ELL Student Success

Critical to facilitating student success is understanding the educational climate for ELL students, related legislature, and appropriate teaching methodology. In order to provide relevant and effective pedagogy we must ask ourselves, “How does it feel to walk in my students’ shoes? What unique struggles and aspirations do my students encounter in their educational and personal lives?” Justin Minkel acknowledges this concept in his Education Week TEACHER article, Being an English-Language Learner Is Hard. Here Are 5 Ways Teachers Can Make It Easier: “There are plenty of hard things about school for all kids. Too many tests, too much sitting… But for English learners, there is an added layer of difficulty. The constant effort to understand and make yourself understood can be exhausting.”


“Me Talk Pretty One Day”

Recommended Reading for Educators of ELL Students

Comedic author David Sedaris holding a microphone at a German event

“David Sedaris on the Blue Sofa” by Das blaue Sofa is licensed under CC BY 2.0

An excerpt from J. Minkel’s Being an English-Language Learner Is Hard. Here Are 5 Ways Teachers Can Make It Easier.

“In a brilliant essay from his book Me Talk Pretty One Day, comedic writer David Sedaris describes a discussion about Easter that took place in his conversational French class. His teacher asked who brings chocolate on Easter morning, and Sedaris answered, “The Rabbit of Easter.”

“A rabbit?” The teacher, assuming I’d used the wrong word, positioned her index fingers on top of her head, wiggling them as though they were ears. “You mean one of these? A rabbit rabbit?”

“Well, sure,” I said. “He come in the night when one sleep on a bed. With a hand he have the basket and foods.”

The teacher sadly shook her head, as if this explained everything that was wrong with my country. “No, no,” she said. “Here in France the chocolate is brought by the big bell that flies in from Rome.”

I called for a time-out. “But how do the bell know where you live?”

“Well,” she said, “how does a rabbit?”

This demented conversation—with its various semantic and cultural misunderstandings—provides a window into the struggle our English-language learners face every day.” (Minkel, 2019)


Pedagogy

Tips and Tricks to Fuel Success

Young girl writing quotes in different languages on a chalkboard, the English quote says, "Flowers need time to bloom. So do you."

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As educators, there are things we can do to alleviate some of the feelings of frustration that too often accompany ELL student learning. Most importantly, we must make a point to never openly dismiss or criticize a student’s native language or culture (see our section on microaggressions within the classroom). Instead, favor a culturally responsive approach that makes the student feel valued and celebrated.

As award-winning education scholar Larry Ferlazzo details in his article, ELL Students’ Home Language Is an Asset, Not a ‘Barrier’, “teachers who have ELL students should familiarize themselves with their students’ language to incorporate common cognates into their lectures” (Ferlazzo, 2019). Remember: the dominant purpose of the spoken word is not to impress, but to communicate; as teachers this often means leaving our ego outside and speaking in a way that is comprehensible to all students.  In addition to managing our vocabulary, we should devise a curriculum that references world cultures.

If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” 

                                                                                                                           -Albert Einstein

Take advantage of humor. “Many of us have had the experience, when sitting in a foreign language class or visiting another country, of fumbling for the words to convey our thoughts.” Laughter can be a great way to reduce the, “…embarrassment, self-consciousness, and fear of looking foolish that can stifle our [students’] thoughts and trip up our [students’] tongues” (Minkel, 2019). This ties in to creating a welcoming classroom community in which students feel free to share opinions, anecdotes, and other details of their lives and cultures without judgement. It is good practice to begin class with an activity that simultaneously fosters classroom relationships and puts little demand on a student’s vocabulary, such as one that invites students to share their day’s experiences. For particularly shy or self-conscious students, teachers can apply this activity or similar activities in a more intimate group format where they may feel less pressure to perform (Minkel, 2019).

Finally, recognize that life as an ELL student can be exhausting. All students need a break from time to time to avoid burnout, and this is especially true for a student who spends the majority of their school day processing new information in a foreign language (Minkel, 2019). As Minkel states, “If you can give a child a chance to speak in his native language, do it. If you speak the child’s native language, speak it with him once in a while. If you speak the language like a toddler, even better—it’s a wonderful role reversal to have the words rolling off his tongue while you fumble and make mistakes” (Minkel, 2019).


Microaggressions within the Classroom

Establishing and Maintaining an Inclusive Classroom

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The American Psychological Association defines microaggressions as, “everyday derogations, slights, and invalidations [intentionally or not] that are often delivered to people of minority or marginalized backgrounds” (Lui & Quezada, 2019). To establish a welcoming and inclusive classroom environment, we must avoid microaggressions within our pedagogy. While there are many types of microaggressions that are wholly deserving of attention, in line with the purpose of this web page, this post will focus on microaggressions that are particularly relevant to ELL students. Moreover, these examples will not apply to every, or even necessarily the majority, of ELL students.

  • “Failing to learn to pronounce or continuing to mispronounce the names of students after they have corrected you
  • Scheduling tests and project due dates on religious or cultural holidays
  • Disregarding religious traditions or their details (ex. impacts of fasting)
  • Setting low expectations for students from particular groups, neighborhoods, or feeder patterns
  • Calling on, engaging and validating one gender, class, or race of students while ignoring other students during class
  • Anticipating students’ emotional responses based on gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity
  • Using the term “illegals” to reference undocumented students
  • Hosting debates in class that place students from groups who may represent a minority opinion in class in a difficult position
  • Using inappropriate humor in class that degrades students from different groups
  • Singling students out in class because of their backgrounds
  • Denying the experiences of students by questioning the credibility and validity of their stories
  • Assigning class projects or creating classroom or school procedures that are heterosexist, sexist, racist, or promote other oppressions, even inadvertently
  • Assuming that students of particular ethnicities must speak another language or must not speak English
  • Complimenting non-white students on their use of “good English”
  • Making assumptions about students and their backgrounds
  • Featuring pictures of students of only one ethnicity or gender on the school website
  • Having students engage in required reading where the protagonists are always white
  • Ignoring student‐to‐student microaggressions, even when the interaction is not course‐related”

All examples taken from: https://www.messiah.edu/download/downloads/id/921/Microaggressions_in_the_Classroom.pdf


Testing

Designing Relevant and Accessible Exams for Accurate Measurements of Student Comprehension and Ability

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It is the responsibility of the educator to establish a classroom that is accepting and embracing of a diverse student body. This philosophy should also apply to testing.

However, the tendency for standardized tests to employ academic language often puts English language learners at a disadvantage. For example, “In studies of linguistic complexity found on large-scale standardized tests, linguistic complexity is typically defined by naming specific linguistic features (lexical, grammatical, text level) and implying that presence of these features, or greater reliance on these features, comprises linguistic complexity” (Avenia-Tapper & Llosa, 2015). In short, standardized tests rely heavily on complex diction, which confuses even native English speakers. Noble expands on this point, describing a study of multilingual and ELL students that, “…found that all of these students’ incorrect answer choices resulted from alternative interpretations of the meaning of the language of the item that led them to answer a different scientific question from the one that was intended” (Noble, Rosebery, Suarez, Warren, & O’Connor, 2014). Noble’s findings demonstrate that complex diction inhibits the performance of multilingual and ELL students on tests; putting them at a serious disadvantage to English speaking students.

As educators, we have less control over standardized testing, but we do have the ability to avoid these mistakes in our own classrooms. For example, “Communicative success is more likely to depend on the informativeness of a speaker’s message and the efficiency of conveying that message than on the form” (Webster & Morris, 2019). Therefore, by utilizing simple communication in conveying messages, students will be more likely to succeed during exams. Moreover, consider including, “an item-level customized pop-up glossary in the student’s native language…” (Chia, 2014). In addition to this, “[it is] recommended [that] teachers identify the knowledge and skills students need” and work with students individually to build these skills (Yoder & Kibler, 2016). By applying these attributes to the classroom, and hopefully standardized testing, the grade gap between multilingual and English speaking students will likely decrease significantly; no longer putting them at a disadvantage.


Obstacles and Accessibility

On The Position of ELL Students

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In addition to standardized testing, ELLs face an array of challenges related to accessibility, or the lack thereof, sometimes imposed by prejudices and other times by mere assumptions or ignorance, and which are often related to finance, socialization, academics, and access. These issues can be detrimental to students’ academic, social, and mental well-being. To better create and maintain inclusive, accessible environments for any ELL student, it is important for educators to be aware of these unique barriers as well as progress related to them.

For example, partly due to the shortage of TESOL educators in the United States, many TESOL instructors receive inadequate training (De La Garza, Mackinney, & Lavigne, 2015). Often, low standards are set in order to output as many relatively adequate TESOL educators as possible to help bridge the gap between supply and demand. The quality of education students receive is the basic determinant of a student’s success, and this is directly correlated to trained pedagogical attributes, one characteristic particularly important in the study of English as a second language being adaptability. The large absence of priming among many TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) educators has proved to be one of the most significant difficulties affecting English language learners (De La Garza, Mackinney, & Lavigne, 2015). 

In addition, the quality and availability of ESL resources relies heavily on funding, the systematic allocation of which is flawed. Rather than determining funding based on need and population of ELL students, districts typically divide ESL funds equally among schools, following a principle of apparent equality over equity. Another reason ESL education is underfunded is because ELL students are categorized with “low-income or special education students.” This provides more funding for schools, but not specifically ESL programs (Jimenez-Castellanos & Topper, 2012). Therefore, much of this money never contributes to ESL programs at all. 

As much as a student’s success is dependent on the quality of their educators, students must also maintain a sense of “self-efficacy,” or belief in one’s own ability to succeed. Many believe this can be achieved by allowing and facilitating use of students’ dominant language (Yough & Ming Fang, 2010).


Personal Accounts

English Language Learner Student and Teacher Interviews

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With the rise of globalization, students are increasingly traveling and immigrating to the United States to complete their education. To fully understand the current position of many English language learners, it is important to obtain feedback from these individuals. Therefore, we have digitally interviewed several foreign-born students who are studying at American universities, with the intention to learn more about the unique experiences and challenges they encountered during their education in the United States. We have also gathered the perspectives of educators.

Each interviewee offers a unique perspective on ELL education and/or what it means to be an English language learner in the United States.

  • Student #1 is outgoing, and was eager to embrace his new environment in the United States. He strives to represent himself positively.
  • Student #2 utilizes English to progress in her life. Learning English was not easy, but with time her fluency improved greatly.
  • Student #3 came to the United States at a young age. Being far from family forced him to mature early. English helped him succeed in his new life.
  • Student #4 came to the United States for college. He views English as an extension of his native language.
  • Student #5 uses English as a tool for cultural exploration.

Moreover,

  • Teacher #1 is an EFL teacher in China at the intermediate and secondary school levels.
  • Teacher #2 teaches economics at the post-secondary level; many of his classes comprise ELL students.

*While predominantly left in their raw forms (as they were digitally submitted), response transcripts have been edited to promote relevance and clarity, while maintaining authenticity.

Student Interviews

Student #1 (China), University of Connecticut:

“I came here three years ago and this is my fourth year in the USA. I come from Beijing, China. Since I use English for most of the time in this country, I would rate my English as fluent. I can understand 90% of the classes that I’m taking this semester, but not that much in the past. I’m not talented in leaning new languages. English is hard for me. Listening and speaking are the hardest for me. I really care about my accent and am trying to fix it up. Learning English gives me more opportunities to understand American culture better. It helps me a lot to get into the community.”

Student #2 (South Korea), Temple University:

I came to the US during the year of 2013, and I am from South Korea. I have stayed in the US for about six or seven years now and I rate my English fluency about 8 out of 10. I am confident about my English during daily life conversation… However, the truth is I have to use English a lot every day to improve my fluency. Basically, I can understand every class that I am taking every semester. I feel great while I am learning English. Pronunciation is the most difficult thing that I am facing and working hard on all the time, because in Korean we do not really distinguish “R” and “L” sounds, so it is really hard for me to correctly pronounce words that incorporate them. When I first got here, sometimes I even had to explain the words to let people understand which word I used. The benefits of learning English are that I can talk to the people around, order the food I want to eat, find the places that I have never been to before by asking strangers and read some books in the original languages without translation. English definitely helped me to make the connection with this country.”

Student #3 (China), St. John’s University:

“I am from China and have been in the United States for about four years. I came to America during 9th grade, but I did visit twice before that. Now I have no problem communicating with other people, so I will say my English is good now, but it hasn’t always been that way. When I first came to study, I had a huge accent, and didn’t know much about the culture. Biology and history have been the worst subjects for me, because there are so many new words that I can’t understand even when I try to translate into my mother language. I truly believe that the environment for studying language is one of the most important conditions if a person wants to learn it well. To be able to make conversation with others can help, as you are correcting your pronunciation and getting to know the culture at the same time. Another important thing while learning English is to accumulate different vocabulary and put it into life when needed. It can then help people to get to know what the people are like in different areas, know the dos and don’ts to be able to fit in to the society. Of course, learning English is very important; it is the most spoken language around the globe… It is always better to learn a different language so that you can apply the knowledge you have into the daily life and be able to make friends with many different people.”

Student #4 (China), The Ohio State University:

I came to the United States in 2017 for university, and I come from China. It has been two years for me to stay in this country where English is the major language that I have to use every day. If I have to rate my English fluency from 1 to 5, I would give myself a 4, since I think I can understand most of my classes at school. I think the English I use every day in school is the same level of the English that I will use in my daily life... it is not only a process to learn a new language, but also at the same time, it is a process to learn a new culture… I think grammar is a huge difficulty for me in learning English because Chinese does not have a lot of stuff on grammar that we need to learn. Moreover, the word choice is also a big problem for us, since for one meaning you can find so many vocabularies for it to use under the different scenarios or to the people you are talking to. Even though learning English is hard work, through studying English, I find that language is the method for a foreigner to find the connection to this country and the people here.”

Student #5 (China), University of California, Irvine:

This is my sixth year in this country since 2014, and I come from China. For my English fluency, I would say adequate… I can talk to the people around me fluently. It is enough for me to live as an English speaker. A lot of people assume that I am from this country because of my English fluency… Since this is my sixth year, it is not hard for me to understand the content that teachers are teaching during the class, except some vocabularies in the new content, because I do not prepare for the new coming class… but even though I can speak English to let everyone around me understand, grammar is still my nightmare. It is too hard! I think every Chinese international student would say grammar is the most difficult part while studying English. Grammar even wears me down on interest in learning English. Chinese does not have this annoying stuff. Right now, English to me is just another language that I use during my daily life… it is just a media or tool for me to enjoy my life.”

Teacher Interviews

Teacher #1, 15 years of experience teaching English in China:

“I have been teaching English in this school for 15 years. It is really a long time for me to be at this position after I graduated from college. My major was English. Different from the US, at that time, China did not really have English teaching as a major. Most of teachers are just English majors, and after graduation, some of college students like me would choose to pass the test for the licenses to become teachers.

Base on the students I taught for these years, I would say English is hard for a lot of Chinese students in China especially they do not really have an environment that could have a period of time that fulfilled by English. We are always saying that environment is really important for learning a new language. Students spend about one and half hour per day to study English and another one and half hour to finish the homework. Except these periods, rest of time would still only be Chinese. It is pretty normal but hard for learning English. And Chinese students lack practicing speaking a lot. This is why a lot of students are not confident to speak English out loud, and this can also explain that a lot of people said that learning English well needs talents. Obviously, English is very useful for these students. Knowing and using another language is very good for strengthen people’s confidence. As the wisdom of human, language has the power to help people to be able to be brave when they encounter the difficulties.

Middle school students actually do not have a lot of differences between high school students. Age is not the standard to evaluate how well a student learns English. I met some seventh-grade students can fluently have the conversation with foreigners, but I also have senior students in high school who cannot even use the correct past tense. Learning a language is all depended on personal effort, so there is no evidence for me to say high school students have the better abilities to learn English easier.

I have some personal methods for these students who are in China to learn English. One of the most important things for learning English in my mind is vocabulary because it is the root of the tree. If a student does not have enough vocabularies, it is really hard for him or her to success on English. I will force them to memorize as many vocabularies as they can every day to help them to establish the foundation. Under the environment, this method looks inefficient, but this exercise after three years of middle school or high school will help them accumulate a huge amount of vocabularies since different from the school in US, I will stay with these kids for the whole middle school or high school. I can keep tracking their learning every day. At that time, English will be much easier for them to just combine the different words from their heads.

I am really passionate on teaching English in my country. It is challenging but honorable. When I meet my students every day and help them having progress, I will be really satisfied. If I have to choose again, I will definitely choose to be a teacher again for sure.”

Teacher #2, Frankie Palmer Albritton, Professor at Seminole State College with 30+ years of teaching experience:

  • How many years have you been a teacher?

“I have been teaching full-time in higher education for over 30 years.”

  • How do you feel about teaching?

“It has been a very rewarding experience. I enjoy helping students learn about economics and how it applies to their daily lives.”

  • How do you feel about teaching ESL students?

“Although not always the case, by the time ESL students begin to study economics, they have obtained adequate listening and writing skills through ESL and other courses. Often, if an oral assignment is required, this is where the issue arises of their fluency.”

  • Have you observed differences between ESL students and native 
    English-speaking students?

“I would say that most ESL students put in more effort in the course to learn the material. This may be to compensate for their perception of inadequate English proficiency.”

  • What are some advantages and disadvantages for international 
    students studying in this country?

“An advantage of studying in the US would definitely be immersion in the language and culture of the country. A disadvantage may be that there are many distractions both inside and outside the institution.”

  • Do you have any advice for international students in regard to studying?

“I personally don’t provide any additional resources. I have seen both as a student and as a professor that the students who develop relationships in (e.g. study groups) and outside of the classroom are more successful.”

  • What, if any, difficulties have you encountered while teaching 
    international students?

“I’m not always sure that the international students are completely understanding the lectures. They usually are very hesitant to ask question.”

  • Why do you think that international students increasingly travel to 
    the US for their education ?

“In the case of my institution, there seems to be waves of students from a particular area. One student comes and then they tell friends and family. This tapers off after a few years.”

  • Have your experiences in Beijing for summer school contributed to your 
    desire to teach international students?

“I’ve been teaching international students my entire career. I enjoy it although I find the same breakdown of good students (about 10 percent) to adequate student.”


Utilize Cognates

Facilitate Understanding

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Per the Collaborative Classroom article, How Can Cognates “Beneficiar” English Language Learners (ELLs)?, “Words in two languages that have similar pronunciation, meaning, and spelling  are called cognates” (ex: the Spanish word Celebración). 2007 Arkansas Teacher of The Year Justin Minkel recommends incorporating English cognates into lectures to facilitate mutual comprehensibility for ELL students (Minkel, 2019). This may be less challenging than you think: around 35% of English words have Spanish or French Cognates (How can Cognates “Beneficiar” English Language Learners (ELLs)?).

Consider the following German phrases and their translations:

Die jung Sendung ist erfolgreich.

Translation: The new program is successful.

Das neue Programm ist effektiv.

Translation: The new program is effective.

Both of these sentences communicate the same idea, but, through the use of cognates, the second is more comprehensible to most English speakers.

Valuable data for English Language Learner Demographics can be found at the following web address:

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/02/23/512451228/5-million-english-language-learners-a-vast-pool-of-talent-at-risk

Resources for English cognates in popular ELL student native languages:

Spanish: https://www.realfastspanish.com/vocabulary/spanish-cognates

French: https://www.linguasorb.com/french/cognates

Italian: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/italian/italian-cognates/

German: https://www.dummies.com/languages/german/german-cognates-start-with-what-you-already-know/

Arabic: http://www.modernstandardarabic.com/cognate-list-of-arabic-and-english-words/

Russian: http://russian.languagedaily.com/wordsandphrases/russian-cognates

*Because cognates stem from common linguistic evolution and influence, English cognates are predominantly found in languages that are derived from Latin (Watkins). However, resources for loanwords (words taken directly from a target language to English and visa versa) are provided below:

Japanese: https://www.thoughtco.com/most-common-loan-words-in-japanese-2027852

Chinese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_loanwords_in_Chinese

Hindi: https://www.thebetterindia.com/57965/english-words-borrowed-from-hindi/

Greek: https://parentingpatch.com/greek-loanwords-english/

Learn more about cognates:

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/eurocognates.htm


Related Legislature

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Equal Educational Opportunity Act (EEOA):

“…mandating that no state shall deny equal education opportunity to any individual, “by the failure by an educational agency to take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that impede equal participation by students in an instructional program” (What legal obligations do schools have to English language learners (ELLs).

Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Regulations:

“Where the inability to speak and understand the English language excludes national origin minority group children from effective participation in the educational program offered by a school district, the district must take affirmative steps to rectify the language deficiency in order to open its instructional program to these students… [specifically] federal law is violated if: students are excluded from effective participation in school because of their inability to speak and understand the language of instruction; national origin minority students are inappropriately assigned to special education classes because of their lack of English skills; programs for students whose English is less than proficient are not designed to teach them English as soon as possible, or if these programs operate as a dead end track; or parents whose English is limited do not receive school notices or other information in a language they can understand” (What legal obligations do schools have to English language learners (ELLs).
Also,
The school must, “identify EL students in a timely, valid, and reliable manner; offer all EL students an educationally sound language assistance program; providequalified staff and sufficient resources to instruct EL students; ensure EL students have equitable access to school programs, activities, and services; avoid unnecessary segregation of EL students from other students; monitor the progress of EL students in learning English and doing grade-level classwork; remedy any academic deficits EL students incur while in a language assistance program; move EL students out of language assistance programs when they are proficient in English and monitor them to ensure they were not prematurely exited; and evaluate the effectiveness of ELL programs” (Race and National Origin Discrimination, 2018).

Title VI:

A “…federal law that prohibits any entity that receives federal financial assistance (such as grants or student loans) from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin… This includes discrimination based on the country, world region, or place where a person or his or her ancestors come from; a person’s limited English proficiency or English learner status; or a person’s actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, including membership in a religion that may be perceived to exhibit such characteristics (such as Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh individuals)” (Race and National Origin Discrimination, 2018).


Glossary and Key Terms

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ESL: “English as a second language. The term ESL was formerly used as a designation for ELL students, but is more commonly used now to refer to ‘‘a program of instruction designed to support ELL students’’ and is often still used at the postsecondary level to refer to multilingual students” (Ferlazzo and Hull-Sypnieski, 2012)

ELL: “English language learner. ELL is the most current term used in the United States to describe students whose native language is not English, who are in various stages of acquiring English, and who require various levels of language support and development in order to become fully proficient in English” (Ferlazzo and Hull-Sypnieski, 2012)

ELD: “English language development. ELD is often used to describe instruction and programs for ELL students that focus on developing English language proficiency in the domains of reading, writing, listening, and speaking” (Ferlazzo and Hull-Sypnieski, 2012)

LEP: “Limited English proficiency. LEP is used by the U.S. Department of Education for ELLs who have not yet demonstrated proficiency in English, according to state standards and assessments” (Ferlazzo and Hull-Sypnieski, 2012)

EFL: “English as a foreign language. EFL refers to students who are ‘‘nonnative English speakers, but who are learning English in a country where English is not the primary language”” (Ferlazzo and Hull-Sypnieski, 2012)

TESOL: “This term stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. This is a more modern term that encompasses the old way of describing this sector of education: TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language)”(What is TESOL?, 2016).

Cognates: “Words in two languages that have similar pronunciation, meaning, and spelling” (How Can Cognates…, 2019)

Microagressions: “…everyday derogations, slights, and invalidations [often unintentionally] that are often delivered to people of minority or marginalized backgrounds” (Lui and Quezada, 2019)


Additional Resources

For Educators, Parents, and the Inquisitive Citizen

The Ohio Department of Education website provides an extensive collection of resources regarding English language learners, including, but not limited to, instructional resources, English learner identification guidelines, and common myths related to second language acquisition, which can be browsed via the following link: http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Student-Supports/English-Learners

This web page includes information concerning online language learning and language instruction resources targeted specifically toward ELL students and their teachers, as well as proficiency assessment and ELL related statistics and facts: https://www.accreditedschoolsonline.org/resources/esl-ell-resources-for-teachers-parents-and-students/

A comprehensive guide for educators of ELL students, including level-specific vocabulary lists, handouts and lesson plans, grammar explanations, as well as writing and conversation practice resources: eslgold.com

In the following article, 2007 Arkansas Teacher of the Year Justin Minkel offers advice on facilitating supportive classrooms for English language learners: https://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2018/02/07/being-an-english-language-learner-is-hard-here.html


References

Avenia-Tapper, B., & Llosa, L. (2015). Construct relevant or irrelevant? The role of linguistic complexity in the assessment of English language learners’ science knowledge. Educational Assessment, 20(2), 95–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/10627197.2015.1028622

Chia, M. Y. (2014). Content Assessment Aligned to the Common Core State Standards: Improving Validity and Fairness for English Language Learners. Applied Measurement in Education, 27(4), 307–312. https://doi.org/10.1080/08957347.2014.944307

De La Garza, T. O., Mackinney, E., & Lavigne, A. L. (2015). Dual Language Instruction and Achievement: A Need and a Void in the Midwest. Mid-Western Educational Researcher27(4), 363–382. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1086396

Examples of Microaggressions in the Classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved November 14, 2019, from https://www.messiah.edu/download/downloads/id/921/Microaggressions_in_the_Classroom.pdf.

Ferlazzo, L. (2019, February 24). Response: ELL Students’ Home Language Is an Asset, Not
a ‘Barrier’. Retrieved from
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2017/01/response_an_ell_students_home_language_is_an_asset_not_a_barrier.html.

Ferlazzo, L., & Hull-Sypnieski, K. (2012). The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners Of All Levels. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

How Can Cognates “Beneficiar” English Language Learners (ELLs)? (2019, May 16). Retrieved November 14, 2019, from https://www.collaborativeclassroom.org/blog/how-can-cognates-beneficiar-english-language-learners-ells/.

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