I love teaching English-language learners and I suspect most other educators feel the same way.

Nevertheless, teaching anyone comes with all sorts of challenges, and ELLs are no different.

Today’s post begins a series exploring what those unique challenges might be and how we can best rise to them.

‘Differentiated Instruction’

Marie Moreno, Ed.D., is an educator and administrator with over 30 years of experience specializing in newcomer and second-language acquisition. She is passionate about refugee and immigrant education by focusing on social and emotional needs and newcomer programming:

Teaching English-language learners presents several challenges that educators must navigate to ensure effective instruction. These challenges often stem from linguistic, cultural, and academic differences that ELLs bring to the classroom, making it crucial for teachers to adopt strategies that address these diverse needs.

1. Linguistic Barriers

The most significant challenge, I feel, is the language barrier itself. ELLs come into the classroom with varying levels of English proficiency, ranging from beginner to advanced. This variability can make it difficult for teachers to ensure all students comprehend the lesson content. Additionally, academic language—vocabulary and grammar specific to subjects like science or math—can be incredibly challenging for ELLs who may be more familiar with conversational English.

2. Cultural Differences

We must also look at cultural differences that can pose classroom challenges. ELLs may come from educational systems vastly different from those in the United States, leading to differences in classroom behavior, expectations, and participation.

In a recent trip to Uganda, I saw that if students do not perform at expected student-achievement levels, they are “caned” in front of their peers or “kicked out of school.” Although corporal punishment is not common in American schools, students still see a difference in how we educate them. These cultural differences can affect how students interact with their teachers and respond to classroom instruction.

3. Social-Emotional Challenges

Many ELLs face social-emotional challenges, mainly if they are recent immigrants who have experienced trauma or disruption in their lives. The stress of learning a new language, in a new environment, and learning a new culture can affect their academic success.

4. Academic Gaps

ELLs often have academic gaps due to interruptions in their education, either from moving between countries or having limited access to schooling in their home country. These gaps can make it challenging for them to keep up with grade-level content.

A few recommendations to address these challenges are:

• Implement sheltered instruction strategies, such as visual aids, modeling academic language, and scaffolding lessons to break down complex concepts into manageable parts. Interactive strategies like Total Physical Response, in which students physically act out vocabulary words, can also be beneficial.
  
• Create a culturally responsive classroom environment. This includes incorporating students’ cultural backgrounds into the curriculum, respecting diverse perspectives, and establishing classroom norms encouraging all students to participate actively. Building relationships with students and their families can help teachers better understand their cultural backgrounds and tailor instruction accordingly.
  
• Create a trauma-sensitive classroom environment where ELLs feel safe and valued. Fostering a sense of community within the classroom can offer support by providing regular check-ins with students to address their emotional needs and providing access to counseling services if necessary. Incorporating social-emotional learning into the curriculum can help them develop coping skills and build resilience.
  
• Differentiated instruction, my favorite, is vital to addressing academic gaps. Teachers can assess students’ current knowledge and provide targeted support through small-group instruction (learning stations). Regular formative assessments help track progress and adjust instruction to meet students’ evolving needs. Teachers must ensure they provide the I+1 model, making the content not too hard but not too easy!

Teaching ELLs requires a multifaceted approach considering their linguistic, cultural, social-emotional, and academic challenges. By employing strategies like sheltered instruction, culturally responsive teaching, SEL, and differentiated instruction, educators can create an inclusive classroom environment that supports the success of all students. The goal is to ensure that ELLs learn English and thrive academically and socially, contributing their unique perspectives to the classroom community.

Teachers Need ‘a Big Heart and Tailored Strategies’

Anastasia M. Martinez is an English-language development coach in Pittsburg, Calif.:

Teaching multilingual learners is a highly rewarding and challenging task. Having worked with multilingual learners in the United States and abroad, I realize that I would not be the teacher I am today without working with multilingual learners from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Working with them requires a big heart and tailored strategies that will help this group of students thrive academically and socially. Here are some challenges and recommendations for addressing them:

1. Knowing different types of multilingual learners.

There are different typologies of multilingual learners, such as newly arrived students, long-term English learners, students with limited and interrupted education, etc., which can overwhelm teachers. Even two multilingual learners in the same content-area classroom might not have the same linguistic levels and needs.

Recommendation: It is very important to know who your multilingual learners are in the classroom and what their levels of proficiency are. This will help content-area teachers in intentional grouping and lesson scaffolding to address their unique needs.

2. Making multilingual learners visible in the classroom

Teaching content to multilingual learners might be challenging because the curriculum does not represent our multilingual learners.

Recommendation: Knowing students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds, as well as their interests, and incorporating them into the daily lessons will help students see themselves in the content and engage with it more effectively.

3. Giving access to academic language

Teaching content-area-specific academic language might seem challenging and unnecessary when students are at the beginning stages of language acquisition.

Recommendation: Teaching academic language in context using visuals, gestures, and modeling will help not only newly arrived multilingual learners and long-term English learners but also all students who need to access academic language through multiple modalities.

4. Reducing Teacher-Talking Time

As teachers, we want to share a lot during our classes, which leads to lecturing, long directions, and disengaged and confused students.

Recommendation: To help multilingual learners process content and teacher directions, teachers should speak in concise sentences and use checks for understanding to make sure students understand the instructions and directions. Replacing “Does it make sense?” or “Do you understand?” with something like, “In the next activity, are we speaking or are we writing?” makes it more concrete to the students and reminds them of what they need to know for the upcoming task.

5. Make connections with families

Language barriers might seem to be challenging in making connections with families.

Recommendation: Use translation apps (ex. Talking Points, Parent Square, etc.) to communicate with families and build relationships with them. Our families are the first teachers to our students, which is why engaging families to share their expertise or experiences would help teachers get to know their multilingual students better.

Overall, addressing the challenges in working with multilingual learners and their families requires a combination of empathy, creativity, and commitment to equity. By implementing the recommended strategies, teachers can help multilingual learners feel more confident and connected to their school.

Looking Through the Lens of Assets

Françoise Thenoux is an accomplished educator and advocate with a career spanning nearly two decades. For more information about her work and resources, you can follow her on social media:

As a racialized immigrant in the U.S.A. and a native Spanish speaker ESL teacher with 20 years of teaching experience, I have witnessed firsthand the challenges of teaching English language learners. It’s important to note that the term “ELL” is evolving, as it often reflects deficit narratives about students who are actually emergent bilinguals or multilinguals. These students bring a wealth of linguistic and cultural assets to the classroom, yet the challenges they face often stem from the educational system and the teachers rather than themselves.

Biggest Challenges

1. Monolingual Teachers and Lack of Linguistic Knowledge

Many teachers in the U.S.A. are monolingual and lack the linguistic knowledge and understanding of the cognitive processes involved in language acquisition. This lack of preparation often leaves them unprepared to address the specific needs of emergent bilingual and multilingual students. The United States’ educational system, which prides itself on monolingualism, often reflects a nationalistic mentality dating back to colonial times, intertwined with a white gaze and racism. This perspective sees students through a deficit lens rather than appreciating the richness and diversity that multilingual students bring.

2. Deficit Narratives

The prevalent deficit narratives in education view emergent bilingual and multilingual students as lacking rather than recognizing their bilingualism as an asset. This perspective can negatively impact students’ self-esteem and academic performance. Instead of valuing their linguistic abilities, the focus is often on what these students can’t do in English, which undermines their confidence and hinders their educational experience.

3. Lack of Teacher Preparation and Training

Many educators lack updated, research-based knowledge about language acquisition, translanguaging, and culturally responsive teaching. This gap in knowledge is a significant barrier to effectively teaching emergent bilingual and multilingual students. Teachers who are not equipped with these skills and understandings are less likely to implement strategies that support the linguistic and academic development of these students.

Recommendations

1. Professional Development in Linguistics and Language Acquisition

To address these challenges, it’s crucial to invest in professional development that focuses on the cognitive processes of language acquisition, translanguaging strategies, and the principles of culturally responsive teaching. Teachers need to understand how languages are learned and how they can leverage students’ native languages as resources in the classroom. This knowledge will enable them to create more inclusive and effective learning environments.

2. Adopting an Asset-Based Perspective

Shifting from a deficit-based to an asset-based perspective is essential. Educators must recognize and celebrate the linguistic and cultural diversity that emergent bilingual and multilingual students bring. This includes valuing students’ home languages and incorporating them into the curriculum. By doing so, teachers can help students build on their existing linguistic strengths while learning English.

3. Integrating Translanguaging Practices

Translanguaging, or using multiple languages in the classroom to support learning, is a powerful strategy for emergent bilingual and multilingual students. Teachers should be trained to integrate translanguaging practices into their teaching. This can involve allowing students to use their home languages to understand new concepts, encouraging bilingual peer support, and providing materials in multiple languages.

4. Culturally Responsive Teaching

Implementing culturally responsive teaching is critical for creating an inclusive and supportive classroom environment. Teachers should engage in continuous self-reflection and bias unpacking, develop an intersectional and anti-bias approach, and commit to understanding their students’ cultures and histories deeply. This involves adapting the curriculum to be representative of students’ cultural backgrounds and experiences, creating lesson plans that reflect students’ cultural ways of learning, and fostering genuine relationships with students and their families.

5. Policy Changes and Advocacy

On a broader scale, advocating policy changes that support bilingual education and the professional development of teachers in these areas is crucial. This includes lobbying for more resources, better teacher-training programs, and educational policies that recognize and support the linguistic diversity of students.

Thanks to Marie, Anastasia, and Francoise for contributing their thoughts!

Today’s post answered this question:

What do you think are the biggest challenges to teaching English-language learners, and what are your recommendations for how to meet them?

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo.

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