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Jun 26, 2021 · Teachers share their "go-to" strategies for teaching English-language learners, including sentence starters and Total Physical Response.
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- Cultivate Relationships and Be Culturally Responsive. No surprise here. A successful classroom, our educators agreed, is one in which students feel known, appreciated, and comfortable taking emotional and intellectual risks.
- Teach Language Skills Across the Curriculum. English language learners should not be learning the fundamentals of English in isolation; they should be applying their developing language skills to rich academic content in all subjects.
- Emphasize Productive Language. The educators I interviewed agreed that productive language skills—hard-to-master dimensions of language fluency like speaking and writing—should be front and center from day one, even if students feel hesitant about them.
- Speak Slowly—and Increase Your Wait Time. Easier said than done. Still, many of the teachers I spoke to said this simple change is vital. You can record yourself speaking in class to measure your cadence, and adjust.
- Rate of Speech and Wait Time
- Use of Non-Linguistic Cues
- Giving Instructions
- Check For Understanding
- Encourage Development of Home Language
Dospeak slowly and clearly, and provide students with enough time to formulate their responses, whether in speaking or in writing. Remember, they are thinking and producing in two or more languages. After asking a question, wait for a few seconds before calling on someone to respond. This “wait time” provides all students with an opportunity to thi...
Douse visuals, sketches, gestures, intonation, and other non-verbal cues to make both language and content more accessible to students. Teaching with visual representations of concepts can be hugely helpful to ELLs. Don’tstand in front of the class and lecture, or rely on a textbook as your only visual aid.
Dogive verbal and written instructions—this practice can help all learners, especially ELLs. In addition, it is far easier for a teacher to point to the board in response to the inevitable repeated question, “What are we supposed to do?” Don’tact surprised if students are lost when you haven’t clearly written and explained step-by-step directions.
Doregularly check that students are understanding the lesson. After an explanation or lesson, a teacher could say, “Please put thumbs up, thumbs down, or sideways to let me know if this is clear, and it’s perfectly fine if you don’t understand or are unsure—I just need to know.” This last phrase is essential if you want students to respond honestly...
Doencourage students to continue building their literacy skills in their home language, also known as L1. Research has found that learning to read in the home language promotes reading achievement in the second language as “transfer” occurs. This transfer may include phonological awareness, comprehension skills, and background knowledge. While the ...
- Cultivate relationships. This one is a “no-brainer” no matter what language you speak. As a teacher, getting to know each student helps you understand who they are, where they come from and, perhaps, gain some insight into what teaching and learning styles are most effective for them.
- Be culturally aware. Since many English language learners come from outside the U.S., part of creating the ideal learning atmosphere may include cultivating an appreciation of diversity.
- Teach language skills across all curriculum topics. In many cases, your English language learners may also be receiving specific English as a Second Language instruction from an ESL specialist.
- Speak slowly and be patient. You have a lot of material to cover, but there is no need to rush. In fact, teachers of ELLs are encouraged to consciously slow things down.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Teachers provide explicit instruction that includes clear directions, teacher and peer modeling, practice with detailed feedback, and ongoing review.
Learn more about students' literacy skills in their home language and in English. If students need to develop their foundational skills, work with an ESL teacher and reading specialist together to identify some helpful strategies and resources to use.
If you teach English language learners (ELLs), however, there are a number of ways you can support their literacy and language development through targeted instruction. This article highlights ELL instructional strategies based on the five components of reading as outlined in Teaching Children to Read by the National Reading Panel (2000).
