The Importance Of Instruction For English Language Learners

General education classroom teachers are responsible for providing the primary instruction for English Language Learners (ELLs) development in English literacy skills (Thompson, 2004). Supplying ample resources to accommodate ELLs inside and outside of the classroom are essential as the number of ELL students has grown steadily. According to research, “one out of four of all children in the United States are from immigrant families, and in most cases these children speak a language other than English at home” (Samson & Collins, 2012 p. 4). Further research suggests, “students from a non-English speaking home and background account for the fastest growing population of children in the kindergarten through twelfth grade setting (Short &

As our nation shifts towards a more culturally diverse population both educators and families have to find a common ground to ensure that English Language Learners are academically successful. All stakeholders must carefully consider the social cultural impact on an ELL education. The process of raising bilingual learners take more than a language a school and a language learned at home. The transition must have a purpose and a goal.

English Language Learners (hereafter referred to as ELLs) currently comprise 10% of the total school population in the United States (National Center for Education Statistics, 2005). It is a population that is going to continue to increase in American public education and their specific needs for learning literacy are of great importance to teachers. Since schools and teachers are increasingly judged based upon the academic achievement of students, then the success of the growing population of ELLs is going to be increasingly important. In the present paper the role of the teacher and specific research-based literacy strategies for ELLs is investigated.

“What it takes for English Learners to Succeed?” is an article written by Jana Echevarria, Nancy Frey, and Doug Fisher that illustrate concepts that will allow English Learners to become fluent in English. The purpose of this article is to discuss four accessible teaching practices that will allow English Learners in U.S. classroom to become academically successful and attain fluency in English. To clarify, the authors use access, climate, expectations, and language instruction as the practices that will eliminate education inequality and enable students to be able to fully participate in rigorous course work without excluding English Learners. Ultimately this provides an approachable school reform, creates additive integration of multicultural perspective and approach and lastly brings a way for language diversity to be seen in the classroom.

All these strategies gives all students an equal opportunity to practice English, participation and involvement. ELLs students when it’s time to read or participate in class they may be reluctant to speak because of their lack of proficiency in English or feel uncomfortable in an environment where they have to share their ideas. ESL teachers must provide a positive and supportive environment that offers significant influence on student comfort level, success and participation that requiring ELLs to use the language in front of class without force them

Recently, as the schools in the United States become more diverse in cultures, the needs for new English learners to learn the basic of English and grow in fluency has expanded. Nevertheless, a major of English learners receive insufficient education and have low achievement at school. Therefore, the approach of the schools for English learners might not be sufficient for them to unchain themselves from the boundary of differences in language and culture. As a result, the article “What It Takes for English Learners to Succeed” from Jana Echevarria, Nancy Frey, and Doug Fisher provides a guideline for teachers to help their English learners by using the four practices of “Access, Climate, Expectation, and Language Instruction.” The four practices can be divided into two categories. Access, climate, and expectations focus on educational settings, while language instruction focuses on teaching contents.

be English Language Learners, (ELL) for them to benefit from this lesson or to meet state

For teachers, I believe they are lacking in having efficient data, practices, and resources. These three categories play an essential role in educating, evaluating, and caring for ELL students. Communication is a huge factor when it comes to instruction in the classroom. In the past research has shown poor communication between teachers, students and families. Schools often lack in providing differentiated methods and tools to teach ELL students. Schools in the past have failed to offer the correct assessments that were needed in order to diagnose each student's needs and measure their individualized learning standards. Educators can easily become frustrated because there is such a wide range of English learners. This means academic levels are different and the educators have not received the proper training or instructions on how to correctly educate ELL students.

She maintains this will allow them to generate cognitive and linguistic progress that nurtures their transition to English (Stover, 2015). Therefore, according to Dr. Vonderlack-Navarro, the “English only” approach can be detrimental to learning English (Stover, 2015). Vonderlack-Navarro contends school board members need to endorse specific strategies and support multilingual classrooms in response to the question, “How does the school board make these literacy gains in a classroom with English language learners who speak different languages?” (Stover, 2015).

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.

The class is a mainstreamed first grade co-teach class of 34 students and two teachers. There are 16 females and 18 males that included 12 active English Language Learners (ELLs) (5 females, 7 males) and five Level 5 (proficient) students. The 12 ELL students represent five languages—Spanish (7), Chinese (1), Chin Burmese (1), and Arabic (2), Brazilian Portuguese (1). Eight of the twelve students tested at Level 1 on the WIDA language proficiency scale.

In recent decades, the United States has seen a dramatic increase in the diverse population, especially with English-language learners in the education system. English-language learners are students who are unable to communicate fluently or learn effectively in English. These students come from a non-English speaking home or background and require specialized instruction in the English language and their academic courses. Educators use a number of terms when referring to English-language learners, limited English proficient (LEP) students, non-native English speakers, language-minority students, and either bilingual students or emerging bilingual students (York, 2008). As

Under the Civil Rights Act, schools are responsible for ensuring that all students receive equal access to education, including English Language Learners (ELLs). Merely, providing the same educational resources for all students does not constitute educational equality. Students such as ELLs, need an English Language Development (ELD) program that accommodates their specific language needs in order to legitimately offer equal educational opportunities. Based on research findings, districts need to implement and developing ELD programs that have had proven success rates of making adequate yearly progress for ELLs. For years, psychologists and linguistic theorists have speculated on the acquisition of language and educators have studied these research findings to enhance their teaching pedagogy to accommodate their ELLs.

It is essential that teachers use a variety of strategies in their teaching, to ensure that EAL learners are being included into their mathematics lessons, at all times. Baker (2006) stresses, ‘BICS is said to occur when there are contextual supports and props for language delivery.’ (Baker, 2006, p.174) Therefore, non-verbal support by teachers can help to secure understanding for EAL learners, for example, using gestures with face and hands, or writing on PowerPoint and worksheets. The use of concrete rather than abstract starters, may allow EAL students greater access to the beginning of the lesson. E.g. matching words to pictures or grouping similar words. If language that is supported by contextual clues in the environment, helps the second language learner make meaning from the spoken, or written word, (Improving Second Language Education, 2011) then the use of objects, visual aids, such as a laminated pictures to signify different equipment or key words, such as mass, capacity at the very beginning of topic ‘measurement’ for example, pictures, charts and props should be utilized in

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