Considerations, Notes, Accommodations & Adaptations for
English Language Learning (ELL) / Limited English Proficient (LEP)
Students in Mainstream Classrooms
 by  Scott A.L. Beck
Department of Early Childhood Education and Reading
College of Education, Georgia Southern University

 

·         WHO IS AN ELL/LEP STUDENT?

 

A child is ELL or LEP when they speak another language at home AND their limited English abilities slow down their learning in school.  Thus, ELL/LEP status extends well beyond the time when a child is able to converse socially in English.  A student may be fluent on the playground and silent in the classroom.  This is a normal ELL / LEP developmental stage.  (The formal determination of ELL / LEP status in Georgia requires a standardized test: the Language Assessment Battery.)

 

 

·         WHAT SHOULD A REGULAR CLASSROOM TEACHER DO FIRST?

 

Regular classroom teachers of ELL / LEP students need to have reasonable expectations for their students in order to avoid disappointment and frustration on both sides.  These teachers need great patience.  Teachers of ELL / LEP students should remember how long the first language learning process of infants, toddlers and children takes to be completed (about 5-7 years).  When learning a second language, older children and adults pass through many of the same stages and often take just as much time.

Don't try to do it all alone.

 

Establish a formal plan for modifications.  Write down on paper the modifications to be made in instruction, testing, grading and promotion.  Make it clear who else on the school faculty is going to assist you.

 

Look to your 'in-house experts,' the materials and methods of good primary school and foreign language teachers are often very effective in helping in second language acquisition.

 

Note that retention does not speed up language learning, it only increases the likelihood of dropping out.

 

Schedule for success. Do not have your ELL / LEP students skip art, PE, etc. - these classes allow the verbal interaction with peers that ELL / LEP students need.

 

 

·         HOW LONG WILL THIS TAKE, WHAT CAN I EXPECT?

 

Meet the ELL / LEP child where they are vis-a-vis their listening, speaking, reading & writing skills.  Present them with materials, tasks, and goals that are realistic.  You cannot expect a newly arrived non-English speaking student to master the English language and the entire set of QCCs for your grade level in one year.

 

ELL / LEP students take in and learn much more than they can produce or demonstrate in English.  Thus, you can help them on their way toward English fluency and content knowledge.  Your efforts will likely not bear fruit this year, but surely will in a few years.

 

 

·         HOW ABOUT SOME SPECIFIC IDEAS FOR THE CLASSROOM?

 

Pare down subject area curriculum to essential vocabulary and concepts.  If they master the essential concepts this year, in a couple years when a topic 'spirals' back around in the curriculum, the ELL / LEP student will have both the content scaffold and the language skills to demonstrate full comprehension.

 

Use bilingual buddies to help newly arrived students settle in and feel safe an comfortable in their new school.  Make sure that the bilingual peer is available to help the ELL / LEP student over rough spots in the day at least until the new student has mastered 'survival English.'

 

Use natural, not instructional language.  Emphasize the modeling of language, not the correction of mistakes.

Use high achieving, hard-working model peer tutors to assist the ELL / LEP students in one-on-one settings away from the main ebb & flow of the class.  Provide them with tasks or hands-on materials (flash cards, picture dictionaries - handmade & commercial, manipulatives) to structure their interaction, but do not stifle personal interaction between the students.  Language development requires contextualized, natural social interaction.

 

Cooperative / group learning settings, role play, field trips, and games are wonderful opportunities for ELL / LEP students to see natural, contextualized language.

 

Allow and support the use of first language skills.  Students who read and write in their first language can transfer those skills to their second language.  Students who never master literacy in their first language usually struggle with literacy in a second language.  Moreover, bilingualism and biliteracy are valuable cognitive and professional skills that bear fruit for a lifetime.  Finally, many students who feel that school rejects their home language will, in turn, reject school.

 

Label the entire classroom bilingually, especially if the ELL / LEP student is literate in their first language.

 

Use a variety of real cues and materials.  ELL / LEP students learn best when presented with materials and situations that are realistic and relevant to their lives.  Thus, keep new vocabulary concrete and in context. 

Think of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences.  ELL / LEP students benefit if they see multiple instructional methods that stimulate multiple senses.  Thus, use hands-on instruction, audio-visual materials, games, and lots of different flash cards and pictures.

 

Find out about your student's home.  Make home visits in order to observe and learn, not to tell them what to do.

Invite your ELL / LEP students to develop their emergent literacy skills by journaling in a combination of home language, English, and drawings.

 

 

·         WHAT OTHER RESOURCES ARE THERE?

 

Software such as "Jump-Start Spanish" and "The Rosetta Stone" can be useful supplementary materials, but don't let them replace interaction with real people.

 

Use the Internet to learn more. A great starting place is http://www.eslcafe.com/ .

 

Some very helpful books include:

C. Igoa’s The Inner World  of the Immigrant Child,

P. Lightbown & N. Spada’s How Languages are Learned

B.M. Power & R.S. Hubbard’s Language Development: A Reader for Teachers

G. Valdés’ Learning and Not Learning English.