ITEC 7430 ELL Report Lin-Chiou Lee
What do teachers need to know about students who are learning to speak English?
Students who qualify for the ELL program really want to learn English and master the language.
Oftentimes, they are really good students in their countries and become discouraged with their academic
performance when they come to the U.S. with the language barrier. Many ELL students go through a silent phase
where they do not talk much, but that does not mean they are not listening and taking in all the information to
their best abilities. Just like any other student new to an environment, ELL students will not ask questions when
they do not understand certain concepts until they feel comfortable with their teachers and classmates. Many may
also come from cultures where it is rude to ask the teacher questions or even look at teachers in the eyes during a
conversation.
Teachers must know the difference between social/conversational English (Basic Interpersonal
Communicative Skills – BICS) and academic English (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency – CALP).
Since it does take ELL students on average five to seven years to fully develop their Cognitive Academic
Language Proficiency, teachers might have the misconception that ELL students cannot perform as well as their
peers whose first language are English. Moreover, just because ELL students can become fluent in conversational
English within the first two to three years at school does not mean they are ready to be independent learners
without instructional scaffolding. Just like other students, the levels ELL students are at today may or may not the
levels they will be at tomorrow.
English Language Learners who are stronger in speech tend to be weaker in their writing skills and
reading comprehension and vice versa. It is not necessarily a language deficiency when an ELL student cannot
read and/or write well in English since oftentimes he or she cannot read and/or write well in his or her own
language to begin with. Those students who are weaker in speech will test out of the ELL program faster than
their peers with stronger conversational English due to the fact that they are usually better readers in their native
language. Just like any other student who is new to the class, teachers must get to know the student and meet
where the student is before a relationship can be shaped.
What are some general instructional practices that can be beneficial to students who are learning to speak
English?
ITEC 7430 ELL Report Lin-Chiou Lee
Teachers should always meet students where they are in order to build a safe and trustworthy relationship.
Foster an environment where they are safe to ask questions and show where they are struggling. Start with where
they are and chunk information down to ensure small success before challenging them little by little. ELL
students need to feel empowered by completing tasks similar to their English-speaking peers. Help ELL students
prioritize what concepts are important to grasp in a lesson by providing them with a key vocabulary list ahead of
time and allowing them to preview the materials. Discreetly introduce them to a few students in the class who can
be their “buddies” to sit and work with.
Effective teachers must be culturally responsive because they care what the students bring to the situation,
what the students know or care about, and what might motivate them. Find ways to communicate to them through
pictures, gestures, and Google Translate. Allow ELL students to translate words they do not know so that they can
bridge their understanding and learning from their own language to English. Give them the opportunity to choose
how they want to demonstrate mastery of learning. Teachers must find ways to gauge into student understanding
Wait time is very important to ELL students. Be patient and listen carefully to what they can tell you in
both English and their native language. Encourage them to express their thoughts and contribute to small group
discussions in either speech or writing according to their comfort levels. Let them know that they can make up or
redo the work if they did not do it correctly the first time. They need to understand that learning is a process and
making mistakes is part of that process.
What should teachers consider when testing students who are learning to speak English?
Teachers should always imagine what would be helpful to themselves if they were to take a test in a
language they do not know or are not familiar with. Consider what parts of the test questions might have potential
cultural bias and be prepared for their questions. The testing vocabulary used should be consistent with the key
vocabulary list supplemented in the daily instruction. Make it clear to the students what is on the test aligns with
the content they have been learning in class. Multiple-choice tests are going to be the most challenging to ELL
students as they try to decipher different parts to each question. Encourage them to use their dictionary or
translators. Give them the test a few sections at a time to minimize their test anxiety.
ITEC 7430 ELL Report Lin-Chiou Lee
Be accessible to ELL students when they take the time to make sure that they fully understand the
direction on the test. English Language Learners definitely need extra time on every test. The best practice is to
have them come in early in the morning on the day of the assessment to complete a section or two without
showing them the rest of the test. They will then have ample time to complete the rest of the time in class. All test
accommodations should be given discreetly as ELL students already feel different from their classmates due to
the language barrier. If they still cannot finish the test, they are expected to write not finished right below their
names so that the teachers can find time for them to finish right after school or the next morning. Since the
purpose of a test is to understand what content they have mastered, ELL students should be able to recover a test
if they did not do well. They will never self-advocate for this so it is crucial for the teachers to put the recovery
process in place with the students.
Knowledge of English Language Learners (ELLs)
I have worked closely with five ELL students in a class where they focus on acquiring and enriching their
social/conversational English (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills – BICS) and academic English
(Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency – CALP) in both speaking and writing. I was granted two weeks to
work with this group of students for a 55-minute session each day. During our first two days together, I focused
on building the connection – observing and facilitating student work to gain a better understanding of each
student’s academic abilities. I was then asked to design an activity where students can have ample opportunities
to practice the oral and written language needed to explain the information and compare the data portrayed in
different types of graphs such as bar, circle, and line graphs, histograms, stem-and-leaf, and dot plots, etc.
Here are some observations I have made on the five ELL students I have worked with.
Student Name Level of English Proficiency Personal Characteristics
Alex speaks mostly in short and Alex is mostly quiet until he is distracted by
Alex is a 9th grade simple sentences. He is hard to Roger and Michael when they speak in Spanish.
understand most of the time due to Alex has the ability to understand the content and
male student from
his limited English vocabulary words complete the assignment when he works with the
Venezuela
and his pronunciation. teacher one-on-one. Without constant reminder
and supervision, Alex is usually the one who
turns in his assignment last.
ITEC 7430 ELL Report Lin-Chiou Lee
Gary’s speaking and writing are both Roger is very outspoken in both his primary
Roger is a 9th limited to simple phrases and short language and English. He is not afraid to ask
grade male from sentences. He is hard to understand questions during a task when he does not
Dominican sometimes due to his limited English understand something. He is very interested in
Republic vocabulary words and his learning English. He does need the constant
pronunciation. reminder to sit down and finish his work.
Michael’s speaking and writing are Michael is a quiet student. When I worked with
Michael is a 9th both in the intermediate level. He can him one-on-one, he was very good at asking
grade male from produce some complex sentence questions so that he could better understand the
Spain structures. He can clearly task. Michael needs to be more confident about
communicate what he wants to say. himself and his work.
Kai can communicate his ideas Kai is very active in the class. He always gets his
clearly to teachers and other students. assignment done early. He does not always
Kai is a 9th grade
He can speak English better than he produce the best work. He is always willing to
male from Japan
can write. help others. He also likes to make sure that he
pronounces his English words correctly.
Jillian can communicate very well Jillian is probably the most advanced student in
with teachers and other students in the entire class. She always turns in quality work
Jillian is a 10th
English. Her speaking and writing on time. Jillian tends to help Roger a lot since he
grade female
from Belarus does go beyond short simple sits right next to her in class.
sentences with some syntactic errors.
Jillian can be easily understood.
Pedagogical Strategies
1. Contextualize vocabulary – I made sure to help ELL students prioritize what concepts are important to grasp
in a lesson by teaching key vocabulary in tiers – Tier 1 words are “high-frequency words in everyday
conversations” that students are usually familiar with, Tier 2 words are words “frequently used in written
language” that are crucial to “students’ verbal functioning in the classroom,” and Tier 3 words are content-
specific words that must be taught directly (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan as cited in Miller, 2016, p. 60).
2. Activate background knowledge – I introduced the lesson by having each student make a graphic organizer in
his or her OneNote notebook with drawings to bar, circle, and line graphs, histograms, stem-and-leaf, and dot
plots using Microsoft Surface Pen.
3. Explicit Instruction with ample practice – We first had a short class discussion on what students could identify
from each type of graph. After listing what the students have said, we then discussed the sentence structures
needed to successfully interpret and compare the data in bar, circle, and line graphs, histograms, stem-and-
leaf, and dot plots. Lastly, students were given ample time and opportunities to practice with one another all
ITEC 7430 ELL Report Lin-Chiou Lee
the sentence structures in speaking before recording with Spreaker and then writing before taking the online
final summative assessment.
4. Online Assessment through Google Docs – I made sure the final summative assessment given separates
assessing students’ content knowledge from their English language knowledge.
Objectives and Assessments
Objective Assessment Evidence of Student Learning
(Content) – Students (Formative) – During the According to my observations and final assessment results,
will compare and lesson, I will observe and all five students were able to clearly explain the
distinguish the many ask questions while the information and compare the data displayed in bar, circle,
different types of data students are working. and line graphs, histograms, stem-and-leaf, and dot plots.
displayed in bar,
circle, and line graphs, (Summative) – see final
histograms, stem-and- assessment attached to
leaf, and dot plots. my project submission.
(Language) – Students (Formative) – I will When Alex and Roger spoke in shorter and simpler oral
will acquire the oral listen to the student's sentences, their peers and I could understand the content
language needed to descriptions as he/she they wanted to communicate better. From time to time, it
further analyze the works. I will also would be hard for these two to tell the class what they
data displayed in bar, observe/ask questions wanted to say about their graphs because they experienced
circle, and line graphs, while the students are either phonological difficulties with content-related
histograms, stem-and- working. vocabulary or syntactic errors with a sentence structure
leaf, and dot plots. they were unfamiliar with.
(Summative) – Students Michael, Kai, and Jillian had a really good grasp of the
will record what they content language and key vocabulary words as they all
submitted in their final tried to provide as many details as possible in their
assessments and listen conversations about the different graphs. They were very
back to their own comfortable going between simple and expanded oral
pronunciations. sentences as well.
(Writing) – Students (Formative) – I will Alex and Roger’s graph interpretations and analyses were
will acquire the listen to the student's easy to read since both of them followed all the basic
written language discussions as they work written sentence structures we discussed and outlined as a
structure needed to with one another. I will whole class. Some of the key content vocabulary words
further analyze the also observe/ask were misspelled. It was evident that they tried to add a few
data displayed in bar, questions while the details of their own, making it more interesting to read.
circle, and line graphs, students are writing. Overall, Jillian, Kai, and Michael’s writing were
histograms, stem-and- comprehensible with some spelling and syntax errors.
leaf, and dot plots. (Summative) – see final There were also a few spelling errors but nothing major.
assessment attached to They all attempted to produce more complex sentence
my project submission. structures that are different from the suggested sentence
structures. The three of them were not afraid to make
mistakes because they all attempted to use specific
ITEC 7430 ELL Report Lin-Chiou Lee
language related to the content area such as range,
frequency, percentage, etc.
Guiding Sources
SIOP 8 components and 30 features. Retrieved from https://esol.leeschools.net/SIOP/pdf/SIOP%208.pdf
This resource carefully details the eight components – lesson preparation, building background,
comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice and applications, lesson delivery, and review and
assessment – in the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). This resource has successfully expanded
my pedagogical strategies because of all the concrete examples and strategies listed under each SIOP component.
For instance, this guide further discussed how creating personal dictionaries or glossaries, making a content word
wall for this class, allowing ELL students to self-select essential vocabulary words, and contextualizing key
vocabulary words can guarantee to build all ELL students a stronger background knowledge to better understand
the content. I highly recommend this guide to novice ELL teachers because they can easily implement all the
effective instructional strategies discussed in this resource in the classroom for all students.
Vanderbilt Peabody College. (2018). The Iris Center. Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/
module/ell/
I find the Iris Center website houses the most comprehensive information when it comes to characteristics
of English Language Learners, phases of second language acquisition, differences among all the ELL programs
(Two-Way Immersion, Developmental Bilingual Education, Transitional Bilingual Education, and English as a
Second Language), culturally responsive instruction, contextual supports, comprehensible input, differentiated
instruction, and so much more. Detailed explanations, sample lessons, and expert testimonials are provided under
every important topic. The Iris Center website has guided me to incorporate some of the instructional strategies
such as sheltered instruction and comprehensible input into my own data analysis lesson.
Miller, R.D. (2016). Contextualizing instruction for English language learners with learning disabilities. Teaching
Exceptional Children, 49(1), 58-65, doi: 10.1177/0040059916662248.
Miller focused on discussing how important it is to utilize certain instructional strategies that can best
contextualize learning for ELL and students with disabilities. The use of graphic organizers and visual mnemonic
ITEC 7430 ELL Report Lin-Chiou Lee
to chunk information down ensures small success and empowerment that ELL and students with disabilities all
need to feel. Help ELL students prioritize what concepts are important to grasp in a lesson by teaching key
vocabulary in tiers – Tier 1 words are “high-frequency words in everyday conversations” that students are usually
familiar with, Tier 2 words are words “frequently used in written language” that are crucial to “students’ verbal
functioning in the classroom,” and Tier 3 words are content-specific words that must be taught directly (Beck,
McKeown, & Kucan as cited in Miller, 2016, p. 60). This resource helped me recognize that my data analysis
lesson must provide “ELLs repeated opportunities to practice new vocabulary through listening, speaking,
reading, and writing activities” (Beck et al. as cited in Miller, 2016, p. 60)
Post-Field Experience Reflection
After working with these five ELL students, I have observed how the different levels of
social/conversational English (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills – BICS) and academic English
(Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency – CALP) influence how ELL students acquire knowledge. English
Language Learners who are stronger in speech tend to be weaker in their writing skills and reading
comprehension and vice versa. ELL students should be allowed to confer about the content and communicate
their own thinking in their primary language first before they can successfully make the connections to decipher
the meaning in English.
It is essential for teachers to build a safe and trustworthy relationship and foster an environment where
students are safe to ask questions and show where they are struggling. It is also imperative for teachers to
contextualize learning for ELL students in order to build a solid background knowledge for key vocabulary words
and content. “Students who are given opportunities to practice the pronunciation of words and learn the meaning
of words prior to reading a text or participating in a classroom discussion are more likely to participate and
understand the content” (Miller, 2016, p. 60). ELL students must also have “repeated opportunities to practice
new vocabulary through listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities” (Beck et al. as cited in Miller, 2016,
p. 60).
I made sure that all the vocabulary words used in my final summative assessment were consistent with the
ones used in our daily instruction. The students are clear what is on the final written assessment aligns perfectly
ITEC 7430 ELL Report Lin-Chiou Lee
with the content they have been learning in class. The students are also clear that they have ample time on the
final assessment to demonstrate their understanding. When they made a mistake on the test, they were given
another question of similar type to redo until they were comfortable with the written sentence structure to further
analyze the data displayed in bar, circle, and line graphs, histograms, stem-and-leaf, and dot plots.
References
Miller, R.D. (2016). Contextualizing instruction for English language learners with learning disabilities. Teaching
Exceptional Children, 49(1), 58-65, doi: 10.1177/0040059916662248.
SIOP 8 components and 30 features. Retrieved from https://esol.leeschools.net/SIOP/pdf/SIOP%208.pdf
Vanderbilt Peabody College. (2018). The Iris Center. Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/
module/ell/
