There are so many instructional strategies that are recommended for helping students acquire the English language.

Which ones are the best?

This series will offer recommendations from experienced educators.

My choice is having class sets of mini-whiteboards. They can be used to encourage whole-class participation and are great for formative assessments. I’ve used them for games, dictation (teacher-to-class or student-to-student), reading comprehension—you name it!

‘Purposeful Talk’

Angel Martinez is a multilingual learner (MLL) educator with over a decade of experience working with adult learners and families in Norwich, Conn.:

If I had to choose one strategy that consistently moves the needle for multilingual learners, it would be structured, purposeful talk paired with strong language scaffolds.

Too often, we underestimate how much language students need to practice out loud before they can own it. I build in frequent opportunities for students to speak—low-stakes, repeated, and structured. But the key is not just “turn and talk.” The key is giving them the language to do it well.

For example, instead of asking students to “discuss,” I provide sentence frames that push thinking:

● “I agree with ___ because …”

● “A better example might be …”

● “At first I thought …, but now I think …”

I also model responses out loud and sometimes intentionally make mistakes so students can correct me. That shift—from teacher as evaluator to teacher as participant—lowers the affective filter immediately.

I remember one student who only answered “yes” or “no” for weeks. During a structured partner activity, with sentence frames in front of him, he finally said, “I think he is wrong because …” and kept going. He paused after, smiled, and said, “That was long.” That moment stuck with me—it showed me how much was there, just waiting for structure.

I’ll be honest—I didn’t always prioritize student talk like this. Earlier in my career, I did too much of the talking, thinking I was helping. I’ve learned that students don’t need more teacher language—they need more opportunities to use their own.

Another important piece is repetition with variation. Students revisit the same idea multiple times but each time with a slightly different linguistic demand: first orally, then in writing, then with a partner, then independently. This builds both confidence and precision.

Why does this work? Because language develops through use, not exposure alone. Many MLLs understand far more than they can produce. Structured talk closes that gap.

Over time, I’ve seen students go from one-word answers to extended explanations—not because the content changed but because the access to language did.

Games!

Graziela Lobato-Creekmur, Ph.D., the founder of Education Mosaic, is a multilingual educator with over 20 years of experience who supports educators through personalized professional development and teacher training to create equitable, inclusive, and culturally responsive learning environments for multilingual learners and their families:

One of my best strategies for use with English learners is: GAMES, but not just any game. I’m referring to old-school cards, game boards, and eye-to-eye/hand-to-hand communication games! As a teacher of over 20 years who has taught every grade, I fully endorse the use of educational gaming in the classroom that does not require screens, what I will call analog games. The biggest pro is that if the Wi-Fi goes down, class still continues!

A colleague of mine created an analog phonics game, and we started using it with our multilingual learners. Engagement and retention went through the roof! She has seen repeated positive results with her struggling readers as well. Her products are based on BINGO and analog card games, such as Go Fish, Memory, and card-sorting activities. These analog games, among others, reinforce needed reading skills that include, but are not limited to, relationship building, phonics, decoding, comprehension, critical thinking, and vocabulary building.

When playing analog games, the affective filter for multilingual learners is low, where they don’t feel nervous or anxious using their second language because they are having fun playing the game and not consciously thinking about their skill level. This enables relationship building through play as well. For multilingual learners, having positive peer relationships adds to their acquiring the second language. Reading skills such as phonics and decoding are embedded into the games I mentioned, and they are a part of just about ALL analog games that my generation grew up with, such as Monopoly and Clue.

Simply reading the directions, and/or the cards to move on to the next play in the game, reinforces the need to decode and use phonics. Additionally, these games improve comprehension, critical thinking, and vocabulary building just by communicating and taking turns to get to winning, or working together, guiding each other to help get to the end of the game.

So, when you are wondering how to add practical educational skill building during your class time with MLLs, think about the analog games you or your parents grew up with instead of the apps and ed tech that, although helpful and powerful on their own in our present time, may not address all of the skills your students need immediately.

Gamification is usually associated with apps and ed tech, but it can also be adapted to go analog. Give it a try and you won’t regret it. You’ll see results similar to what my colleague and I have seen or better.

Vocabulary

Cindy Garcia has been a bilingual educator for 20 years and is currently a districtwide specialist for elementary bilingual/ESL mathematics in Pasadena, Texas:

Previewing/reviewing vocabulary before the start of a unit is one of the best instructional strategies to use with English learners. This strategy for vocabulary instruction does not mean front-loading all the vocabulary that students will encounter throughout the unit.

The goal of the strategy is to activate students’ schema, make connections to previous learning, and help students understand important vocabulary they will encounter in the unit. As teachers plan for instruction, they make a note of the 5-10 most important words in the unit. These are the words that will be repeatedly used during the lessons, instructional activities, and assessments.

As part of the first lesson, the teacher previews a vocabulary word by pronouncing it, writing it, and posting it in a visible spot in the room. The teacher should share a visual representation that shows the meaning of the word such as a real-life item, picture, or example. Depending on the level of language acquisition of the students, the class should be prompted to echo read, choral read, and/or record the word in their note taker. As the lesson takes place, students should reference the vocabulary list posted or their notes.

The teacher should point out when they encounter one of the vocabulary words previewed. At the end of the lesson, the teacher and students review their vocabulary list and share additional information about the word. Is there another or different example that is more effective? What is the definition of the word? What are synonyms or antonyms of the words?

The reason this strategy works well with ELs is because students’ affective filter is lowered, and they feel more confident before starting the unit. Teachers also address anticipated student misconceptions, and students are able to spend more time learning. This strategy also helps with long-term retention of vocabulary because students are working with the vocabulary multiple times and in multiple ways. During the lessons, students do not have to spend as much time trying to figure out how to read or determine the meaning of a word but focus their efforts instead on understanding the concept being taught.

Thanks to Angel, Graziela, and Cindy for contributing their thoughts.

Responses today answered this question:

What is the single best instructional strategy you use with English learners, and why does it work so well?

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on X at @Larryferlazzo or on Bluesky at @larryferlazzo.bsky.social

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