Today’s post is the final one in a series where educators share potential challenges that might exist in teaching English Learners, and how to respond to them.

‘Center Students’ Identities’

Michelle Benegas, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Hamline University. She is the co-author of Teacher Leadership for School-Wide English Learning:

Natalia Alvarez Benjamin, EdS., is the director of multilingual learning for the Rochester public schools in Rochester, Minn.:

A significant challenge in multilingual learner education is the lack of clarity around the competing roles of the English-learner teacher—to provide students with academic language and to sustain home language and identity. How can EL teachers simultaneously develop students’ language skills as a way to support social mobility while also acknowledging the importance of validating and welcoming home languages/dialects into academic spaces?

Challenge #1: Multilingual learners often find themselves in a race against the clock to learn English. Our society is filled with closed doors when it comes to employment opportunities for people with beginning English-language skills. The parents of elementary learners feel this strain, and secondary learners often need to swiftly enter the workforce in order to support themselves. This sense of urgency communicates to EL teachers that they need to take every opportunity to expand their students’ linguistic repertoires by providing them with the language of access, also known as academic language.

Recommendation #1: One way that EL teachers can support MLs to access content across the curriculum is genre-based pedagogy. Providing explicit instruction on text types offers MLs a road map toward engaging with the lesson and demonstrating success. For example, if learners are tasked with creating a podcast for health class, the ELteacher can engage the teaching and learning cycle by first showcasing a series of podcasts, identifying the word- and sentence-level features that are common in this genre, and co-constructing podcasts. With this preparation under their belts, MLs will be well equipped to create their own podcasts when the time arises.

Challenge #2: For a long time, the message teachers, students, and parents have received is: “If you want to learn English, focus on English only.” This approach prevents students from developing knowledge-building as they may still be working on English-language skills. English-only approaches can also be problematic because students are not given opportunities to continue developing complex language in their first language(s).

Recommendation #2: Research supports working with students and families to sustain their language practices. Students develop English-language skills faster when they can transfer knowledge and skills from their first language(s). Teachers can encourage students’ multilingualism and the use of their full linguistic repertoire in their classroom, as explained by Ofelia Garcia. In addition to having this translanguaging stance, teachers can also plan lessons with multilingual materials so that content can be accessed in any language. And lastly, as teachers embed topics related to students’ lives, they enact culturally sustaining pedagogies that support students’ health, well-being, and academic success.

Challenge #3: Multilingual learners have to navigate school systems and societal norms in mostly monolingual spaces in the United States. As they work to integrate their lives in their new country, multilingual speakers continually work to reconcile their diverse linguistic and cultural identities with American society.

Recommendation #3: One way to affirm students’ identities and support healthy development is to plan classroom lessons that center students’ identities. This can be through selecting texts that can be mirrors for our students, providing opportunities for storytelling of personal narratives, sharing stories of community members, or teaching students critical frameworks that build language to describe their lived experiences. We refer to this as the language of identity and criticality.

Examples of authors and publications to use as mirrors: Kao Kalia Yang (both picture books and chapter books), Green Card Youth Voices, Facing History & Ourselves, books about names, spoken-word poetry.

Examples of storytelling activities: personal narratives, community members’ interviews, bring cultural stories into the classroom that mirror student’s cultures and language.

Examples of critical frameworks: Language Orientations, Raciolinguisitcs, and Community Cultural Wealth.

Attending to the language of access as well as the language of identity and criticality offers MLs a broader linguistic repertoire than would be possible if we only ascribe to one of these commitments. A broader linguistic repertoire means greater access, choice, and validation in a variety of contexts in and outside of the classroom.

‘Keep Class Sizes Low’

Emilie McKiernan-Mullins is in her 17th year teaching in Louisville, Ky., and is a mother to two kids:

Language is the most important piece of human interaction. Without language, we lose the ability to absorb information, make sense of the world, and engage with our fellow humans.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of teaching English learners is the wide spectrum that EL students experience. Students who are identified as ESL/EL/ML have such a wide range of abilities from being academically advanced to experiencing interrupted formal education due to geopolitical issues and everything in between in addition to having different levels of fluency between listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

What’s more, teachers sometimes have a hard time letting their EL students experience the comfortable struggle where they are acquiring language and experiencing growth even if it’s not perfect. Without this comfortable struggle, they may continue to learn content without necessarily acquiring language as they go.

Because their needs are so varied, it’s important to keep class sizes low with a good teacher to student ratio that allows for more one-on-one instruction.

With the ongoing and pervasive teacher shortage, districts will need to be proactive when it comes to recruiting and retaining teachers. To facilitate smaller classes, policymakers need to make real incentives to encourage more educators to be certified to teach EL students. For example, teachers already in the classroom would benefit from districts agreeing to pay for at least part of their courses to achieve certification.

In addition to smaller class sizes, EL students would also benefit from an increase in support staff. In my district, we have assistant interpreters, but these positions are often left vacant due to lower pay and difficulty finding people capable of interpreting. If we could increase the pay in positions like these and try to capture more multilingual interpreters, we could increase the number of professionals working with kids.

Where would we find more multilingual interpreters? We have to start looking to our graduates and preparing them for a workforce of tomorrow, which includes interpreting. Districts have been using grow-your-own teacher programs for years. Our graduates will not only share an experience with their future students. We have to see our students as the experts they are when it comes to interpreting and language acquisition.

‘Embracing Cultural Diversity’

Malkia Williams is a district multilingual coach in Aldine ISD in Texas:

Educators of English learners face many challenges. The largest barriers educators face is understanding cultural differences, language barriers, and scaffolded instruction. All of these issues are critical for creating a learning environment that is inclusive of all levels of ELs where they can grow linguistically and academically.

ELs usually come from diverse cultural backgrounds, with different educational norms and expectations. Such differences can impact students’ involvement in class and understanding of instructional approaches. Educators should try to create culturally responsive educational environments by including different viewpoints into the curriculum and instructional materials. Incorporating students’ cultural backgrounds and experiences into classrooms can enhance learning and increase inclusivity. Last but not least, establishing connections with students and their families with open communication and mutual respect can also assist to bridge gaps between cultures.

Additionally, ELs enter classrooms with varied language-proficiency levels. Due to their limited English-language abilities, they may struggle to understand directions, participate in class discussions, or complete activities to demonstrate understanding of topics. As a result, educators must intentionally plan lessons to include strategies such as total physical response , visuals, gestures, amplifying the readings with pictures and word meanings, and use of a bilingual dictionary.

In addition, teachers must provide speaking opportunities for ELs to communicate with their peers using academic vocabulary. The teacher needs to create the language stems and a word bank of academic terms for students to use in their answers. Cooperative learning and engaging activities in which ELs collaborate with fluent English-speaking peers promote language acquisition and make content more meaningful to ELs.

Furthermore, teachers of ELs need to provide scaffolded instruction to ensure students’ success. The scaffolds need to be intentional and used in accordance with the language proficiency of the students. The use of scaffolds creates meaning of abstract content for ELs. Teachers should use language starters for academic conversations with peers, sentence frames written for varying language proficiency levels, and graphic organizers to support learning.

Therefore, teachers should begin with their criteria for success and decide which scaffolds are necessary to ensure it. This approach also helps to ensure teachers do not overscaffold and take much longer teaching concepts than directed. Scaffolded instruction that gradually increases in complexity helps ELs develop language proficiency at their own pace.

To summarize, while teaching ELs presents significant challenges, educators can address these challenges through culturally responsive teaching practices, language-support strategies, and implementing scaffolds to create meaning of content. Recognizing and embracing the language and cultural diversity that ELs bring to the classroom allow teachers to create an enjoyable learning environment that encourages academic achievement and language growth.

Thanks to Michelle, Natalia, Emilie, and Malkia for contributing their thoughts!

Today’s post answered this question:

What do you think are the biggest challenges to teaching English learners, and what are your recommendations for how to meet them?

In Part One, Marie Moreno, Anastasia M. Martinez, and Francoise Thenoux shared their responses.

In Part Two, Lynmara Colón, Shondel Nero, Jenny Vo, and Laura Ascenzi-Moreno contributed their recommendations.

In Part Three, Irina McGrath, Alexandra Gorodiski, and Michele Kimball wrote about their suggestions.

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 Twitter at @Larryferlazzo or on Bluesky at @larryferlazzo.bsky.social .

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