Informational Resources to Learn about ELLs
This website contains TONS of information regarding ELLs. It is designed for both teachers and parents and is available in Spanish as well as English. All of the information on the site is research based. Every article I've read has then contained links to other articles on related topics. There is information about everything! I recommend taking some time to look through it if you aren't familiar with it! It's a tremendous, free resource!
Stephen Krashen has been studying second language acquisition for decades. He is a wealth of knowledge and has shared many of his books and articles in their entirety for free on his website! I highly recommend reading from "Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning, " "Principles and Practice in Second Language Learning," and "The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom" to learn more about how our ELL students acquire English (you can also watch some of his lectures or presentations on youtube!). Learning about the stages of language acquisition has been beneficial for me - for a more concise overview and examples of strategies to use for each stage, read this article from ¡Colorín Colorado!
Jim Cummins distinguished between two types of language proficiency, BICS and CALP. BICS refers to Basic Interpersonal Communication skills and is essentially conversational English which on average takes people up to 2 years to develop. CALP stands for Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency and is more so considered to be academic English. This takes most ELLs 5-7 years to acquire, but may take longer depending on literacy in their first language and their educational background.
Culture and Language Resources
This website is an excellent resource for learning more about other countries and cultures. You can select any country to learn about. There is a ton of information here! You can learn background information and then all sorts of things about the people, customs and courtesies, lifestyle, and society. This is probably the most thorough resource I've used!
This website has information about different countries. There is a drop down menu on the right to select a country from (there is a huge selection!). For each country, there is a section with facts about where the country is located, what the official language is, and major religions. Then there is information regarding basics like greetings and communication style, but then also information about eye contact, gestures, and things that are taboo. There is then also information about business and students. The information on this website helps you learn about cultures so you know more about what is appropriate and inappropriate for your students and their parents.
Frankfurt International School - Language Differences
This website is a wealth of information, but this link will lead you straight to the language differences page. There are 16 languages you can learn about. For each language, there is information about its alphabet, phonology, grammar, and vocabulary.