English Language Learners

It can be easy to focus on what students can’t do instead of what they can do. But consider this: English language learners are not only on the path to learning English, they’re also on their way to becoming multilingual.

It is not a disability. It is an ability.

These students already know a whole other language, be patient as they broaden their horizon and take on another one.

12 Ways to Support ELL in the Mainstream Classroom

1. Make it visual. Sometimes showing the students what to do is all they need in order to do it. Not only will this kind of nonlinguistic representation improve comprehension for ELL students, it will help all students grasp concepts better

2. Build in more group work. 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.

3. Communicate with the ESL (English as a 2nd language) teacher. 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. Honour the "silent period" - a period where ELL talk very little. 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 native language. When a student is still very new to a language, it’s okay to pair him with other students who speak his native language.

6. Look for culturally unique vocabulary. 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 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.

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.

9. Learn about the cultural background of students, but don't make the children speak for their cultures! 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.

10. But Don't make a child speak for their entire culture. 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 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 humour about it.

12. Be sure to take the children seriously. Teachers can often 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. When in reality, they're doing twice the job as everybody else in the class even though the result looks like half as much.