TESOL International Association, the organization for teachers who specialize in working with English-language learners, has released a set of six principles designed to improve the teaching and learning of English around the globe.
The principles were developed to help educators cultivate multilingualism, work to develop global citizens, and support students’ home languages and cultural backgrounds to achieve those goals.
The organization released the principles roughly a year after a report from National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that schools often provide substandard instruction and social-emotional support to the nation’s English-learners. That report explored how underresourced schools and underprepared educators can hinder efforts to help students learn and master English.
The principles, which the organization developed for use in classrooms with children or adults, are:
- Know your learners.
- Create conditions for language learning.
- Design high-quality lessons for language development.
- Adapt lesson delivery as needed.
- Monitor and assess student language development.
- Engage and collaborate within a community of practice.
Here’s a guide to the principles, including a checklist to help teachers determine if what is happening in their classrooms matches up with the guidelines.
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Photo Credit: Student Kailyn Walker reaches for a book in her classroom at the Dual Language Academy in Tulsa, Okla., where 50 percent of children are English-learners and students are taught in English and Spanish. --Shane Bevel for Education Week