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Teaching English Language Learners

Updated: Jan 17, 2023

By: Kara Wasnewsky


English language learners (ELL) is a broad term that encompasses students of diverse needs. ELL students often have different educational backgrounds, different language proficiency levels, different career goals, and different reasons for learning English. Research on serving English language learners in higher education from the American Institutes For Research identified three personas that encompass these diverse ELL learners (Bergey, Movit, Baird & Faria, 2018).


International Student

Nonnative speaker of English whose difficulties in speaking, reading, writing or understanding English may limit his or her ability to (1) achieve in classrooms where English is the language of instruction and (2) access opportunities to fully participate in society.

Recent Immigrants

Youth who arrive in the United States as a child or teenager. The term reflects the fact that youth maintain some aspects of their native culture, language, and identity while also acquiring English and adapting to a new culture.

Generation 1.5

Students from around the world who come to the United States to improve their English, obtain degrees, and/or take coursework in U.S. postsecondary institutions.

Since ELL is so broad, there are no silver bullets that can be implemented that would universally help all these students. Understanding who the students in your class are and noting their unique difficulties is the first step in better serving your ELL students. Once you understand the needs of your students, take a look at the suggestions I have compiled from the current research on serving English language learners and adapt the ones that will most help your students. Assess your class continually and improve your practices over time.

Tips For An ELL Friendly Class

Learning the content

ELL students may require more time than native English speakers to process, learn, and remember concepts from academic texts (Harrison & Shi, 2016).

  1. Articulate learning objectives for each class to clarify expectations for learners.

  2. Provide opportunities for students to rewatch or relisten. ELLs may not get everything the first time around, so providing another opportunity for them to experience something again is beneficial.

  3. Provide opportunities for practice (active learning) before assessing learners.

  4. Build in opportunities for students to share notes with a buddy. ELLs have a challenging time keeping up with taking notes during class. Giving them an opportunity to check their notes against another student’s will help make sure they have what they need.

  5. Provide visuals as much as possible. Visuals will help ELLs better understand the material.

  6. As much as possible use simple language when explaining concepts. ELLs are easily tripped up over words they don’t know.

  7. Where possible provide definitions for difficult language, or give ELLs the time and resources to look up definitions as needed.

Participating in class

ELL students may possess language and cultural beliefs that place them at a disadvantage from the dominant culture (Abriam-Yago & Kataoka-Yahiro, 1999).

  1. Provide the opportunity for learners to prepare for discussions before class. This could be as simple as just sharing the discussion questions prior to class.

  2. Think about assignments and activities that capitalize on strengths of ELL students. For example assigning students to critique how someone dealt with a culturally sensitive situation.

  3. Explain the why of your teaching methods. Different cultures view things differently. For example in some cultures questioning a faculty member is not acceptable.

  4. Model or role play to help them develop the oral communication skills that are needed to be successful in class.

  5. Have students set 3 personal goals to meet through the course. (ELL students often choose communication or writing to work on). Have them reflect on their progress throughout the course.

  6. Be aware that it is common for ELL students to utilize phones or other devices to look up words, or gain background information they may be missing.

Assessment

ELL students failure in testing situations may be attributed to (1) vocabulary, (2) understanding test questions, (3) memorizing in English, (4) knowing how to write, (5) time constraints, (6) “trapped” content knowledge where a student knows some content or word in their native language, but not in English, and (7) keeping pace in the classroom (Teeman, 2010).

  1. Provide options for demonstrating knowledge. ELLs may struggle with writing, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t understand the material. Giving options (like allowing them to record a video or audio file instead of writing) allows the student to show what they know in a way that capitalizes on their strengths.

  2. As much as possible use simple language when writing test questions or assignment directions. ELLs get tripped up over words they don’t know. You can test the reading level of a document in Microsoft Word by running the spelling and grammar check. After it checks for spelling and grammar it will provide you with readability information for the document. You want your Flesch Reading Ease to be between 60 and 70, and your Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level to be between 7.0 and 8.0.

  3. Where possible provide definitions for difficult language and provide time for students to find and understand the definitions.

  4. Spend extra time with ELLs on test-taking strategies. ELLs may have had less exposure than other students to high-stakes testing and may struggle with the technology and procedures for taking these types of tests.

  5. Adaptive assessments that provide multiple opportunities to demonstrate what a student knows may be a better way to assess. With these types of assessments if a student is tripped up over a single word or phrase in a question, then they will have another chance to demonstrate what they know with another question that may have simpler language.

Writing

ELL students usually have difficulties in understanding the writing process, avoiding vague phrases, and revising their own writing (Kennedy, 2015).

  1. If a course is writing intensive, make it clear to students that there are resources on campus (tutors and academic coaches in the Learning Commons) and through Smarthinking (online tutors, and the ability to submit their paper (or pieces of their paper) and get feedback on things like organization, spelling, and grammar) to help them.

  2. Include a rubric, checklist, or other document that makes clear the expectations of the assignment.

  3. Provide opportunities for students to submit and get feedback on their writing throughout the process. This feedback can come from you, a tutor in the Learning Commons, a Smarthinking tutor, or from peers.

  4. Remain objective if an ELL student’s writing seems like it may have been plagiarized. ELL students (particular international students) may not be aware of our concept of plagiarism. Different cultures have different viewpoints on this. Use the error as a teaching opportunity to educate them about proper citation, or you can refer them to a writing tutor or Smarthinking to help them correct the error.

References

Abriam-Yago, K. & Kataoka-Yahiro, M. (1999). The Cummins Model: A Framework For Teaching Nursing Students for Whom English Is a Second Language. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 10(2), 143-149.

Bergey, R., Movit, M., Baird, A.S, & Faria, A. (2018). Serving English Language Learners in Higher Education: Unlocking the Potential. Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research.

Harrison, J. & Shi, H. (2016). English Language Learners in Higher Education: An Exploratory Conversation. Journal of International Students, 6(2), 415-430.

Kennedy, K. (2015). Teaching ESL Writing in Higher Education. Journal of Basic and Applied Research, 20(2), 370-382.

Teemant, A. (2010). ESL Student Perspectives on University Classroom Teaching Practices. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(3), 89-105.

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