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ESL Student Support Strategies (ELL, LEP   & Bilingual)

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Differentiating Instruction: A Guide for Teaching English-Language Learners

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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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How to Support ELL's in every part of the classroom

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How to Support ELL's in every part of the classroom

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This article is American but I value many of the facts/tips provided.

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Three middle-school-aged boys draw pictures in chalk on a blackboard on a bright Saturday afternoon. "Write the word below the drawing," I say. The word apple goes under the apple, tree under the tree. Afterward, they practice with vocabulary flashcards for a half hour. At a bathroom break, all three bolt down the hall in search of a soccer ball, teasing each other in Arabic.

They might be eager to learn English, too-but I feel I've lost them already.

The three are recent arrivals from war-torn Syria, and have been in the country for only a year. Though the civil war has raged since 2011 with more than 400,000 casualties and millions of refugees, these boys bear little obvious impact of the traumas they've been through and the elaborate screening process it took to get here-and we don't ask. In many ways, they seem like average tweens, enthusiastic and eager to learn.

As a teacher of high school English, I've decided to volunteer at an English as a second language (ESL) Saturday tutoring session, a program established in response to the growing community of refugees here in Jersey City. Despite my years of experience in the classroom, I'm finding out what ESL teachers everywhere know: that teaching English as a second language to students with varying levels of preparedness is a complex, and often stressful, endeavor. Good intentions aren't enough.

America's Future Classrooms

Newcomer English language learners (ELLs) with interrupted educations have distinct challenges-among them jumping into an upper grade with few formal school skills, living in households with unstable incomes, or coping with buried traumas-but in many ways, they mirror the future of classrooms in America.

The impact on the U.S. school system has been vast. From coast to coast, in both large cities like Los Angeles and smaller towns like Troy, Michigan, and Lewiston, Maine (population 36,000), there has been an influx of ELL students and families who speak a bewilderingly wide range of languages- from Creole to Tagalog and Urdu.

Understandably, schools are struggling to comprehend the scope of the issue and provide timely solutions. For teachers on the front lines like me, answers aren't coming fast enough. Research on the topic is limited, and many of the recommended pedagogies for teaching in a classroom with a wide range of languages and proficiency levels are new and untested. And the added pressure of helping students, especially older ELLs, meet grade-level content standards can feel like salt in the wound.

There are some promising efforts in the works, though. A few districts have created separate schools solely for ELLs, while others have opted to offer bilingual instruction as early as preschool. Many have responded by hiring more ESL teachers and adding full immersion classes where ELLs learn alongside native English speakers. And in a handful of states, including New York, Arizona, and California, every teacher is now required to have coursework or professional development in teaching English as a second language.

But I'm thinking back to my kids-the third grader who hadn't learned to grasp a pencil and the outwardly confident ninth grader who was hesitant to expose his difficulty reading aloud. I started teaching English as a second language with very little to go on, just optimism in the sponge-like minds of the students and simple, seemingly obvious tips like "speak slowly" and "use visuals."

There must be a better way. So I set out to find what experts and other schools suggested for teaching ELLs.

Set High Expectations, San Francisco

The experts I talked with agree that it's critical to keep expectations high for ELLs-even if at first they seem unattainable.

"What traditionally has happened for ELLs in many systems is that they are not afforded or invited to participate," explained Maria Santos, a director at the research group WestEd and co-chair of the Understanding Language project at Stanford University. "There are some systems that say once they get enough English, then they can enter core academic courses. We are saying, 'No, they have to be involved from day one.'"

What traditionally has happened for ELLs in many systems is that they are not afforded or invited to participate.

At San Francisco International High School, all students are non-native English speakers and take regular high school classes that use teaching techniques specifically geared toward ELLs. The school is dedicated solely to newcomers, but is just one of many options for students who are still learning English in the highly diverse, 56,000-student San Francisco district-a "multiple pathways" approach representative of the options available to ELLs throughout other states.
Courtesy of Marble Hill High
While experts such as Santos recommend that ELLs be integrated with native English speakers in regular classrooms, San Francisco International High School teachers say that for many older newcomers, a school devoted solely to ELLs provides students the support they need to build confidence as they continue to learn both English and academic content.

Critical to the mission of San Francisco International is the notion that every teacher is a "teacher of language" who embeds English language learning within a traditional high school curriculum, rather than separately, says the principal, Julia Kessler. "Our students don't have time to learn English and then do high school."

And, just as importantly, when a student struggles, teachers still give them assignments that keep them challenged.

"If the student doesn't have the language to read the New York Times article the rest of the class is reading, that doesn't mean give them a children's book," Kessler says.

Meet Students Halfway, New York City

When those high expectations meet with tailored instruction, new English learners can pick up both content and language skills with surprising speed. In a recent session of Christopher Benson's AP U.S. History class at Marble Hill High School for International Studies, a public school in the Bronx set high above the Harlem River, students reviewed for an upcoming test by going over sample AP questions.

At one table, I observe four girls discussing a text by George Washington warning against the rise of political parties. "What does sectionalism mean?" one girl asked. "It's like dividing," another answered. When the whole class reconvened, students discussed a historian's interpretation of Columbus-deciding to agree with an answer from a student who did not speak English just three years ago.

Half of all students at Marble Hill High School are English language learners and 90 percent are low-income, yet 93 percent graduate within four years. Last year, the school was highlighted by Stanford University's Understanding Language group as one of six "schools to learn from."

The teachers go all the way to make sure you understand things.

At Marble Hill, all teachers receive training in strategies for ELLs. Staff members regularly review data together to catch any students in need of extra support and help ensure students grasp concepts by focusing lessons on grade-level skills and then modifying content to address any language gaps.

In an inclusion ninth-grade biology class for ELL and native English speakers, for example, a teacher helped students write up a lab report by providing a worksheet with prompts suggesting an appropriate verb or chemical substance, much like in Mad Libs. In a history class, the teacher used T-charts and sentence stems to help students develop a strong thesis for an essay about the French Revolution.

The teachers and the community building at Marble High are key reasons students say they select and stick with it.

A junior named Luis, who arrived from the Dominican Republic as a freshman and spoke no English, said the first school he tried in the district was "like a jail," and he didn't learn much. "At Marble Hill High, several teachers stay after school to work with students," he says.

"The teachers go all the way to make sure you understand things," adds Mohamadou, a senior.

In my Saturday class, Arabic is the lingua franca, although a few students only speak Tigrinya, a language spoken in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Students begin at varying levels and then come and go depending on the week. We never know how many might show up. To keep them returning, we offer rides and try online sign-ups and text message reminders.

But we've also had to consider what newcomers might want from an English language class, which could be as something as simple as talking to them about things they know and care about, say educators like Darren Chase, an ELL teacher with New Design High School in New York City.

As the main ELL teacher for around two dozen students, Chase says he tries to get his students talking about anything he can-breakfast, the weather, sports-so they keep practicing their language skills.

It's so easy for an English learner to hide in the margins and get home and realize they spoke no English that day at school.

"It comes naturally to a teacher to want to talk and explain, but it's important to turn around that dynamic for ELLs," says Kessler. "It's so easy for an English learner to hide in the margins and get home and realize they spoke no English that day at school."

So in a recent Saturday class, my colleagues and I put aside the flashcards and coursebooks, and instead give the students sample dialogues to help them write their own conversation scripts on a topic of choice.

One boy writes about shopping for soccer gear with his favorite professional player, who suggests buying goalie gloves as well as cleats. I ask questions about the details, while helping fill in words when he struggles to finish a sentence. In between, we talk about an Egyptian fish restaurant around the corner. He and his friends tell me it's good, but not like food from Syria.

The oldest boy in the class chimes in, explaining that the Egyptians in Jersey City must have had to leave their country because they "did bad things," he says, as he searches for the precise words to explain power, discrimination, flight, and exile.

It strikes me then that one day this student could become a politician, a lawyer, or anything he wants-once he learns his new language, he'll have the words to describe his own history, and a better chance to plot the course of his own future.

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Teaching English Language Learners: A Complex Endeavor

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A teacher seeks out the best approaches to teaching English to non-native speakers, the fastest growing student population in the U.S.

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Ways to support ELL learners in the mainstream classroom

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Ways to support ELL learners in the mainstream classroom

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
A note on terminology: The acronym ESL is used less often now in schools than it used to be, because we recognize that many students who are learning English already speak several other languages, so English would not be a "second" language. I use it several times in the post because schools sometimes refer to the teachers as ESL teachers, and the term is still widely used as a search term for this topic. My intent in using the acronym is to make this post easier to find online.

You have a new student, and he speaks no English. His family has just moved to your town from Japan, and though he receives English as a Second Language (ESL) support, he will also be sitting in your room every day to give him more exposure to his new language. How can you be a good teacher to someone who barely understands you?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, an average of 9 percent of students in U.S. public schools are English Language Learners (ELLs); that number is closer to 14 percent in cities. Although many of these students start off in high-intensity, whole-day English programs, most are integrated into mainstream classrooms within a year, well before their English language skills would be considered proficient.

How prepared are you to teach these students? If you're like most classroom teachers, you have little to no training in the most effective methods for working with English language learners (Walker, Shafer, & Iiams, 2004). So that means we have a problem here: Lots of ELL kids in regular classrooms, and no teacher training to ensure the success of that placement.

Below, three ESL teachers tell us what they know about the things regular classroom teachers can do to improve instruction for ELL students. These 12 strategies are simple, they are not very time consuming, and best of all, they will help everyone in your class learn better:

1. Make it Visual

"Avoid giving instructions in the air," says Melissa Eddington, an Ohio-based ESL teacher. "ELL kids have a harder time processing spoken language." So instructions - even basic directions for classroom procedures - should be written on the board whenever possible. Challenging concepts should be diagrammed or supported with pictures. And modeling the steps of a process or showing students what a finished product should look like can go a long way toward helping students understand. "Sometimes showing our students what to do is all they need in order to do it," Eddington says. Not only will this kind of nonlinguistic representation improve comprehension for ELL students, it will help all of your students grasp concepts better.

2. Build in more group work.

"Kids aren't just empty glasses that we pour stuff into and then at the end of the day they dump it back onto a test," says Kim, an ESL teacher who was the subject of my very first podcast interview. "If you really want the kids to learn, they've got to be engaged." That means less teacher-led, whole-class instruction, and more small groups, where students can practice language with their peers in a more personal, lower-risk setting. And if ELL students attend your class with a resource teacher, make use of that person: In most cases the resource teacher doesn't have to work exclusively with the ESL students; they can work with smaller groups that happen to contain these students, helping to improve the teacher-student ratio and give kids more time to practice.

3. Communicate with the ESL teacher.

Mary Yurkosky, a former ESL teacher in Massachusetts, credits much of her students' success to the strong relationship she had with the regular classroom teachers. "The classroom teachers were always talking to me about what they were doing in their classes," she says. "They made it so easy for me to support them: If a teacher was going to be doing a unit on plants, I could make sure we used some of that same vocabulary in the ESL class."

Ideally, this could be systematized, where ESL teachers could regularly get copies of lesson plans or collaborate with regular classroom teachers to build solid back-and-forth support, but "it doesn't have to be that much work," Yurkosky insists. "Just talk to each other. Talk about what's going on in your classrooms, invite each other to special presentations, share what your students are learning, and the words will naturally find their way into the ESL class."

4. Honor the "silent period."

Many new language learners go through a silent period, during which they will speak very little, if at all. "Don't force them to talk if they don't want to," says Eddington, "A lot of students who come from cultures outside of America want to be perfect when they speak, so they will not share until they feel they are at a point where they're perfect." Just knowing that this is a normal stage in second language acquisition should help relieve any pressure you feel to move them toward talking too quickly.

5. Allow some scaffolding with the native language.

Although it has been a hotly debated topic in the language-learning community, allowing students some use of their first language (L1) in second-language (L2) classrooms is gaining acceptance. When a student is still very new to a language, it's okay to pair him with other students who speak his native language. "Some students are afraid to open their mouths at all for fear of sounding stupid or just not knowing the words to use," Yurkosky says. "Letting them explain things or ask questions in their first language gets them to relax and feel like a part of the class."

And this doesn't only apply to spoken language. If you give students a written assignment, but the ELL student doesn't yet have the proficiency to handle writing his response in English, "Don't make them just sit there and do nothing," Eddington says. "Allow them to write in their first language if they're able. This allows them to still participate in journal writing or a math extended response, even if you can't read what they write." There has even been some evidence that allowing second-language learners to pre-write and brainstorm in L1 results in higher-quality writing in L2 in later stages of the writing process (Yigzaw, 2012).

6. Look out for culturally unique vocabulary.

"For most of these kids, their background knowledge is lacking, especially with things that are unique to American or westernized culture," says Eddington. It's important to directly teach certain vocabulary words: "Show them videos of what it looks like to toss pizza dough, show pictures of a juke box or a clothing rack - things that are not common in their own language."

One way to differentiate for ELL students is to consider the whole list of terms you're going to teach for a unit, and if you think an ELL student may be overwhelmed by such a long list, omit those that are not essential to understanding the larger topic at hand.

7. Use sentence frames to give students practice with academic language.

All students, not just English language learners, need practice with academic conversations. Sentence frames - partially completed sentences like "I disagree with what _________ said because..." - show students how to structure language in a formal way. Keep these posted in a highly visible spot in your classroom and require students to refer to them during discussions and while they write.

For this kind of language to really sink in, though, Kim says it has to become a regular part of class. "They won't do it if it's not the norm in the class, because they'll be embarrassed to use it among their peers," she says. "But if they can put it off on the teacher and say, Oh, well, you know, Miss Kim makes me talk like this, then they don't look as hoity-toity as they would otherwise."

8. Pre-teach whenever possible.

If you're going to be reading a certain article next week, give ESL students a copy of it now. If you plan to show a YouTube video tomorrow, send a link to your ESL students today. Any chance you can give these students to preview material will increase the odds that they'll understand it on the day you present it to everyone else. "That kind of thing is wonderful," Yurkosky says. "The kids feel so empowered if they've had a chance to look at the material ahead of time."

9. Learn about the cultural background of your students...

Our second-language populations grow more diverse every year. Taking the time to learn the basics of where a child comes from - exactly, not 'somewhere in the Middle East/South America/Asia/Africa' - tells the student that you respect her enough to bother. Kim remembers one time when she had to set the record straight about the diverse South American population at her school: "I was listening to the teachers talking about the 'Mexican' kids in our building," she says, "and I was like, 'We don't have any Mexicans.'" Not taking the time to at least correctly identify a child's country of origin, much like not bothering to pronounce their name correctly, is a kind of microaggression, a small, subtle insult that communicates hostility toward people of color. Make a commitment to be someone who bothers to get it right.

Once you have the country straight, take things up a notch by learning about students' religious and cultural practices. If he is a practicing Muslim, he should be told if one of the pizzas you ordered for the class party has sausage on it. If she comes from a culture where eye contact with adults is viewed as disrespectful, you'll know not to force her to look you in the eye when she's talking.

10. ...but don't make a child speak for his entire culture.

In her podcast interview, Kim shared a story about watching a teacher ask a new Iraqi student how he felt about the war in his country, right in the middle of class. "That's not cultural inclusiveness," she explains. "I've seen teachers do this and then pat themselves on the back. The students' English is limited so they can't express themselves very well, and they don't want to 'represent'; they just want to be there." If you anticipate a theme coming up in your class that's going to be relevant to one of your students, have a conversation with them in advance, or check with your ESL teacher to see if they think it's appropriate for in-class discussion.

11. Show them how to take themselves less seriously...

By modeling the risk-taking that's required to learn a new language, you help students develop the courage to take their own risks, and to have a sense of humor about it. "I tried to say the word 'paint' ( pinta) in Portuguese and instead I said the word for 'penis' ( pinto). They all roared with laughter while I stood there with a What?? look on my face," Yurkosky says. "When they explained what I'd said, I laughed so hard! I told them that laughing was fine because sometimes mistakes are really funny, but ridicule is never okay."

12. ...but always take them seriously.

One of Kim's pet peeves about how teachers interact with English language learners is the way they often see students' efforts as 'cute,' missing the whole point of what the student is trying to say. "A student will be desperate to communicate, and the teacher will get distracted by the delivery and miss the message," she says. "That's painful for me to watch." It bothers her when teachers mistake a lack of language for a lack of intelligence or maturity. When a child can't express themselves as well as they would in their native language, it's far too easy to assume the concepts just aren't in their heads.

"It breaks my heart when I hear teachers say (ELL kids) don't know anything," says Eddington. "These are brilliant kids and they know a lot. They just can't tell us in English yet." Make a conscious effort to see past the accent and the mispronunciations and treat every interaction - every student - with the respect they deserve.

"They're doing twice the job of everybody else in the class," Kim adds, "even though the result looks like half as much." ♦

Further Reading

The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide is one of the highest-rated books on teaching English-language learners available. In addition to offering an overview of the research on second-language learners and best practices in teaching ESL, it also includes a whole section on teaching ESL in the content areas and another specifically geared toward teaching ELL students in mainstream classrooms.
References:
Walker, A., Shafer, J., & Iiams, M. (2004). "Not in my classroom": Teacher attitudes towards English language learners in the mainstream classroom. NABE Journal of Research and Practice, 2(1), 130-160.

Yigzaw, A. (2012). Impact of L1 use in L2 English writing classes. Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences, 8(1), 11-27.

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12 Ways to Support English Learners in the Mainstream Classroom

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Advice from three ESL teachers on the things regular classroom teachers can do to help English language learners thrive in mainstream classrooms.

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Suggestions for an ELL friendly classroom

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Suggestions for an ELL friendly classroom

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This year I have the opportunity to serve my school as an English as Second Language (ESL) teacher for the first time. This privilege allows me to support students in Primary, Junior and Intermediate grades as they navigate the landscape of school and English language acquisition. But to be honest, I have alway been an ESL teacher. Since my very first year of teaching, my classes have always had students for whom English was not their first language. In this way, we are all ESL teachers regardless of if we have the designation or not. Similarly, if we take the notion of learning English literally, all of our students are English Language learners because they are constantly being introduced to new vocabulary and are learning the nuances of academic language for oral communication, reading and writing. In Ontario, however, the term English Language Learner or ELL, is defined as a student "born in Canada or newcomers whose first language is other than English or is a variety of English significantly different from that used for instruction in Ontario schools" (Many Roots, p. 51). Knowing this, how might classroom teachers tweak their practice to make their classrooms ELL friendly? I offer 4 easy teacher practices that will support ELLs in any classroom.

1. Keep expectations developmentally appropriate.
The ways we view our students determines the kind of learning we invite them to. This sentiment is particularly important to understand when designing programs that address the learning needs of students for whom English is a new language. Learning a new language, by any account, is a task of both perseverance and determination. As such, we need to be mindful that our English language learners have a multitasked learning situation. Focusing on the skills they bring from their native language as opposed to the limitations they have as they acquire English nurtures an asset based approach to engaging students as capable learners. When we embrace this mindset towards teaching English language learners, we can maintain high expectations for all students. Valuing the prior learning of all students, including ELLs in imperative in building upward to new understandings. Inviting students to share what they already know about a topic is always a great starting point for learning. Students who are English language learners have prior knowledge and this knowledge may or may not exist in their native Language. Regardless, valuing students' prior knowledge solidifies the difference between cognition and language acquisition as two separate and distinct processes. For the most part, English language learners are developmentally ready for the learning that their peers are engaged in - they simply need to acquire the English skills to make the thinking that is already taking place in their minds visible in English.

2. Value students' first language.
Nurturing an inclusive classroom community lets students know that they are both valued and respected as learners. Inviting students to continue to use and develop their native language is another way not only to accommodate ELLs but also to keep the learning expectations high. When students are able to use their native language to demonstrate their understanding and thinking in tasks that invite cognitive demand, the transition to English does not lower the expectation but rather accommodate the student's opportunity for engaging deeply with ideas. The English language is further acquired when students translate their thoughts into English rather than the other way around. Valuing students' first language can also be demonstrated by creating dual language or multilingual learning resources. With the partnership of students who are also native speakers of additional languages, parent volunteers, colleges and community partnerships, teachers can prepare translated learning resources for all students to use.

Students are invited to participate in collaborative learning experiences by expressing their ideas using their first language

Dual Language posters translated in traditional Chinese to support English Language learners in my class.

3. Develop new vocabulary in context with the help of online resources.
When students are invited to continue to use and development their fluency of their native languages, teachers can employ many new technologies that can support English acquisition while yet maintaining native language fluency. Using tools such as Google Translate can serve as a bridge between a student's first language and English. Similarly, introducing new vocabulary in context makes both social academic learning more meaningful in English. An idea or word may not be unfamiliar to a student learning English in that they may already have an understanding of the concept in their native language. When this happens, using tools such as Google Images and YouTube can serve as a bridge to comprehension of and acquiring English words. Word walls are also useful resources for students in all grade levels and for all subject areas. It is a tool to support students as they acquire new vocabulary in the context of their learning. In this way, all students can be viewed as English language learners as they engage in expanding their academic vocabulary. The inclusion of students' native language on word walls is a simple accommodation that goes a long way to supporting student learning. The gesture speaks to the value for the student's native language and a respect for the process of learning English. Native English speakers can also benefit from the dual language approach in that they can be exposed to the languages of the world and additional ways of knowing.

I asked my students to add Chinese translations to our Math word wall. This highlighted the relationships between numbers, as the ideas of addition and multiplication are embedded in the ways Chinese numerals are written.

This is a screenshot of what a Grade 2 student, a stage 1 ELL, wrote as she was communicating an idea with me. I used Google Translate to take a picture of her writing and was able to translate and further communicate with her.

4. Embrace inclusive practices when communicating with parents.
When a student is an English language learner, it is important to also be aware of their parent or guardian's experience with English as well. Whenever possible, supporting parents in the journey of their child's language acquisition should be considered. Using resources mentioned above in addition to school-board translators and parent volunteers when communicating with parents is also crucial when English is also being acquired by parents. Ensuring that partnerships between students, teachers and parents is essential for the success of all children. We should be mindful to support parents who are English language learners in the context of the kind of communication that goes home, the necessary accommodations in place for parent-teacher meetings and the information needed for navigating the Ontario school system are essential in order to leverage the playing field for success.

The first page of a presentation to the parents of my students during Curriculum Night.

An assessment report sent home as communication to parents about student achievement.

Teachers in Ontario school are all ESL teachers and our students all, English language learners. Designing classroom spaces and learning opportunities with the principles of universal design will support English language learners but also enhance the learning experience of native English speakers. Keeping learning expectations high for all students, valuing students native languages and inviting parents as partners are essential ingredients to providing an enriched learning experience for English language learners. For more information check out the ministry document Many Roots Many Voices:Supporting English Language Learners in Every Classroom A Practical Guide for Ontario Educators https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/manyroots/manyroots.pdf.

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Suggestions for Making Your Classroom ELL Friendly

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This year I have the opportunity to serve my school as an English as Second Language (ESL) teacher for the first time. This privilege allows me to support students in Primary, Junior and Intermediate grades as they navigate the landscape of school and English language acquisition.

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The Struggles of ELL students and their teachers

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The Struggles of ELL students and their teachers

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Difficulties that students and teachers face in a mainstreaam classroom

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Schoolyard Blog | Teacher Resources | School Specialty

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Reading & Literacy School Specialty *

English Language Learners (ELL) are the fastest-growing student population group-according to an NEA Policy Brief, by 2025 nearly 25 percent of students in public schools will be English Language Learners. With such a dramatic increase, it is imperative that the educational community understands and adequately addresses the struggles of ELL students, and ensure that ELL teachers receive the best training possible.

Challenges Facing ELL Students

ELL students struggle academically for a variety of reasons. Think about it-the challenges of learning a new language, the many exceptions in the English language, and differences in regional dialects-they're all overwhelming factors that can frustrate your ELL students.

This frustration can lead to a lack of motivation, or even to an over-dependence on teachers or peers to assist them. Your ELL students who lack the vocabulary that their peers have struggle with concepts like homonyms and synonyms, and can suffer from poor communication in the classroom. As a result, they may continue to speak more often in their native language, or be fearful of participating and speaking out in a classroom setting-all of which negatively affect their overall learning in the classroom.

Challenges Facing ELL Teachers

One of the biggest challenges facing ELL teachers is ensuring that each student makes adequate yearly progress (AYP) in reading, math, and English, as required by the law. Being able to accurately assess each student can be difficult, as accommodations that are allowed during testing can sometimes be of limited value.

Another challenge that many teachers struggle with is that there is such a wide range of academic levels among ELL students, and preparing lessons and integrating activities that are academically appropriate for a wide range of students can be challenging.

Assisting and Assessing ELL Learners

So how can you more effectively teach your ELL students? There are several activities that teachers can implement into their teaching:

Read to Students Daily

Both hearing and seeing the written word on a daily basis will help students develop a better understanding of the English language. Choose texts that are diverse and represent multiple cultures, which will create opportunities for students to make connections to the text.

Choose Appropriate Material

Students who are learning English need access to vocabulary, so you should choose books that contain illustrations, action-based story plots, and predictable, repetitive phrases. It's important to use material that is both interesting and level appropriate so students stay engaged without feeling overwhelmed.

Encourage and Support Comprehension

Reading slowly, reading the same story more than once, and using visuals to support story points are all ways to support comprehension. Comprehension should be tested on a regular basis to track progress as accurately as possible.

Promote Cooperative Learning

Guided collaboration among children enables ELL students to assist and learn from one another. Literature circles are a great way to get students learning together by reading and discussing books in a group setting.

Assessment practices

Use multiple assessment practices to allow students to show you what they know. Using a variety of assessments will allow you to determine if the student lacks contact knowledge, literacy skills, cultural background, or language acquisition.

Professional Development for ELL Teachers

Because the needs of ELL students are so diverse and continually changing, ongoing teacher training is necessary to meet the changing needs of each student. Teachers need access to research-based strategies that will enable them to implement the best programs and teaching methods in their classrooms. Providing ELL students, as well as their teachers, with high-quality programs and services is a crucial investment in America's future.

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Understanding the Struggles of ELL Students and Teachers

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English Language Learners (ELL) are the fastest-growing student population group-according to an NEA Policy Brief, by 2025 nearly 25 percent of students in public schools will be English Language Learners. With such a dramatic increase, it is imperative that the educational community understands and adequately addresses the struggles of ELL students, and ensure that ...

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Which will benefit the students learning more?
Is it possible for some to benefit more from one vs. the other?

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Learn about the current debate facing ESL education. Specifically, should ESL students be completly immersed in full-English classrooms, or should they receive targeted support in learning the English language?

With classrooms become more diverse, public schools are experimenting with new language programs to enhance ESL student learning.

ESL students, standing for English as a Second Language, typically need additional resources and support to adjust to the various linguistic complications of learning a new language. As a result, ESL students typically require additional funding.

However, as public schools are coping with reduced funding due to the economic recession, educational experts are debating the best approach to balancing school budgets while caring for each child's language development. In an effort to save costs, some schools and states have created mandatory full inclusion programs, where ESL students are immersed in a regular paced English class, with students who are fluent in English. This strategy will reduce the costs of ESL specialists while still engaging ESL students in an atmosphere for learning.

While this approach certainly helps balance school budgets, many educators and parents argue that the full inclusion classroom is ineffective for both fluent and ESL children.

Public Schools and ESL Programs

As The Multicultural Education Journal explains, the 2001 national mandate, No Child Left Behind, required that all public schools help ESL students become English proficient, as both fluent and ESL students are mandated to meet State and National achievement standards. While public schools are legally required to provide educational support for ESL kids, many experts assert that the current approach is both ineffective and flawed. As the number of minority students is rising each year in the United States, experts predict that by the year 2020, at least 50 percent of school-age children will be of non-English speaking backgrounds. With the current and rising statistic of non-English speaking students in public schools, leaders assert that all schools must take a more active approach to protecting the instructional support for these non-English speaking students.

Furthermore, as Inside Higher Education supports, "'During turbulent economic times, educational programs that serve culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse student populations may be at a disadvantage when competing for reduced funding with programs that serve conventional, mainstream student populations.'" As many schools are forced to lay off teachers, enlarge class sizes, and distribute more responsibilities among the current school staff, many educators fear that the ESL students will be left behind.

For example, California is one of the many states implementing the "full inclusion" classroom approach, requiring that all public schools instruct classes solely in English. This approach, titled Proposition 227, provides ESL kids with $50 million each year for additional English tutoring support; however, these students are forced to engage in fluent English classes, even if they have never been exposed to the language before. This proposition, like many full inclusion programs, is not solely designed to save school budgets; moreover, all of the propositions for full inclusion have the backing of experts who assert that the best way to attain language fluency is through inclusion instructional methods. While full inclusion has research and studies to support its incentives, many leaders still argue that there are better ways to teach both ESL and English speaking students through non-inclusion practices.

Is Inclusion the Best Approach?

One of the biggest arguments against full English inclusion classrooms is revealed through the studies that assert ESL students adopt fluency more rapidly when engaging in specialized language support programs.

In addition to the argument that specialized support helps to increase ESL student learning, many educators and parents argue that the additional ESL support helps to maintain the challenging environment of a fluent classroom. Specifically, as a regular paced English class is designed to instruct students who are of an "average" English speaking proficiency, immersing non-English speaking students in such classes often forces teachers to slow down the pace of instruction, making the overall challenge of the classless rigorous for English speaking students.

For example, when a teacher in a regular paced history class assigns a research essay on a specific topic, that teacher must strive to accommodate his or her instruction and support to all students with needs-including language, learning, and cognition needs of both ESL and fluent students. Subsequently, as students work through their research papers, a single teacher's ability to support each child becomes more challenging. The more children and special needs there are in each class, the less specialized support a single teacher is able to offer each of the individual students.

While various experts fear that inclusion programs diminish the educational opportunities for both fluent and ESL students, many leaders and parents disagree. According to Education Week, while support programs are in many ways essential for ESL children and families, many believe that separate setting instructional methods, which involve separating ESL children from fully fluent classrooms for the entire or partial class period, inappropriately create an environment of segregation.

In fact, as Education Week reveals, many new ESL programs are currently being evaluated by protestors who assert that the separate setting methods are a violation of the federal civil right's laws. As public schools are required to provide equal educational opportunities for all students, some believe that these programs only stimulate increased cultural bias as they do not provide opportunities for students of various and diverse backgrounds to interact. Some protest, "Special-education and E.S.L. programs have undoubtedly made substantial progress... But it is time now to move beyond unequal separate systems to integrated ones where all students have access to all the services necessary for their success."

Overall, while the debate wages on, schools will be forced to make serious budgetary and educationally driven questions regarding how to protect the needs of all students to ensure that neither ESL nor fluent students are left behind.

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Inclusion or Exclusion? The ESL Education Debate | PublicSchoolReview.com

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Learn about the current debate facing ESL education. Specifically, should ESL students be completly immersed in full-English classrooms, or should they receive targeted support in learning the English language? With classrooms become more diverse, public schools are experimenting with new language programs to enhance ESL student learning.

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Tips and tricks on how to provide students with an equitable learning environment

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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.