Reflections on Teaching Multilingual Learners

I was in a non-English speaking country a few months ago and survived several situations by pointing, miming, and using gestures to make my message understood. It made me think, once again, about how difficult it must be for our English learners and their families to navigate everyday life in an English-speaking country. It’s no wonder that people gravitate to neighborhoods to live where their home language and culture are understood.

In classrooms, using techniques to make a message (oral or written) understood is referred to as comprehensible input, and is one of the components of SIOP.

When working with teachers, we find that comprehensible input is one of the easiest places for teachers to begin providing more support for English learners because it builds on practices they are likely already using. There are innumerable ways to make information or instructions – or whatever the teacher is communicating — understandable for English learners. In the SIOP Model, we focus on three features of comprehensible input and have found that the best results come when teachers:

Adjust their speech so that it’s appropriate for a students’ proficiency levels. While it is important for English learners to gain exposure to grade-level academic language, there are times when teachers make adjustments for English learners, particularly those at the beginning or intermediate stages of language acquisition.  For example, slowing the pace of speech and enunciating clearly are helpful techniques to use with beginning English learners. With more advanced speakers, the teacher may use native-like speech but will restate, articulate more clearly, or clarify as needed. Likewise, teachers should accept students’ contributions commensurate with their levels of proficiency. A beginning speaker may use only a few words to convey meaning while a more advanced speaker might use complete sentences, perhaps with some errors. Both students are demonstrating their knowledge. For writing, adjustments might include providing word banks, sentence frames or partially completed outlines to support students’ expression.

Clearly explain the expectations for academic tasks. Most individuals are more comfortable and perform better when they know the expectations of a situation. For example, if you are asked to speak before the Board of Education you would want to know the parameters, right? What the topic is, the length of time, the precise message you are supposed to deliver, the desired outcome, etc. The same is true for every task or assignment English learners are asked to complete. Oral explanation by the teacher is ineffective for English learners who likely will have gaps in their understanding of what was said. Here’s where modeling is powerful. Walk students through a step-by-step process of how the task should be done; show a completed example of the assignment; do think-alouds while explaining the task or assignment. Further, write the steps for completing a task or assignment on the board for reference. When students are unsure about what to do, not only do they disengage from learning, but their off-task behavior may result in disruption. Making expectations clear to students contributes to effective and efficient teaching.

Use a variety of techniques to make content concepts clear and understandable. After expectations are made clear, then provide supports to make English learners successful. This feature reflects the “do whatever it takes” approach to making a lesson understandable: visuals, hands-on experiences, previewing material, gestures, graphics, real objects, and so forth. Technology allows teachers to provide visually rich lessons, a huge benefit for English learners when the use of multimedia is well-planned and done with intention. I experienced the power of visuals recently at an annual charity event I attend to support a friend. Typically, it is difficult to hear the after-lunch speaker due to side conversations throughout the room. This year, the speaker captured the attention of the entire audience. She moved around the platform, used gestures, was animated, engaged in question-response with the audience and, perhaps most importantly, used PowerPoint to augment her oral presentation. When she used a term such as zeitgeist, it appeared on the screen and was defined. The difference in delivery – and audience response — was striking. The power of visual representation cannot be overstated, especially for English learners.

Think about TED Talks. These talks are wildly popular. Why? In part, it is because they use the features of comprehensible input. In addition to discussing fascinating, timely topics, TED Talk speakers:

• Adjust their speech to the audience by limiting jargon, acronyms, and overly complex ideas; they speak clearly and concisely; and although they use a natural pace, it is slightly slower to aid in comprehension for listeners who are unfamiliar with the content.
• Make the topic of the presentation clear up front and they stick to the topic which provides the audience an idea of what to expect; listeners are interested and engaged.
• Use techniques to enhance their talk such as gestures and visuals.

The SIOP features of comprehensible input are intended for teachers to use with English learners to help them understand lessons but when you think about it, those features work well with almost any group.

A significant number of English learners are considered long-term English learners (LTELs) because they’ve been in EL programs for more than 6 years. These students haven’t yet been able to demonstrate adequate proficiency in English to meet established English language proficiency criteria and to be considered fluent English proficient.

Why are there so many LTEL students and what can be done?

There is no single answer to this complex issue because there are any number of factors involved such as absenteeism and transiency, but there is a lot that schools can do to reduce the numbers of LTELs.

When discussing exiting EL services, it’s important to keep in mind that English learners are entitled to language support services until they are sufficiently proficient in English to be successful in general education without such supports. These necessary – and legally required – services provide equity of access to schooling for those students who are still in the process of learning English.

The solution to LTEL students languishing in EL programs is not lowering the bar for exiting but improving the quality of instruction these students receive. After all, EL services are a scaffold, or support, that is in place until the student has acquired the language and literacy skills to be successful academically after exiting the program.

The goal is acquisition of language and literacy skills, not simply exiting the program.

Improving the quality of instruction for LTELs (and other English learners) begins with using research-validated instruction such as the SIOP Model, an approach for making instruction comprehensible while at the same time advancing students’ English language proficiency. SIOP ensures that grade-level content is made meaningful and provides opportunities for students to use academic language. High quality content instruction coupled with a specific time of daily, focused English language development (ELD) is a combination that is sure to offer ELs the best support for gaining proficiency in English.

Even with SIOP teaching and English language development, there may be barriers to exiting EL programs. I’ll discuss several common barriers in the context of solutions for each one. These ideas build on an assumed foundation of high-quality instruction.

1. School-wide effort. Everyone benefits when students make academic progress. However, too often school personnel view English learners as the responsibility of an EL coordinator or similar staff person. Especially in schools with large numbers of ELs a team effort will more likely increase the number of ELs who are ready to exit EL programs. School staff should:
   • Meet with each English learner from 4^thgrade on to discuss the areas they need to improve, i.e., speaking, listening, reading and/or writing. Be transparent about assessment results and set goals for improvement in the area(s) of need. These meetings should probably take place more than once a year to keep students and school personnel focused on their set goals.
   • Design an efficient system for data collection and reporting. Ask a group of principals how many students exited their school’s EL program the previous year and likely few could answer accurately, probably because they depend on their EL coordinators to check on English learners’ progress. Every district has established criteria for exiting EL programs such as cut scores to define proficiency on state language proficiency assessments, demonstration of “basic skills,” teacher recommendation and so forth. School staff, led by the principal, should be proactive in analyzing each English learner’s progress toward meeting these criteria and a system should be in place for doing so: Who monitors progress toward exit criteria? What happens when some English learners are close to meeting exit criteria? (Hint: The students’ teachers should be informed and instruction focused on targeted areas) Who gathers the paperwork and submits it to the district? Lost paperwork or lax procedures are not valid excuses for keeping students in EL programs when they are ready to exit.
2. Enlist teachers. Teachers need to be knowledgeable about their EL students’ levels of proficiency in each of the domains of reading, writing, speaking and listening. Assessment results should be used to create an instructional profile for each student; determine areas of need and focus on those areas. For example, many LTELs have solid listening and speaking skills but fall short in reading and writing. Rather than spending lots of time on “turn and talk” type activities, teachers should focus on literacy skills by providing lots of opportunities for ELs to read (independently, with a partner and with the teacher), talk about what they’ve read, write a response, reaction or summary, and so forth.
3. Involve students. LTEL students have taken a language proficiency assessment every year since they entered U.S. schools. Some students become weary of taking the same test with the same results. Most have no idea how they performed on the assessment, only that they remain an EL student. There is value in getting buy-in from students and a good motivator is choice: secondary students in EL programs have limited electives because they take ELD for one or two periods. Be explicit with students that if they will double down on their effort in the classroom and during ELD they will likely perform better on the next assessment. Further, encourage students to:
   • Give their best effort on the test. Let them know that every answer counts.
   • Come prepared by getting a good night’s sleep the night before test day and eating breakfast on the day of the test. Most students (English learner or not) aren’t aware of the impact of sleep and nutrition on performance.
4. Enlist parents’ help. This valuable resource is often overlooked, and research shows that when EL parents are asked to assist with school work, they do. Ask parents to:
   • Help with the student’s target areas by supervising their work. For example, if reading goals are set, ask parents to make sure their student reads at home each day. Teachers may design an accountability system for reporting work done at home.
   • Make sure their student attends school on testing day, is on time, and well rested.
   • Encourage the student to do their best on the test and take it seriously.

When English learners aren’t making adequate progress academically, look at classroom instruction and determine if it is a barrier to attaining English proficiency. Are teachers using a research-validated approach for teaching English learners? Are teachers capitalizing on students’ home language, knowledge and cultural assets? Do teachers have high expectations for their English learners?

With growing numbers of LTELs nationwide, it’s important to be aware of and to reduce barriers for our English learners in reaching English proficiency.

[A version of this post appeared on September 24, 2017]

Think back to your own school days. Which teacher believed in you, inspired you to do well? Most successful people can immediately name at least one such teacher.

For good reason. Teachers’ expectations for students – even their attitudes toward them – has a direct influence on students’ performance and impacts their perceptions of themselves as learners. Research over the past several decades shows that teachers treat students differently, those who they consider achievers and those for whom they have lower expectations.

How so?

Low expectations are communicated to students by:

• Giving less feedback to them, delving into their answers less deeply, and accepting incorrect answers;
• Calling on them less often and waiting less time for them to answer questions when they are called on;
• Asking them less challenging questions and rewarding them for less rigorous responses;
• Smiling less and making less eye contact with them.

English learners, in particular, are often characterized by what they cannot do: they cannot speak English, they are not “ready” to be in mainstream classrooms, they do not understand the culture of schools in the United States, their parents don’t speak English and cannot help them with their schoolwork, they do not do as well academically……. You’ve heard many of these comments that reflect “can’t do” attitudes, I’m sure.

We recognize that there are real challenges in teaching English learners in a language they have not yet mastered, and our research, and that of many others, has focused on strategies and techniques to make content comprehensible for English learners while advancing their English proficiency.

Teachers’ attitudes about working with ELs are often born out of lack of preparation for teaching these students effectively. Even teachers with good intentions may be frustrated if they lack specific knowledge of proven ways of teaching grade-level content so that it is understandable for English learners and allows them to participate fully in lessons.

There are many well-intentioned teachers whose teaching practices unintentionally communicate low expectations and deny English learners access to the education we want for them and the education that they deserve. From our book, No More Low Expectations for English Learners, consider the following chart:

There are many ways to communicate high expectations to English learners including:

• Recognizing and capitalizing on the assets that students bring: their experiences, language, and background knowledge that may not align precisely with the teaching processes in U.S. schools.
• Accepting the level of language that students are able to produce and providing supports to help them understand the content of lessons. Developing second language proficiency is a developmental process that takes time – typically 4-6 years. Students who are trying their hardest may appear passive because they don’t yet have the language to express themselves or may not completely understand the teacher’s expectations for the lesson.
• Communicating with their families and creating school-family partnerships. Research is clear that family involvement has positive benefits for students.
• Ensuring that English learners have access to grade-level content, including college-prep courses. Just because students don’t yet speak English fluently doesn’t mean that they can’t think about complex ideas and respond to higher order questions, when provided linguistic supports.
• Showing interest in each student, getting to know them and discovering their interests and passions. Then greet students at the door by name (pronounced correctly) and ask simple questions about them and their interests.
• Affirming student identity by recognizing that each student has his or her own story. What is her parents’ background? What is her own story? What does she do well (e.g., music, sports, art)? Create opportunities for students to incorporate their heritage, hobbies, and interests into class assignments and share with others. Create a community of learners who know and appreciate one another.
• Providing research-validated instruction to English learners in a supportive environment before suspicion of learning problems creeps in. When English learners struggle academically, the question isn’t, “What’s wrong with this student?” but instead the emphasis is on instruction: “How can we meet the instructional needs of this student?” There is both under- and over-representation of English learners in special education, which is a nagging and complicated issue. For a discussion of RTI and English learners, click here.

Which column in the chart above most reflects your own attitudes and expectations for English learners? It may be uncomfortable to consider, but it’s important to question whether we’re increasing our English learners’ access to academic opportunity or diminishing it. Perhaps even more important is to ask for help when we’re not certain or when we need support in improving instruction for our students.

Far too many English learners have developed speaking and listening skills but remain grades behind in reading, a skill that is critical for academic success. Last month’s guest post about helping English learners read well generated a fair amount of discussion, so I thought it might be useful to continue the conversation.

In the post, Katie Topple made the statement that, “It is also important to carefully balance time dedicated to independent reading with the appropriate amount of reading instruction.”

Absolutely. But the key to this statement is “careful balance.”

Independent reading is an important and necessary part of school. Not only does it provide much-needed practice for building reading stamina, if done well it can ignite in students a love of reading. But it is doubtful that independent reading alone, with occasional teacher guidance, will help English learners become fluent readers who can exit from English learner status, do well in school, and become literate individuals.

Research is clear that explicit teaching of foundational skills is essential. Teachers need to systematically work with students daily on aspects of reading such as

• building vocabulary
• providing feedback to students on their reading
• use of reading strategies
• asking questions to check for understanding and reinforce learning
• engaging in text discussion or other post-reading response activities.

Explicit instruction is made meaningful for English learners when teachers use specific supports and scaffolds such as making word meaning and ideas visual through demonstrations, illustrations, and multimedia; reading text in chunks, asking questions and eliciting discussion, and clarifying before reading the next section; using structural analysis of words to help students organize new words in meaningful ways; differentiating instruction based on language proficiency or skill level; and tapping into what students already know and have experienced and link it to the topic. There are many other scaffolds, techniques, and strategies for making reading instruction understandable and engaging for English learners.

The take-away is that during ELA (English language arts) instruction, English learners need multiple opportunities to interact with words and the kind of text that represents the language they will encounter in academic tasks and on tests, the language that will allow them to express themselves fully in school and beyond, and the language that will prepare them for college and careers. It’s unlikely this will happen without explicit teaching.

Students Need Teachers

Literacy expert Tim Shanahan writes in one of his blog posts, “Given the importance of literacy in our society it is essential that we teach students to read well. With regard to the learning impact of independent reading, the research findings are pretty commonsense: Kids learn something from practicing reading on their own, but they usually learn more when reading under teacher guidance. If kids really learned as much or more from reading on their own as they do from instruction, then we wouldn’t need teachers.” (emphasis mine)

I couldn’t agree more, based on my own experience in classrooms.

In conducting observations over the past few years in urban schools, there have been many times where students, including English learners, were sitting with a book or other reading material for extended periods of time but did not appear to be engaged in actual reading. In recent observation notes I wrote in the margin, Are teachers even necessary?

The thought came to me as a reaction to seeing dozens of classes where virtually no teaching was happening. The majority of the ELA block involved students reading independently, an activity that would be difficult for English learners to sustain given that most don’t have the word knowledge in English to read with comprehension for an extended period of time. Research tells us that students need to understand approximately 95-98% of words to make sense of text.

Yes, English learners need to practice reading. Full stop. But the adage, Practice makes perfect, is only true when the practice is done correctly. In order for skills and knowledge to become automatic, practice must be accurate. It’s unclear what type of practice English learners are engaging in when they are left to “read” on their own for long periods without teacher guidance.

Lack of teacher instruction likely contributes to low literacy levels for English learners. For these students to become competent, independent readers they must be taught how to read and should meet with the teacher for instruction daily. (Typically, we think about reading instruction in the lower grades, but English learners may enter school at any grade and some older students may also require literacy instruction.)

While the reading skills of some English learners may be sufficiently strong to benefit from independent reading, for those students whose reading is below proficient levels, providing explicit instruction might be a better use of their time. Find the appropriate balance for each student, based on his or her reading skill level.

The same is true in bilingual settings. We need to teach students how to read well in both their home language and their second language. Biliteracy is a valuable gift we can give to students, but it needs to be a gift intentionally given — not a wish or a dream.