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Language Portraits

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Culturally Responsive Teaching

A fun and meaningful activity can help early elementary students appreciate the different languages in their backgrounds.

Language diversity has never been more real in classrooms around the world. With globalization comes increased mobility, and the language of instruction may not be the one our students choose when they think; speak to their parents, grandparents, and friends; watch TV; read; and listen to music. Acknowledging our students' language backgrounds and experiences can be powerful: Not only does it contribute to fostering a sense of belonging, but also it supports learners in building their self-identity and celebrating each other's differences. The question is: How can we do it in a meaningful and engaging way?

Language portraits support language-diverse classrooms
Courtesy of Bianca Starck
I've found that students can use language as a way to create a portrait of themselves. In my class, I have students make language portraits. Language portraits can come in different shapes and sizes, such as posters, collages, questionnaires, journals, and even poetry. The more creativity involved, the more likely students are to be engaged and share their narratives!

The language(s) I think in

The language(s) I use with my family and friends

The language(s) I am learning now

The language(s) I have picked up along the way

The language(s) I would love to learn

Their format is flexible and can be adapted to different contexts, school essential agreements, grade levels, and students' needs, to name a few. Through them, students are encouraged to inquire into how, when, and why they use certain languages. The language portraits all depend on the prompts, which can even be cocreated with students. They might include the following:

With my grade one students this year, the prompts included "Songs I sing," "Books I read," "The language I use with my family and friends," "Languages I know," "Movies I watch," and "My family photo." The students' colorful drawings and writings were a delight to look at, but, most important, their reflections resulted in many insights to support their learning and their sense of belonging.

1. To set the scene, we read Victor D. O. Santos's story, Little Polyglot Adventures: Dylan's Birthday Present as a group.

2. I modeled the making of my own language portrait while explaining how my language of preference varies according to what I'm doing and to whom I'm speaking.

3. In small groups, I sat together with my students to brainstorm and discuss the languages they're exposed to and use.

4. Ready, set, go: Students developed their language portraits.

5. My students proudly presented their productions by explaining each section of their language portraits. This was an essential part of the process; without it, a language portrait might be just one more task to be completed and forgotten forever.

6. Language portraits were displayed on the outside board as a celebration of their reflection and learning.

Language Portraits Have a 6-Step Process

Receiving a task to complete without any context or purpose is uninspiring, to say the least. Therefore, I planned a six-step process for the learning experience in my grade one class.

The process above worked very well for my context and age group and is not a fixed recipe or formula for success. I encourage teachers to think of their students when setting the mood and supporting students to reflect on their language backgrounds.

Language Portraits Help Guide Instruction

Through these presentations, I found out that my Indonesian student communicates in Indonesian with his Indonesian mother and French with his Madagascan father. Another student speaks Mandarin to their grandparents and is learning Korean by watching Korean dramas. English is the main language of instruction at school, but there could be other languages in my students' backgrounds.

Knowing this information guides me when choosing books for our reading corner, tales to read, and facts that will speak to them. It also helps me to connect with my students: One smiled from ear to ear one morning when I surprised him with a "Bonjour." Now, when we sing "Happy Birthday," we do so in all the languages represented in our class. Chaotic? Yes. Inclusive? Always!

Apart from the helpful data for planning, goal setting, and developing learning experiences that reflect my students' realities, language portraits have been equally valuable for my students. Most of them had never really thought about how the languages they speak make them multilingual or wondered where their communication preferences come from. Creating a language portrait is a powerful, reflective exercise of self-identity.

Language Portraits Have Lasting Benefits

My school saves students' language portraits in their digital portfolios, enabling teachers, families, and students to easily refer to them in the future and make comparisons. In the past, I placed them in students' pass-on files and physical portfolios, which they carried to other grades. The examples I've shared reflect my experience with grade one, but language portraits can be developed across a continuum, from early grades to high school, with different levels of support and guidance according to grade-level needs.

Language portraits have developed my first-grade students' understanding of their own language experiences and raised their awareness and appreciation of differences. My students support each other to communicate and are curious about how to say words in other languages. Those who are developing their fluency in English understand that they aren't alone and that most in our class come from diverse backgrounds.

Acknowledging and celebrating diversity fosters communication skills, confidence, and well-being. Above all, it helps students to be proud of themselves and their languages and to feel seen and valued-all of which are so important when building a culturally responsive learning community and preparing students for a multicultural world.

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Celebrating Linguistic Diversity in Your Classroom

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A fun and meaningful activity can help young learners embrace their own identities and develop an appreciation for their classmates' identities.

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Going beyond rhymes

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Storytelling through play

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In a kindergarten classroom at Pierre Elliott Trudeau Elementary School (PETES), in Gatineau, Quebec, an activity called Storyland provides teacher Heather Balson-Riosa with a rich backdrop to offer up playful natural materials and whimsical stations that will ignite creativity so that her students can build worlds-and then tell stories about them. "It's magical to them, and they love it," she says.

Oral storytelling is a bridge to literacy, and by tapping into the vivid imaginations of young learners, teachers can encourage exploration of fundamental story elements like character, setting, and plot-and set students up for reading and writing success.

The American Academy of Pediatrics' report on how play enhances development in young children (2018)

Kayleigh Skene, Christine M. O'Farrelly, Elizabeth M. Byrne, Natalie Kirby, Eloise C. Stevens, and Paul G. Ramchandani's meta-analysis and review on whether guidance during play can enhance children's learning and development in educational contexts (2022)

Rachel Parker, Bo Stjerne Thomsen, and Amy Berry's article on learning through play at school (2022)

Miriam Evans and Alyssa R. Boucher's article on how giving students choice supports their autonomy to foster motivation and engagement in learning (2015)

Erika A. Patall, Harris Cooper, and Susan R. Wynn's investigation of the effectiveness and relative importance of choice in the classroom (2010)

Sandra Laing Gillam et al.'s research on improving oral and written narration and reading comprehension of children at risk for language and literacy difficulties (2023)

Trina D. Spencer and Chelsea Pierce's article on the benefits of classroom-based oral storytelling for reading, writing, and social skills (2022)

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Building Literacy Skills by Sparking Imaginations

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When teachers provide activities that encourage kindergarteners to explore the elements of storytelling through play, they lay the foundation for reading and writing.

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Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

As school and district leaders work to address the learning impacts that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, broader and newfound equity gaps will undoubtedly emerge. With this in mind, a CDE-wide, cross unit team collaborated to curate internal and external* resources to assist educators in addressing these challenges. This page provides tools and resources to help educators bring an equity lens to their systems, policies, and everyday work.

Considerations
Apply principles of improvement science when seeking to address an inequity:

1. Make the work problem-specific and user-centered.

2. Variation in performance is the core problem to address.

3. See the system that produces the current outcomes.

4. Embed measures of key outcomes and processes to track if change is an improvement.

5. Engage rapid cycles of Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) to learn fast, fail fast, and improve quickly.

6. Embrace the wisdom of crowds. We can accomplish more together than even the best of us can accomplish alone.

7. Repeat.

Apply the following equity lens questions prior to making a policy or practice change:

Are the people most impacted meaningfully included in discussions and decisions?

What policies or practices contribute to the exclusion?

What are you already doing to promote inclusion?

Who is accountable for making changes that ensure inclusion?

How does our organization hold accountability to change practices?

Resources

Federal Resources

Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) - The CRDC collects data from a sample of school districts on key education and civil rights issues in our nation's public schools, including student enrollment and educational programs and services, disaggregated by race/ethnicity, sex, limited English proficiency and disability.

Race and National Origin Discrimination: Frequently Asked Questions - U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) - This resource page includes information about frequently asked questions regarding discrimination and harassment on the basis of race and national origin. This resources also provides Information about how schools are expected to respond under Title VI, which prohibits discrimination in educational programs and activities on the basis of race, color, or national origin.

State Resources

Colorado Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion - This page provides tools and resources to help all people throughout all levels of state government bring an equity mindset to their systems, policies, and everyday work as public servants.

Colorado Equity Toolkit for Administrators - This toolkit is designed to support administrators in creating a plan and action steps for intervention and maintenance of a more accepting culture.

Colorado Department of Higher Education Equity Toolkit - This toolkit focuses on introductory, beginner level strategies and techniques to help individual educators start to develop and refine their knowledge and skills to become more inclusive practitioners. The site is especially designed for individuals who have limited or no access to professional development related to inclusive teaching. Please note that the most effective professional development requires a skilled facilitator working with a group of educators.

Diverse and Learner-Ready Teachers (DLRT) Initiative - The network is working to revise, enact or remove state policies that will address specific challenges for both diversifying the educator workforce and ensuring all educators are culturally responsive in practice.

Online Instructional Resources for English Learners - To assist the education community or the general public with resources for English learners, the Colorado Department of Education's (CDE) Office of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education (CLDE) has identified instructional resources for English learners on this site which provides links to external websites.

Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Colorado Public Schools - This committee is tasked with creating a resource bank and making recommendations to the State Board of Education about the knowledge and skills that students should acquire related to Holocaust and Genocide studies, including but not limited to the Armenian genocide.

History, Culture, Social Contributions, and Civil Government in Education Commission - During the 2019 legislative session, the Colorado General Assembly passed House Bill 19-1192 concerning the Inclusion of Matters Relating to American Minorities in the Teaching of Social Contributions in History and Civil Government in Public Schools. This legislation creates a Commission appointed by the Governor, the Commissioner of Education, and the President of the State Historical Society.

Western Education Equity Assistance Center (WEEAC) at Metropolitan State University of Denver - An Equity Assistance Center funded by the United States Department of Education under Title IV of Civil Rights Act of 1964. This center provides training and technical assistance on educational issues related to race, sex, national origin, and religion. In addition, WEEAC has an emphasis on the prevention of bullying and harassment in schools.

Resources for Educators
*This list does not comprehensively cover all external organizations related to this topic. The details provided regarding external organizations are provided for information only. The Colorado Department of Education does not endorse, represent, or warrant the accuracy or reliability of any of the information, content, services, or other materials provided by these educational service providers. Any reliance upon any information, content, materials, products, services, or vendors included on or found through this listing shall be at the user's sole risk.

Learning for Justice - Learning for Justice provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use their materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

¡Colorín Colorado! - The premier national website serving educators and families of English language learners (ELLs) in Grades PreK-12. Colorín Colorado has been providing free research-based information, activities, and advice to parents, schools, and communities around the country for more than a decade.

Seizing the Moment: A District Guide to Advance Equity Through ESSA - The Aspen Institute - This tool was developed to offer district/system teams with guidance around ensuring equity is advanced through ESSA. Eight major issues are addressed: (1) leveraging school improvement to advance equity (2) ensuring equitable funding (3) increasing access to advanced coursework (4) addressing disproportionate discipline practices (5) increasing access to effective teachers and leaders (6) integrating social, emotional and academic development (7) supporting English learners & (8) improving access to high-quality instructional materials.

The Nonprofit Association of Oregon Equity and Inclusion Guide - This comprehensive handbook helps staff and management of municipalities view their planning and program development and delivery activities to ensure they are inclusive of the full diversity of residents.

K-12 Equity Directors: Configuring the Role for Impact - This brief draws from qualitative interviews we conducted with 13 practicing equity directors from districts across the United States. Since 2016, we have been studying equity directors - who they are, what they do and how- the districts that employ them, and the constraints and affordances of their roles. This series of research briefs informs community and district-based stakeholders about this emerging district leadership role.

Memberships

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Equity Resources for Districts and BOCES

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As school and district leaders work to address the learning impacts that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, broader and newfound equity gaps will undoubtedly emerge. With this in mind, a CDE-wide, cross unit team collaborated to curate internal and external* resources to assist educators in addressing these challenges.

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Bilingual site for educators and families of English Language Learners

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A bilingual site for educators and families of English language learners

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The 2012 Amplification of the WIDA English Language Development Standards, Kindergarten-Grade 12, represented the social, instructional, and academic language students might need to engage with peers, educators, and the curriculum in schools. The 2012 Amplification included examples of how language could be processed or produced within a particular context through Model Performance Indicators (MPIs). MPIs were meant to be examples and not fixed guidelines of the language with which students may have engaged during instruction and assessment.
WIDA intends to fully retire the 2012 Amplification of the WIDA English Language Development Standards, Kindergarten-Grade 12. However, we recognize that all member SEAs have different timelines for implementation of the WIDA ELD Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. With that in mind, the 2012 Amplification will remain in the Resource Library so that educators whose SEAs are still using it may access it as needed.
Resource Details View Download Now

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The 2012 Amplification of the WIDA English Language Development Standards, Kindergarten-Grade 12, represented the social, instructional, and academic language students might need to engage with peers, educators, and the curriculum in schools. The 2012 Amplification included examples of how language could be processed or produced within a particular context through Model Performance Indicators (MPIs).

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Student Data Collection including Children

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Student Data Collection including Children

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Tracking information related to their learning teaches students useful data skills and guides them to work on goal-setting.

Jedi Noordegraaf / Ikon Images

At the beginning of the school year, it can feel like we're endlessly assessing students. Especially with our youngest learners, we want to monitor their progress in phonological awareness, letter names, letter sounds, sight words, blending, etc. Trying to manage all of this data collection can feel overwhelming.

But imagine how process monitoring can change when students are engaged in data reviews and goal setting. Changing my mindset around data transformed data collection from a monotonous task to the best part of my day. The impact of these metacognitive strategies extended far beyond simply monitoring academic progress.

When I first identified the change I wanted to make in my classroom, I wondered where to begin. I found read-alouds to be the perfect place to start to discuss the " power of yet." There are so many amazing growth mindset texts. I chose to read and discuss two texts with my class: Giraffes Can't Danceand Jabari Jumps. After discussing what these characters couldn't do "yet," I read The Magical Yet to my students. We shared how we all have things we can't do "yet." To grow, we have to identify those things and work on them to get better.

The read-aloud discussions sparked a natural conversation about how to identify skills you're not good at yet. This created a natural bridge into discussing the why of assessments with my students.

Engage Students in the Data Collection Process

I started talking to my students about exactly what skill we were assessing during tests, how it would be measured, and what the results meant. We discussed the reason behind progress monitoring so that it wasn't a scary experience but instead an informative one for them and me. I found that this mitigated some of the stress or anxiety around testing because my students understood what the data meant. They also understood assessments as a formative way to see what they could and couldn't do yet.

To bring my students into the data-review process in an engaging way, I used graphs as a student-facing assessment tracker. When I was assessing sight-word fluency, I created a graph with 25 sections and had students color in how many phrases they read correctly. This allowed students to visualize the results of their assessment and better understand the skill they were working toward. This same technique could also be done with phonological awareness, reading comprehension, or fluency by simply adjusting the graph or visual to reflect the data collected.

Set Personalized Child-Centered Goals

After creating the visual representation of the data, I worked with my students in small groups to set SMART goals. I allowed them to analyze their own results and choose one goal they were interested in tracking. Although you may have multiple goals for your students, I found it was helpful to start by tracking one goal in a student-facing way so as to not overwhelm these young learners. If your students need a scaffold, you can provide them with a bank of options for goals or establish group goals based upon the data.

Make Data Visible in Child-Centered Ways

After students set their goals, you'll want to keep them motivated. Just like teachers have data meetings, you can have data meetings with your students. Think about the schedule for when you will reassess and how you will have students track their progress. In my classroom, I created data folders for each student where they could track their individual goals without the pressure of sharing them with others. Every Friday, we had goal-setting sessions where I would conference with students individually or in small groups. These meetings would last just a few minutes if one-on-one or about 15 minutes if in small groups. During these data meetings, we would either have a discussion about their progress or complete a reassessment to add new data to their tracker.

I found that these data sessions were most effective when we created a digital data-collection calendar so that my students could count down to their next progress-monitoring session. This helped prepare them for what to expect and also promoted authentic calendar skills as they identified how many days or weeks they had to practice before the next check-in.

Celebrate Success

The most important part of data monitoring and goal setting is celebrating successes. Students need to see their hard work paying off and recognize the feeling of pride within themselves. As students make progress toward their goals, provide them with opportunities to celebrate. One way we celebrated was by sending postcards home to students' families whenever they met a goal. This was a motivating way to bridge home-school communication, and it extended the celebration as students waited for the mailed postcards to arrive at their homes.

In addition to sending postcards home, students shared their progress during the fall and spring conferences. During student-led conferences, students shared the goals they worked on and explained their graphs or work samples that showed progress toward their goals. To prepare for this kind of data sharing, we practiced creating an agenda for the conference, using sentence starters about goals, and practicing with peers before presenting to families. This meaningful presentation of their data allowed students to develop the language to discuss their progress and future goals.

Turn boring data into advocacy opportunities: Instead of viewing assessments as simply a checklist of tests you have to complete, try framing assessments as an opportunity to promote natural discussions about feedback with students. I believe that goal setting is a metacognitive skill that needs to be taught, practiced, and discussed just as much as the academic skills that students are required to master. These techniques encourage perseverance, self-monitoring, and self-reflection. Transforming your current data-collection process will allow you to experience the joys of progress monitoring to make your students advocates in their own educational journey.

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How to Involve Early Elementary Students in Data Collection

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Involving students in the data collection process helps young children take ownership of their learning and achieve their goals.

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Harmony Curriculum™ provides Pre-K to 6th grade instructional tools and classroom resources to support healthy relationships and build social and emotional skills in students inside and outside the classroom.

Harmony Professional Learning™ (formerly known as Inspire Leading in Learning) supports and inspires the Whole Educator in Pre-K to 12th grade as they build instructional practices and healthy relationships in classrooms.

The Sanford College of Education's professional development website will guide you as an educator in understanding and providing Social and Emotional Learning. You will see SEL in action and get practical suggestions for immediate implementation.

The Fundraising Academy provides free, on-demand training for nonprofits and fundraising professionals on the cause selling approach to building and retaining donor relationships.

Harmony Curriculum™ provides Pre-K to 6th grade instructional tools and classroom resources to support healthy relationships and build social and emotional skills in students inside and outside the classroom.

Harmony Professional Learning™ (formerly known as Inspire Leading in Learning) supports and inspires the Whole Educator in Pre-K to 12th grade as they build instructional practices and healthy relationships in classrooms.

The Sanford College of Education's professional development website will guide you as an educator in understanding and providing Social Emotional Learning. You will see SEL in action and get practical suggestions for immediate implementation.

The Fundraising Academy Learning Portal provides free, on-demand training for nonprofits and fundraising professionals on the cause selling approach to building and retaining donor relationships.

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Register and Create Your FREE Profile SINGLE SIGN-ON: Once registered, use your login to access any of our Online Learning Portals. Already Registered? SIGN IN SIGNED IN Harmony Curriculum™ provides Pre-K to 6th grade instructional tools and classroom resources to support healthy relationships and build social and emotional skills in students inside and outside the classroom.

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https://wida.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/resource/WIDA-ELD-Standards-Framework-2020.pdf

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Multilingual learners are the fastest-growing demographic in K-12 classrooms (Language Magazine, 2018). Currently they make up 10.3% of the national student body (NCES, 2020) and are predicted to account for 25% of public school students in the United States by the year 2025 (Language Magazine, 2018). This trend doesn't just apply to urban schools, since the number of multilingual learners is also increasing quickly in suburban and rural settings, where the percentage of enrolled multilingual learners has risen at faster rates in these classrooms than in city schools (NCES, 2020; NCES, 2023). Among them is a group of multilingual learners known as newcomers; a term coined for students that recently arrived in the United States. These students come to the classroom with rich and unique experiences, but also with new and varied linguistic, academic and social-emotional needs.

Read on to learn the five ways you can help in welcoming newcomers into your classrooms with links to helpful resources after each strategy and how you can dive deeper with WIDA's virtual, self-paced offering - Newcomers: Promoting Success through Strengthening Practice. This workshop offers opportunities to reflect on learning practices in your individual teaching and learning context, create an atmosphere and system of shared responsibility and incorporate and build on the rich resources that multilingual newcomers bring.

When your multilingual newcomers and their families join your school community, get to know them, as well as their abilities and strengths and consider what assets they are bringing to your teaching and learning setting. Family and student questionnaires, delivered in an accessible language and format, are great ways to gather this information! They can capture insights on unique experiences, personal interests, hobbies and skills, language, schooling backgrounds and potential resource-based needs.

Once the academic and linguistic screening is complete, adopt an asset-based, can do approach to identify areas in which your multilingual newcomer demonstrates abilities that can be capitalized on for language and content learning. Use student portfolios to highlight academic, linguistic, cultural and experiential assets that can be shared with fellow educators who will also be working with these students.

We know that language and content are not learned in isolation, yet the meaningful integration of language and content is not automatic. How do we draw on students' unique strengths and experiences to bring them into the content of our classroom and ensure accessibility to language and grade-level academic learning? There are several research-based instructional practices that have been found to encourage more equitable engagement and participation of newcomers in the classroom.

Here is a short list of some of these methods:

Culturally Responsive Teaching is important for newcomers as it encourages educators to focus on their students' wealth of assets, languages they speak and heterogenous perspectives they bring to classroom communities.

What is Culturally Responsive Teaching? Education Week Article

Thematic instruction connects all curricula to a chosen theme, allowing students to see the "big picture" and patterns across academic disciplines. For newcomers, research suggests that the more students participate in diverse engagements around a unified theme, the clearer their understanding of ideas and relationships will become.

How do I implement thematic instruction? Colorín Colorado

Structured teaching protocols, including highly structured environments, high-impact teaching and highly structured activities encourage educators to be intentional about learning environments, activities and multimodal supports for communication.
Highly Structured Approach - Open Library Ed Guide
Translanguaging is a nuanced, multilingual practice. Through translanguaging, students make use of their full linguistic skillset creating connections between languages and extending repertoires.

Be multimodal! "In addition to the use of spoken and written language, students also communicate through gestures, facial expressions, images, equations, maps, symbols, diagrams, charts, videos, graphs, computer-mediated content and other means." (p. 19, WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition)
WIDA ELD Standards Framework, 2020 Edition
ELD Standard 1, Language for Social and Instructional Purposes, extends beyond the other ELD Standards Statements, applying universally across educational settings. It addresses multilingual learners' diverse backgrounds, identities and their significance in content comprehension. A crucial aspect of ELD Standard 1 is that it emphasizes the language skills essential for both social interaction and academic engagement within classroom communities. For that reason, educators must consistently ensure that students possess the linguistic tools required to fully participate in classroom activities and learning.

With that in mind, we should always ask ourselves, "Did I equip my students with the tools to be successful in understanding and using language necessary to access, participate and equitably engage in the activities and content learning taking place in the classroom?"

To explore how considerations for ELD Standard 1 informs our work with multilingual learners in classrooms across the K-12 sphere, check out the grade-level cluster-specific versions of the 2020 Edition below.

Creating a welcoming and secure environment for newcomers and their families starts from the moment they arrive at the school. Tailoring enrollment systems, policies and practices to multilingual newcomers ensures clarity and equity in navigating school procedures. Familiarizing them with these processes enhances their comfort, equips them for social and academic success and promotes equitable access to school resources.

Additionally, fostering a sense of the classroom as a safe space is crucial. Multilingual newcomers must feel valued and supported within their classroom community before fully engaging in language and content learning. Despite the necessity of high grade-level expectations and authentic participation for equitable academic outcomes, achieving these goals can be challenging for newcomers requiring intentional support and understanding.

Actionable ways to encourage safe spaces at the classroom level include the following:

Acknowledge individual identities and strengths in classroom materials and décor.

Encourage translanguaging to deepen understanding of new content.

Structure group work to promote collaboration among diverse students.

Empower students with choices in their learning process.

Implement regular social-emotional check-ins and restorative conversations.

To foster inclusivity within our school community, consider

Gathering background information to inform decision-making

Providing professional development for staff

Ensuring accessibility to communication platforms and services

Offering supportive resources and clear signage in school buildings

U.S. Department of Education's Office Of English Language Acquisition's Newcomer Toolkit
Family Engagement page
Greater integration and collaboration challenges teachers to make meaning with multilingual learners as they expand their linguistic repertoire while learning rigorous, grade-level academic content. In today's educational landscape, everyone within the school community bears responsibility for the success of all students, valuing their diverse experiences and assets. When we come together - sharing our deep knowledge of students and content through our unique lenses - we build capacity to facilitate greater depth to content learning and greater breadth to language instruction. Fostering purposeful collaboration among stakeholders is a shared responsibility that supports our learners and is particularly essential for our multilingual newcomers to succeed across our nation's K-12 classrooms.

In the fully virtual, self-paced workshop, Newcomers: Promoting Success through Strengthening Practice, participants begin with an introductory opening module then choose their own adventure to continue down a pathway most relevant to their teaching and learning context. These strands include learning and thinking critically about newcomers through three different perspectives: collaborative school systems, school community considerations and administrators as change-makers.

The workshop includes insight from teachers, families and newcomer students themselves. It offers space and place for self-reflection, goal setting and check-ins for understanding of new learning, along with turnkey handouts and templates to integrate considerations for newcomers into school practices.
*Note: Workshops available in the Secure Portal may vary by state.
Ready to dive into a fully self-paced workshop? Follow the steps below.

1. Log in to your WIDA Secure Portal (Valid login required. Don't have an account yet? Visit your member/state page to learn how).

2. Go to "Professional Learning" in the Portal's main menu to view available virtual workshops.

3. Complete a self-paced workshop and print your certificate.

Questions? Contact the WIDA Client Services Center at (866) 276-7735 or help@wida.us.

Hussar, B., Zhang, J., Hein, S., Wang, K., Roberts, A., Cui, J., Smith, M., Bullock Mann, F., Barmer, A., and Dilig, R. (2020). The condition of education 2020 (NCES 2020-144). U.S. Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020144.pdf

Language Magazine. (2018, October 22). 1 in 4 students is an English language learner: Are we leaving them behind?. https://www.languagemagazine.com/2018/10/22/1-in-4-students-is-an-english-language-learner-are-we-leaving-them-behind/

National Center for Education Statistics. (2023). English learners in public schools. The Condition of Education 2023. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cgf

Lauren Bartholomae is a professional learning specialist on WIDA's Educator Learning, Research and Practice team. In this role, she engages in the development and facilitation of WIDA's professional learning with educators of multilingual learners across the consortium. Her research and work interests focus on special populations of multilingual newcomers and students identified as students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE), as well as utilizing STEM initiatives and project-based learning to bridge content and language learning in the K-12 classroom.

Elise Sheikh is a marketing specialist on WIDA's Communications and Marketing team. She collaborates with teams across the organization in the development and execution of communications for WIDA projects, products and services.

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Five strategies to welcome newcomers into your classroom

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Multilingual learners are the fastest-growing demographic in K-12 classrooms (Language Magazine, 2018). Currently they make up 10.3% of the national student body (NCES, 2020) and are predicted to account for 25% of public school students in the United States by the year 2025 (Language Magazine, 2018).

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What Is the SIOP Model?

The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model is a research-based and validated instructional model that has proven effective in addressing the academic needs of English learners throughout the United States.

The SIOP Model consists of eight interrelated components:

Lesson Preparation

Building Background

Comprehensible Input

Strategies

Interaction

Practice/Application

Lesson Delivery

Review & Assessment

Using instructional strategies connected to each of these components, teachers are able to design and deliver lessons that address the academic and linguistic needs of English learners.

Who benefits from SIOP instruction?

As the number of English learners increases in schools across the United States, educators are seeking effective ways to help them succeed in K-12 ESL, content area, and bilingual classrooms. Research shows that when teachers fully implement the SIOP Model, English learners' academic performance improves. Learn about the SIOP Model research base.

In addition, teachers report that SIOP-based teaching benefits all students, not just those who are learning English as an additional language.

SIOP instruction also benefits students learning content through another language. CAL has conducted research on adapting the SIOP Model for use in two-way immersion (dual language) programs.

To learn more about working with CAL, email the CAL SIOP team.

Spotlight

CAL collaborates with schools, states, and districts to design and conduct SIOP professional development programs that meet their particular needs. Informed by CAL's ongoing research, our experienced SIOP team can provide a range of services, including SIOP workshops, coaching, site visits, and technical assistance.

Learn more about our services.

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The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model is a research-based and validated instructional model that has proven effective in addressing the academic needs of English learners throughout the United States.

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#Translanguaging unpacked. #LinguisticLiberation allows us to leverage our ENTIRE linguistic repertoire because it is 🔥🔥🔥.  ¡No a la opresión lingüística! #LiberaciónLingüística #Spanglish #AAVE

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@josemedina1000
#Translanguaging unpacked. #LinguisticLiberation allows us to leverage our ENTIRE linguistic repertoire because it is 🔥🔥🔥. ¡No a la opresión lingüística! #LiberaciónLingüística #Spanglish #AAVE
♬ original sound - Dr. José Medina

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Academic Language and English Language Learners

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Academic Language and English Language Learners

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Delia Pompa: What is academic language? How do we move our English language learners beyond survival English? I'm Delia Pompa. Please join me for our next Colorín Colorado webcast, academic language for English language learners.

[music]

Narrator: Funding for this Colorín Colorado webcast is provided by the American Federation of Teachers with additional support from the National Council of La Raza.

Delia Pompa: Hello. I'm Delia Pompa. Welcome to the Colorín Colorado webcast series. Today we're going to talk about academic language for English language learners. Joining me is Dr. Robin Scarcella. She is the Professor and Director of the Program in academic language and ESL at the University of California Irvine campus.

So, long title. It must be an important topic. What is academic language?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Academic language is a language used in school context. It's the language of text. It's a language of prestige and power in the United States. And those who have acquired academic language tend to go on and become very successful in academic settings.

Unfortunately, those students who do not apply our academic language oftentimes fail and sometimes end up dropping out of school.

Delia Pompa: I believe you brought an example to share with us.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes, I did. I brought these two letters from my student Vaughn. Vaughn came from Vietnam at age five. And she went through all of our public schools. And you can see that she wrote this letter because she was really distraught. Because she'd been placed in a beginning level English as a second language writing course at the University of California Irvine.

I was the Director of the Program. And she was my student. She did not want to be in this class. And so she wrote this letter. And she actually brought all her work from her high school. And she had poetry to share with me. And she had essays and a variety of different written work.

All of which was written in a very interesting style of informal, everyday English. It wasn't academic. And so she wrote this beautiful letter saying that she had read many books, that she had written and spoken English since-she said-"since time I come to the U.S."

And all her friends speak English. She always speaks English with her friends in the dorm, and she "reads many book," she writes. "Please do not makes me lose the face. I have competent in English."

Delia Pompa: And so you then put her through a program of instruction.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Even though she received straight A's in English in high school, I had to put her in my ESL academic English sequence of three courses. And at the end of the year, she wrote the second letter.

Delia Pompa: And so, in the second letter, you could tell the difference.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: You can see this amazing difference in her vocabulary, in her grammatical development, even in her rhetoric. "Hi, Robin," she begins. And then she goes on and she asks for a letter of recommendation. Well, she does get this letter. She does actually get an internship in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: And then she goes on after she graduates from UCI into graduate school. And you can see what excellent English she uses. Now, is her English perfect? Native English? No, of course not. But it's very good.

Delia Pompa: She's got all the conventions. And she's got academic language.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: She can go into any field she wants to.

Delia Pompa: Now, this brings up the question about the difference between social language and academic language. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes. You can see that in social everyday English, it's possible to communicate imprecisely without using English grammatically correctly. You don't need articles, "the" and "a" to really show what you mean. You don't need to have prepositions or use the correct preposition in your language. You can use basic everyday words. You can make your language very colorful by using slang. You can avoid pronoun reference if you want to. Especially if the addressee already knows what you're talking about.

Delia Pompa: Do you need to get to a certain level of social language before you move onto academic language?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: What's interesting is in the United States, we believe that students must acquire informal English first and then they can acquire academic English afterwards. In reality, it's very helpful for students to be able to begin a conversation and keep it going, have those basic conversational skills.

But at the same time, we can be laying the foundation for academic language. We need not wait until students have completely mastered informal, everyday English.

Delia Pompa: Well, are there activities a teacher can plan to help a student understand the difference between social language and academic language?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes, there are. One of my favorite activities is giving students a passage of academic language and then a passage of informal language and comparing them step-by-step. So that students understand: "Wow. When I look at informal English, it uses a lot of repetition of words. And when I look at academic language, it has a variety of words and more sophisticated words.

When I look at informal English, it's perfectly fine to begin a sentence with the words "and" and "but." But when I look at academic language, academic language has transition words such as however and moreover and in addition.

When I look at informal English, I can use stuff and slang such as guy, cool, awesome. But when I use academic language, I avoid using slang." So there's big differences. And that's a great strategy, instructional strategy for teaching students to recognize the difference.

So I give them two passages, one informal, one academic. And then I have them get together in groups or with a pair, partner, and actually write out a list of the features that characterize these. I do this again and again. So that students understand that academic English is different from informal English.

Delia Pompa: Well, you've talked about some written examples. But you started to talk a little bit about oral examples. Is it mainly a written problem? Or does it show up in oral language also?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Teachers often think that academic English is not an oral problem. It's a challenge, both in writing and in speech. And it's very important that teachers scaffold students' development of oral academic language. So that they're able to participate in academic discussions and debates and make presentations in front of their peers.

Teachers can use a variety of activities to scaffold their production of academic language. One of my favorite ones is preparing students in advance to talk orally in front of others by having them partner up and actually teach them academic words and grammatical features that they might use in making an academic presentation.

And then the next step is, of course, having them practice these with their partner before they do the oral presentation.

Because too often teachers have students, English learners, make presentations when the students aren't prepared.

Delia Pompa: They have no practice in it.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: They need to practice, practice, practice.

Delia Pompa: Well, speaking of practice, I think we've come to understand that a knowledge of a student's ability to read in his native language has a lot to do with predicting how he's going to do in English. Is the same true for academic language?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Absolutely. We know that if students have acquired academic language in their first languages, for example, in Spanish and then they come to the United States, they are able to acquire academic language much faster than if they didn't know academic language in their first language.

Delia Pompa: What you've described, and you work with elder students, don't you?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes.

Delia Pompa: But we've heard that they are beginning to test younger students for academic language. When ideally should teachers begin to worry about English, academic language, and working with students?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: We need to be concerned about teaching academic language at all grade levels and in all proficiency levels as well. However, when students first come into kindergarten, we're not going to be teaching them very sophisticated ways of writing and ways of expressing themselves in English.

We're going to be teaching them grade appropriate kindergarten talk, setting the background, the foundation, of academic language. And so, yes, we're going to be teaching them the conversational skills of the kindergarten. But we're also going to be teaching them vocabulary that's going to help them to acquire academic language later on.

By the time children reach the fourth grade, we are going to be transitioning into teaching more sophisticated academic language skills. And once they reach high school, we're going to have to make sure that students know a large vocabulary of academic words used across academic disciplines. And they have access to and they're able to use more complicated grammatical structures.

Delia Pompa: Well, tell us a little bit more about how students of different ages need to learn different kinds of things.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes, it's important that we make our instruction absolutely age appropriate. So when working with the young children, kindergarteners, for example, we found that young children are great language learners. And they love to participate in instructional conversations that are specifically designed to teach academic words, language structures, even the discourse.

Delia Pompa: Just to help our viewers, can you give us an example of something that a young student might learn that's academic language versus what an elder student would learn?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Sure. A young child is often going to be participating in show and tell, for example. But there are very school based ways to participate in show and tell and ways that are very informal. And the steps of participating in a show and tell for a young child has to be made explicit.

Delia Pompa: Like what's a word you would use that's academic?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: So today I'm going to "share" with you. Okay? Not just "tell" or "say" or "talk" about.

Delia Pompa: Learned a new word there.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: I'm going to share a particular experience I have had. Okay. Now, you've used the words sharing and experience. And these are very age appropriate. And you they're sophisticated for a young child. What I wouldn't expect a young child to do is a literary, a complex literary analysis.

Delia Pompa: And would you expect an older student to do that?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Absolutely.

Delia Pompa: Okay.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Absolutely.

Delia Pompa: Well, you've presented a wonderful overview. So let's get into some of the detail. What areas of language are specific to academic language? Are there areas of language that are more specific to academic language say than social language?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes. All language proficiency consists of several different components. So when I think of language proficiency, I always start thinking of phonology, of phonological component. So in academic English, a young child, anybody, needs to know the phonological component consisting of the sounds of the English language.

And they would have to know how to spell in English and that's particularly important in academic language, but not so important in informal language. And they would have to know the phonological features of the English language.

For example to pronounce academic words. Knowing the difference, for example, between anthropology and a shift in stress, anthropological; morphology, morphological...

Delia Pompa: That's a good example. We don't often think that you have to learn the difference.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: No. And yet, English learners really do need to know these shifts in the stress. And so the phonological component is very important. Also, in addition to that, the vocabulary component. We're not going to see many changes in our students' test scores certainly on all of the academic tests we give until teachers teach vocabulary on an ongoing, everyday basis. Vocabulary's extraordinarily important in academic English.

Delia Pompa: Give me an example. Go back to anthropology, anthropological. How would a teacher actually teach that? Is that by teaching vocabulary? Is that by giving examples? What does a teacher do to do that?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: It's a very good question, Delia. I think the answer is the teacher is going to teach vocabulary systematically and make sure that the students don't just learn the meaning of words, but know how to use a word.

So in teaching anthropology, anthropological, I would have the students listen to the word and repeat it at least three times, anthropology, anthropology, anthropology. Use it in a sentence from their textbook. So they get to see the whole sentence as it occurs.

And then I would talk about it to teach them how I would use it, making up other sentences. And then I'd have them use it. And they'd use it not just alone. But they'd use it in a sentence with a partner. And I'd have to do this again and again and again.

Knowing that all language learners aren't great learners at language. But some students just need to have more practice using the language and practice using the language accurately, not incorrectly.

Delia Pompa:: There are so many aspects of language that second language learners need to develop and learn. How does a teacher choose what aspects of language to teach as academic language?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: When the teacher is choosing a reading passage and teaching reading, the students are going to be doing reading. The teachers, their primary concern is looking at those words and identifying the words that an English language learner is going to have difficulty understanding and will undermine the student's efforts to understand that text.

And oftentimes, that would be an academic word, not always. And it's really important for teachers of English learners to know that it might be important to identify an academic word such as stimulate if a student's having difficulty learning. Or it might be important for the teacher to identify a single preposition or an adverb such as "hardly" or a conjunction such as "and."

The student's having difficulty learning. And that will make a difference in the student's comprehension. That's different in production.

Delia Pompa: Would the teacher be so specific as to say here's "stimulate" and you use it here. Another way you say it is X. Is it that specific?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes, it's that specific. It's absolutely that specific. It would be good-if you're only trying to teach students the meaning of words. And this is the case when you native speakers. They need to just say stimulate means and you give a meaning and a definition.

But for English language learners, it's different. Because we want students not just to understand their text. This is where I was going with your question. But to be able to use the words in production. And we have been ignoring word use for a long time. And teachers really need to support the way students actually use words.

So when students are going to be talking about the text, they need to know how to use the words. A really good activity for doing that, for teaching students how to use new words, is to give students a word bank and then to talk about the words and how they're used in the text.

And then to talk about how the teacher uses the words. Then to give the students the words, the definitions and a model sentence. And say: turn to your partner and I would like you to use some of the words we've discussed in describing X, Y, or Z.

Delia Pompa: So it goes beyond definition.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Absolutely has to go beyond definitions if you want children to be able to use words accurately. And we do.

Delia Pompa: Thank you so much. That was a very good overview. Now we're going to take a look at a school in Oregon where teachers are working on pinpointing those key vocabulary words and where young children, English language learners, are working on reading comprehension as part of their academic language training. [music]

Narrator: To reach Heritage Elementary School, you have to travel thirty miles south of Portland, Oregon, past hazelnut orchards and Russian Orthodox churches.

Teacher: We have children who are ethnic Russians from Russia, from Argentina, Latvia, Tajikistan, Brazil, Turkey, China. Narrator: These kids can speak some English. But that's hardly enough to get by in school.

Teacher: One misconception is that people feel that once a child starts speaking English and communicating with basic oral communication in the playground or at school, that child is able to succeed academically.

Narrator: It's just not the case. Because what some call survival English is a long way from mastering even the third grade academic curriculum. For Linea Salzman, part of the job is teaching the kids one word at a time. First in their native Russian and then in English.

Student: Plemya in English it means "tribe."

Narrator: It's critical to be this explicit. Because Russian is so different from English.

Student: Totem pole.

Narrator: And the school is relentless in making sure their students understand what they read.

Teacher: Now, I'm not going to show you every picture in the book. I've chosen a few that I thought would really help us to explore this idea of fire.

Narrator: In Larry Connolly's class, the kids are doing what's called a picture walk. They use the picture and draw on their background knowledge to predict what the story will be about.

Teacher: Well I've got a big question for you guys. What do you think this is a story about?

Student: Don't use matches and lighters. Or else you're going to get burned.

Narrator: The work may seem painstaking. But Heritage is committed to creating readers who will have a deep understanding of what they read.

Teacher: So often, the kids move through the text so quickly that they're not understanding much. And so we're using those cognitive strategies as a way of slowing them down and getting them kind of invested in the text.

Delia Pompa: The last teacher, the teacher mentioned having students slow down and invest in the text. What are some of the strategies that help students do that and sort of acquire academic language? Certainly, the teacher doesn't say slow down and invest in the text. Not to the students anyway.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: No. A close reading of text is very important for English language learners who need to acquire academic language. A teacher can have the student choose a very short reading passage and read that passage aloud to the students. So that the students get the melody of the language.

Okay. Now, what the teacher is doing is slowing down. And then after the students hear the language, the teacher can explain what's in that very short reading passage and then ask the students to read it again this time focusing on a few very specific features of academic language. And, of course, the teacher doesn't say now I want you to look at academic language.

But instead, the teacher might say we're going to be looking at how this piece of writing flows by looking at pronouns. And we're going to be underlining the pronouns and drawing a circle around the noun to which they refer. Okay. In this way, the students are learning the pronoun reference system in English.

Which is a huge stumbling block. And it improves their reading comprehension. Because now they know exactly what the he/she, it/we/they refer to. There's other things that the teacher can do. One of the features of academic language are words and their associates, fixed expressions or collocations. We don't think about it.

Delia Pompa: Say that again? Fixed expressions and?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Fixed expressions that are also called collocations. These are words and their associates. They're words that go together. We don't often think about it. But certain words just go together.

Delia Pompa: Like what?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: We sayâ€¦ peanut butter and jelly. Well, there's no jelly and peanut butter. You say salt and paper, not pepper and salt. Mr. and Mrs., not Mrs. and Mr. It's important that students learn these fixed expressions.

Delia Pompa: They're markers of knowing a second language well.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: They're markers of knowing a second language well. And they help the student use the language precisely. And when they're not used precisely, a convention is broken. They're expected and preferred. And it irritates the native speaker when you go in.

Delia Pompa: So that's an interesting way of looking at academic language. In some ways, it's really speaking like a native speaker and being able to sort of go with the flow.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes, absolutely. It absolutely is accurately and effectively and obtaining your communicative objective. So reading closely a text and looking at pronominal reference is really important. Looking at the way synonyms are used. Looking at word families, dissecting the paragraph very carefully, and talking about it helps students to incorporate the language that the author is using into his or her speech.

So one of my favorite activities for getting students to use academic language is summarization. In summarization, what students do is they read a very short passage and they summarize it orally to a friend.

Now, this may seem boring to you or me. But it's a real challenge for a non-native speaker. What they do is they appropriate the author's language into their own. And they begin to acquire the language. Or they can change partners several times. And you can...you can actually hear them getting more and more fluent. And, of course, it always helps to model the paragraph to the students before they do this.

Delia Pompa: You know, I'm thinking as a potential instructor working with teenagers say and some of the strategies that you describe really make the student focus very intently on a sentence or a paragraph. What kinds of instructional tricks does the teacher pull out of her bag to help the student not get bored frankly? Because they're teenagers.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Right. With teenagers-teenagers are wonderful to work with because they have such inquisitive minds. And they're questioning everything. And so I would first of all explain, make it every very explicit, what the language objective is. So today, we are going to be working on academic vocabulary of this specific passage on poverty.

Teenagers, being very interested in equity issues, I would assume that this text on poverty goes along with something in the textbook. And we're going to be talking about ways to eliminate or to stop poverty. And so I would be having them summarize the text and then following that, I would give them some ideas for ways to stop poverty, some vocabulary and some complete sentences to really get them going in case they lack proficiency.

Then when they pair up, they have already acquired the language proficiency to participate in a discussion on the topic of how do you prevent poverty. Because now they know that you can say we can stop poverty by plus verb plus "-ing" doing the following. And then they can practice using those expressions in sentences and expressing their own beliefs-this is not boring to a partner before they participate in an oral discussion with the entire class or maybe even make a presentation in front of the class.

Students always perform to the expectations. We don't expect a lot of teenagers. We need to expect more. Once they know that we expect them to think critically about issues and to use academic language, they will do it. Especially when they know that we are going to scaffold and help them acquire the language first, give them adequate time to practice this in a safe environment in which they won't be intimidated and then perform in front of their classmates.

Delia Pompa: Now, I'm imagining you have some of those same skills you have to teach say to third graders. But you're going to have a different strategy. Do you have a different strategy at each grade level?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Absolutely. It has to be cognitively appropriate as well as linguistically appropriate. Also keeping in mind that the students affect as well, at these different grade levels. When teaching young children, young children are highly capable of learning language.

We can teach some features of the language very explicitly. We can say that two plus two "equals," with an "S," four. We can talk about the zzz sound of a bumble bee. And we can get little ones out of their seats and moving around which is what we need to do.

We can engage them in songs that present them with academic language and jazz chants as well. We can be using even total physical response at times to teach them some of the academic words they need to know.

We can teach them language games, language repetition. We can use choral repetition with little ones and direct instruction. Absolutely.

Delia Pompa: I can hear the wheels turning for teachers watching this thinking: All right, how am I going to incorporate this into my day? Should this be a separate block of time? Do you setup a separate block of time to teach academic language?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Absolutely. The reason we need to do this is if we don't give attention to academic language, it's easy to overlook it. Now, when you're teaching little ones K through three, I would absolutely make sure that they have access to the curriculum.

And in addition, give them that extra time to learn academic language that they so need. In addition to the core curriculum. And it needs to support that core curriculum, not be so different from it that it's yet more language that students need to have. But rather supporting that core curriculum.

When a child, however, comes in at grade four, that child is going to be so far behind in terms of learning the language needed to learn academic language in content areas. That student's going to need to have an intensive language program with lots and lots of instruction in the area of academic English.

Every single day, students need vocabulary instruction. Every single day if all of their content, they need reading comprehension instruction. And every single day, they need writing instruction. Every single day: writing. They should be writing every single day. As well as direct scaffolded instruction of oral language.

Delia Pompa: I have a couple of questions that come to mind. The first is you say every single day. For five minutes every single day? For twenty minutes every single day? How much time should we devote to this, should teachers devote to this?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Well, I think in the younger grades, students need English language instruction. The amount of time is going to vary according to their needs. So if students have instructional gaps in their education, of course, you're going to need to give them more English language instruction. Because you need to fill in these gaps.

But if they don't have instructional gaps and they come in in grades K through three, it might be enough to give them an extra forty minutes-a block of time each day of forty-five minutes. That might be just sufficient.

Once they get into the upper grades, they're going to need more time. More than an hour of daily English language instruction that includes a component of academic language.

Delia Pompa: You talked about setting up a separate block of time. I'm also imagining that during the content instruction time, you're going to infuse some of the academic language strategies in there. And let's pick writing. Because you had some examples earlier. What are some strategies teachers can infuse into the writing process to focus on academic language?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Great. Some very useful strategies for teaching writing, one is anytime you give a writing assignment, don't assume that the students have the language in order to accomplish-to write the assignment.

Give them samples of what you expect. Multiple samples are even better. You know, it's hard to write. It's hard for anybody to write when you don't know what's expected of you. So you want to make your expectations abundantly clear.

In this essay I expect you to have a thesis statement. And I expect you to put it at the very end of the paragraph. Here are some examples. And this is what a thesis sentence does. So you're actually getting very explicit step-by-step instruction.

Delia Pompa: And then an example.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: And then an example. And also, very importantly is I give students the vocabulary, their grammatical structures, and some tips for organizing essays before they start. And I encourage them to use the words and the grammatical structures and the rhetorical tips in the writing. And I tell them, you know, if you do this it will really help improve your writing. This is not cheating. This is what I really want you to do.

Delia Pompa: These are supports.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: They're supports. And every time they write, they get better and better. And this type of advice is very good, not just for a writing instruction, English language, arts, teachers, say in high school or middle school, but for the science teacher in fourth grade who is having the students write a lab report.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Or for the social studies teacher who is having the students perhaps write a persuasive essay. So, what I really would like all teachers to do is to teach writing very explicitly, step-by-step, with lots and lots of support. And, of course, some instructional feedback.

But if you remember the letter from Vaughn, she had not received any instructional feedback. So she was one of the students who you could show her a word such as "firstofall" or "secondofall" or "thirdofall" and she would say, well, that's a word. I had a student like that. And I said here's "firstofall". And the student said, yes, it's a word. And I said, no, it's not.

It's "first of all." And the student said, well, no, it's "firstofall" and "secondofall" and "thirdofall." And so I had to take out a dictionary, a learners dictionary, very important.

Delia Pompa: A very confident student.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes, very confident. But she had never had any feedback. And so she had looked at the dictionary and she said, oh. It's first of all. You're right. Ah-hah. But if students don't get any instructional feedback, then they use forms again and again and again and they're writing, they will stabilize over time.

And that's when it's so important for a teacher to give some instructional feedback. Not in a punitive sense. But in an instructional, in a very constructive way. So that students will learn from their mistakes. Learning that a mistake is neither good nor bad, but just something that is perfectable, that will help them to learn from.

Delia Pompa: So it's a low stakes way before you get to the high stakes.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes, absolutely. And for some students, you'll have to tell them again and again and again and again. You'll have to be teaching subject/verb agreement. But they will learn. And that's what teachers need to know. And it's, of course, very good if teachers develop a technique that they use for providing instructional feedback that the whole school site adheres to.

Whether or not it's just underlining those words that are used incorrectly or highlighting them or writing in the margin or giving students some rules or using what I like symbols.

Delia Pompa: Oh, so this is a strategy that I hadn't heard. So everyone in the school should use that same approach.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Absolutely. We promote this in whole school districts. So that way when students go from one grade to the next, they don't have to learn new symbols. They know exactly what kind of feedback their teachers are going to give them. They know when the teacher's going to give them this feedback. They don't consider it at all punitive. They expect it.

Delia Pompa: You know, there are so many challenges teachers face. And this is an area that teachers are beginning to explore. They're beginning to explore academic language. They want to do the right thing. But they bump into these walls. And one of the walls seems to be states taking on alignment of curriculum ... of content actually and language. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes. It's an enormous challenge. States have been trying to link content objectives and language objectives. I think it's very important that teachers know when they're teaching content that the English language learners also need to know language. And they need to have language objectives.

It's good for them to know what they're teaching. The difficult part arises when the teacher chooses text, stories, reading passages, textbook passages, to help them-help the students acquire the content standards. Because anytime they choose a reading passage, there'll be a number of different language objectives that could be taught.

And when they teach a different reading text or have the students do a different oral language assignment, they're going to need different language objectives. So it's not possible therefore just to take the language content and objectives and just align them without looking at what it is that children do with language in the classroom and what it is they're reading in the classroom.

Delia Pompa: So not losing that focus on language and deliberately teaching language.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: That's right.

Delia Pompa: You have said so much to us. Why don't you take a sip of water? Well, I want to talk about another issue. And that has to doâ€¦it relates to what you just talked about. English language learners often are taught by many different teachers. And I wonder who's responsible for teaching academic language?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: We are all responsible for teaching academic language. Teachers are responsible for teaching academic language. In the elementary school it's the primary instructor who has the responsibility for laying the foundational piece for teaching academic language, a strong English language proficiency, a language proficiency in phonology and spelling and the sounds of the language and grammar and vocabulary absolutely critical.

And in the upper grades, that individual is going to be responsible for teaching academic language of reading, writing, speaking and listening. However, in the-the individuals in elementary school should be working very, very closely with a reading specialist.

If students can't read, they can't develop academic language. And the elementary school teachers need to be working very closely with their ESL, ELD specialist, absolutely.

Delia Pompa: We get into sort of a classic question around that when you get to high school.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes.

Delia Pompa: Let's take the example of the biology teacher.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Oh, yes. Perfect example.

Delia Pompa: Biology teacher is teaching something that doesn't seem very language related to some people. So how does that biology teacher support academic language?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: The biology teacher has a critical role. The biology teacher, first of all, should be relieved to know that I don't make that person responsible for teaching reading. If the child cannot read, doesn't know how to decode words, that biology teacher doesn't have to become a reading specialist. We have a scarcity.

Delia Pompa: I know some biology teachers.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes, they don't have to worry about that. Nor does a teacher have to worry if they've got somebody who's just beginning language, learning, just arrived in the United States. The teacher should know how to teach survival skills, yes.

But we really are required by law to make sure that that beginning language learner gets enough proficiency to access language. And a biology teacher will never be an English language specialist who can give that foundational piece.

The biology teacher, however, has the responsibility of teaching reading comprehension. And those biology texts are very, very difficult. And so the teacher needs to teach a variety of strategies, including using graphic organizers and note taking skills.

So that the students can access the reading. The biology teacher absolutely has the responsibility to scaffold discussions in biology using academic words and using the text. The biology teacher absolutely has the responsibility of teaching any kind of writing associated with the biology.

So that might mean, for example, teaching that lab report or teaching students how to conduct an experiment and write it up using inquiry.

Delia Pompa: I imagine there are also a lot of opportunities for teaching vocabulary in the content area.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Oh, it is.

Delia Pompa: And should that be a specific strategy?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes. And that's where content vocabulary should be taught. Content vocabulary in the high school should be taught in the content class and reinforced in other classes, such as the ESL class. The best place to teach the word photosynthesis is not in an ESL class. The best place to teach it is in a biology class.

Delia Pompa: In context.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Absolutely. And so that the student really understands what photosynthesis is. Yes, you can teach photosynthesis in an ESL classroom. But you're just going to be teaching the bare basics, a very rudimentary knowledge. This is not academic language. So the content teacher plays a key role in teaching ESL, ELD, English learners.

Delia Pompa: One group that presents teachers, all teachers, a number of challenges are students who are newcomers. Who come to us at the secondary level. Often haven't had a lot of education in their own country in their own language. And they have a short period of time before they have to graduate from high school and get all the credits. What is the role of both language teachers and content teachers in getting them to a level of having some academic language?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: We have a responsibility to our students, to all of our students, no matter when they enter school, no matter what their educational backgrounds are, to teach academic language. We have some excellent approaches and especially some good curricula materials available to provide students with the intensive English language instruction that they need at the secondary levels.

Students who arrive late in our system do need more instruction. We far underestimated the amount of instruction in English that they acquired-that they need to acquire academic language. So they might need to be in a three hour or four hour intensive language classroom and then take some other classes in addition to that.

And it might be the case that they need to take summer school. They might need to go before school, after school. If they need an extra year afterwards, our goal is to make sure that they have acquired enough academic language so that they can go on and be successful in the United States. And so I would say, yes. Give them more. Absolutely.

Delia Pompa: It seems to me that we often as educators of English language learners focus on that group of students who just came in, the newcomers. But there's also another group of students who are long-term ELLs, who have been in this country a long, long time, who have some of the same gaps in language, in academic language.

I know on a day-to-day basis, you work with college students, you work with older students. What are some of the challenges there? And what are some of the strategies? What can educators do at that point?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Oh, thank you. This is the largest growing population that we have in the United States. Our newcomers, especially at the secondary level, is rather small compared to this huge group of students that we have. Instruction, instruction, instruction. Practice. But knowing that it's practice perfect makes good practice, not just practicing. Students tend to acquire the language of those with whom they associate. We all do.

And so our students, such as my student whose letter you read, came into the United States and acquired the language of the friends with whom she associated. And she speaks a wonderful variety of informal English. But as you noted, it won't do her very much in terms of getting her ahead in academic settings.

So what we need to do is make sure that we get-that she attends to the language by using dictation exercises, for example. By using both oral close, a sentence completion activity. Or a written close activity where students fill in the blanks as we dictate a passage.

They need to summarize. We tell passages they need to write a lot with intensive feedback. And yes, we know that they can achieve high levels of success. They can become bi-dialectal, bi-lingual, multi-lingual.

Delia Pompa: For older students and for younger students, there must come a time when the support for academic language needs to sort of pull back. The teacher needs to pull back. And they need to become independent users of academic language. Does that happen magically? Or are there some strategies?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: A lot of our schools hope that that would happen. But we can't teach on hope. So what we really need to do is plan very explicitly. Think about it as I do with my own child, going onto college and beyond. You want to make sure that the child develops good learning strategies that will help that child to continue to learn.

I want all English learners in the United States to know about learner dictionaries and to use them. A learner dictionary is not just a dictionary that an individual has.

Delia Pompa: Tell me, because I don't know what a learner dictionary is.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: They're wonderful dictionaries. Many different publishing companies have them. They're really good. They tell a student what a word means. And then they give the students a lot of information about the word. They give the students even grammatical and discourse information about the word.

So they might say the word "discriminate" is used with the word "discriminate against someone." And then they give sample sentences. So I tell all of my students, whether native or not native, that they must have these dictionaries for English language learners. They're actually written for students. They're very appropriate beginning at grade four and beyond.

Delia Pompa: So it's a teacher in your pocket sort of.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: It's a teacher in your pocket. So they need that. They need to have self-editing skills. So that's why if teachers begin correcting young children and children love corrective feedback. They don't think it's wrong. They expect a teacher at age five and six.

They'll begin to give instructional feedback in the very young ages. And continue it. But always with the goal of making the student a self-editor. So that the student, when the student is finished with the ESL, ELD class, when he's in a mainstream class, the student goes to them and says, okay.

I'm great in these aspects of language. And I'm not so good in these aspects. I'm going to have to continue to work on subject/verb agreement. I know that I have a weakness in word forms and related parts of speech. And I'm going to be correcting those.

Because, you know, our goal in schools is not to make people perfect native English speakers. But we want to help people achieve a mastery over the English language as best as they can get.

Delia Pompa: You know, we've talked a lot about what teachers can do to help students gain academic language. And we often put it all on teachers. But what about other people in the educational system? What about principals? What about school district personnel? What can they do to help here?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Thanks, Delia. It's so important that we get principals and vice principals, everybody in the administration, to understand that it's not easy to teach academic language. And students really need to have good curricular programs. They need to investigate the very best curricular programs for teaching academic language.

So that the students have a coherent program for English language development. And we need to get the principals in the classrooms to watch the teachers. So that they'll understand how hard it is to teach academic language.

And to make sure that teachers get the appropriate support to teach academic language. We've had three generations of teachers who really haven't had much instruction in grammar themselves and can't tell the difference between a noun and a preposition.

Delia Pompa: Oh, dear.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: And oftentimes, they're ashamed of that. There's no reason to be ashamed at all. That was just the case of our public schools.

Delia Pompa: So what role does professional development play in all of this? Should administrators be shaking professional development in a certain way?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes, they need to make sure that when teachers are teaching content, for example, they may need to know how to scaffold the content to make sure that they're teaching language objectives. And when I'm in classrooms and I'm watching teachers teach in Los Angeles or wherever I am, I notice that what teachers are having the most difficulty with are language objectives, identifying what language they can teach to help students access the content and participate in the content instruction.

Delia Pompa: You know, teachers often talk about not having the time to plan together and collaborate together. What ideas do you have for creating that space for teachers to collaborate around common academic language targets?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes. Thank you. Teachers do need the time. It takes time. It takes them time to learn the language themselves. To teach students and the strategies. And so they need to have lesson planning time in which they come together to talk about the curriculum for English language development.

So that they work together as teams with their ESL, ELD coaches, with the reading specialists, the reading coaches, with the administration, with all the specialists in the schools. So that they give students more of a seamless education. And they get everybody on the same train going in the same direction.

Delia Pompa: I feel like we've just scratched the surface. What are some other resources you can tell us about quickly before we wind up that teachers could use or turn to in developing academic language?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes, thank you. If you go into our websites, and I'll leave you a list of our websites, you'll find that we have developed many websites for helping teachers develop grammar, vocabulary, a discourse of English language for helping students correct their own writing and for developing their grammar and vocabulary.

We also have useful websites where teachers can have the most recent sort of cutting edge research on what works for teaching English language learners.

Delia Pompa: We will certainly put a list of those up on the website. But is there one right now that you could tell us about as an example, a website, that's good for teachers to go to?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes, the "What Works" website is an excellent place. Because it gives very useful information about the types of strategies that are research based, that have been tried and tested with English language learners. And it demonstrates some of those for teachers as well.

Delia Pompa: Are there misconceptions out there about academic language that you feel that we need to address?

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Oh, yes.

Delia Pompa: Give us a few.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Oh, yes. There's one misconception is that it takes students so many years to acquire academic language. Maybe seven or twelve or ten. It can take students forever or never to acquire it if they don't get exposure to academic language, lots of practice in using academic language and instruction in using academic language, including instructional feedback.

So the amount of time is going to really vary greatly depending on how much instruction that they get in academic language. Another myth is that we can teach academic language in an ESL or an ELD class and then students don't need any afterwards. That is a complete myth.

Students, all of us, including me, need instruction to improve academic language development after they left the ESL, ELD class. Or after they left their English classroom. Everybody is in the process of acquiring academic language and improving upon it. Including me.

Delia Pompa: That's a good way to put it.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: And we need to continually be working on it with support. Now, what happens if you don't get those supports or if you stop working on it? Your language tends to plateau. And so that's why we need these continual supports.

One other myth is that academic language is easy to assess. Not so. It's very poorly defined for assessment purposes. Research is just beginning to develop that will help us identify the features of academic language that are accessible at the various proficiency levels.

So we're in the experimental stages. So a test of academic language is necessarily going to be experimental at this point.

Delia Pompa: So right now when we get test scores back on proficiency, we've got a slice of what students do academically.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Absolutely.

Delia Pompa: And we need to do some more work around that.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Absolutely.

Delia Pompa: You have been in this field so long and you've done so much. And it was just fascinating talking to you today. Would you like to leave us with some thoughts? Have you some thoughts today? A final thought perhaps.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: Yes. If you looked at Vaughn's letter, my student, who came into the United States at age five, and you can see her tremendous improvement with instruction at the end of a year. Now, it might take some students three years, four years, five years, a lot of instruction to acquire academic language.

It's highly teachable. Our students are extraordinarily bright. We're talking about one of the hardest working groups of students in the United States who have achieved great heights academically. We need to support them by teaching them academic English.

Delia Pompa: Thank you for that insight. That is I think a valuable one for all of us. And thank you for sharing all your knowledge with us today.

Dr. Robin Scarcella: It's been such a pleasure to talk to you.

Delia Pompa: And thank you all for joining us for this Colorín Colorado webcast.

For more information about the literacy of the young English language learners in your life, please visit us on the web at www.colorincolorado.org. Again thank you for joining us. And take care.

Narration: Funding for this for this Colorin Colorado webcast is provided by the American Federation of Teachers with additional support from the National Council of La Raza.

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Academic Language and English Language Learners

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In this webcast, Robin Scarcella provides an overview of academic language instruction for English language learners, as well as teaching strategies, activity ideas, and recommended resources.

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SIOP Model for Teaching English Learners - Lesson Delivery

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SIOP Model for Teaching English Learners - Lesson Delivery

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SIOP Model for Teaching English Learners - Lesson Delivery

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story | TED

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story | TED

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story | TED

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Building on the strengths of multilingual learners with expansive reading instruction

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This collection of videos provides teachers of English language learners with an introduction to understanding language proficiency and using the Benchmarks. Classroom scenarios demonstrate how language and content can be taught simultaneously and how students at all proficiency levels can participate in classroom discussions and learning activities.

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This collection of videos provides teachers of English language learners with an introduction to understanding language proficiency and using the Benchmarks. Classroom scenarios demonstrate how language and content can be taught simultaneously and how students at all proficiency levels can participate in classroom discussions and learning activities.

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What's Happening

Announcements on this page are generally from the Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA), or other relevant government agencies and offices, about concerns facing multilingual learner education.

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Home | NCELA - English Language Acquisition & Language Instruction Educational Programs

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Announcements on this page are generally from the Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA), or other relevant government agencies and offices, about concerns facing multilingual learner education.

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Quinn Lee Valdes Language and Opportunities in Science FINAL

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Fostering Productive Academic Conversations - Jeff Zwiers - Summer 2018 Standards Institute

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Welcome to MultiCSD!
This site summarizes expert information for clinical use by SLPs (Speech-Language Pathologists) and students when serving individuals from diverse linguistic & cultural backgrounds.

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Phonemic Inventories and Cultural and Linguistic Information Across Languages

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Phonemic Inventories and Cultural and Linguistic Information Across Languages

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Languages across the world have unique phonemic systems. For individuals learning English as a second language, it is common for the phonemic system of their first language to influence the production of sounds in English.

Resources listed below are intended to contribute to foundational awareness of potential cultural and linguistic influences. There are variations within cultures, and regional and dialectal variances exist in all languages. Therefore, a single chart/page on cultural and/or linguistic features is not meant to provide a comprehensive overview. Clinical judgment, client/patient/student and caregiver input, and additional research are needed to ensure culturally responsive services.

How Can I Use This Information?

Speech-language pathologists can use this information to:

Identify sounds in a client's phonological system for languages other than English.

Determine phonemic influences of a client's native language on English.

Identify sounds from the client's first language that may not exist in English or identify sounds in English that do not exist in someone's native language.

Recognize that even if there are similar sounds across two languages, they may not be used the same way. For example, in some languages a sound may only be used at the ends of words and not as a word-initial sound.

Audiologists can use this information to:

Correlate the client's audiogram and the sounds of the client's language(s).

Recognize and respond to amplification needs.

Identify the effect of the individual's phonemic system on speech audiometry assessment.

Modify materials and procedures during speech audiometry assessment.

Phonemic Inventories and Cultural and Linguistic Information

ASHA has compiled resources on the phonemic systems for the following languages:

Amharic

Arabic

Bosnian

Burmese

Chinese

English

English Phonemic Inventory [PDF]
Dialect
Haitian Creole

Hindi/Urdu

Hmong

Japanese

Korean

Navajo

Pashto and Persian

Polish

Russian

Spanish

Somali

Tagalog

Turkish

Vietnamese

Refugee Profiles/Information
ASHA's policy documents state that SLPs and audiologists must consider the sound systems of all the languages used by a client in order to provide appropriate assessment and treatment services.
Websites with Phonemic Inventories

If you have any questions, please contact ASHA's Office of Multicultural Affairs at multicultural@asha.org.

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Phonemic Inventories and Cultural and Linguistic Information Across Languages

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A list of phonemic inventories across multiple languages

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What Does Research Tell Us About Teaching Reading to English Language Learners?

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In this article, a seasoned ELL teacher synthesizes her own classroom experience and the findings of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth to make recommendations for effective literacy instruction of ELL students.

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Choose play for multilingual children: Bring joyful learning into your PreK-3 classroom

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Why choose play for learning for the multilingual children you serve? Hear from PreK-3 educators on why they choose play, and some ways they incorporate joyful learning into their teaching practices.

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Acclaimed actress Rita Moreno hosts Becoming Bilingual, a 30-minute PBS program that examines the challenges of teaching children to read in a new language. The show visits six cities across the country to learn about the different ways schools are working to create bilingual readers.

Becoming Bilingual is the seventh episode of the award-winning series Launching Young Readers.

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Acclaimed actress Rita Moreno hosts Becoming Bilingual, a 30-minute PBS program that examines the challenges of teaching children to read in a new language. The show visits six cities across the country to learn about the different ways schools are working to create bilingual readers.

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Colorin Colorado

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Colorín Colorado is pleased to present the following classroom videos highlighting effective instruction of English language learners (ELLs). The videos are presented as professional development modules with related resources.

These videos were created through the following projects:

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Colorín Colorado is pleased to present the following classroom videos highlighting effective instruction of English language learners (ELLs). The videos are presented as professional development modules with related resources. These videos were created through the following projects:

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Teaching English Learners: What Every Educator Should Know, with Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, Ed.D.

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Knowing vocabulary words is key to reading comprehension. The more words a child knows, the better he or she will understand the text. Teachers can teach vocabulary directly or indirectly. Using a variety of effective methods will increase the student's ability to learn new words.

How vocabulary relates to ELLs

For English language learners (ELLs), vocabulary development is especially important. The average native English speaker enters kindergarten knowing at least 5,000 words. The average ELL may know 5,000 words in his or her native language, but very few words in English. While native speakers continue to learn new words, ELLs face the double challenge of building that foundation and then closing the gap.

You may be surprised at how quickly a new ELL student can communicate verbally with peers, but remember that there is a big difference between social English and academic English. Reading, writing, speaking, and understanding academic English happen in the classroom. Using a combination of the following strategies will help ELLs to close the gap.

Classroom strategies: Vocabulary

Pre-teach vocabulary

Before doing an activity, teaching content, or reading a story in class, pre-teaching vocabulary is always helpful, especially for ELLs. This will give them the chance to identify words and then be able to place them in context and remember them. You can pre-teach vocabulary by using English as a second language (ESL) methods such as:

Role playing or pantomiming

Using gestures

Showing real objects

Pointing to pictures

Doing quick drawings on the board

Using the Spanish equivalent and then asking students to say the word in English

To ensure mastery of more complex words and concepts, you might want to follow these six ESL steps:

1. Pre-select a word from an upcoming text or conversation.

2. Explain the meaning with student-friendly definitions.

3. Provide examples of how it is used.

4. Ask students to repeat the word three times.

5. Engage students in activities to develop mastery.

6. Ask students to say the word again.

Focus on cognates

Cognates are words in different languages that are derived from the same original word or root. Note that about 40% of all English words have similar cognates in Spanish! This is an obvious bridge to the English language – if the student is made aware of how to use this resource.

Cognates are related words like family and familia, director and director, and conversation and conversación. False cognates do exist (mano in Spanish means hand, not man), but they are the exception to the rule. Encourage ELLs to guess at words and try to decipher text based on this existing knowledge. The more familiarity a teacher has with Spanish, the easier it is to point out these connections.

Scaffold

Scaffolding is providing a support for students as they learn new skills or information. For scaffolding vocabulary, you can:

Use a graphic organizer to explain concepts and related words. [Example coming soon]

Use the six ESL steps above to help students understand and use the word immediately.

Post new vocabulary on a word wall, and review the words daily. Swap out old words as necessary.

Label drawings and pictures to help students make the connection between oral and written English. Point to these visuals to clarify meaning when using these words.

Use computers and television

When geared to ELLs, computer programs and television programs are proven supplements to helping ELLs build language and reading skills. Computers are a non-threatening way to help children work on their own or with a buddy to learn vocabulary, sounds of English, syntax, reading, and writing. Educational children's television can also be a wonderful way to increase many reading skills, including vocabulary and comprehension.

Use audio books

Help ELLs build vocabulary by providing books with tapes in a listening center on one side of the classroom. By hearing and seeing the word in context at the same time, ELLs pick up its meaning and also gain prosody, and oral fluency.

Use a word wizard box

Ask students to bring new words into the classroom that they hear at home, on TV, or anywhere else and drop these words into a word wizard box. At the end of class, pull out a word and ask who wrote it. Have students tell you where they heard the words and how they were used. Ask students to use these new words in their discussions and writing.

Encourage oral language use

ELLs are not going to learn academic English from their parents nor their peers. They are going to learn it from you. Begin by making sure that they know instructional words that you use every day, such as "follow directions", "describe", "start at the top of the page", "read to the bottom of page 4", "highlight the verbs only", and "use the steps in your guide."

Encourage ELLs to speak in class as much as possible. Structure conversations around books and subjects that build vocabulary. Instead of simple "yes or no" questions, ask questions that are interactive and meaningful. For example, "What do you think? What should we change?" In these ways, ELLs will learn the academic English they will need to succeed in future schooling. Remember to be sensitive to ELLs who may be afraid to make mistakes. Here are some ideas for helping ELLs feel comfortable in the classroom.

Model correct usage

Instead of frequently correcting pronunciation or grammar, reaffirm the student's idea and then say the word correctly and in context.

More ideas

Label classroom objects in English and Spanish

Develop lesson plans and activities with new vocabulary words in mind

Read narrative (children's literature) and expository (nonfiction, such as science, social studies) texts to your class and discuss vocabulary words

Teach words in context – this is more effective than isolated memorization

Discuss literal vs. figurative meanings of idiomatic expressions such as "sweet tooth," "at her heels," "make up your mind," and "the cat's got your tongue."

Teach students how to use dictionaries

Teach students how to use prefixes and suffixes to determine meaning

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Knowing vocabulary words is key to reading comprehension. The more words a child knows, the better he or she will understand the text. Teachers can teach vocabulary directly or indirectly. Using a variety of effective methods will increase the student's ability to learn new words. For English language learners (ELLs), vocabulary development is especially important.

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Reflections on Teaching Multilingual Learners

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Reflections on Teaching Multilingual Learners

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Reflections on Teaching Multilingual Learners

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ENL 2-Minute Tips: Translanguaging - Transforming Classroom Communication

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If...
...you have English learners in your classes who speak the same first language...
...then...
...you have translanguaging happening in your classroom, whether you like it or not.

If, like me, every time you see the word translanguaging, your mind starts imagining Hermione casting a spell in one of the Harry Potter books, then this article is for you.

Ever wondered:

What translanguaging was

Whether it's good or bad...or some sort of dark magic (sorry, still on the Harry Potter theme)

Or how it can be used in the classroom to help our emergent bilingual students

I'll be covering these questions and more below.
Let's dive right in.
Translanguaging Definition

In case you are confused, as I was, translanguaging, turns out, is not a particularly difficult concept. It is only a theory that, when faced with an academic task, people who know more than one language use all of their language resources in whatever way best gets the job done.

Basically, the languages in their heads like to play together, and they're better off for it.

This is translanguaging.

Here are some examples of translanguaging in the classroom that are likely already happening naturally:

When students mash up two or more different languages to communicate their ideas with each other during a discussion, they are translanguaging.

When students whisper something in Spanish in order to get confirmation about a question while completing an assignment, they are translanguaging.

When a student can't think of a word in English and substitutes the Chinese equivalent instead and a partner comes up with the word in English the first student was looking for, they are translanguaging.

When we only know a single language, or when we first begin learning a second, it's easy to think of languages in a compartmentalized way. English is English. Spanish is Spanish. Chinese is Chinese.

We sometimes treat them like they are radio buttons: if one is on, the others are not.

Translanguaging posits that multilinguals do not use languages like that.

Like most anything involving humans, it shouldn't be surprising that we don't operate like radio buttons.

My Personal Experiences with Translanguaging

When I first began learning Chinese, I definitely treated it as this separate silo, completely separated from English.

Now, after marrying a Taiwanese girl and raising a son who goes to school in a Chinese-speaking environment, we translanguage the stuffing out of our languages.

I've often wondered whether we're butchering both languages in the process, but I've come to realize that it's the siloing of our languages that is unnatural, not the other way around.

Now, if you're a language purist, before you start hitting the computer screen with your shoe, hear me out.

I also don't believe it's fine to just mash up our languages in whatever way best gets the job done.

Languages are important.

Being able to communicate both effectively and affectively with them is important.

Our students need to understand that languages are used in different ways in different contexts.

Benefits of Translanguaging

There is no doubting that our English Learners respond far better when they feel that their home language is valued and respected in the classroom.

More than that, their native language can help them increase the speed at which they aquire English.

Also, being bilingual will only continue to benefit them in the future.

Our goal is not simply that they would learn English, but that they would be bilingual, or trilingual, whatever the case may be.

Issues to Be Cautious About with Translanguaging

Though there are many benefits, that doesn't mean there aren't things to be cautious about with translanguaging in the classroom.

For translanguaging to work, both languages need to be used. If students are only interacting in their native language and not using English at all, not only are they not translanguaging, they are not going to be able to access grade-level content.

We want to allow space for our students to work with their languages in various and creative ways, ways that help them better improve in both languages.

Strategies for Incorporating Translanguaging in Your Classroom
As mentioned above...
...if you have English learners who speak the same first language, then you have translanguaging happening in your classroom whether you like it or not.

Strategies to incorporate translanguaging can sometimes feel more like directing the flow of a current rather than introducing something new.

Yet, even if you have students who come from different first-language backgrounds, you can still incorporate translanguaging to help them all feel more affirmed and acquire English more quickly.
It is helpful to point out that...
...even though translanguaging involves a lot of translation, it does not mean simply translating everything.
If you translate every word, text, worksheet, assessment...

Students are not going to pay attention to the majority of that translation work.

Translating everything muddies the water, so to speak, of the content you're learning, making it more difficult to focus on making meaning from a text.

Students can become too reliant on their first language effectively mitigating the gains they may otherwise have made with the language they're trying to acquire.

Learning a language is hard.

We need to let it be hard.

And we also need to let our students bring to bear whatever linguistic resources they have at their disposal to help them navigate their new language, so long as they are actually navigating their new language and not just reverting back to their first language.

We need to let our students bring to bear whatever linguistic resources they have at their disposal to help them navigate their new language, so long as they are actually navigating their new language and not just reverting back to their first language.

Translanguaging Strategy 1: Adjusting the Words We Use in Class

As you likely already know, our students are very sensitive to the words we use.

The way we speak about our students' other languages though is incredibly important. We really need to avoid making comments like:

"No Spanish in class."

"You can't speak Chinese in here."

"You're not allowed to use Arabic."

Instead, take every opportunity to affirm students' other languages while explaining why it's important to practice English:

"Your Spanish is really good. Let's practice your English right now so that it's as good as your Spanish."

"I'm impressed that guys are translating English and Chinese. Just be sure to practice the English you didn't know a few more times so that you don't forget."

"Can you teach me what you just said in Arabic? Now how do you say that in English? Cool! Nice work!"

Related to this...
...it's also helpful to speak about knowing more than one language as an asset. That is why English learners are often referred to as emergent bilingual students.

Emergent bilingual students are not simply catching up with their peers. When our English learners catch up to grade level, they have achieved something many of their peers have not.
They have achieved the difficult and valuable goal of becoming bilingual, trilingual, or multi-lingual.
Translanguaging Strategy 2: Home-Language Small Groups

Students are drawn to those who speak the same home language as they do anyways.

When possible, we can direct that energy into their studies by placing them in groups with other students who speak the same home language.

Students can use their first language to help each other make meaning from the English content being learned in class.
References:

Students can diagram pictures in both languages.

Students can annotate a text in their home language.

After introducing a concept, you can have students turn and discuss the concept in their home languages to make sure they have understood the concept correctly.

I'd love to hear what you think. Leave me a comment.
Translanguaging Strategy 3: Home-Language Journal

Students can create journal pages about whatever concepts they are learning in class. Their journals can utilize both their first language and English to whatever degree they want.

They can draw and illustrate pictures.

They can define words.

They can summarize concepts.

If you'd like to read more about translanguaging theory and pedagogy, the articles below may be helpful.

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How to Use Translanguaging in the Classroom with Your ELLs

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What is translanguaging and how can it be used to help English learners better access grade-level content? Definition, examples, and strategies.

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Yikes! Will Translation Spoil My ELLs? | Kid-Inspired Classroom

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Should you be using translation for ELLs? Can translation help them make progress more quickly or does it hurt their ability to learn English? Find out here.

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For years, research into the best instructional approaches for students identified as English learners has pointed to the concept of translanguaging.

Identified by bilingual education researcher Ofelia García, it's both a skill set and a total shift in the way language is thought of, used, and taught in K-12 classrooms where multiple languages are honored and addressed, even as English remains the dominant language of instruction, said Marybelle Marrero-Colon, the associate director of professional development for the Center for Applied Linguistics.

Researchers are looking into how it can be applied to formal assessments, such as state standardized tests on which English learners might struggle to demonstrate their academic proficiency because they are tested in an unfamiliar language.

Here's a look at what translanguaging means in the context of classroom instruction and how all educators, including monolingual English-speaking teachers, can cultivate spaces for translanguaging to occur.

Translanguaging is the ability to move fluidly between languages and a pedagogical approach to teaching in which teachers support this ability.

In translanguaging, students are able to think in multiple languages simultaneously and use their home language as a vehicle to learn academic English.

A student could be reading an article about the solar system in English, but in their brain, they are also thinking and making connections in Spanish. They might annotate in Spanish or first write down reading comprehension responses in Spanish and then figure out how to provide the responses in English, said Marrero-Colon.

It's all about encouraging students to access their full linguistic repertoires, said Emily Phillips Galloway, an assistant professor at the Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University.

Translanguaging is also multimodal. More research is underway, for instance, on hearing impaired translanguaging by students who are part of families with American sign language, Spanish sign language, and signs families create for themselves, said Maria Cieslak, the professional development content manager at the Center for Applied Linguistics.

Teachers can engage in a variety of activities that deliberately encourage translanguaging, ranging from providing vocabulary in multiple languages to collaborative translation opportunities. The goal is to get students translanguaging as a practice that can be leveraged toward supporting literacy outcomes and engagement, as well as other academic endeavors.

For example, two students could be assigned to solve a word problem, and one might be stuck on a word in English. The two students can then use an equivalent word in their home language to make sense of what the word problem is asking of them, Phillips Galloway said.

Or in group activities, students can be prompted to share with the rest of the class how something taught in English would make sense in Spanish by highlighting similar and different grammatical structures between the two languages, Marrero-Colon said.

"When you translate, you don't have to do it word for word. You're really trying to capture the feeling of that text," Marrero-Colon said.

Once teachers start doing these activities, research has found that students who have not spoken before start speaking and students who were not as engaged in text-comprehension activities suddenly are, she added. That's occurring because they are being encouraged to use their home language in class to think about language use overall.

Translanguaging extends beyond translation to something where students gain an understanding of how language functions and works.

Although translation activities are a way to engage in translanguaging, it's not word-for-word translation. It's about a student using the words and thoughts they have in their home language to make sense of English and then be able to respond in English, said Kia Johnson, the director of PreK-12 language and literacy at the Center for Applied Linguistics.

Translanguaging requires students to think about language components such as the placement of adjectives, what cognates are in various languages, and more in multiple languages at once, Phillips Galloway said.

Teachers don't have to speak the home languages of students to help them engage in translanguaging.

It does require teachers to be comfortable being a learner themselves as students teach them what they know about their own language. Some teachers may fear that students may engage in off-task behavior in languages the teachers don't understand, but research has found that in such cases, teachers are still able to register what is going on and get students back on task, Phillips Galloway said.

She also said that teachers who work in states with laws requiring English-only instruction can and should still allow students to use other languages in the classroom to help them access academic content.

The key, Marrero-Colon said, is flexibility. For instance, a student may need to write an essay in English. They can instead start with building a PowerPoint primarily of images that convey a story or meaning. The teacher can then use the PowerPoint to help students come up with words and phrases, then move to sentences and paragraphs, and so on.

All students can benefit from a classroom welcoming of translanguaging because few use academic English at home, regardless of their home language.

For instance, Black students may be fluent in African American Vernacular English and can use translanguaging activities to engage in academic classroom English, Johnson said.

An example of English-only translanguaging is asking students to turn William Shakespeare's sonnets into modern pop songs, because it is a use of language in different registers, or levels of formality, Phillips Galloway said.

Students are also more interested in acquiring more languages after hearing their peers use their home languages, which helps them succeed in an increasingly global society, she added.

The more opportunities students have to use language, whether that's English or not, breeds more language use, which is then associated with language learning.

"I think the mistake that we often make is that we don't help students to make the connections between the linguistic resources that they bring in languages other than English," Phillips Galloway said. "And in the course of doing that, we take a whole set of resources that could be used for comprehending texts as they read in English, or learn to write text in English, we take those resources off the table."

More research has found that allowing students to participate in translanguaging helps English learners eventually outperform their monolingual peers because they become more flexible in thinking about and using language in academic contexts, Marrero-Colon said.

Improved curriculum, professional development, and mindsets around the value of home languages can all help schools to encourage translanguaging and support students in the process.

Phillips Galloway is working with colleagues on a curriculum that better guides teachers in translanguaging activities since not all curricular materials recognize the concept.

Researchers at the Center for Applied Linguistics, including Cieslak, also work on professional development and policy discussions that help educators and policymakers alike understand how English learners bring with them linguistic assets that should be nurtured for overall academic success.

"It's about understanding cultural identity, and my language is part of my identity," Cieslak said. "And I'm going to naturally translanguage, whether you tell me I can or cannot."

Ileana Najarro is a reporter for Education Week covering race and opportunity in schools across the country.

A version of this article appeared in the August 16, 2023 edition of Education Week as What Is Translanguaging and How Is It Used in the Classroom?

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What Is Translanguaging and How Is It Used in the Classroom?

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Research into the best instructional approaches for students classified as English learners has pointed to the concept of translanguaging.

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What is Translanguaging in the Classroom? | HMH

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What is translanguaging? Learn the definition of translanguaging and strategies for translanguaging in the multilingual classroom.

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Navigating Cultural Appropriation in the Classroom | NEA

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Educators can help students engage with diversity thoughtfully, avoiding stereotypes and promoting empathy, by fostering understanding and respect for cultural traditions.

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Web search for articles in both languages

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Bilingual Google Search. Get Google Search Results alongside Google Cross Language Search Results. In addition, a Query Translation Option can be activated or deactivated for Google Cross Language Searches. 2lingual makes it easy to Google Search in 2 languages.

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Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators
This guide provides concrete strategies for experimenting with translanguaging in their classrooms. Click here to download a copy in PDF format.

El Translenguar: Una Guía de CUNY-NYSIEB Para Educadores - Versión Abreviada en Español
Esta guía es una traducción abreviada de la guía en inglés, "Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators" y tiene estrategias concretas para experimentar con el translenguar en sus salones de clase.

Translanguaging in Curriculum and Instruction Guide
Translanguaging can be seamlessly integrated into units of study aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), enabling students to meet the rigorous standards to which they (and their teachers) are held. This guide adapts one unit of study from Expeditionary Learning, a CCSS-aligned curriculum adopted by New York State, as well as 8 new units of study with the same basic format. Download a copy here.

A Translanguaging Pedagogy For Writing: A CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators
This guide extends an invitation to teachers of all grade levels, and across disciplines and programs to examine how you currently instruct writing, and to try out innovative tools and practices with your emergent bilinguals. We situate ourselves within a long trajectory of writing educators and scholars, as well as offer a novel "language as a resource" perspective on the teaching of writing based on the CUNY-NYSIEB principles.

Translanguaging in Latino/a Literature: A CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators: This guide offers analysis of language use in 32 works of Latino/a literature that are appropriate for Grades PreK-12, analyzing 17 books for grades PreK-6 and 15 books for grades 7-12. The analysis of each book includes lexile level, themes, author biography and website, a list of supplemental resources, a summary of the book, and an analysis of the way that the author uses translanguaging, the flexible use of linguistic resources, in literature.

The Languages of New York State: A CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators: Learn more about the languages your students speak! This guide provides information about the top ten languages other than English spoken by emergent bilinguals. Descriptions include a brief history of the language, a few details about the cultures of the people who speak the language, and their experiences in New York State. It also includes some basic structural features of the languages as well as cognates and basic phrases. Download a copy.

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Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators This guide provides concrete strategies for experimenting with translanguaging in their classrooms. Click here to download a copy in PDF format. El Translenguar: Una Guía de CUNY-NYSIEB Para Educadores - Versión Abreviada en Español Esta guía es una traducción abreviada de la guía en inglés, "Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators" y tiene estrategias concretas para experimentar con el translenguar en sus salones de clase.

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