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Obstacles For ELL And ESL Students

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Over the past 15 years, the number of ELL and ESL students has rapidly increased to nearly 5 million. These students come in significantly below those of their peers in nearly every aspect of academic performance. In order to ensure that these students’ needs are being met, you must have a significant amount of coordination and collaboration throughout the educational system. Under the law, each school district must show that the entire student body as a whole is meeting the same academic standards. These subgroups (ESL and ELL students) must be meeting the state proficiency goal as well. ESL or ELL students are going to walk into a classroom at different learning levels. Generally, they’ll need to focus on listening, speaking, reading, and …show more content…

When it comes to these students, they are expected to master content in English before they have reached a certain level of English proficiency. Not only does this cause frustration for the student, but it falls on the teacher and the school district. These students come into school with different linguistic backgrounds, varying levels of proficiency in English, and different education and cultural factors. In some cases, students are unclear of what to do or they fear doing something wrong. As a teacher, it is important to make instructions very clear and use short, to the point sentences. This stigma that may be attached to these students can cause them to become overly dependent on the teacher to correct their answers before trying themselves. Teachers must give positive encouragement to allow students to feel comfortable and more willing to …show more content…

As a teacher, if you choose a test to be an assessment, think about the different possibilites to accommodate for ESL and ELL students, or those that struggle with tests. These students can struggle with standardized tests, and one way to prepare them are multiple choice tests. Multiple choice tests allow students to compare several options for answers and then choose the correct answer. Oral testing can be a great assessment because spoken language is the ultimate goal. You can focus on the students’ ability to communicate with what they know. This type of assessment gives students the opportunity to self-correct, ask for clarification, and use language creatively. Another common testing assessment for these students is a completion test. This allows students to have a chance to show the teacher what they know, rather than testing for what they do not

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