Teaching The English 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.

Cultural Diversity has lead schools to promote dual language and bilingual programs for ELL students. However, raising bilingual children according to Marsha Rosenberg is not something that simply happens. Parents must carefully consider how they will raise their children in their new culture. Unfortunately, many parents often forget that neglecting their primary language in the process of raising their children will only hurt them in the long run. However, what they fail to understand is that our current society insists on developing diverse learners, who can speak two or more languages and are diverse (Gensee, n.d). Therefore, in order to raise bilingual students they parents must provide the children with rich experiences at home as well as in a variety of settings (Broekhuizen, n.d.). Furthermore, families need to maintain a close family unity and sense of belonging when dealing with the bilingual issue at home.

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.

It is essential to understand English language learners’ needs because ELL students face the combined challenge of learning all the academic content as other students, while also learning the language of instruction. With the rapid growth in the size of the ELL student population in the U.S., teachers who are effective recognizes ELL students unique academic needs, unique background experience, culture, language, personality, interests and attitudes toward learning for the purpose to adjust, or differentiate, their instruction to meet students’ needs.

With nearly 30 million immigrants crossing our borders in the last three decades, the United States education system has seen a dramatic increase in the number of English Language Learners (ELLs) entering the classroom (Migration Policy Institute website, n.d.). With this influx of non-native English speakers has come the need to find the best ways possible to meet them where they are academically and teach them accordingly. However, after years of research, education gurus are still divided on how to best meet the needs of ELLs. While there is no clear-cut approach, there are several strategies and programs that schools can implement in order to help immigrant learners and their families be successful in our school system.

Michael Gottfried, from the University of California Santa Barbara, wrote this article in 2014, in which he examined the effects of having a greater number of English Language Learner (ELL) students in general education classrooms on the other students in kindergarten and first grade. He based his research off the “research gaps” (Gottfried, 22), that other studies have done to examine this same issue, examining students’ achievement and socioemotional skills. Gottfried states that there are four primary ideas that other studies within the same topic failed to consider: studies focused on only the ELL students in a mainstream classroom, the studies only focus on student achievement, the studies have left out many factors within a classroom,

When I teach students I always look at the student as an individual and want to make sure that they are able to get the information that is presents. I have a preschool classroom that students are presented with safe and welcome environment to learn in. Everyday there are many layers of scaffolding that takes place. We go over routines and schedules both verbally and visually. We have pictures of what should be done in each routine during the day. Example of what to do when students enter the classroom to what to do after they are done with lunch. These are basic ways that the classroom is setup to help ELLs adapt to an unfamiliar setting.

In the 2014 October edition of the Education Update, authors, Kathy Checkley and Virgina Rojas discussed the topic of various ways that educators can provide support for the academic succession of ELL students. In their article Setting ELLs Up for Success, the authors stressed that along with the proper scaffolding techniques and student access, ELL students will thrive in a mainstream classroom. The objective of the article involves demonstrating the methodology in how to teach effectively for all and ELL students. Many times, language learners are looked upon as having a cognitive disability, when that is often not the case. The authors’ main purpose is to illustrate the significance of engaging ELL students in the class, providing good instruction, having high expectations, and building on students’ prior knowledge. Some of the essential features that were included in the article were ways to extend good practice for students which included expectations, assessment, and instruction. In order for ELL students to be set up for success, as included in the article, learning must also be socially and culturally connected.

There has been a very big jump in the number of immigrants coming into the United States. This has led to a rise in the number of English language learners in schools around the U.S.. However, this means that educators, administrators, and those apart of the education district need to work together to create more support for this growing population of ELL students. This article brings up five different lessons on creating support for ELL learners in schools. The first lesson is, “Make success for ELLs a central issue.” This involves the commitment of everyone involved in the school towards improving the education of these students. Educators need to develop and communicate in order to create a unified plan to improve education and instruction. This is the

With the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 came a requirement for local and state educational providers to be accountable for the academic progress of all children in their care including English language learners. This paper will examine two common assessments used by states and districts to meet the requirement of this legislation: WIDA's ACCESS for ELLs and Ballard and Tighe's IPT test. Both of these standard-based tests are used for similar purposes, but they have some differences too, namely that one tests BICS and general CALP, while the other tests a wider range of academic domain language.

Immigration population continues to expand therefore, increasing the number of students who are not proficient in English and requiring protection under the law. “Approximately 5 million students in the United States schools have limited English language skills that affect their ability to participate successfully in education programs and achieve high academic standards” (Contreras, 2011). Having both federal and state mandates allows equal protection under the law for English Language Learners (ELL). ELL’s presented many legal concerns and violation of rights that were protected by the Constitution as they entered the school system. Students were segregated from non-ELL’s. Students were not given supplemental materials for instruction.

This study will be conducted at HSO, a rural 2A high school in Central Washington state. Approximately 60% of the students at HSO have parents with little or no college experience, and nearly 40% of the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals (OSPI 2016). The school as a whole is 75% white, 22% other, and 3% either African American, Native American, Asian or of two or more races (OSPI 2016). The group that will participate in the study is a comprised of 27 high school students taking a World History course. There are 12 male and 15 female students, all 15 or 16 years old. Twenty-six of the students are Caucasian or Hispanic and one is African-American. Five of the students are identified as English Language Learners

There are many strategies I will implement while preparing for my English Learners. Below is a checklist of things I would do to prepare for my students:

This document will focus on the perceptions of teachers who teach English Language Learners (ELL). The discussion will center on three theories that interrelate through the examination of various articles on the research on teachers’ instructional practices, perceptions of students and classroom experiences that contribute to motivating English Language Learners to pursue a college education. At the same time, the articles will be analyzed to identify correlated theories that can be use as guidelines for building the foundational framework for the proposed research study. Finally, the summary will discuss the potential contributions that such a proposed research study can contribute to the knowledge base in this field.

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?)