Supporting Multilingual Learners

Techniques and Strategies for Supporting Multilingual Learners Students

Review student cultural norms for schools

Different cultures have different expectations for students when communicating with educators. This is a great way to get to know your interpreter as well by asking questions about their culture to better understand your student. 

Provide academic discussion prompts

Students need to be taught how to engage in academic discussion. Provide students with accountable talk prompts, then model and encourage students to use them throughout discussions. 

Develop a live word wall

Provide essential academic vocabulary for the unit and have the student design a word wall. Your student should write definitions in their own words and find images to further support their understanding. Save this document and use it as a reference for future sessions by continuing to add new definitions and images.

Build vocabulary practice activity into every lesson

In addition to learning the definitions of new words, have students practice saying the word aloud. Hearing, seeing, and saying new words helps develop retention and understanding. Digital annunciators, often found in online dictionaries, can help provide more support.

Together with the student, identify a safe way for students to let you know when they don’t understand a word, such as an emoji or special underline color from the whiteboard they can use to let you know when a word is unfamiliar to them. Create a safe environment for students to be comfortable admitting when language is inhibiting their understanding. 

Create a goal each session for using vocabulary words

“Today you will use the following words correctly 3 times each by the end of the lesson.” You can keep a tally chart and even make it fun to keep track of when the words are used throughout the lesson both aloud and in text.

Avoid slang and idiomatic expressions during lessons

This is a best practice when conversing with individuals whose native language is not English to help prevent confusion.

Encourage students to take notes in a double entry journal
Students will be able to take your notes on the left side of their paper and write their own thoughts or steps for completion in their native language. See an example of double journaling in mathematics here.