5 Key Strategies For ELL Instruction English Language Learners (ELLs) face the double challenge of learning academic content as well as the language in which it is presented. Teachers have traditionally treated language learning as a process of imparting words and structures or rules to students, separate from the process of teaching content knowledge. This approach has left ELLs especially unprepared to work with the complex texts and the academic types of language that are required to engage in content area practices, such as solving word problems in Mathematics, or deconstructing an author’s reasoning and evidence in English Language Arts. The new, widely-adopted Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards also call for all students, including ELLs, to master an array of academic language practices that are critical to achievement in content areas. Working closely with Denver Public Schools teachers Ms. Scaffolding Understanding Purposeful Grouping Background Knowledge Extended Discussion
Strategies for English Language Learners (exerpt from chapter 24) In 2003, 42 percent of American public school students were of racial or ethnic minorities, up 22 percent from 30 years before. Most of this increase in diversity was due to immigration from Latin America and Asia, and with this increase in ethnic diversity came a corresponding increase in linguistic diversity. For example, in 2002, nearly 42% of students in Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest district in the country, were classified as English language learners. The science classroom is often a frustrating place for English language learners. Science has a complex vocabulary that is difficult even for native English speakers to learn. 24.7.1 – ELL: Listening Speak slowly, distinctly, and write down key terms – Anyone who has learned a foreign language in class, then traveled to a country where the language is spoken, has noticed that it is difficult to understand natives because they seem to “talk too fast”. 24.7.2 – ELL: Visualization
10 Tips for Teaching English-Language Learners Classrooms across the United States are becoming increasingly diverse with increasing numbers of students whose primary home languages are not English. State-reported data in 2008-09 estimated 10 percent of the US school-aged population (PreK-twelfth grade) as students identified as limited English proficient. Terms more widely accepted and used are English-Language Learners or simply English Learners (ELs). To adequately assist ELs in learning both content concepts and English simultaneously, all educators need to view themselves as language teachers. Here are 10 tips for supporting ELs in general education classrooms. 1. Increase your understanding of who your students are, their backgrounds and educational experiences. 2. Understanding more about the students' families and their needs is key. 3. 4. The domains of language acquisition, Speaking, Writing, Reading and Listening need to be equally exercised across content areas daily. 5. 6. English has a number of polysemous words. 7. 8.