Teaching English As A Second Language Learners

With the immigration population increase comes a language barrier increase. Therefore, English as a Second Language (ESL) tools in the classroom is essential. ESL was established in the 1970s when children of many mother tongues, crowded classrooms due to the immigration increase (Tomkins, G., 1981, p.

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.

Each year, schools across the nation are seeing an increase in the amount of English language learners they are receiving. Teachers of all grade levels are finding it harder and harder to teach these ELLs because of lack of or little to no proper training. So the article, Setting the Foundation for Working with English Language Learners in the Secondary Classroom aims to show you the ideas and strategies that current and future teachers can incorporate into their daily class lessons to make them more effective in meeting the academic needs of ELLs and in helping them learn the target language.

Sullivan (2011), reports that numbers have fluctuated between states with some reporting from zero to 17.3% and the average falling within 9% (Sullivan, 2011). Huang, Clarke, Milczarski, & Raby Huang (2011), indicate that since the 1980’s, the number of ELL students has doubled with more than 8% in the PreK-12 grades (Huang, et al., 2011). As such, the influx of students has also increased the need for not only new, but experienced teachers to provide language assistance as they acquire English. One reason for this need is that ELL students have the additional pressure of learning English and the content simultaneously and require experienced teachers. When these students begin to struggle, they are left with little resources and wind up being tracked for special education services. According to Stein (2011), there are many complex factors that place so many ELL students in special education services and one of the main ones is the characteristics of second language learning and its false assumption that a learning disability is present (Stein, 2011). According to Hall (2014), when students enter classrooms speaking very little English and the teacher is unable to communicate with them in their native language, ELLs can feel alienated and/or become easily frustrated (Hall, Quinn, Gollnick, 2014). Huang, et al. (2011), states that when

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.

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.

An ELL student presents a challenge because they may require extra attention and instruction for basic tasks, therefore taking up important instruction time. Gottfried addresses this as well in his findings. In the study, he finds that teacher training is one of the most important things. However, years of experience have little to no impact on a teacher’s ability to teach ELL students; what did have an impact was extra formal training in English as a Second Language (ESL) courses. The more specialized training in ESL a teacher had, the better achievement and socioemotional skills both ELL and non-ELL students possessed, and this is good news for teachers. There are unlimited resources available out there for teachers to partake in to help bolster their understanding and success in teaching new things and students with different requirements. Gottfried also points out that when policy-makers, teachers, and administrators focus on how to improve classrooms without necessarily focusing primarily on academic achievement, then ELL and non-ELL students alike may have increased skills in many areas, including socioemotional. Therefore, any teacher overwhelmed with the task of teaching any student that requires special needs or attention can find resources and training to help them

Characteristics: These are learners from ages 3 – 21 who are enrolled, or preparing to enroll in a school. Typically, they are not born in the USA or, their native language is no English. They may be Native Americans or Alaska Natives, or some other outlying area, where English is not used often enough such that it greatly impacts English proficiency. They may be migratory where the environment has a dominant language other than English. Such students have difficulty speaking, reading, writing, or understanding English, which may deny the child the ability to meet a proficient level of achievement on State assessments, ability to successfully achieve in a class where instruction is in English, or the chance

Along with the language barrier, English Language Learners (ELLs) often have high transient rates which pose a challenge to educators concerned with

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?)

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.

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