al), is that when asked to form the past tense of fring, many children will suggest frang or frought (by analogy with ring and bring etc. respectively) rather than the structurally predictable fringed. In some varieties of English, we do indeed find, for example, the use of brung as the past forms of the verb bring.
Hence, too, one might encounter a suggestion that the plural of noot would (or might well) be neet not noots and it is true that many native speakers of English will prefer handkerchieves as the plural of handkerchief by analogy with wolf-wolves etc. and the status of roof-roofs/rooves is unclear.
It has been suggested here that humans make neural connections in the brain based on the frequency of what they hear rather than making rules based on the structure of what they hear.

Another way to explain this process is to rely on inferencing (to which there is a dedicated guide on this site, linked below). It works like this:

If you are presented with the names of six horses in a race and no other data at all, you would be correct in thinking that your chances of backing the winner are 6:1 against, i.e., a roughly 16.67% chance that you would win.
However, if you are also told that of the six horses only number 5 has ever won a race before against similar opposition and that all the others have finished last or second to last in their previous 3 races, you might adjust your expectation of which horse will win based not on intuition or guesswork but on the statistical probabilities the new data have supplied.
The theory is that human learning happens like that.

Now take the situation in which you are faced with trying to decide what form of a verb will follow the verb arrange in a sentence such as
I arranged __________ tomorrow
and the choices are:

All things being equal, you might think that you have a one-in-six chance of hitting on the right form. However, all things are not equal because you already know that the following sentences are correctly formed:
I hope to go
I agreed to go
I asked to go
I decided to go
I remember going
I recall going
I enjoyed going
The reasoning (which is mostly unconscious) goes like this:

1. In all the correct forms I know, none takes the bare infinitive, the present with -s, the will + infinitive structure or the past tense so I can dismiss choices 2, 3, 5 and 6 for the moment.

2. I now have a choice between alternative 4, to go, or alternative 1,going, as the correct form. Shall I toss a coin to decide?

3. No. I also know that all the forms with -ing that I know are correct are concerned with the past. I already know, for example:
I remembered meeting her
I finished painting the doors
They admitted breaking the window
etc. are correct uses and I can see that theremembering, finishing and admitting all come after the actions ofmeeting, painting and breaking.

4. However, I can also see that the forms I know that are correctly formed with a to-infinitive work the opposite way around. I know, for example, that:
I hope to see her
I promise to come early
I expect to talk to her
are all correct forms and that thehoping, promising andexpecting all come before the seeing, coming and talking.

5. Statistically, therefore, I will select:
I arranged to go tomorrow
because the arranging must precede thegoing.

and you'll be right, of course.
What you have done is apply probabilistic reasoning based on your other knowledge of the language and assumed that, statistically speaking, you'll be right to bet on the favourite.
Just as in horse races, of course, this will not always result in a win (or bookmakers would all be out of business). If you apply the same process to a sentences such as:
I look forward ____________ tomorrow
you will not get the right answer. An outsider has won the race, in this case.

Dennett, 2017:269, puts it this way:

... the brain's strategy is continuously to create "forward models," or probabilistic anticipations, and use the incoming signals to prune them for accuracy - if needed. When the organism is on a roll, in deeply familiar territory, the inbound corrections diminish to a trickle and the brain's guesses, unchallenged, give it a head start on what to do next.

What we do next, of course, is understand and, if necessary, act on the linguistic data we are receiving.

It may also be the case that both Connectionist and Active Construction of Grammar strategies are being deployed simultaneously.
That is a conclusion to which many have arrived in the face of the evidence for both theories which is slowly accumulating.

There are those who consider that the connectionist view of language acquisition adds nothing substantial to the theory of active construction of grammar. What it does is add another layer of cognitive processing and there is nothing within active construction theory that denies that.
The fact that all languages contain many examples of non-intuitive and exceptional structures also presents problems for the theory. We might assume, following the statistical analogy approach, that all of the following are, for example, allowable but children rarely, if ever, produce such forms. If the brain is indeed forward modelling from data it already has, why is that?
unsage (by analogy with unwise)
I look forward to see you (by analogy with I want to see you)
I concealed behind the door (by analogy with I hid behind the door)
I suggested to go out (by analogy with I expected to go out)
However, the fact that adult learners do produce such forms consistently provides some evidence that the connectionist view has more relevance to the teaching of languages to adults and the existence of analogy errors has long been accepted.

If the two approaches are being combined, in fact, by mature learners as well as children, there are some implications especially for how language is presented and which language is selected for presentation.

1. Connectionist theories clearly have a good fit with approaches such as The Lexical Approach and focuses on collocation and colligation. If it is true that learners (of whatever age) are applying some kind of statistical analysis to the language data they are exposed to, then it makes sense to design materials which contain statistically likely rather than unlikely combinations of words and structures.

2. Chunking of language, too, is important because chunks such as air conditioning + unit, steering + committee / wheel etc. lend themselves to the formation of neural pathways in the brain.

3. Getting learners to notice connections in terms of colligation will also be effective if connectionist theories hold water. The acquisition of, e.g.:
I allowed him to go
Mary permitted him to come
I forbade him to speak
etc. will be facilitated if they are presented together and frequently encountered but presenting them alongside
I made him go
I let him speak
etc. will be positively counterproductive.
The same consideration would apply to all compare-and-contrast rather than notice-the-similarity approaches.

This theory places great emphasis on the kinds of social interaction in which people encounter language. The argument is that it may be combined with both Connectionist and Active Construction of Grammar theories to explain how the richness, or otherwise, of the data the learners encounter will be exploited.
It seeks also to explain how it is that children slowly develop the ability not only to use language accurately but also appropriately.
Theoreticians in this area focus a good deal of attention on what is called child-directed speech. Such speech tends to be delivered with excessive intonation range and pitch and to be simplified and repeated for comprehension. From it, the child learns to decode its meaning before going on to be able to comprehend and produce more complex and appropriate adult-to-adult language.

Bergman et al (op. cit.: 318) draw on Gleason and Ratner (1998) for the following example of child directed vs. adult speech:

See the birdie? Look at the birdie! What a pretty birdie!
(accompanied by high voice pitch and gesture)
vs.:

Has it come to your attention that one of our better-looking feathered friends is perched upon the windowsill?

The problem which immediately arises, of course, is that children do acquire the ability to produce and comprehend the second example, and they do it effortlessly and very quickly.

While interesting, there is little actual evidence that the theory is sustainable. Intuitively, one might consider that social interaction is vital for the development of appropriate language use but that can also be explained by the direct correction of children by adults when they produce inappropriate language and by imitation theory.
That exposure to language in use is required for language acquisition has never been in doubt. What role the nature of the interactions between children and carers plays in the acquisition of language is.

In terms of second-language acquisition, the theory states that learning is constructed by the learners. This is usually contrasted in educational theory with what is labelled as a transmission model in which knowledge is handed down from above.
The criticism of that is, naturally, that social constructivists are setting up an unrealistic 'traditional' model in order to suggest how social constructivism is superior.
It is, moreover, asserted that learning is primarily a social activity. This means that knowledge and skills are not acquired by individuals operating alone but only through interaction with others.
This makes the theory a good fit with communicative classroom approaches which forefront real communicative tasks and emphasise interaction with peers and others.

Clearly, much of Communicative Language Teaching lays great stress on natural and appropriate language as the target of instruction and this theory sits well with such an approach. The procedure of introducing simplified language and then refining it for appropriate and accurate communicative effect lies at the heart of such an approach.
Teachers, while not exactly producing typical child-directed language often are observed to use unnaturally emphasised intonation patterns and stress as well as a good deal of gesture.

It has sometimes been a criticism levelled at a communicative approaches to language teaching that while the approach has a well worked out theory of language, it is less certain about a theory of learning. Enter social constructivism to the rescue.
Unfortunately, the theory is somewhat silent concerning the mechanisms through which learning takes place (unlike, e.g., connectionist and active construction theories). It may, therefore, be wise to reserve judgement or, at least, to take the view that while social interaction is undoubtedly a useful and motivating factor in second-language acquisition, it cannot be the whole truth or individual silent learning would be impossible. If you are reading this page alone, is it the case that you are unable to learn from it because you are not interacting with others?

Such considerations have not stopped some from asserting that social constructivism is the way in which learning happens.
Here's an example:

We believe that learning is best conceptualised through a social constructivist theory of learning. A key tenet of this is the view that learning is constructed by the learner, as opposed to the traditional, "transmission" model of teaching and learning in which knowledge is passed on to students fully formed, ready to be assimilated. Furthermore, learning is primarily a social activity - knowledge and skills are constructed through interaction with others.
Harrison, 2019 (Senior Education Manager, Cambridge Assessment English)

Well, it depends on the theory you accept, doesn't it?

It seems clear that concepts such as critical period only apply to children (and the evidence is there to suggest that adult learners have far more trouble learning an additional language than children do). Methodologies which purport, therefore, to be based on how a child learns and that such an approach is applicable to adults and more mature children should be handled with care and some scepticism because there is evidence that children and adults learn differently, not least because of their very different experiential backgrounds and because all normal adults have already acquired a perfect knowledge of their own language.

Other theories, such as Imitation and Reinforcement theories (the basis of drilling and repetition and much else) as well as Active Construction of Grammar, Connectionism and Social Interaction theory may be just as applicable to mature learners of an additional language as they are to immature learners of first languages.
The argument here is that we do not abandon or lose access to our cognitive abilities as we mature. We may use the abilities differently, some might argue more effectively, as adults.
If so, there are obvious consequences for the design of materials, classroom procedures, error correction techniques and much else.

There is little doubt that the processes through which we learn our first and second languages are related. However, there are also critical differences. Here's a short list, based on Cook, undated, and on Ellis, 1994:107, drawing on Bley-Vroman 1988):

This, of course, rather depends on what is meant by success. The goals of first- and second-language learning are often very different so success cannot be easily compared.

Variation in how learning takes place is discussed below.

This guide has been a brief one and only covered the salient features of a range of popular answers to the questions:

1. How do people learn a language?

2. Is the way that we learn / acquire our first language similar to the way we learn / acquire a second language?

Reality may be more complex than theorists will have us believe. The ways that learning happens are still obscure and work goes on with, occasionally, flashes of insight and new evidence to support one theory or another. This does not mean that the various ways in which learning may or may not happen are mutually exclusive. Some theories are presented as take-it-or-leave-it choices but humans are complex animals with the capacity for complex behaviour and ways of thinking about the world. To aver that all of them learn all facets of all languages in the same way is much more likely to be wrong than right.

It may turn out to be the case, for example, that we learn the grammar of our first language in one way and the grammar of a second or subsequent language very differently. We may learn to pronounce our first language by a process of imitation and repetition but learn the pronunciation of a foreign language by combining a deliberate cognitive process with some hard listening to spot the gap between what we produce and the native-speaker models we encounter. It has been suggested that we approach the acquisition of our first language very differently from the way we approach learning a new language and we may learn different facets of the new language in different ways. The suggestion, again briefly, is that:

Lexis and meaning

By attending to how words are used around us and developing mental pictures of what a word means

By connecting our experiences with the ways in which the target language describes the world, via translation when that's appropriate

If this is the case or even part of it is true, looking for a theory which explains all learning is a doomed undertaking. Worse, it will constrain teachers' behaviours and planning to a degree which will not be helpful to the learners.

There's a simple matching test on this area.

References and other sources:
An enormous amount of research, some of it focusing very narrowly on the acquisition of particular structures, is available to one who looks for it in the discussion of first-language acquisition. Not all of it is relevant to ELT.
Aitchison, J, 1989, The Articulate Mammal, London: Unwin Hyman Ltd
Bergmann, A, Hall, K & Ross, S (Eds.), 2007, Language files: Materials for an introduction to language and linguistics, Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University Press
Cook, V, n.d., First and Second Language Acquisition Notes available at www.viviancook.uk/SLA/L1%20and%20L2.htm
Dennett, D, 2017, From Bacteria to Bach and Back, UK: Penguin Random House
Ellis, R, 1994, The Study of Second Language Acquisition, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Harrison, G, 2019, Developing teachers: key principles in the Cambridge English approach to teacher education, Cambridge: UCLES, Professional development, Teaching (available at: https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/blog/developing-teachers [accessed October 2021]
Todd, L & Hancock, I, 1986, International English Usage, Beckenham: Croom Helm

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free english language teaching materials

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ELT Concourse: first and second language acquisition

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ELT Concourse English language analysis and teaching guides. First- and second-language acquisition

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Methods/Approaches of teaching ESOL: A historical overview

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Methods/Approaches of teaching ESOL: A historical overview

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This book gives a more in-depth overview of the historical methods and approaches of ESOL. It essentially says what the PowerPoint did, but in a more detailed way.

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The Journey Through Time: A Historical Overview of English Language Teaching Methods

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The Journey Through Time: A Historical Overview of English Language Teaching Methods

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This website talks about a lot of historical methods and approaches, but it also gives the core principles and teaching techniques. This website also gives the impact on language teaching as a side paragraph.

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The Journey Through Time: A Historical Overview of English Language Teaching Methods – EFLCafe.net

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Oral Language Development and ELL's: 5 challenges and solutions

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Oral Language Development and ELL's: 5 challenges and solutions

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This article gives the 5 big challenges of oral language development with ELLs, but also gives a lot of helpful solutions and strategies. Some of those challenges include how to teach ELLs without feeling like you're holding back on the rest of the class, etc.

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In this article written for Colorín Colorado, Dr. Lindsey Moses Guccione shares five key challenges related to the oral language development of ELLs, as well as tips for addressing each of the challenges.

Dr. Moses Guccione is the co-author of Comprehension and English Language Learners: 25 Oral Reading Strategies That Cross Proficiency Levels ( Heinemann, 2009).

Getting Started

As a former elementary teacher in a bilingual school, I developed a love and passion for finding effective ways to support oral language and oral reading development of emerging English language learners (ELLs). I discovered this passion when I began my first year of teaching in a second-grade classroom, where I encountered a handful of challenges related to my students' oral language development.

Many students were transitioning from a classroom with Spanish instruction into my classroom with instruction provided in English. I had students ranging from monolingual English speakers to students who had just recently moved to the U.S. from a Spanish-speaking country. The range of language proficiency levels crossed the entire spectrum. Having minimal experience with this range of diverse students and needs, I began reading, researching, and implementing new instructional ideas into my classroom. With each challenge I encountered, I gained new information about my students and their parents. I also began learning more about my own methods of instruction, and I learned a great deal each year about new challenges and successes.

Currently, I am fortunate to work with many teachers who have the opportunity to impact the lives of children and families who speak more than one language. As I work with these teachers and families, I have found five common and reoccurring challenges that they seem to face in the area of oral language development that parallel my own experiences. I detail these challenges and questions below, as well as suggestions for addressing each challenges based on strategies I used in my classroom.

Questions and Classroom Scenarios

1. What do I do if they don't know ANY English?

Understanding the characteristics of language learners at different proficiency levels helps to think about how we can best support students in their oral language and reading development. Below is a chart that gives a description of the first two levels of language proficiency as well as implications for using oral reading. This is a nice place to start when thinking about how to interact with and support our Starting and Emerging English speakers.

Levels of Language Proficiency

Description

Implications For Using Oral Reading

Level 1: Starting
Students are in a silent period in which they listen, but do not speak in English. They may respond using nonverbal cues in attempt to communicate basic needs.

The teacher and other more advanced students should model oral reading. Students in the silent period should not be forced to speak, but should be given the opportunity to participate in a group activity where they won't be singled out.

Level 2: Emerging
Students are beginning to understand more oral language. They respond using one- or two-word phrases and start to produce simple sentences for basic social interactions and to meet basic needs.

Teacher and students should continue to model oral reading. Students should be encouraged to begin taking risks with simple, rehearsed oral reading in non-threatening situations.

Opitz & Guccione (2009). Comprehension and English Language Learners: 25 Oral Reading Strategies that Cross Proficiency Levels.

2. How do I provide instruction and support for the ELLs without holding back the students who are fluent in English?

Differentiation is the key to effective instruction for all students. Students of varying proficiency levels can learn the same content when the teacher provides a wide range of learning opportunities for students with different academic and linguistic needs. Three key strategies for this approach include differentiating or modifying the texts, creating grouping structures, and targeting the amount and nature of support based on students' needs (Opitz & Ford, 2008).

Modifying the text: Teachers can differentiate the text by selecting various levels of text difficulty on similar content, or they can also divide the text up into smaller portions appropriate for certain groups/individuals for a jigsaw activity. Another idea is to summarize text that might be too difficult and provide ways to make the text more accessible (such as vocabulary support, visual support, connecting to background knowledge, etc.).

Creating grouping structures that set students up for success: While some grouping structures can be established according to language or literacy skill levels and needs, it is also important to think about providing students exposure to interact with peers who demonstrate a wide range of different language and literacy skills. Additionally, teachers can improve engagement and motivation by creating choice/interest groups where students gather, read, discuss and work together on topics of common interest.

Targeting the amount and nature of student support: It is important to think about scaffolding the experience and using comprehensible input to make it accessible for all students. Comprehensible input means that students should be able to understand the gist of what is being said or presented. There are many ways to do this, such as selecting key vocabulary, using context or visual cues, building background knowledge, building on experiences the students have had, using consistent language, and providing images or visual representations to support vocabulary and content. Teachers can support their students by embedding comprehensible input into their whole-group instruction, but this also becomes particularly effective when used in the different grouping structures. Teachers can also modify the amount of support and interaction between teachers and students depending on their individual and group needs.

3. This student knows English - I hear him talking to his friends and on the playground. He just doesn't want to try in class.

I have heard many teachers discussing variations of this same idea. However, I would caution teachers and parents about jumping to this conclusion. Academic language (or the language specifically related to school and/or academic content) can be complicated to acquire. Students often first develop social language and demonstrate near proficiency or proficiency in English in social settings. A student may be demonstrating sophisticated use of social language, but they may have difficulty using language in more formal settings such as school.

Much of the academic language required to be successful in school - everything from instructions to expectations to content-specific vocabulary - requires assistance in acquiring. Students hear and use their social language in various settings from home, community, and school, but academic language is often only used in the school setting. These students need specific instruction and support surrounding their language development in this area.

The same children who appear to be functioning at a high level of English proficiency in social settings may actually be functioning at a beginning stage in other settings, depending on how they are called on to use language. The students need to feel safe and in a low-anxiety environment in order to begin to feel comfortable taking risks with their oral language. When they have less exposure and instruction related to academic language, this can often cause students to feel intimidated and less likely to be willing to share in class.

One idea for reducing anxiety and encouraging students to experiment with language might include allowing students to read, practice, and discuss their responses in partners and small groups before sharing out to the entire group. This allows students an opportunity to hear language modeled by peers, practice what they want to say, and possibly revise their original thought and/or language before sharing it in a public way. As students find more success with their language production and classroom participation, they will be more likely to share and take risks, and in turn continue building their confidence.

4. How is the child ever going to learn English if they don't speak it at home?

It is important to celebrate being bilingual and biliterate. Research has shown that development of a students' first language can facilitate development in the second language (Genessee, Geva, Dressler, and Kamil, 2007). Understanding this helps parents, teachers, and children to encourage the use and development of the students' home language while they are at home. All of the home literacy activities that we recommend for English speakers, such as reading aloud, making lists, discussing books, reading environmental print, etc., should also be encouraged for the English language learners in their home language. Students can begin to use more English as they feel comfortable in different settings, but it is important to note that speaking two languages will not hinder their English development.

Another important idea to remember is that we want to invite parents to feel confident in their interactions with their children regardless of their English proficiency level. As they begin to read or retell stories and discuss them at home, they are developing vital oral language and comprehension skills, and these skills will transfer over into their school language.

5. What kinds of activities should I be doing to help the student develop their oral language and oral reading?

McCauley and McCauley (1992) report four factors as necessary for acquiring a second language: a low-anxiety environment, repeated practice, comprehensible input, and drama. These are all important components of setting children up for success and language development.

A low-anxiety environment includes a setting where students feel nurtured and supported by their teacher and peers, and in turn, they feel safe to take risks without the fear of being laughed at or made fun of.

Repeated practice is just like what it sounds! Students need repeated practice hearing and using a new language. They need multiple opportunities to comprehend and express their ideas in a new language. Like with anything new that we learn, practice helps us get better.

Comprehensible input, as explained above, means finding different ways to make what is being said comprehensible and easier to understand. Things to consider with comprehensible input might include using speech that is appropriate for students' language proficiency, providing a clear, step-by-step explanation of tasks, and using a variety of techniques to support their understanding.

Drama, or a sense of excitement and engagement, can be found in activities like Reader's Theatre, dramatic play, puppetry, narrating wordless picture books, etc. All of these activities also have the other three factors embedded within them. These activities assist in the development of oral language in addition to introducing students to oral reading and rich literacy experiences and responses in a classroom setting.

Closing Thoughts

As you can see from these questions and examples, there are a lot of different approaches to helping ELLs build their oral language development skills, and you may have to try different activities until you find what works for your students. The most important thing, however, is to build your students' confidence while giving them new words and phrases to practice. Don't be afraid to try something new - and most of all, don't be afraid to have fun doing it!

About the Author

Dr. Lindsey Moses Guccione is a coauthor of Comprehension and English Language Learners: 25 Oral Reading Strategies that Cross Proficiency Levels. She is an assistant professor at the University of Northern Colorado and teaches courses in Early Childhood Education, Literacy, and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education. She is a former elementary teacher of English language learners and is currently researching how ELLs make sense of texts.

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Oral Language Development and ELLs: 5 Challenges and Solutions

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In this article written for Colorín Colorado, Dr. Lindsey Moses Guccione shares five key challenges related to the oral language development of ELLs, as well as tips for addressing each of the challenges. Dr. Moses Guccione is the co-author of Comprehension and English Language Learners: 25 Oral Reading Strategies That Cross Proficiency Levels ( Heinemann, 2009).

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This article discusses the different writing stages that you would go through to write a paper (pre-writing stage, drafting stage, etc.). In each section it would give strategies on how to teach the stages to an ELL student effectivley.

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Model Writing
Seeing how to write before jumping into a writing assignment is beneficial for all students and even more so for multilingual learners. Consider modeling to expose students to specific writing styles, like narrative or persuasive, as well as demonstrate the writing thought process. Write a piece using age-appropriate language, share your thinking aloud, and read the model writing to students. Then display the model writing so students can refer to it later.

Incorporate Dialogue Journals
Make writing practice meaningful and interactive with dialogue journals. Through dialogue journals, students get to have regular written conversations with their teacher or peers. This student-centered approach creates an authentic way for students to build writing fluency and letter writing skills. Plus, it allows ELL students to build relationships with their teachers and classmates. As for teachers, dialogue journals serve as a great way to assess students' progress and provide direct feedback and praise.

Drafting Stage

ELLs come into the classroom at varying language levels, so writing will look different for every student. It's important to differentiate writing assignments for English language learners during the drafting stage.

Have Students Label Pictures
In the early stages of literacy and language development, ELLs will need additional support in building their vocabulary. Picture labeling provides students with visual representations and allows them to gain familiarity with vocabulary words.

Use Journals as Drafting Tools
With journals, students don't need to worry about adhering to strict writing guidelines. They can jot down thoughts in their primary language, use new vocabulary, and explore different types of writing. Therefore, journals are great for drafting. Encourage students to free write in their journals, and later, have them look through entries to select a draft they want to polish.

Provide Writing Prompts
Figuring out what to write about all while learning a new language can be overwhelming. Writing prompts alleviate that struggle by offering ELL students a framework for their writing. With prompts, students can focus their writing efforts on a given topic. Some writing prompts even provide a story starter, an opening sentence to guide students in developing their writing. Find a collection of helpful writing prompts on Shaped.

Use Sentence and Paragraph Frames
ELL students may have a limited vocabulary and knowledge of the English language, preventing them from stringing words together to form a sentence or paragraph. Plus, sentence structure varies from language to language, so ELL students can benefit from strong guidance and scaffolding to construct clear and grammatical English sentences. Sentence and paragraph frames are great tools to scaffold writing during the drafting stage. Sentence frames provide students with a framework to build a sentence using English grammar. Sentence frames can also be used to teach comprehension skills like cause and effect, for example, "If _______, then _______." Paragraph frames provide students with transitional words to piece together a strong paragraph. Display paragraph and sentence frames around the classroom for students to use.

Revising and Editing Stages

Multilingual learners may feel self-conscious when having their writing reviewed. Incorporate technological tools and a collaborative review process to help students feel more at ease.

Implement Peer Review
Peer review is a great way for ELL students to reflect on key writing skills and improve their writing proficiency. During the peer review process, students receive and provide clear, constructive feedback. Both the reviewer and the reviewee benefit from the process, as the reviewee learns how to improve their writing and the reviewer builds awareness of the writing process. For multilingual students, peer review is especially helpful as they practice listening to, reading, and writing English. Model the peer review process with students and give students a guideline on how to provide specific feedback.

Leverage Technology
After a peer review, ELL students may get caught up in misspellings and grammatical mistakes. Consider using assistive technology to ease any possible editing anxiety. Assistive technology, like word prediction and spell-check, helps students come up with words to complete a sentence and flag misspellings or errors. Tools like digital dictionaries allow students to easily look up a word's meaning and pronunciation to build spelling, speaking, and vocabulary skills.

When teaching writing, remember to meet students where they are and create a classroom culture where students feel encouraged to explore writing.

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Set multilingual learners on an accelerated path to writing proficiency with Guide all students in Grades 3-12 through the writing process with Writable. English 3D, our dedicated ELD curriculum.

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Support your ELL students with writing strategies to build confident and capable writers.

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This article also goes into depth of the different stages of reading for all people. Next, it goes into detail about the 7 strategies for teaching reading to English Learners.

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7 Strategies for Reading Success with English Learners

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Try these 7 ELL strategies for reading success. Help your ELL students to engage with reading and foster a desire to connect with texts.

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Inclusive Practices in Multilingual Classrooms

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Inclusive Practices in Multilingual Classrooms

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This article is about what teachers can do to make a mulitlingual classroom more inclusive for ELs/EBs students. The advice in the article embraces the students other language in the classroom, and allowing it to inform other students.

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Inclusive Practices in Multilingual Classrooms

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Making connections to the culture of the students you serve can reap great rewards!

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5 strategies for making the most of multilingual classrooms

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5 strategies for making the most of multilingual classrooms

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This article gives 5 big strategies for being inclusive and embracing a multilingual classroom. The five strategies are: collaborate with teammates, take notes of strategies that are different in each book, coordinate with intervention specialists, keep the focus on the student in front of you, and use books simaltaneously.

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The development and growth of children's literacy abilities in English and in Spanish requires more responsive teaching in both languages. We've talked to three expert teachers in multilingual classrooms who have used Jennifer Serravallo's Reading Strategies Book and her Writing Strategies Book side by side with their transadaptations El libro de estrategias de lectura and El libro de estrategias de escritura. We wanted to know how they got the most out them. They shared these 5 strategies.

1. Collaborate with teammates.
In her school, Cristy Rauseo and her colleagues use the books for planning. "It helps my team collaborate across languages, and we are all on the same page." They often use the four books together, making sure they teach the same skills across languages without repeating the same strategy and using up valuable time. This way they increase the number of encounters students have with an idea but give them the space necessary to develop connections in both languages.

2. Take note of the strategies that are different in each book.
Nicole Sanchez likes to pay attention to what changes she sees in strategies between the English and Spanish editions. This is especially important for Chapter 3 of the reading books, the chapters that support reading with accuracy, and chapters 8 and 9 in the writing books that address language conventions. Spanish is a consistently phonetic language, while English...well, it's inconsistently phonetic, or more accurately morphophonetic. The strategies in Chapter 3 of each book help students apply what they've learned in phonics to their book reading. Helping students see the differences in how the alphabetic principle is applied in different languages can help deepen their decoding skills in each language.

3. Coordinate with an intervention specialist.
If any of your students receive intensive instruction from an intervention second-language specialist, Nicole also suggests using all four books with them. You can reference the strategies that are taught in one language and make sure that strategies are built upon in the other language. Better yet, says Nicole, "My partner teacher and I were also able to collaboratively develop individualized goal-based plans for students and identify strategies we would teach. We shared conference notes, so it was easy to monitor progress."

4. Keep the focus on the student in front of you.
This might feel obvious, but with so much to monitor in two languages, it's sometimes easy to miss the forest for the trees. Clarissa reminds herself frequently of the importance of simply knowing students and responding to them. The Spanish transadaptations allow her to increase her responsiveness by helping students access new ideas in their native language. "The books allow me to find strategies that are specific to the language that supports a student's learning process, while at the same time making them feel valued, heard, and connected to what they are learning." Exactly what her students need.

5. Use all four books simultaneously.
Clarissa Leal recommends using the English and Spanish books at the same time because they "help students transfer knowledge and make connections from one language to another." Whether it's the visuals with each strategy or finding language that links the English strategy to its Spanish companion, students have additional opportunities to build thinking that will support them in both languages. This strategy becomes especially important for anyone whose teaching alternates daily from Spanish to English.

No matter what kind of multilingual setting you teach in, be sure to try these strategies with your readers and writers. You'll increase your responsiveness and help them develop the skills they need to become lifelong readers and writers-in two languages!

Browse more blogs posts featuring Jennifer Serravallo.

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5 Strategies for Making the Most of Multilingual Classrooms

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No matter what kind of multilingual setting you teach in, be sure to try these strategies with your readers and writers.

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Academic Language and ELLs: What Teachers Need to Know

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Academic Language and ELLs: What Teachers Need to Know

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This article starts with the basics of what even academic language is and why it is important. Afterwards in slowly transitions into social vs academic language and how to use it wisely when teaching.

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This article helps educators understand the role that academic language plays in their classrooms and in ELL student success.

The article also includes information on social vs. academic language, as well as numerous examples of the different kinds of academic language needed for all students to fully participate in classroom activities and assignments. Additional articles, books, and videos can be found in our Academic Language and ELLs Resource Section.

Academic Language: An Overview

Why is academic language important?

Perhaps you or your colleagues have taught a student, who, like Carlos, gave every sign of being fully "fluent" in English, only to find that the student struggled on more academic kinds of assignments.

Many students, including English language learners (ELLs), have difficulty mastering the kinds of academic language needed to succeed in school, especially if they have never been explicitly taught how to use it. These students include long-term ELLs, students who have attended U.S. schools for much or all of their education but have not yet mastered the language of school.

At the same time, many educators have never learned how to teach academic language since language has traditionally been considered the domain of English as a Second Language (ESL) or English language arts teachers. Yet the use of academic language is more important than ever in preparing students for academic and professional success, particularly in the era of rigorous college- and career-ready standards (such as the Common Core State Standards) that require an increased use of academic language in and across all disciplines.

What is your role?

It may seem daunting at first, but you have an important role to play in supporting your students' academic language development. You do not need an in-depth background in linguistics or ESL methods to do so; rather, you need some guidance and practice in learning how to recognize the role academic language plays in your subject area and classroom, as well as support from colleagues who can guide you in your efforts. Many ESL and bilingual colleagues have extensive experience in identifying students' academic language needs and collaborating with colleagues and will be more than happy to do so if asked!

In this article

To get you started, this article shares three things you need to know about academic language:

The difference between social and academic language

The importance of looking beyond vocabulary

How academic language will be used in your classroom

The article will also share recommended resources for further review. For specific instructional strategies on increasing the use of academic language in your classroom, see these ideas from ELL expert Kristina Robertson, as well as the resources at the end of the article, and check in with your ESL/bilingual colleagues for additional suggestions!

The difference between social and academic language

As the example of Carlos above suggests, teachers may be most familiar with the level of students' social language - the language they hear students using with their friends in the hallways or on the playground. Students typically achieve proficiency in social language long before they have mastered a grade-appropriate level of academic language. As a result, a student's ability to use language in social settings is not necessarily an accurate indicator of their mastery of academic language.

What is academic language?

Academic language is the language of school and it is used in textbooks, essays, assignments, class presentations, and assessments. Academic language is used at all grade levels, although its frequency increases as students get older.

It is also the language of the workplace - for example, the language used to write a business letter as opposed to a casual e-mail to a co-worker.

Examples

One strategy that academic language expert Dr. Robin Scarcella uses to help her college students understand the difference between social and academic language is to provide them with similar sentences or passages that convey the same meaning but that are written in different styles, such as the following:

I like this book more.

This story is more exciting than the first one we read.

Because they were brave.

The soldiers received the medal because of their courage.

If you were to compare other kinds of passages or documents, some examples might include:

A business letter vs. a personal e-mail (noted above)

A newspaper's summary of a research report vs. the actual abstract of the report

A customer review of a book vs. the publisher's description of the book

As your students become more familiar with the differences between social and academic language, it will be easier to identify which is which and what is most appropriate for a certain setting. Kristina Roberston notes in her video clip on our academic language playlist that her students call this "sounding smart" - and they know it when they hear it. When they hear themselves "sounding smart," it is a source of excitement and motivation in the classroom.

Additional resources

To learn more about the distinctions between social and academic language, take a look at the following resources from Colorín Colorado:
Discussion questions:

Have you had any students who were proficient in social language but struggled with academic language?

If so, how did their social and academic language use differ?

Did anything in their language abilities surprise you?

What are some examples that could be used to compare social and academic language in your classroom?

Beyond vocabulary

Many people think of vocabulary first when it comes to academic language. While content-area vocabulary words and terms are certainly an important component, academic language also refers to the words and phrases used to connect these key words and to communicate concepts. Here are two different ways to understand a broader interpretation of academic language.

"Bricks and mortar"

Dr. Cindy Lundgren explains the idea of " bricks and mortar" in our academic language video playlist, where "bricks" are the key vocabulary words and concepts in a sentence, and "mortar" is the language (such as signal words and phrases) holding the bricks together. Here is the example she explains in the video:

Even though bats have wings, they are not birds.

In this sentence, the bricks are the key vocabulary words in bold:

Yet to fully understand the sentence, students must understand the meaning of "even though." Here is a sample definition:

"Even though" means that two items are similar, but they are not the same. In this case, bats and birds both share a similar feature (having wings), but they are not the same animal.

Understanding signal words and phrases is a key step in a student's ability to "unlock" the academic language they encounter, as well as to start using it correctly themselves.

Video: Bricks and mortar in language instruction

Dr. Cindy Lundgren discusses the concept of "bricks and mortar" when thinking about effective vocabulary instruction for ELLs.

TWIPs

Debbie Zacarian and Judie Haynes (2010) also look beyond discrete vocabulary words in their academic language definition, including a range of structures they call TWIPs ( Terms, Words, Idioms, and P hrases). Here are some examples:

Note that, in the second example, the "Declaration" is a single word standing in for the official name of a specific document (the Declaration of Independence). Many textbooks used abbreviated terms in the interest of space, which requires students not only to track the references back to the original term but to build on existing background knowledge about the subject being discussesd. ELLs may need some extra preparation to draw upon or build background knowledge in order to fully understand the academic language being used.

Same Word, Different Meaning

Keep in mind that some key words or terms may have different meanings across disciplines and may be used as different parts of speech in different contexts (i.e., noun vs. verbs):

Lunch table (Social language)
Periodic Table of Elements (Science)
Table of Contents (ELA)
Multiplication tables (Math)
To table (delay) the discussion (Social Studies)

Plot of a story (ELA)
Plot of land (Geography)
Plot ordered pairs on a graph (Math)
To plot a government coup (History)

Branch of government (Social Studies)
Branch of a river (Geography)
To branch out (Idiom)

Your foot (Health)
One foot in length (Math)
Foot in your mouth (Idiom)
Foot of the mountain (Geography)
To foot the bill (Idiom)

As you identify the academic language you will be focusing on in a particular lesson, take a moment to think about whether any of the words or phrases may have another definition so that you can anticipate any possible confusion. You may wish to share your list with your ESL colleagues for input as well.

Cognates

Finally, there is a great tool you can use to bolster academic language for students who speak a language related to English. This is the use of cognates - words that have a similar spelling and meaning in both languages. More than a one third of words in English have a Spanish-language cognate! These often include technical or content-specific words that can help students make a connection between both languages, such as the following:

You can see many more in our list of Spanish-English cognates, and your ESL or bilingual colleagues may be able to think of other related examples as well. Once students know how that a connection exists, they will start noticing more words that are related and they will be able to apply their own existing background knowledge about those words to the vocabulary they encounter. They may need some guidance initially, and we provide some tips on how to use cognates in this Colorín Colorado article to help you get started.

Note: There is such a thing as a false cognate, the most famous one being that embarazada in Spanish is not "embarrassed" - it means "pregnant"! It is not a 100% foolproof strategy - but it is generally a very useful tool.
Discussion questions:

What are examples of key vocabulary words, terms, idioms, and phrases that are useful to know in your subject area?

Can you think of some phrases or signal words that are not content specific but are commonly used in your area (such as "In comparison...")?

Looking at the list of cognates from Colorín Colorado, find 10 words related to your subject area.

Planning for purpose and products

Now that you have some more background on what academic language is, it's time to think about how it is used in your subject area. Academic language is used for a variety of purposes across disciplines:

Students may write a lab report in science class.

Students may orally explain their reasoning in math class.

Students may listen to and compare two famous speeches in history class.

Students may compare a scene from a novel and a movie in an English language arts class.

Domains of language

As you can see in these examples, academic language is used in all four domains of language (reading, writing, speaking, and listening), and all four domains are needed to achieve the above tasks. While the uses of academic language may be more obvious for reading and writing, academic language is also necessary for listening to class discussion, lectures, and debates, as well as delivering speeches, presentations, and oral arguments. Students may need just as much help using academic language in their speaking as in their writing, and they may be at different levels across different domains. Carlos, for example, has strong academic listening and speaking skills, but weaker writing skills.

Students may also need help moving from the word level to the sentence, paragraph, or essay/project level in these sophisticated assignments. The most important thing you can do is to provide examples and model the kinds of language you expect students to use on a regular basis. By doing so, you will help familiarize students with the kinds of academic language needed to succeed in your classroom, as well as the purpose of the language they are using. Our Academic Language booklist and webcast include a number of subject-specific strategies for helping students master the kinds of language needed in different content areas.

This is also another area where ESL/bilingual colleagues can help you; they may have tried and true strategies, graphic organizers, and suggestions for modeling academic language and for helping students transition into more sophisticated assignments. One great example is the process that high school ESL teacher Michelle Lawrence uses to help her students transition from sentences and paragraphs to essays. (See Playlist: Writing Process 2.)

Note: Another helpful tool for communicating expectations about academic language is the use of language objectives , which you can learn more about from Colorín Colorado.
Discussion Questions:

As you consider how academic language is used in your discipline, what kinds of assignments are students expected to produce in your classroom and in higher grades?

What are some examples of academic language that are needed for each of these activities?

How are different language domains used at different steps of the process? (For example, a lab may require spoken language to be used in discussions between partners, and then writing to be used for the final written lab report.)

Based on what you now know about academic language, what kinds of support do you think Carlos needs in his chemistry class?

Do you have any ideas on how Mrs. Wilson can support his written academic language?

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Academic Language and ELLs: What Teachers Need to Know

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This article helps educators understand the role that academic language plays in their classrooms and in ELL student success. The article also includes information on social vs. academic language, as well as numerous examples of the different kinds of academic language needed for all students to fully participate in classroom activities and assignments.

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Strategies for Teaching Academic Language to ELLs

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Strategies for Teaching Academic Language to ELLs

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In this website it talks more about the HOW to teach academic language rather than the WHY. It talks about steps for introducing academic language, strategies, resources, etc.

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English Language Learners (ELLs, ELs ELDs) face a variety of challenges in the mainstream classroom. Along with social and cultural differences, ELLs may also struggle with the language used in the classroom. This academic language can be difficult for ELLs to grasp and can pose a stumbling block when it comes to classroom success.

"Mastery of academic language is arguably the single most important determinant of academic success for individual students," says David Francis in Practical Guidelines for the Education of English Language Learners: Research-Based Recommendations For Instruction and Academic Interventions. "Unfortunately, ELLs often lack the academic language necessary for success in school. This lack of proficiency in academic language affects ELLs' ability to comprehend and analyze texts in middle and high school, limits their ability to write and express themselves effectively, and can hinder their acquisition of academic content in all academic areas."

So what can mainstream teachers do to help ELLs master academic language? First, it's important to understand the key components of academic language. Linguist Jim Cummins distinguished between two different types of language: Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP).

Recognizing the differences between these elements of second language acquisition will help you develop effective strategies for teaching academic language to ELLs.

Understanding BICS

Cummins classifies Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) as the language system that a person uses in everyday, informal types of communication. The language used for BICS is typically cognitively undemanding and developed largely through social interactions.

This type of language is typically developed well before students become proficient in academic language; English learners can become proficient in BICS as quickly as a year. BICS is predominantly oral and uses Tier 1 vocabulary.

For this reason, it is important not to judge students' language proficiency on their speaking abilities alone. Students with a high level of BICS might be able to hold a conversation about a familiar topic or converse well in high-context situations. However, they may not have the linguistic sophistication to engage in academic discussions without the intentional development of academic language.

Understanding CALP

Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) measures mastery of the rigorous, intellectual vocabulary of content areas, which Cummins states is a key distinction from BICS. Academic language refers to the language needed by students to conquer classroom tasks, from understanding basic content vocabulary and directions to navigating advanced textbooks.

"To me, academic language is when teachers use keywords and important content area concepts when working with ELs," says Dara Schmick, an ESL teacher at Rutherford Elementary School and the Elementary ESL Department Chair for the Central Dauphin School District in Harrisburg, PA. "It is important for teachers to speak to students in a way that promotes language in every aspect of their school day."

Mastering academic language is critical to the academic success of ELLs. Cummins theorized that the development of CALP can take from four to seven years, independent of other factors such as language proficiency level, age and time of arrival in a school setting, degree of academic language proficiency in the student's first language, and the level of in-school language support.

How Can You Help Students Achieve Academic Language Mastery?

Successful understanding of academic language requires a partnership between mainstream teachers and ESL teachers, Schmick says, noting, "Teachers need to all be on the same page so that the academic language is comprehensive."

Working together, mainstream and ESL teachers can help ensure English Language Learners have success when it comes to conquering academic language.

"Some mainstream teachers have the skills and strategies to work with ELs and can use these with all of their students," Schmick says. "However, there are times when teachers are unsure of how to work with these students."

If you're teaching ELLs in your classroom, consider these tips for teaching academic language:

Introduce and reinforce academic language regularly.

It's important to preview text and identify words that might be new to students, says ELLs specialist Kristina Robertson on Colorin Colorado!, a bilingual site for educators and families of English Language Learners. She suggests writing words and phrases on the board and having students write them on index cards. She also recommends using visuals, acting, or synonyms to help students understand the meaning of a word. "Reinforce the newly learned language by asking the students to draw it, act it out, or use it in an appropriate sentence," she says.

Provide opportunities for review.

Consider creating a "word wall" of academic language terms so that students can refer to what they've learned throughout the year. Students can also use journals or word logs to reference academic vocabulary that they've learned throughout the year

Use academic language throughout all content areas.

"As the classroom teacher, it's important to integrate academic language into your daily classroom practice," says teacher Marine Freibrun on Minds-in-bloom.com. "Use the words in your objectives for other lessons, use the words in classroom discussions, and ask students to use them in their writing across disciplines. I also use academic language tickets to have students practice their words after lessons have been taught. I use them for tickets out, as morning work, or as independent practice. Just because you teach the lesson, doesn't mean you or your students are done with the word. It's important to continue the practice throughout the year."

Use resources for support.

Mainstream teachers should feel comfortable relying on other teachers or resources to help ELLs in their classrooms.

"It is imperative that mainstream teachers continue to use professional development opportunities in order to enhance the necessary skills needed to work with ELs," Schmick says. "If this is not possible for them, they can also use their ESL teacher as a resource for their own classroom. ESL teachers are there to not only help ELs succeed but to help classroom teachers with the challenges of educating ELs."

Resources such as Continental's TEAM Toolkits: Teaching ELs for Academic Language Mastery can be useful go-to supports when it comes to academic language and ELLs. The kits feature structured activities in listening, reading, writing, and speaking to help English learners develop grade-level academic language skills.

Academic language is an essential component of education and is critical for success in school-and it poses unique challenges for English language learners. By intentionally developing academic language for your ELLs, you will support their academic success.

Looking for more ESL/ELD/ELL resources for your classroom? Check out Continental's wide variety of instructional materials for K-12 students.
This blog was originally published on September 13, 2017. It was updated on October 19, 2022.

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Strategies for Teaching Academic Language to ELLs | Continental

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It's important for mainstream teachers to know the basics of academic language and develop strategies for teaching academic language to ELLs.

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Language Objectives: The Key to Effective Content Area Instruction for English Learners

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Language Objectives: The Key to Effective Content Area Instruction for English Learners

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This website talks about what a language objective is, steps to make a language objective, how to implement the objective, and how to align it with content objectives. There are various examples used and step by steps on how to create these things.

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This article provides an overview of how to use language objectives in content-area instruction for English learners and offers classroom-based examples from different grade and subject levels.

This article written for Colorín Colorado provides an overview of how to use language objectives in content-area instruction for English learners and includes:

what a language objective is

steps that teachers can take to create language objectives

how to implement language objectives in a general education classroom

how to align objectives to content and language standards

ideas and resources on how to support teachers as they become familiar with this practice

how to use language objectives in distance learning environments.

Language Objectives: An Overview
Mrs. Shell has been teaching eighth grade math for twelve years. She has deep content area knowledge and wants to provide all of her students with authentic activities and tasks to relate the significance of the mathematical concepts that she teaches to their lives. Mrs. Shell has always felt successful at teaching her classes but this year has been different. Her sections include students with more diverse backgrounds than previous years, particularly more English learners. As Mrs. Shell was beginning to feel frustrated with her inability to reach all her students because of their needs, she learned about one way to make her content more comprehensible to all her students - creating and posting objectives that tell the students not just what content concepts they will learn in each lesson, but also the academic language they will need to learn and use to meet the state's math standards. With this knowledge, Mrs. Shell is now confident that she not only knows what to teach, but also how to teach it so that all her students can be successful.

Generally speaking, academic English is the language of schooling and the language that helps students acquire and use the content area knowledge taught in schools (Anstrom, DiCerbo, Butler, Katz, Millet, & Rivera, 2010).

Teaching content to ELs: The challenge

In my work supporting general education and ESL/bilingual teachers who provide sheltered instruction for English learners (ELs), I have met many teachers like Mrs. Shell. While these teachers want to provide effective instruction for their ELs, often they don't see themselves as language teachers and so they aren't sure where to begin with their students.

These teachers aren't alone, however, and they are facing a challenge shared by teachers across the country. We know that for school-age students, academic language is crucial for school success (Francis, Rivera, Lesaux, Kieffer, & Rivera, 2006). In addition, research allows us to state with a fair degree of confidence that English learners best acquire English when language forms are explicitly taught and when they have many opportunities to use the language in meaningful contexts (Goldenberg, 2008).

Yet while the explicit instructional support that ESL and bilingual teachers provide is essential to English learners' academic language development, English learners receive a majority of their instruction from general education and content area teachers who may not have experience teaching academic language development.

The question becomes then: What do general education classroom teachers need to do in order to support the academic English development of language learners in both face-to-face and virtual environments, especially when English learners are one of many types of students they serve?

Teaching content to ELs: The solution

One principle that teachers of English learners can begin to apply immediately is creating and posting language objectives for their lessons (whether in the classroom or online in a virtual space. Many teachers are familiar with using content objectives to identify what students will learn and be able to do in the lesson. However, they are less likely to include language objectives that support the linguistic development of their students.

Implementing language objectives can be a powerful first step in ensuring that English learners have equal access to the curriculum even though they may not be fully proficient in the language. This is because the second language acquisition process requires opportunities for the language learner to be exposed to, practice with, and then be assessed on their language skills (Echevarria, Short, & Vogt, 2008).

To this end, language objectives:

articulate for learners the academic language functions and skills that they need to master to fully participate in the lesson and meet the grade-level content standards (Echevarria, Short, & Vogt, 2008).

are beneficial not only for language learners but for all students in a class, as everyone can benefit from the clarity that comes with a teacher outlining the requisite academic language to be learned and mastered in each lesson.

Now let's take a closer look at some examples and how to write language objectives.

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Writing Language Objectives

Interview with Dr. Jennifer Himmel

Learn more about language objectives in this podcast interview with Dr. Himmel from Teaching Multilingual Learners, produced by Tan Huynh.

What is a language objective?

Language objectives are lesson objectives that specifically outline the type of language that students will need to learn and use in order to accomplish the goals of the lesson. Quality language objectives complement the content knowledge and skills identified in content area standards and address the aspects of academic language that will be developed or reinforced during the teaching of grade-level content concepts (Echevarria & Short, 2010).

These objectives involve the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing), but they can also include:

Below are examples of language objectives for different content areas and grade levels. They come from the Common Core State Standards for Math and English Language Arts (2012) and state standards in New York and California.
Sources:
How do I create effective language objectives?

Dr. Cindy Lundgren discusses the process of writing language objectives in this excerpt from her Meet the Expert interview.

Language objectives are directly correlated to content objectives. Once a teacher determines the lesson topic from the appropriate content standards, the teacher will want to begin thinking about the academic language necessary for English learners to complete the tasks that support the content objectives. This identification of the academic language embedded in the lesson's content will become the basis for the lesson's language objectives.

You can use the following guidelines to start thinking about appropriate language objectives for the lesson:

1. Decide what key vocabulary, concept words, and other academic words students will need to know in order to talk, read, and write about the topic of the lesson. Those words might be taught as a language objective. They should include technical terms, such as ecosystem, and terms like distribution that have different meanings across content areas. Other terms to highlight are those that language learners may know in one context, such as family (as in parents, siblings, etc.), but that have a different use in science (e.g., family of elements in the periodic table).

2. Consider the language functions related to the topic of the lesson (e.g, will the students describe, explain, compare, or chart information). See your state English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards for examples of these functions for English language arts, math, science, and social studies for all English proficiency levels and grade-level clusters.

3. Think about the language skills necessary for students to accomplish the lesson's activities. Will the students be reading a textbook passage to identify the stages of mitosis? Are they able to read a text passage to find specific information? Will they be reporting what they observe during a scientific demonstration to a peer? Do they know how to report observations orally? Acquiring the skills needed to carry out these tasks might be the focus of a language objective.

4. Identify grammar or language structures common to the content area. For example, many science textbooks use the passive voice to describe processes. Additionally, students may have to use comparative language to analyze two related concepts. Writing with the passive voice or using comparative phrases might be a language objective.

5. Consider the tasks that the students will complete and the language that will be embedded in those assignments. If students are working on a scientific investigation together, will they need to explain the steps of the procedure to one another? The language objective might focus on how to explain procedures aloud.

6. Explore language learning strategies that lend themselves to the topic of the lesson. For example, if students are starting a new chapter in the textbook, the strategy of previewing the text might be an appropriate language objective.

(Adapted from Short, Himmel, Gutierrez, & Hudec, 2012. Used with permission.)

Aligning Language Objectives and Standards

English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards

Developing appropriate language objectives for lessons involves becoming familiar with a state's content area and ELP standards. Whereas the content standards will provide the topic of the lesson and what exactly the students should be doing with that topic (e.g., solving problems, creating models, ranking ideas), the English language proficiency or development standards help to identify language skills and functions that students should be working on to achieve academic language fluency. These ELP standards can help to identify:

English Language Arts (ELA) standards

Other resources in addition to the ELP standards are a state's English Language Arts standards or the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History, Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (CCSS). The English Language Arts and Literacy CCSS might be especially useful to teachers of English learners due to its attention to literacy across the content areas.

Additional resources to consult, especially if a state is a member of the WIDA consortium, are the Model Proficiency Indicators (MPIs) outlined in their ELP standards. The MPIs outline what an English learner at a specific level of English language proficiency can do in a language domain (e.g., listening) by addressing the language functions embedded in an example topic for that content area with appropriate scaffolds or support (Gottlieb, Cranley, & Cammileri, 2007). Classroom texts and other materials (e.g., science investigations, primary source documents) are other good sources to consult when preparing a lesson.

Getting Started

How can I get started?

Careful lesson planning

In creating measureable and student-friendly language objectives that support the content objectives, it is important that learner tasks in the lesson are aligned with the objectives. It is not enough to have well-written objectives that promote language acquisition if the lesson is lacking in tasks that support the objectives. If the language objective for a middle school social studies lesson is for the students to orally retell the key characteristics in a historical event using sequential language, it is important that the teacher previews sequential language with the students, such as providing sentence stems or frames, and builds into the lesson some structured pair work so the students have an opportunity to retell the event to a peer. Therefore, careful lesson planning is another essential step in preparing effective language objectives.

Collaboration

It is also useful for content area and ESL/bilingual teachers to plan lessons together, as we saw with the 7th grade science lesson scenario involving Mr. Zhang and Mr. Lewis. In this co-planning scenario, each teacher used his expertise to better integrate content and language instruction for the language learners. This type of collaboration can help a teacher like Mr. Zhang learn more about the second language acquisition process of his students and can help a teacher like Mr. Lewis become more familiar with the grade-level content expectations that his English learners encounter in content area classes.

How do I know which language objectives are best for my students?

The language objective that the teacher selects will depend on what the English learners in the class need most at that point in the year and what language is most important to understanding the content concepts. If the students have already spent a good deal of time working with new vocabulary, then the teacher might consider having students use that vocabulary to develop their writing skill by writing a summary of the process they followed.

Conversely, the teacher might want to help students become more proficient with a particular type of graphic organizer in order to develop more strategic language learning. As all teachers know, teaching is a dynamic and complex process that requires a multitude of decisions to be made. However, the advance planning required in creating language objectives allows teachers to better anticipate the academic English needs of all students thus increasing the comprehensibility of the lessons.

It is important for teachers to realize that even though their lesson may include all four language skills (it is good if they do, since the language skills reinforce one another), they do not need to post a language objective for every language-related item addressed in the lesson. Teachers address many instructional needs in a 50- or 60-minute class period. Rather than highlighting all language uses in a particular lesson, it is important for the teacher to think about what is non-negotiable in that lesson.

In other words, the teacher should keep the perspective of the English learner in mind and ask, "Of all of the skills and functions addressed in my lesson, which is most important for helping students meet the grade-level standard and develop their language proficiency?" These objectives then must be measureable (i.e., can you see or assess the student's mastery of that objective?) and written in language that accounts for the linguistic and cognitive development of the students.

How can I make language objectives "student-friendly"?

Both of the above objectives are measurable, but both also take into account appropriate developmental stages of the students. Teachers of young students (e.g., PK or K) may even want to consider further adapting the objectives. For example, we have seen kindergarten teachers use symbols such as a pencil to symbolize "write" and a mouth to symbolize "talk" when they post their objectives for the children to see. We have also seen teachers of young learners rely on pictures to show the key terms they want the students to use or to convey the topic of the lesson (e.g., a picture of a ruler and of hands to discuss standard and non-standard measurement).

One way that teachers can ensure that their language objectives are measureable and student-friendly is by using appropriate verbs. Because language objectives should provide students with practice in the four language skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking, verbs related to those skills might include, but are not limited to, the following:

List

Retell

Summarize in writing

Record

Read

It is also important to not equate low language proficiency with limited cognitive ability. Therefore, teachers will want to make sure that the language objectives they create also reflect tasks that fall on the higher end of Bloom's Taxonomy and use verbs (e.g., orally justify) accordingly.

As noted above in the guidelines to creating language objectives, language functions are also a potential source for language objectives. Verbs related to language functions might include:

When should I share language objectives with students?

To help students take ownership of their learning and provide explicit direction to students, especially the English learners who are processing content in a new language, it is important that objectives be stated at the beginning of the lesson and reviewed with the students at the end of the lesson to allow them to assess if they have met the objectives (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2008).

How this happens may differ according to the grade level and content area of the class. Some teachers like to have the students choral read the objectives, while teachers of older students sometimes have them record the language objectives in their journal in addition to asking an individual student to read them aloud. Some teachers, such as those who teach science, like to reveal the objectives later in the lesson, perhaps after the warm up or exploratory activity, so that they can maintain an inquiry-based approach (Echevarria & Colburn, 2006).

Should I differentiate language objectives based on my students' language proficiency?

Although all teachers have students of varying language proficiency and skill levels in their classes, it is not necessary to differentiate language objectives by creating and posting multiple language objectives that reflect these proficiency levels. Rather, teachers should have one language objective that is appropriate for all students to meet. To provide the appropriate differentiation, the teacher would provide different scaffolds (e.g., adapted text, visuals, sentence frames) for students to use in order to reach the objectives.

For example, an appropriate language objective for an upper elementary language arts class might be for the students to be able to orally list text features found in a non-fiction book. For lower proficiency language learners, the teacher may give them a word bank from which to choose the text features; therefore, the students are meeting the same objective but with the appropriate amount of linguistic support from the teacher.

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Using language objectives in a distance learning environment

While teachers like Ms. Shell understand that the characteristics of good teaching for English learners does not change in a virtual environment, they do understand that instruction will necessarily need to look different in order to account for the challenges that distance learning presents for many learners.

Accordingly, teachers will need to think through how to:

Presenting language objectives

Many different ways exist for teachers to present language objectives in remote learning. For example, teachers might:

begin every virtual class by orally reading and presenting the content and language objectives in their Google slides and then asking students to briefly summarize in the chat box the activities they will be doing in that lesson to meet those objectives.

post the objectives at the top of a shared digital document that serves as a capture sheet for the lesson. A teacher might then ask learners to self-assess their progress towards meeting those objectives at the end of the document.

use live or recorded videos, especially when working with English learners with lower English proficiency. These videos can include props, for example ears to signify a listening objective.

use realia, such as rocks, if one of the lesson's language aims is for students to orally describe different types of sedimentary rocks.

Monitoring student understanding and engagement

Teachers in distance learning environments must also carefully consider how they will assess learner understanding and engagement throughout the lesson. Given the challenges virtual learning platforms present towards capturing data on learner comprehension (e.g., paralinguistic cues such as facial expressions, gestures, posture) teachers working in virtual environments know that it is more important than ever to ensure that students clearly understand the content and linguistic aims for each lesson.

Using comprehension checks and assessing progress

It is also essential that students understand how teachers will measure their progress towards meeting each objective. Towards this aim, teachers must build in multiple comprehension checks throughout the lesson that align to the lesson's objectives. Teachers can:

At the conclusion of a lesson, teachers can assess student progress towards meeting objectives via:

tickets out that are submitted digitally

the recording of a Flipgrid or use of another video platform where learners respond to a prompt that requires learners to use the academic language highlighted in the lesson's objectives.

Teachers can respond to the submitted tickets out or video with feedback that explicitly targets the students use of the language. When appropriate, teacher can provide learners with additional resources and/or support towards mastering that particular language skill or function. Teachers might also use that linguistic data to inform mini-lessons conducted to small groups of English learners during office hours or intervention time.

Next Steps

How can I learn more?

For more information on the SIOP Model, see Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model (Echevarria, Short, & Vogt, 2008).

Although language objectives can be implemented in any lesson design approach, they are especially congruent with sheltered instruction and the SIOP Model. Since language objectives ensure that teachers meet the unique linguistic needs of English learners, they are sometimes easier to implement in the context of instructional practices espoused by the SIOP Model.

Practices that focus on explicit academic language teaching include:

Below are other resources that can help you learn more about creating language objectives and about integrating academic language into content area classes.

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Final Thoughts

We realize that it takes teachers some time to become very comfortable with creating language objectives, but our experience has shown that the implementation of language objectives can bring immediate benefits to instruction. Some immediate benefits include teachers understanding more concretely that they are both a content area and language teacher - as one teacher said in a CAL SIOP Model workshop, "I now see myself as a math teacher AND a language teacher".

We have also observed that when teachers consciously plan to meet the academic English needs of their learners, they end up with better planned learner tasks, and students begin to have more ownership of their content area and language learning. When it comes to building proficiency in academic English, as many teachers in our workshops remind us, "If you want to see it, you have to teach it." Therefore, if teachers want to see language development, language objectives are a great first step in helping teachers explicitly teach it.

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Recommended Resources

Further reading

Short, D., Himmel, J., Gutierrez, S., & Hudec, J. (2012). Using the SIOP Model: Professional development for sheltered instruction. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M.E., & Short, D. (2010). The SIOP Model for teaching mathematics to English learners. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Echevarria, J., & Short, D. (2011). The SIOP Model: A professional development framework for a comprehensive school-wide intervention. Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) Brief. http://www.cal.org/create/resources/pubs/professional-development-framework.html

Himmel, J., Short, D., Richards, C., & Echevarria, J. (2009). Using the SIOP Model to improve middle school science instruction. Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) Brief. http://www.cal.org/create/resources/pubs/siopscience.html

Short, D., Vogt, M., & Echevarria, J. (2010a). The SIOP Model for teaching history-social studies to English learners. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Short, D., Vogt, M., & Echevarria, J. (2010b). The SIOP Model for teaching science to English learners. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Vogt, M.E., Echevarria, J., & Short, D. (2010). The SIOP Model for teaching English language arts to English learners. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Jennifer Himmel is the Project Director for the National Center for English Language Acquisition at the Manhattan Strategy Group. She previously served as the SIOP Manager at the Center for Applied Linguistics, a non-profit organization for language education research, policy, and practice in Washington, DC. She has served as a curriculum developer and research associate for the U.S. Department of Education funded project, Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) that is investigating academic achievement of ELLs in grades 4th-8th, and as a language testing specialist for the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs® language proficiency test. She currently manages the SIOP Model professional development service line and provides technical assistance and professional development in sheltered instruction to districts and schools.

Video Clips: Language Objectives

How to Write Language Objectives: Tips for ELL Educators

In this video from Syracuse, NY, Jesus Ortiz, a bilingual teacher, learns how to write a language objective from Areli Schermerhorn, a peer evaluator with expertise in ELL and bilingual education.

Dr. Cynthia Lundgren explains language objectives

In this excerpt from her Meet the Expert interview, Dr. Cynthia Lundgren explains the value of writing language objectives when teaching English learners.

Anstrom, K., DiCerbo, P., Butler, F., Katz, A., Millet, J., & Rivera, C. (2010). A review of the literature on academic English: Implications for K-12 English language learners. Arlington, VA: The George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence. Education.www.ceee.gwu.edu.

Echevarria, J., & Colburn, A. (2006). Designing lessons: Inquiry approach to science using the SIOP Model. In A. Lathman & D. Crowther (Eds.), Science for English language learners (pp.95-108). Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association Press.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. (2008). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP Model. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Echevarria, J., & Short, D. ( 2010). Programs and practices for effective sheltered content instruction. In California Department of Education (Ed), Improving education for English learners: Research-based approaches. Sacramento, CA: CDE Press.

Francis, D., Rivera, M., Lesaux, N., Kieffer, M., & Rivera, H. (2006). Practical guidelines for the education of English language learners: Research-based recommendations for instruction and academic interventions. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction. www.centeroninstruction.org/files/ELL1-Interventions.pdf

Goldenberg, C. (2008). Teaching English language learners: What the research does-and does not-say. American Educator, Summer 2008, pp. 13-44.

Gottlieb, M., Cranley, E., & Cammilleri, A. (2007). Understanding the WIDA English Language Proficiency Standards: A resource guide. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, on behalf of the WIDA Consortium.

Short, D., Himmel, J., Gutierrez, S., & Hudec, J. (2012). Using the SIOP Model: Professional development for sheltered instruction. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (2007). WIDA English Language Proficiency Standards. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, on behalf of the WIDA Consortium http://www.wida.us/standards/elp.asp

You are welcome to print copies or republish materials for non-commercial use as long as credit is given to Colorín Colorado and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact [email protected] .

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Language Objectives: The Key to Effective Content Area Instruction for English Learners

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This article provides an overview of how to use language objectives in content-area instruction for English learners and offers classroom-based examples from different grade and subject levels.

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Crafting Language Objectives for English Language Learners (ELLs)

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Crafting Language Objectives for English Language Learners (ELLs)

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This website focuses more on how to create a language objective. It is all about aligning it with the content objective, the level of the students proficiency, and identifying the specific domain (speaking, writing, reading, listening).

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Ellevation: ML Program Management Tools for K-12

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The introduction of new standards for English Language Learners has resulted in an increase in rigor and a focus on academic language. With this shift, language service models that isolate language objectives from content, such as pull-out or ESL classes, are becoming less common as school districts refocus on language instruction that is embedded within high-quality, well-scaffolded content instruction.

When creating content-based language instruction, educators must develop unit and lesson content that allows ELs to access the same rigorous, standards-based, grade-level content. In particular, educators need to develop content-based language objectives, which clarify how students will develop language within content instruction.

Alison Balter, an EL leader from Lawrence Public Schools in Massachusetts, worked with Jordan Meranus to share effective strategies that she uses to develop language objectives and integrate them into lessons and units. Below we have outlined some of these key strategies.

What are language objectives?

Language objectives clarify how language instruction is integrated with content, and specifically identify:

1. The way ELL students will use language objectives to engage with the content of the lesson and accomplish the content objectives

2. The specific components of academic language (vocabulary, language structures, etc.) that students will need to learn to accomplish the language objectives

With advanced planning, language objectives help to identify the scaffolds that teachers must have ready to support differentiated instruction for their ELs.

How do I create language objectives?

When creating language objectives you should begin by clarifying and identifying the following:

Content objective - identify the content objective that you plan to supplement with language objectives. While you may not create a language objective for every content objective, Alison recommends that you identify the "power objectives", or essential objectives, within a broader unit and use those to create language objectives.

Knowledge of ELL Student Levels - build an understanding of students' language proficiency levels so that you know how to adjust the language objectives, differentiate instruction, and apply accommodations for multilingual learners.

Domain - identify the domain (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing) that you plan to focus on. It often helps to think about what you are asking students to do (e.g., a debate-focused content objective would lend itself to a Speaking language objective).

Next, you will use this key information to craft a language objective composed of the following three components:

1. Language function - the purpose of the language or linguistic processes required in conveying a message, which includes a verb or action that describes what a student should do (e.g., identify, interpret, evaluate, describe)

2. Support - identifies the supports and scaffolds (sensory, graphic, interactive) that the students will need (e.g., vocabulary sheets, visuals, etc.)

3. Link to Content - the link to the content topic

Within this structure you will be able to adjust the language function and supports to match students' different language proficiency levels.

Content Objectives

SWBAT solve word problems involving unit rates

SWBAT justify their decisions based on unit rates in real-life scenarios (e.g., choosing which car to buy based on gas mileage in miles/gallon)

Language Objective -Levels 4-5
Create multiple paragraphs analyzing the effect of figurative language in a poem.

* Support was not provided, as most of the advanced students in this group were working at grade level.

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Crafting Language Objectives for English Language Learners (ELLs)

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The introduction of new standards for English Language Learners has resulted in an increase in rigor and a focus on academic language. With this shift, language service models that isolate language objectives from content, such as pull-out or ESL classes, are becoming less common as school districts refocus on language instruction that is embedded within high-quality, well-scaffolded content instruction.

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Encouraging and Sustaining ELL Parent Engagement

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Encouraging and Sustaining ELL Parent Engagement

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This article talks on the importance of parents being involved in an ELL students education and learning. It talks about different ways to get parents to participate, be engaged, and looking for alternative ways for involvement.

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Encouraging and Sustaining ELL Parent Engagement

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The following strategies offer tips for thinking creatively about how to engage families around topics or activities that are important to them and their children.Supporting immigrant familiesFor related ideas, see the following:Ten Strategies for Supporting Immigrant Students and FamiliesHow to Support Immigrant Students and Families: Strategies for Schools and Early Childhood Programs10. Look for ways that ELL parents can help with children’s schoolworkDownload PDF versions:This article >Full guide >A. What you need to knowELL parents may feel intimidated by or unprepared to help with homework or other schoolwork, especially if they have limited educational or English skills (Zarate, 9). You can help them understand their important role in supporting their child’s success, however, with a few simple suggestions. (Related video: Reaching out to families, Kevin Eberle)B. ReflectionWhat kinds of support do you expect your parents to give their children in terms of schoolwork? What kinds of resources and educational background (and language skills) do parents need in order to give their children that help? What are other ways parents can help?C. StrategiesEncourage parents to:Provide a place where children can do their homeworkCheck that homework is completed each nightAsk their children to tell them about what they learned each dayKeep in regular contact with a teacher or staff member about their child’s progressAsk teachers about any questions that ariseLearn more about homework help programs through before-/after-school programs and the public libraryRead and tell stories in their native language.D. ExampleMarty Izaguirre is an ELL teacher in Okatie, South Carolina. Her elementary school holds Family Literacy Nights, which take place after school every other month and provide working parents with an opportunity to read to their children in both English and Spanish. Once parents come in, they find read-aloud circles (where teachers read books aloud to a small group), as well as areas where they can go and read with their child separately. The variety of activities provided to the parents allows them to join in an activity in which they feel comfortable. Adults and children are allowed time and space to read together. The school also provides an opportunity for parents and children to create their own special bookmark as they enjoy some refreshments. The events offer parents an opportunity to meet other parents, show their children the importance of reading, and learn how to support literacy development at home (Izaguirre, 2006).11. Look for ways that ELL parents can participate and volunteerA. What you need to knowThere are a number of ways to include parents in the school community and to bring them together with other families at the school. This might include school visits, volunteering, or activities that draw upon their skills and hobbies.B. ReflectionHow likely are ELL parents at your school to sign up for events or volunteer? Do they know about all of the opportunities at the school? Are there certain events or places in the school where your active parents tend to gather? Do you know what skills and talents they might have to offer?C. StrategiesInvite parents to visit the school and their child’s classroom regularly (Houk, 66).Invite parents to speak with their child’s class about their native country, a hobby, or their job.Encourage teachers to have an inviting activity ready for visiting parents.Encourage parents to volunteer in the classroom, main office, lunchroom, or library; during events or field trips; or in a student club or after-school program (Meyers, 45). (Keep in mind that volunteering may include simple things like preparing items for an activity — such as cutting out shapes and organizing supplies.) Find out what your parents’ skills and hobbies are, and look for ways to draw on their talents.Find ways to bring ELL and non-ELL families together through student performances, a student cultures night, storytelling, workshops, and exhibits (Meyers, 46). Your families might just realize that they have more in common than you — and they — originally thought!D. ExamplesIndiana teacher Miriam Soto-Pressley invites the parents of her ELLs into her classroom during reading time. The parents follow along with their children and they learn about read-alouds and how to interact with text. This helps them work with their children at home to increase reading comprehension.A group of Latino parents at a preschool center in Florida who frequently sat outside in the sun waiting for their children each afternoon built a parent gazebo for the center, as well as a butterfly garden (Alvarado, 2010).Following the arrival of a new group of students from El Salvador and Puerto Rico to a school in Massachusetts, a group of teachers decided to organize a school play that would be performed in Spanish. They distributed bilingual flyers to tell parents about auditions and asked parents to help with costumes and refreshments (based on earlier conversations they had had with the parents). On opening night, the auditorium was filled, and the school held multiple performances to accommodate parents’ different work schedules. Word soon spread around the community about the play, and the students were invited to perform at other schools. By the final performance, more parent volunteers were participating in the school community than at any other time in the school’s history (Zacarian, 119).12. Think outside the box about parent engagementA. What you need to knowOne of the most important steps in engaging ELL parents is to realize that they may be coming from a very different cultural perspective when it comes to the educational system and their role in their child’s education (Houk, 60). This may be due, in part, to:Deep respect for teachers: Many ELLs come from cultures which revere teaching and where the teachers are considered the experts, not the parents. As a result, parents may be reluctant to ask questions so as not to question the teacher’s authority, or they may assume that the schools don’t want them to “interfere” in their child’s education. Upon arrival in the U.S., newcomer parents may wonder why they are suddenly a school partner, and why in fact the school is asking the parent to do the teacher’s job. As Betty Alford and Mary Catherine Niño note in Leading Academic Achievement for English Language Learners: A Guide for Principals, you wouldn’t expect a doctor to ask the parents which medical procedure they would recommend for their child (80), and ELL parents may feel the same way about what their school is asking them to do.Education vs. educación: These parents are likely to see an entirely different role for themselves in their child’s education (Hori, 40). For Latino families, the idea of educación focuses on a child’s personal and moral development, which has an important impact on the child’s academic development. The authors of Understanding Latino Parental Involvement in Education: Perceptions, Expectations, and Recommendations note that, when asked, ”(Latino) parents believed that monitoring their children’s lives and providing moral guidance resulted in good classroom behavior, which in turn allowed for greater academic learning opportunities (9).“The group vs. the individual: It’s also important to keep in mind that many cultures outside of the U.S. are oriented more towards the group (the family, the class, the society, etc.) than the individual. In their book Managing Diverse Classrooms: How to Build on Students’ Cultural Strengths, Carrie Rothstein-Fisch and Elise Trumbull explore this concept as it relates to the Latino ideas of educación:One’s social behavior in a group (such as the family or the classroom) is of paramount concern; being a respectful contributor to group well-being rather than focusing on one’s own achievement is highly valued. So when immigrant Latino parents come for a parent-teacher conference, their first question is likely to be ”¿Cómo se porta mi hijo/hija?” (“How is my son/daughter behaving?”). A teacher may find it difficult to stifle her consternation after hearing the same question from 25 or 30 sets of parents, believing that all the parents care about is their child’s behavior, when the teacher’s goal is to discuss the child’s academic progress (13-14).Nevertheless, what looks like a lack of interest to the teacher actually reflects a deep interest on the part of the parent in the child’s personal development and how this will affect the child’s ability to be successful in the classroom.B. ReflectionMake a list of five things you hope or expect that “involved” parents will do at your school. What do parents need to know in order to participate in these events? What challenges might ELL parents face in participating in these events?C. StrategiesForm small focus groups with ELL parents and an interpreter. Ask the parents:How they define their role in their child’s educationWhat their concerns, priorities, and hopes are regarding their childWhat kinds of events they would be interested in attendingThe obstacles that discourage them from participating and changes that would helpEvents where being part of a larger group might make them feel more comfortable.D. ExampleCarrie Rothstein-Fisch and Elise Trumbull share the example of a teacher who redesigned her parent-teacher conferences into group conferences for her Latino parents. She divided children by ability levels and met with the parents of children in similar levels at the same time. She also offered both English and Spanish groups. She explained report card formats, grading, her expectations for students, and what parents could do to help. Parents then had the opportunity for a personal consultation after the group discussion. One of the key benefits was that parents’ questions helped each other as they felt confident to speak up in a less threatening environment. She saw all twenty-eight parents in three days (62).13. Consider alternative schedules, locations, and kinds of eventsA. What you need to knowSometimes, when families can’t come to the school, the school has to go to the families. Meeting families in other settings such as community centers or churches can provide an informal way to start building a relationship, especially if ELL parents feel shy or nervous about going to the school. In addition, going into the community indicates a strong level of commitment on the part of the school to the families (Alford & Niño, 86). You might also try planning parent or family events around the schedules of the families, especially if they are working a couple of jobs or shifts.B. ReflectionDo you experience low attendance at family events held at school? Have you ever held any school events in the community? Were they successful? Why or why not?C. StrategiesVisit your students’ neighborhoods. Find out where families are congregating and who local community leaders are that can connect you with parents.Collaborate with apartment complex managers to make a recreation room available for families.Plan events in the community and put them on the school calendar before the school year starts, setting aside funds, such as Title I or Title III grants, to provide support for the events.Consider giving parents a few different options for meeting times based on teacher availability.Consider contacting parents’ employers about parent schedules or holding conferences closer to parents’ workplaces.Don’t limit yourself to meetings. Ask your families what kinds of events they would find enjoyable, beneficial, and convenient.Consider group parent-teacher conferences. Families may feel more comfortable in a group, and it can be an efficient option -- you provide the key information once, and then can have brief conversations with individual parents.D. ExamplesIn Philadelphia, a preschool held a parent meeting in the afternoon for parents who worked in the food service industry in the evening. More than twenty parents (mostly fathers) came to the meeting (Alvarado, 2010) to discuss their children’s preschool program.In Oregon, parent liaison Ma’Lena Wirth wrote a letter to her parents’ employers, sharing her goals for building a stronger partnership with the families and explaining that most parents couldn’t attend conferences due to their work schedule. As a result, the employer agreed to give parents time off for school events if the events started after the employer’s busy season.In New York, Susan Lafond held parent-teacher-translator conferences at the food court where her students’ parents worked so that parents could take turns coming to meet with her.In Colorado, Becky Corr made an appointment at the salon where her student’s father worked with him specifically to talk about the student’s college application.In California, a group of teachers organized a meeting for the school’s Hmong and Cambodian parents (whose people had been farmers for many generations), in which they would discuss the creation of a new school garden. The teachers were disappointed when just a few parents attended the meeting, and they took that as a sign that there was little interest in the garden. On garden day, however, eighty family members arrived with hoes and dug up the garden in a single day. As one of the parents said, “We don’t do meetings. We do gardens” (Ferlazzo, 45).14. Look for the successesA. What you need to knowEncourage your staff to look for all of the different ways, big and small, that ELLs’ families (including parents, siblings, grandparents, and other relatives) support their children’s well-being and education. For example, different relatives may be involved in taking the children to school and picking them up, providing child care, or making sure that they are getting fed and getting a good night’s sleep. While we expect all families to manage these responsibilities, ELL families may be going to extraordinary lengths to meet their children’s basic needs. In addition, older ELLs have a lot of responsibilities in their family, including working, taking care of siblings, and translating for their parents. What looks like laziness, irresponsibility, or absenteeism may in fact be the result of a lot of responsibility at home.Some of the successes and strengths of ELL students and families may include:Commitment to the family’s well-beingHigh expectations for childrenMaking education a priorityRespect for the teacherGood attendance and behaviorWell-developed cooperation skillsA strong sense of responsibility one’s self and othersResourcefulnessNote: ELLs’ parents might be largely absent from the picture, whether it’s because of difficult work schedules or a family separation (or worse) that happened before moving to this country.B. ReflectionWhat is a typical day like for your ELL students? Does that differ from the typical day of your other students? Where are they sleeping? Who is taking care of them? How do they get to school every day? What do they do after school? What challenges are they facing in their daily lives?C. StrategiesLearn what you can about your ELLs’ routines (which will vary tremendously), including the responsibilities they have in their families. Share what you learn with your staff (observing confidentiality rules) and encourage your staff to look for all of the ways, big and small, that ELLs’ families and extended families are supporting their children’s well-being and education.Find out whether these responsibilities are taking a toll on students’ school work or health, and if so, brainstorm some ideas with staff members about possible solutions.D. ExamplesSusan Lafond notes that her elementary ESL teachers had students whose families brought them to the restaurant or family store where they worked so the children wouldn’t be home alone. The kids helped out on the phone or register and did homework until the parents closed for the evening, which was often 9:00 PM or later.Kristina Robertson remembers a 3rd-grade student named Lisbeth. Lisbeth was very conscientious and came to school with neat clothing, clean and braided hair, and notebooks and pencils ready to go. When the staff did home visits, they were welcomed graciously by Lisbeth’s parents to their home. In the apartment for a family with four children, the only furniture consisted of two chairs, a kitchen table, and a mattress. The parents spoke about the importance of their children’s education and explained that every night they had their children do their homework at that kitchen table even though the parents didn’t understand English. The teachers, who had been unaware of the family’s limited circumstances, were incredibly moved by what they saw and developed a new appreciation for the parents’ commitment to their children’s education.Kristina also shares the experience of a 2nd-grade student who was missing school frequently. Kristina soon discovered that she was helping her mom (a single mom) babysit her younger siblings since they didn’t have regular childcare. The staff met with the mom and helped her find resources to provide affordable childcare support.Finally, Kristina remembers her high school students who attended school from 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.., and then worked from 4:00 p.m. until midnight. All of their money supported their relatives here and in their home country, so they never had extra money (or time) for special activities. Homework was a struggle, but in Kristina’s eyes, her colleagues’ attitudes were the most difficult challenges to overcome. Once teachers discovered why the students were coming to class so tired and how hard they were working, however, they worked to modify assignments and help the students.< Communicating Important InformationParents as Leaders >

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Supporting EL students and families to boost learning

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Supporting EL students and families to boost learning

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This article begins with the research behind supporting ELL students and their families. It then begins with partnering with the parents in the success and support of their child, as well as resources for them.

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Supporting EL Students and Families to Boost Learning

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Supporting EL students and families to boost learning

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Developing Aural and Oral Skills of Beginner Learners of English as a Foreign Language Through Explicit Metacognitive Strategies Training

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Developing Aural and Oral Skills of Beginner Learners of English as a Foreign Language Through Explicit Metacognitive Strategies Training

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This research paper talks about the oral skills of beginning ELL students and the different metacognitive strategies. The goal is to teach these students until they become proficient enough to teach themselves.

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Adapting Classroom Assessments for English learners

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Adapting Classroom Assessments for English learners

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This resource is excellent on making sure your classroom is effective for ELLs and by doing that having fair summative assessments. This document lists various types of summative assessments, how to grade them, etc.

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Next-Generation Summative English Language Proficiency Assessments for English Learners

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Next-Generation Summative English Language Proficiency Assessments for English Learners

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This document talks about the importance of summative assessments for ELL students, but how it is difficult to create a test that you see as fair in content and in their language proficiency. It also gives tips on creating summative assessments for ELL students and how to create a fair environment.

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Using Formative Assessment to Help English

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Using Formative Assessment to Help English

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This document is all about the importance of using formative assessments with ELL students to document how they are progressing in their proficiency. Formative assessments don't hold the intensity that a summative assessment does, so it gives the children a chance to try without the fear being there.

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Supporting English Language Learners with Formative Assessments

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Supporting English Language Learners with Formative Assessments

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This article focuses on where to start with formative assessments, effective practices, collaboration, and ideas. Some of the ideas that this article offers are: journals/logs, exit slips, student teacher conferences, drawing, role playing, etc.

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By Sarah Ottow
The Latin root word for "assessment" is assidere which means to sit beside. In my work as an English Language Learner (ELL) specialist, I advocate for educators to intentionally sit beside their students to more deeply understand and support their learning trajectory at the classroom level. That is to say, I strongly advocate for an intentional formative assessment approach for ELLs.
Schools can go beyond traditional summative and interim measures to ensure a more balanced assessment approach that brings to light the nuanced and complex process of academic language development. By implementing formative assessments for ELLs, educators can develop a "language lens" that uncovers and showcases the growth of this culturally and linguistically diverse population.

Where do we start?

First, we can examine what comprises our current assessment systems in place. We have large-scale, "big data" summative assessments that give us "big data" once a year on student proficiency. We also have interim assessments that measure growth against benchmarks periodically throughout the year, often with the audience largely being district and school-level stakeholders.
These summative and interim assessments provide "snapshots" of ELL performance and are not always reliable or valid on the ELL population. Therefore, we need to ask ourselves if we have systemic, systematic formative measures in place that provide feedback on teaching and learning specifically for our ELLs? Do we have a "photo album" approach of ELL development? If not, we can add specific formative practices into our assessment system that celebrate student growth and provide next steps for instruction at the classroom level.

What are some effective formative assessment practices for ELLs?

What's important to remember is that formative assessment is flexible and intended to focus on feedback for both the teacher and the student. As an initial step, I highly recommend that teachers keep portfolios of student writing samples to show individual student growth over time. Through portfolios like journals and learning logs, student work can be the centerpiece in conferences and school data meetings.
Next, I suggest that teachers work with students to co-create appropriate goals for using more sophisticated academic language. It's critical to promote student ownership of the assessment process through goal setting, self-assessment as well as peer assessment opportunities.

How can collaboration strengthen formative assessment?

A critical step in strengthening ELL formative assessments is to create and sustain collaborative time to analyze student work. Evidence-based conversations between educators about what students are producing can directly lead to ideas for effective student feedback and instruction. Professional learning communities are also opportunities for collaboration with ELL specialists to deepen content teachers' understanding of language and literacy. One final tip is to consider building data walls of multiple measures of ELL data quarterly to facilitate data-driven coaching cycles and team planning. In these ways, we can offer a "photo album" approach to show progress over time, celebrating students' journey of academic language development.

We know that ELLs are a diverse group of students with unique assets and varying factors affecting academic performance. Many educators need support in reaching ELLs and teaching academic language yet they often don't know where to start. By implementing more formative assessments for ELLs with the appropriate language supports, teachers can better understand their students and become stronger teachers of academic language. After all, all teachers are indeed language teachers!

Formative Assessment Ideas

Journals or learning logs to show growth over time in a portfolio

Academic conversations to explain new learning

Cornell notes or graphic organizers to structure note-taking

Student-teacher conference or small group discussions to recount learning

Exit slips to show "I think..", "I wonder...", "I still want to know..."

Fill-in-the-blank or "cloze" activity using sentence frames

Reciprocal teaching

Recording student language through technology

Drawing or role playing

Gallery walk of student work where students give each other feedback on stickies

Word or concept sorts based on unit themes or student-created categories

One word or one phrase response using whiteboards

Self-checklist or peer-checklist

Label or sequence visuals like pictures, photos or realia (real life objects)

Student-generated questions for peers

This blog is part of the Supporting English Language Learners Series with support from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. For more, stay tuned for the culminating podcast, infographic and publication.
For more, see:
Sarah Ottow is the founder, director and lead coach at Confianza: Educating for ELL Equity. Follow Confianza on Twitter: @ELL_Confianza Stay in-the-know with all things EdTech and innovations in learning by signing up to receive the weekly Smart Update. This post includes mentions of a Getting Smart partner. For a full list of partners, affiliate organizations and all other disclosures please see our Partner page.

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Supporting English Language Learners with Formative Assessments

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By Sarah Ottow - By implementing formative assessments for ELLs, educators can develop a "language lens" that uncovers and showcases their growth.