Teaching English As A Second Language Learners

In this article, the authors examine the challenges of working with English Language learners with learning disabilities. The article begins with a dilemma that many educators face daily, being able to meet the needs of all students in a classroom. The article identifies the characteristics of LD students, issues ELL students face learning a second language and the cultural context for teaching and learning. The next part of the article offers a framework that addresses the educational needs of students based on their language, disability and culture. It focuses on how general and special educators along with the ELL teacher can effectively collaborate together to meet the needs of all learners.

When an educator walks into her classroom for the first time, she needs to be prepared to encounter students that come from a variety of backgrounds. The children will be in different stages of language development, and the educator must accommodate for each of these students. Magruder, Hayslip, Espinosa, and Matera (2013) state, “The US Census Bureau projects that by the 2030s, children whose home language is other than English will increase from roughly 22 percent to 40 percent of the school-age population” (p. 9). This increase in second language learners will cause the educator to accommodate for those needs. Second language learners “need teachers who welcome them and recognize their unique abilities, what they know, and what they need to learn” (Magruder, Hayslip, Espinosa, and Matera, 2013, p. 10).

English learners are currently the fastest developing student population in schools today. This makes it extremely important to provide these students with the programs and services they deserve. Providing a strong education for ELL students is what I personally believe to be an asset in America’s future. Today there are many challenges I believe teachers and students face when it comes to instruction and assessments.

ELL continue to rise year after year. In EDUC 628, the class delved into the rise of ELL in America and how the best teaching methods to approach each learner with. Every ELL student is unique and has different learning process. Although the semester covered a wide variety of topics ranging from dialects to teaching methods, every module served its purpose in providing a framework for future ELL teachers. Learning about how to teach ELL was significant to me because when I first entered the school system in America, I was placed into ESL and I have gone through the process of many of these teaching methods. EDUC 628 main focus was preparing students whose goal in the future was to educate ELL. The articles and readings assigned in the class provided a funds of knowledge going into each new lesson. Coupled with the readings, hands on activities such as the mini lessons and designing lesson plans provided each student with experience that will reflect on their teaching abilities in the classroom. In my paper, I will be provided a step by step synthesis of what was learned and accomplished every week along with a brief summary of the readings. I will probe deeper into the modules and lessons that piqued my interest the most and that also challenge my mindset.

It has been estimated that by the year 2025, approximately one out of every public school student will be identified as an ESL/ELL student in the United States. ESL stands for English as a Second Language and ELL stands for English Language Learner. An ESL/ELL student can be defined as a student whose predominant language or languages at home, is other than English, and would require additional English language support to develop reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. The difference between an ESL student and ELL student is minor; An ESL student participates in programs that are customarily specialized while an ELL student partakes in a traditional educational classroom. English Language Learners have surpassed other subgroups in becoming the fastest growing of the public school population. Despite the common misjudgement of some people towards the ESL/ELL population, 76% of the ESL/ELL students in elementary schools and 56% of the ESL/ELL students in secondary schools are native-born. The highest percentages of ELL/ESL students in public schools are found in the west of the United States. Taking the average of both bigger and smaller cities, ELL students make an average of 14% of the total public school enrollment and in suburban areas, ELL students make up an average of 8.5% of public school enrollment. The ESL/ELL population has more than doubled over the past 15 years and more than half of those students struggle with their academic performance. An ESL/ELL

The large school district in this study is located in the suburbs of New York City. The problem is ELL students are underachieving in reading and writing on state assessments when compared to non-ELLs in this district (NYSED, 2014b). Based on New York State’s Blueprint for English Language Learners Success (NYSED, 2014a), school districts have to ensure that all teachers can teach ELL students, and address diverse learning needs, such as cultural, linguistics, and socio-economic status, including students with disabilities. In addition, this problem impacts classroom teachers who may be highly qualified to teach content areas but may lack training in addressing the diverse learning needs of ELL students, which might include bridging cultural and language barriers (NCTE, 2008). Teachers need to be prepared to address the problem of underachievement for ELL students.

The researcher has provided a description of the definition of feedback and the importance of feedback in enhancing language skills. Also, the concept of peer correction is presented with a detailed account of how peer correction is implemented, the benefits of peer correction and how this strategy can be approached differently in the EFL class. Furthermore, the empirical research that underpins the value of peer correction is presented in order to support the idea of the present

As well, because I feel that I did not received the adequate help from my content-area teachers, in other words, they expected me to comprehend, and know how write and read in English perfectly. In my perspective second language students fell behind in their academics, because of the need of teachers that are committed to teach not only their subject area, but to help students master their reading, writing, vocabulary and language proficiency. This problem leads ELL students to drop out of school, low self-esteem, and insecurity. For my point of view and experience some educators are not trained to deal with these kinds of situations. They are not trained properly, and do not have the skills to teach ELLs. As well, in some situations, some teachers do not even bother to teach ELLs, because they do not want to waste their time on them. I more than willing to help students that are going through the same situations that I went through. ELLs, in particular, need thoughtful and explicit instructional support to learn the disciplinary

Feedback is very important when it comes to English language learners because it helps to guide students in the right direct of their learning experience. ELL need every guidance that they can receive since they are not familiar with things. Feedback can help build students confidence. ELL students will learn faster if they are told what their strengths are and what their weaknesses are on each topic. This will help them to modify their learning strategies if they become aware they need to build on or what they are doing correctly. According to Hermann, it was mentioned that when teachers give descriptive feedback it shows students specific learning goals (Herrmann, 2014). It also helps English language learners recognize their strengths and the different areas that they need improvement in (Herrmann, 2014). This Is important since when it comes to English language learners we need to make sure that they are progressing. By using feedback as an assessment teachers will be able to see their English language learners

Vocabulary plays a significant role in English as second language learning process. For the majority of English as Second Language(ESL) learners, the ultimate goal of learning the language is to understand (read and listen) and communicate (write and speak) with little difficulty and the lack of sufficient vocabulary may be the constraint of such goal (Folse, 2004). As the bedrock of English and as well as language, vocabulary also facilitates the development of other language skills: lexical richness leads to the progress in the use of language, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing skills (Nation, 1994). Reversely, The improvement in such skills may enhance learners vocabulary size as the exposure to more learning materials improves the capacity to acquire new vocabulary. (The importance of learning vocabulary/ why vocabulary?)

ESL students are students that speak English as a second language. Presently, there is many different system to characterize this type of students (qtd in Shi, Steen 63). For example, they can be seen as “English Language Learners (ELL), English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), English Language Development (ELD), English Language Service (ELS), and

For me, learning a language is a complicated process. It is different from learning other subjects. It involves a lot of practices and follow up. When I talk about my personal experience, I would say that I have a rich experience in learning English as a second language. English was taught to me for ten years starting from grade seven till graduation from university. After graduation, I felt that I should improve my language skills. Therefore, I did a lot of efforts personally to increase my fluency. Until now I still learn the language. Indeed, learning a language takes a lifetime.

As a student teacher, I find it extremely important to learn and reflect on language acquisition theories made by many different theorist. As New Zealand is becoming more and more culturally and ethnically diverse (Stats NZ, 2013). This means classrooms will be more diverse. Hence it is important to have knowledge pedagogically on how teacher deliver a second language lesson and how to support ESOL students. Looking at Krashen’s theory, it is broken down into five hypothesis. Acquisition/learning, monitor, natural order, input and affective hypothesis. These hypothesis decipher language learning into different aspect where teachers need to understand and approaches to teaching english as a second language or a second language in general.

This paper will be discussing how one can go to Serbia and teach English as a second language. This paper will include important information such as basic education system, visa, demographic and more things about Serbia.

This study is testing the possibility of adopting the LCA to improve teaching English as a second language in Iraq. Therefore, an implementation attempt would be conducted to use the LCA in the country’s specific context. The teaching experiment is the main research methodology. For data collection methods, three would be utilized: the questionnaire, the interview, and observation.