Directing English Language Learners Towards Literacy Learning

         Literacy skills are the foundation of many components of learning for students from prekindergarten through their senior year in high school. While these skills are developed in the elementary and secondary classrooms, with the hopes of creating proficient readers and independent writers, there is a student population group who often silently struggle to become strong literacy learners. “More than ever, early learning settings are serving children who are growing up with more than one language in home and at school” (Supporting emergent bilingual children in early learning, n.d.). Young emergent bilingual learners have even more to learn about reading and writing if they are already not literate in their native language (Gibbons, 2015). How, as educators, can we best support these English language learners (ELLs) to feel confident to read and write in a second language?

Supporting the Home Language

First and foremost, teachers must value a student’s home language. It is of utmost importance that classroom teachers are aware of what language knowledge these students bring to the classroom and use that foundation to build upon for literacy development (Gibbons, 2015). Teachers must remember that English language learners are not lacking intelligence and knowledge; it was just provided to them in another language first. Ways to value a student’s home language include:

• Invite family members into the classroom for language support or bilingual
  shared reading.

• Create labels for items and spaces around the room in multiple languages.

• Learn cognates or familiar phrases to show students you understand they 

communicate in a different language, but language is language and they can
still convey ideas.

Vocabulary, Vocabulary, Vocabulary!

To support students’ reading and writing development, vocabulary is a key component. English language learners are often stumped by the misunderstanding of new words. Teachers of ELLs should anticipate vocabulary misconceptions and put scaffolding in place to aid in that instance. Supporting vocabulary development can look like:

• Making connections - if reading about a farm, and students have not been to a farm, ask questions of students about their experiences on a farm. Hearing other students’ connections can help create mental pictures for all learners.

• Use words in several contexts to deepen understanding. Using a Frayer Model is a beneficial way to learn new vocabulary. It includes the word, its meaning, examples, non-examples, and can have a visual representation.

• Make vocabulary visual! Incorporate pictures of unfamiliar
  words. Use descriptive words to describe the picture and the
  vocabulary word to build a bridge between the actual picture
  and a mental image for the student. Implementing gestures,
  hand motions, or movements also help with retention of new vocabulary.

• Use songs and rhymes. Repetitive singing and chanting of songs and rhymes allows students to commit a word to memory, as well as using correct grammar, pronunciation, and language sounds.

Talk It Out

Reading, writing, listening, and speaking are all interrelated language domains. Students must have opportunities to practice all four domains in order to become stronger in another. To build confidence in reading and writing, ELL students need the opportunity to practice speaking. When they become comfortable speakers, they will start to use spoken language sounds and structure to decode, comprehend, and write. Using open ended questions, sentence stems, and group work all contribute to a rich oral language environment (Ford, 2016).

Teach Comprehension Strategies

Explicit comprehension instruction is vital to ELL students. “ELs must be explicitly taught comprehension strategies to help them access the content while they are developing English proficiency” (Tutor et al., 2016, p. 10). Strategies such as: summarizing, inferring, making connections, and asking questions all need systematic instruction for students to master. Using peer discussion, collaborative activities, and before-during-after reading questions are examples of how to explicitly foster comprehension in ELL students (Tutor et al., 2016). Explicit instruction also supports scaffolding and working the child’s zone of proximal development (Gibbons, 2015).

Activities to Support Literacy Skill Development

As reading teachers know, literacy skills spiral, build on one another, and work together to create a fluent reader who makes meaning from texts. The following are an array of activities to help students in many areas of literacy development (Gibbons, 2015).

• Find out what students already know about a topic by creating a class “Mind Map” of their current background knowledge before reading a text.

• Develop a Word Wall about a topic where vocabulary can be shared and displayed.

• Use a Cloze Activity where students must fill in gaps of information about a given topic.

• Provide and model the use of graphic organizers to help students get their ideas on paper before beginning a writing prompt.

• Use visuals for predicting before reading a text. Show a photo of a situation from the text or take a picture walk for students to think about the ideas of the text.

• Use illustrations or pictures related to the story to put in sequential order during or after reading to encourage comprehension.

• Keep track of literary events and elements in a working story map.

The Impact of Best Practices

Using the aforementioned ideas and strategies are not to be seen as just another way to differentiate in the classroom. These are best practices for all students in the classroom. To some teachers, these practices might be one more step in planning a lesson or delivering instruction, but to the English language learner who is lost on his/her learning path, these techniques can be the turning point that directs their academic compass in the right direction.

References

Ford, K. (2016, February 10). 8 strategies for preschool ells' language and literacy development.
Colorín Colorado. Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://www.colorincolorado.org/
article/8-strategies-preschool-ells-language-and-literacy-development

Gibbons, P. (2015). In Scaffolding language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching English language

learners in the mainstream classroom (pp. 169-179). essay, Heinemann.

Supporting emergent bilingual children in early learning. Education Development Center. (n.d.).
Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://www.edc.org/sites/default/files/uploads/
Supporting-Emergent-Bilingual-Children-Checklist_English.pdf

Tutor, C. R., Aceves, T., & Reese, L. (2016, November). Evidence-based practices for English
learners - CEEDAR. Innovation Configuration. Retrieved November 6, 2022, from
https://ceedar.edcuation.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/EBP-for-english-
learners.pdf