Professional Documents
Culture Documents
History and Politics
History and Politics
Politics of
ELL
By: Megan Houlihan, Alex
Altier, Christina Rombousek,
Katie Roughan, Sarah
McCormick
Objectives
● Students will be able to…
○ Identify and explain basic facts on the history of English language learners.
https://play.kahoot.it/v2/?quizId=e2bc4a11-d86b-4781
-950f-008d77061237
ESL VS. ELL
● When using the term ESL, one is assuming English is going to be the student’s
second language.
● When using the term ELL, teachers are acknowledging that English may be the
child’s second, third, fourth, or even fifth language.
Video on English Language Learners
https://study.com/academy/lesson/history-of-esl-education-in-the-us.html
A Timeline of ELL
● 1664 - Beginning of bilingual education in the U.S.
● 1968 - The Bilingual Education Act, Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary
Act are re-organized into two divisions: Title I and Title II.
● Problem: Nebraska passed a law that restricted teaching children any other language than english. A
● Ruling: The Court declared that Nebraska violated the due process clause of the 14th amendment.
● What did it do for ELLs?: This Court case allowed ELL children to be taught in their native language as
well as english.
Lau v. Nichols (1970)
● People involved: Lau (a chinese student) and the officials of the San Francisco Unified School District.
● Problem: Chinese students who were not proficient in english received no supplemental english
courses. The students argued that this created an unequal educational opportunity and that it violated
● Ruling: The Court ruled that it did violate the 14th amendment because it deprived those students an
● What did it do for ELLs?: It required schools to provide supplemental language courses to ELLs in order
● Research shows that 57% of adolescent ELL’s were born in the U.S.
Myths about English Language Learners
● Children learn a second language quickly and easily
● Many ELLs have disabilities which is why they are often over represented in
special education
❖ https://www.lcmcisd.org/228658_4
❖ http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/PolicyResearch/ELLResearchBrief.pdf
❖ http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/PolicyResearch/ELLResearchBrief.pdf
❖ https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/262us390
❖ https://www.oyez.org/cases/1973/72-6520
❖ Crawford, J. (2004). Educating english learners: language diversity in the classroom. (5th ed.). United
States.
What Learning Styles are Addressed?
❖ Visual learners - Timeline activity