10 Key Policies and Practices for Teaching English Language Learners

1. Educators understand that there is wide variability in the ELL population and consider individual students’ linguistic abilities, literacy skills, and cultural and linguistic backgrounds when planning instruction.

ELLs vary considerably in factors that significantly affect learning. These factors include language and literacy proficiency in students’ native languages and in English. Educators should learn about individual students’ development of first and second languages. Cultural and experiential factors also influence learning. For example, educators may notice differences between ELLs whose parents are U.S. born and those whose parents are recent immigrants. Family routines and communication practices shape the knowledge and experience that students bring to the classroom.

Such differences are not deficits. Despite difficulties with learning in a nonnative language, ELLs are not struggling thinkers. Rather than treating all ELLs the same, educators must understand that no one strategy or adaptation will work for all students because they do not all have the same strengths and needs. It is important for teachers to consider each student’s language development, background knowledge, and literacy skills in planning instruction that is rich in content with ample opportunities for language development.

2. Teachers analyze the language demands of the lessons they teach and provide support for ELLs to understand both the language and the content of the lesson.

To make content accessible to ELLs, teachers must carefully assess the vocabulary and language skills that students need to fully engage in instruction. Across kindergarten to grade 12, teachers must be able to recognize high-demand situations and provide appropriate supports for ELLs. The following table shows how teachers can support ELLs when language demands are high.

3. Teachers build on students’ background knowledge by making clear connections between current learning and students’ prior experiences.

Making connections between students’ prior knowledge and current learning is good teaching for all students. For ELLs, however, teachers need to learn what background knowledge and student experiences are relevant to the topic. Asking open-ended questions to probe for background knowledge is important. When students do not have sufficient background knowledge to anchor instruction, teachers may need to provide experiences and explanations to build the requisite foundational knowledge.

Scenario

Ms. Corcoran, a social studies teacher in a diverse middle school, has several ELLs in her class. She regularly checks for relevant background knowledge of her students and fills in gaps to make her instruction relevant. She knows that Juan Carlos has linguistic and literacy skills in his first language, Spanish, and can use his knowledge of Spanish to help him understand concepts in English. For example, when they discussed the concept of democracy in class, he related it to the Spanish word democracia, a familiar concept. Ms. Corcoran checked his understanding and asked him to give an example.

In contrast, Alina came from a country with a dictatorship. When they discussed this concept in class, Ms. Corcoran knew that Alina might not have background knowledge of democracy, having no personal experience with this type of government. Ms. Corcoran provided additional explanation and examples for the whole class, following up later with Alina individually in a brief discussion to practice reading and pronouncing the word and to explore its meaning.

Activity: Making Connections to Text

In this activity, teachers select an excerpt from a reading passage that is likely to evoke personal connections. Students relate an experience from their own lives to the excerpt. Students can share their connections in writing or oral discussion. The teacher reads aloud the excerpt, first modeling how it connects to her life. Then, with scaffolding and support, students describe their own experiences and how they relate to the text.

1. Select a brief excerpt from a text that holds personal significance.

2. When reading aloud, stop and reread the excerpt.

3. Think aloud or model the process of making a connection. For example, “This makes me think of…” (an event from your past, an event in another book, or a world event). Explain how making this connection helps us to better understand what we read.

4. Scaffold students’ personal connections. Using the same excerpt, or another one that students may relate to, ask students to tell a partner or the class a personal experience related to the excerpt. Discuss how making connections helps us to understand what we read. Emphasize that different readers make different connections. Repeat often until students are accustomed to the process.

4. Teachers provide explicit instruction that includes clear directions, teacher and peer modeling, practice with detailed feedback, and ongoing review.

Explicit instruction is important for all students across grades and subject areas; for ELLs, explicit instruction is crucial. Explicit instruction should occur in three phases: modeling, guided practice, and independent practice. These phases are often referred to as “I do it,” to indicate that students should watch and listen carefully as the teacher explains and demonstrates; “We do it,” to indicate that students will try it together as the teacher watches and provides feedback; and “You do it,” to indicate individual student practice.

In the modeling phase, effective teachers of ELLs use language that is comprehensible. This means choosing words carefully, avoiding complex sentences, and breaking down processes into simple steps. During the guided practice phase, teachers provide immediate feedback for discrete tasks, such as spelling a word or calculating in mathematics, but may briefly delay feedback for complex tasks to allow ELLs additional time to think through the process. Explicit instruction also moves systematically through the steps of a process and maximizes engagement in the task. ELLs may need more read-alouds and interactive discussions of concepts.

Phases of Explicit Instruction

5. Teachers strategically use ELLs’ native language when possible to support their conceptual understanding.

Effective teachers of ELLs are resourceful in drawing on students’ native language to help them understand a concept or process. For example, teachers may find that pulling in words, concepts, and examples from a native language aids comprehension. Even if teachers do not speak a student’s native language, it is helpful to know how concepts and ideas are expressed in the native language.

Latin-based languages such as Spanish have cognates, or words derived from the same Latin roots with similar word parts in English and Spanish (e.g., acceleration and acceleración). A study of textbooks and science standards showed that 85.5% of biology terms were Spanish-English cognates, though many words occur with low frequency in conversation. Using cognates in instruction will help ELLs to grasp key words, as long as they are familiar to students in their native language. Concepts that are unfamiliar in both the native language and English need elaboration.

Some ELLs speak languages that are not similar to English. Teachers can look up native language equivalents to target words to help these ELLs understand terminology in English. It is easy to find translations for words using online resources. However, it is important for teachers to do a little research to make sure the translations are accurate. Consulting more than one source, including native speakers in the community, may aid teachers in finding appropriate key word equivalents.

Scenario

Mr. Eaves teaches social studies in middle school. In one class, he has three ELLs whose native language is Spanish and one ELL whose native language is Somali. In today’s lesson, he is explaining product, a key vocabulary term in the current unit of study about international commerce. For his three Spanish-speaking students, Mr. Eaves says aloud, “A product is something that is offered for sale. This word product is similar in Spanish. Can someone think of a similar word in your native language?” (If no response, he would add a prompt: “Some of you know the word el producto in Spanish, which means the same thing.”)

Mr. Eaves then gives Asad, a Somali refugee who is learning English, a tablet with the word product called up in an online translator. He points to the translated word, taran, and asks Asad whether he understands. Mr. Eaves has learned that taran literally means “the result of multiplying” but can also mean “a commodity offered for sale.” To the class, Mr. Eaves gives several examples of products that countries offer for sale. He includes the sale of livestock, a primary industry in Somalia. After the examples, he invites students to share what they know of products from various countries.

6. Teachers provide instruction that integrates listening, reading, writing, and speaking about content, resulting in a language-rich classroom.

Understanding of academic content is anchored by oral and written language that focuses on content. A content-rich classroom is also a language-rich classroom. Talking, reading, and writing about content enhance all students’ conceptual understanding but are critical for ELLs, and these activities may need to be enhanced to ensure that ELLs can participate.

Effective teachers often use short video clips, visual demonstrations, and hands-on activities to establish a shared experience among students as a basis for launching deeper into discussion of content. ELLs benefit from listening, discussing, reading, and writing about key concepts. Increasing ELLs’ oral and written language improves their understanding of key concepts.

Scenario

Mr. Walker is planning a lesson on persuasive writing for his fifth-grade class. He has a wide range of students, including four ELLs of varying language and literacy levels. He wants to include opportunities for students to listen, read, speak, and write. The lesson has the following four stages:

1. Listen: Introduce the concept of persuasion. Give a definition and short examples of the base word, persuade. Then show a video clip depicting a scenario of one student trying to persuade another to play a trick on the teacher.

2. Speak: In a “turn-and-talk” peer discussion, ask partners to briefly discuss their response to a prompt: “In this video, what reasons are presented for playing the trick? Do you agree? Why?”