For English learners, acquiring language proficiency opens the door to thrive across all subjects. However, learning a new language can be a long, difficult process that requires courage, resilience and trust from students who initially might feel vulnerable and out of place.

Schools are challenged by the growing number of English learners in their classrooms, with some districts having as many as 100 different native languages spoken by their students. While many regions of the country are equipped to integrate these students, there is still a struggle to find the best ways to support English learners and their caregivers. 

It’s crucial for teachers to create classrooms that are safe places for students to try, experiment and get meaningful feedback that allows them to make sense of what’s going on around them. The first step requires developing a more comprehensive linguistic profile of students.

Standardized tests are an important part of a linguistic profile, but we need to also consider a student’s background and exposure – what languages they speak at home and with whom do they speak those languages – in order to build a more comprehensive picture. Understanding the linguistic and cultural profile of your students will enable you to select the most appropriate evidence-based strategies and customize them to meet individual needs.

To effectively set each student – regardless of their native language – on a path toward achievement in the classroom and overall academic success, consider these five key strategies: 

1. Provide consistency and routine. Familiarity with a schedule is helpful for all students, particularly when children are not native speakers, as it gives them a sense of security knowing what is coming next. This can have particular implications for students in the early production stage of language development. During this stage, students can engage in routine or formulaic speech, which often marks the beginning stage of expressive language skills. Building a consistent classroom routine will facilitate the use of these “formulaic chunks” as it creates context around these phrases.
   
2. Create an ongoing list of words in the English language with multiple meanings and cross curricular application. Language acquisition isn’t something that is limited to a 45 or 90 minute block of language arts. Every content area teacher, academic or nonacademic, has a role in creating an environment where language learning is facilitated. Teachers can look for opportunities for vocabulary growth that are cross-curricular. For example, the word “plot.” Plot can mean the theme of a story, an area of land or a marking a spot on a graph. And conversely, if a student can’t read or understand the words “add” and “subtract,” they won’t do well on a math test.
   
3. Take advantage of native language skills as a bridge to English. Honoring the native language will embolden students to keep their identity while matching the words of their natural thoughts and feelings with the English versions. For example, let them journal in their native language and then translate to English.  And incorporate experiential learning by looking for ways to connect the curriculum to the world of the students, as well as providing an opportunity for shared experiences that can be used as a foundation for discussion or written reflection.
   
4. Utilize peers. Peers in the classroom are often an untapped resource. For some students, it is more comfortable to interact with other students as opposed to the teacher or another adult. Activities can range from structured to unstructured and will depend on the individual classroom dynamics and the personalities of the students. Peers are excellent language models and collaborative learning provides amazing opportunities to build community and strengthen relationships, while giving students an opportunity to show what they know and use and apply their skills to help others. It may be your first inclination to always pair more proficient students with less proficient students but it can be powerful to look for situations in which we capitalize on the strengths of all students and provide them opportunities to be the leader or the expert. Again, it is going to depend on the objective of the lesson. Another advantage of peer interactions is that students sharpen their listening skills when talking with students whose first language is English. Listening is often a weak point on language proficiency tests because it’s not easy to listen to another language and comprehend well.
   
5. Face students when you teach. It is easier to learn a language when watching how you speak. Teachers should make efforts not to turn to the whiteboard to write while speaking. Watching your facial expressions and gestures make a great impact with interpretation. And by the same token, ask students to turn and face each other when someone speaks. This simple act builds a culture of respect for listening to other voices in the room, and it develops the practice of listening and responding instead of thinking about what they’ll say next.

In the classroom, the most fundamental aspect of a successful teacher is establishing a culture of trust. However, for some students, this can be more of a challenge because English is not their native language. By developing linguistic profiles that go beyond standardized testing and leveraging these five key strategies in the classroom, teachers can help English learners overcome hurdles and achieve in the classroom.

Related:
How to help ESL students improve writing skills
Designing fair and inclusive tests for non-native speakers

Learning a new language is challenging, requiring a student to master four basic skills–listening, reading, speaking, and writing–from scratch. And it becomes even more challenging for ESL learners.

Not only do they learn a language but they also have to deal with other school subjects in it. And while listening and reading aren’t that difficult to conquer (both are passive skills about consuming the language, so they are easier for students to handle), active skills like speaking and writing are another thing:

Why is writing so critical for students to master?

Speaking and writing are about producing the language, requiring a different mental muscle from learners. ESL students won’t be able to succeed at school or college if they can’t use the language well enough: Their grades and overall subject knowledge will suffer.

The reasons for the importance of writing skills for ESL learners are obvious:

• Mistakes make them look uneducated. It’s especially true when it comes to writing assignments: With poor writing skills, students can’t deal with essays and other homework the way they need to get a good grade. Not to mention their further education when the time comes to write dissertations and other research papers: Afraid of poor grades and stipend loss, ESL students get tempted to plagiarize from others or use writing services from third parties to prevent failures and get the desired diploma.
• Writing is essential for professional and long-distance communication. Whether they’ll use English online in chat rooms, messengers, forums, and social media profiles, or they’ll need it for professional communication with colleagues and clients (business emails, project discussions, task setting, etc.), all these require proper writing skills to avoid mistakes and misunderstanding. A wrong vocabulary word or grammar error can change the context and cause problems with comprehension.
• ESL students need stellar writing skills to pass exams and language tests or enter the university. Think of SAT requiring essay writing or IELTS and TOEFL measuring writing abilities. Above-average writing skills are a must here to succeed.

Ways to improve your ESL students’ writing skills

As a teacher, you can help your ESL students improve their writing skills. Here’s how:

Encourage them to find an online pen pal

The big chances are that your ESL mentees communicate with many native speakers, but it doesn’t mean those native speakers help them polish their writing skills. What they need is a written exchange with a person who is ready to correct them and help them actually see mistakes.

Specific websites for language learners, such as My Language Exchange or Interpals, can come in handy here.

They are platforms for practicing languages with native speakers, aimed at learning through communication rather than mere chatting. Introducing such websites or apps to your students can encourage them to try another instrument for writing practice.

Ask them to write short stories

Teachers know that students don’t like writing assignments, especially those with strict requirements and deadlines. To break up the monotony of those typical tasks, ask ESL students to write short stories from time to time.

Not only does it help awaken their creative side, but it also encourages them to think of language learning curiously. Short stories can be about everything: Let a student choose a plot, characters, and resolution.

Such creative writing tasks motivate students to explore new words and topics they might avoid in the classroom or everyday conversation. They will examine literary devices and play with word combinations for their texts to sound better – all this will strengthen their writing skills.

You can also reveal the power of journaling to students and motivate them to keep their diaries in English rather than their native language. It’s an actionable practice to learn new words, improve grammar, and smash doubts about their writing abilities.

Assign summary writing

As you know, summarizing things you’ve read is one of the best ways to practice writing:

ESL students read materials in their target language, learn new vocabulary and sentence structures, and then fix that newly acquired knowledge by writing a summary and using that vocabulary and grammar constructions in their works.

Encourage them to write for publication

If you haven’t thought about teaching digital writing to your students in 2022, it’s high time to start. Gen Z writes more than speak now, sharing tons of text messages, social media posts, and comments daily. As a teacher, you can use it for educational purposes.

Encourage them to participate in online writing contests in their target language: The idea of strangers reading your text is a powerful motivator to write it in the best way possible.

Or, suggest they try blogging in English: free platforms like Medium are perfect to start.

Teach specialized writing styles

As you understand, writing skills go far beyond academic essays, and ESL students will need different writing styles outside of classrooms. Help them master specific formats: emails, resumes, cover letters, reports, etc.

Each format requires using the correct vocabulary and writing rules, so teach proper greetings, set phrases, and punctuation for different types of writing to students. Be one step ahead of the curriculum to not just tell mentees how to write academic papers but to help them master the writing skills they will need later in life.

It’s a challenge to learn a language, but your ESL students were brave enough to accept it. As a teacher, you have instruments to help them along the way: You can find fun and appealing writing practices for mentees so they won’t feel like language learning at all.

Make this challenge engaging and encourage your students not to give up halfway.

Roughly 20 percent of U.S. residents, which is approximately 67.3 million people (equal to the population of France), speak a language other than English at home, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. When it comes to taking tests not in their first language, these groups can be at a notable disadvantage – especially for tests that influence a test-takers’ future. 

Language is a significant barrier to fair and inclusive testing, particularly if language fluency is not relevant to the skill being measured by the test. This is why designing fair and inclusive tests for non-native speakers is a key component of equitable testing.

Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shows that migrants, on average, get significantly lower literacy and numeracy test scores than native speakers. About half of it relates to the language of the test, meaning that if the migrants were tested in their own language, about half the difference would disappear.

As globalization and migration increase, it’s become critical to make tests fair for those whose native language is different from that of the test language. Passing a test is often a gateway to life chances, so all takers should be given the chance to demonstrate their capabilities.

Use simple wording for questions and instructions

One of the most straightforward ways to solve language barriers and increase test accessibility is by using simple wording throughout the test. For example, use “with” instead of “in conjunction with.” Some top practices include:

• Write simple, clear and concise questions. Similarly, use clear and unambiguous instructions on how to complete the test.

• Avoid colloquialisms, idioms, slang, irony and sarcasm, – i.e., words and phrases that only native speakers understand.

• Also avoid long sentences, complex grammar, double negatives and metaphors – phrases that complicate understanding.

Simple language allows for less room for misunderstanding for a reader, and it makes translating easier. These practices also help improve the test for all test-takers, regardless of their native language.

Related:
4 ways to support ELLs in post-pandemic learning
With the right instruction, tech opens doors for ELLs

There’s no question that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted learning in ways educators and policymakers are still working to understand. But while all students felt the impact, certain historically underserved student groups–including English language learners (ELLs)–were disproportionately affected.

During virtual learning, ELLs didn’t have access to many of the in-school resources they typically use and need to learn best. Many student groups suffered from limited or no access to reliable high-speed internet, appropriate technology devices to use for virtual and hybrid learning, and unpredictable family situations that arose as a result of the pandemic.

While educators focus on addressing pandemic-related learning loss and closing existing learning gaps that grew wider during the pandemic, focusing on ELLs is critical.

Here, Russ Davis, CEO and founder of SchoolStatus, offers some recommendations for supporting ELLs:

1. Creating and maintaining consistent and effective parent-teacher communication. Parent-teacher relationships have always been a vital part of student success, but the importance of establishing and maintaining meaningful two-way communication with students’ support systems at home was emphasized by the pandemic. When schools moved to remote instruction, communication between parents and educators soared. Now, schools have an opportunity to build on this uptick in parent engagement and establish long-term processes that increase meaningful, two-way communication with students’ families. 

Even before COVID-19, reading scores among U.S. students had been declining for the first time in a decade, something that jeopardizes a generation’s achievement and mobility. As this trend was taking place nationally, more immigrant families were moving to Midwestern communities, including my home in Louisville, Kentucky.

While many cities across the country may find themselves unable to accommodate this influx of learners, here at Newcomer Academy, we have built a curriculum and infrastructure to support learners of all types and at scale. This means, at any time, we can welcome new families and students with the tools and resources they need to unlock learning.

Between 2013 and 2020, Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) saw double-digit English-learner growth, including 25 percent growth in the 2019-2020 school year alone – a 20-year high. This year, the county has enrolled more than 14,000 English learners. It was this growing population that led JCPS in 2007 to create the Newcomer Academy, a school designed for English language learners in sixth through 12th grades.

At Newcomer, where I’m the principal, this is the first year that most students are enrolled in an American school, and many had limited or interrupted school experiences in their native countries. In fact, about one-third have an educational gap of at least three years.

Since the pandemic started, teachers and students have had to transition from brick-and-mortar classrooms to virtual environments, and back. During this time, learning loss–the reversal of academic progress due to disrupted formal education–has been of significant concern to educators. Unfortunately, studies show that English Language Learners (ELLs) have been disproportionately impacted by learning loss, as compared to their peers.

According to the OECD, school closures and distance learning measures have put ELLs at a greater disadvantage compared to the general student population. A learning gap, which existed prior to the pandemic, is widening across the United States. At the same time, the demands of virtual and hybrid learning have put incredible strains on teachers throughout the pandemic. 

This issue has become a point of controversy for English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers, who do not feel the term ‘learning loss’ accurately describes the complex situation faced by ELLs in America.  

I can understand their perspective, because even before the pandemic, ELLs enrolled in U.S. schools grappled with disproportionately lower academic outcomes, as well as higher dropout rates. This created a learning gap that, due to COVID-19, is only continuing to grow. I believe this gap, combined with the strain placed on teachers during the pandemic, creates a perfect storm. The issue is that inequities continue to grow while there are more teachers facing burnout and there are fewer left to solve the problem. 

A recent study conducted by the University of Chicago found that when ELLs are given effective resources, they can match, and even exceed, their fellow native English-speaking peers in terms of academic achievement. From my perspective, the issue of inequity comes from an institution’s inability to support ELLs and their teachers. 

The issue of learning loss resulting from the pandemic is apparent but there are ways to overcome it. The first priority is to provide teachers with the support they need to effectively address the issue. Now more than ever, we need to help teachers by providing them with technology that is designed to save them time rather than replace them. Furthermore, ELLs need access to supplemental learning opportunities (such as online ESL tutoring). 

To better represent the varied perspectives that exist around learning loss resulting from the pandemic, I gathered the voices of two educators to flesh out some of the different opinions that exist. 

More than 10 percent of students in the United States are English language learners (ELLs) – that’s more than 4.8 million children nationwide. While these children don’t learn any differently than their native-English-speaking classmates, they do have educational needs that should not be overlooked or go unmet.

From a teacher’s perspective, it’s difficult not to notice how challenging navigating educational environments is for a child for whom English is not their native language. They often walk into the classroom feeling intimidated and afraid, struggle to communicate even the most basic needs, and avoid interacting with peers and teachers due to the language discrepancy. As teachers, it’s our responsibility to help bridge that gap to not only support students as they learn English, but help them navigate their education in the meantime.

Thankfully, we’re not up to the task alone. There are many solutions to the most common teaching challenges, all of which serve to enrich the lives of students, streamline communication between parents and teachers, and help kids learn how to communicate and excel in everything they do.

Adapt what exists

There are many online tools with built-in features to support instruction for a variety of learners, including ELLs. If your school doesn’t have access to, or can’t afford, more specialized software designed specifically for ELLs, start thinking about how you can take the online tools you have and make them work for the ELLs in your classroom.

Sworkit Kids

What’s It Like? 

Both physical education (PE) and classroom teachers can use Sworkit Kids to get kids exercising. It’s a perfect short activity to get students moving after a long lesson or first thing in the morning, or as a longer activity during gym class. Sworkit Kids can be used anywhere that the app can be shown to students: in PE class, in a regular classroom, at home, outside, inside, while watching television, while doing homework, or with friends or family.

No sign-up is needed to use Sworkit Kids, and there are no ads. Because the exercises are demonstrated visually, it’s useful for English language learners (ELLs) as well as students with hearing impairments. Very little space is needed for each student, but the exercises will still get them moving enough to get a good workout. Students can share their favorite workouts with friends and family, and students can also do these workouts at home.

Price: Free

Grades: 2-8

Rating: 4/5

Pros: Customizable workouts and settings, exercises are easy to learn.

Cons: There isn’t much there to extend the learning, and there’s minimal support for teachers.

Bottom line: This app will get kids moving, jumping, and bending to increase their overall fitness through exercise.

Ed. note: App of the Week picks are curated by the editors of Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. Click here to read the full app review.