Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English Promising Futures (2017) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
8 Promising and Effective Practices for English Learners in Grades Pre-K to 12
8 Promising and Effective Practices for English Learners in Grades Pre-K to 12
Pages 291-336
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The chapter ends with conclusions. 1 When referring to children aged 5 or older in the pre-K to 12 education system, this report uses the term "English learners" or "ELs" (see Box 1-1 in Chapter 1 for details)
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, ELs are resilient and adaptive to change based on family migration, and come from families with strong beliefs in the value of educational success. They are collaborative and oriented to learning in peer group settings.
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Explicit classroom instruction focused on developing key aspects of literacy -- phonemic awareness, phonics, oral reading fluency, and reading vocabulary -- provides clear learning benefits for elementary school-aged ELs. More recent studies report similar findings (e.g., Llosa et al., 2016; Tong et al., 2014)
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All the studies used multifaceted instructional approaches that combined professional development for teachers with enhanced instructional routines that focused concurrently on teaching content and the associated academic language. In one study (Tong et al., 2014)
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may have been at too high a level for ELs to benefit from them without the appropriate supports, while in the case of "telling," ELs benefited because they were provided with more support for engaging with core content in English, but this was not necessary for English-proficient students. Practice 4: Encourage Peer-Assisted Learning Opportunities Studies conducted with elementary school-aged ELs (e.g.
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Analyses of the effectiveness of instructional practices requires, in addition to evidence of learning outcomes, examination of how children respond to those practices. Children's learning behaviors and responses to instruction, especially in the early years of schooling, are culturally influenced by the socialization practices of the home and family.
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/English language development (ELD) is usually provided by specialists, and whether they push in to classes or students are pulled out of their regular classes for instruction, ELs are taught these subjects by a teacher different from their principal teacher.
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. Further, these studies suggest "using currently available measures, such as standardized tests, district benchmark tests, or English language assessments to screen and identify students in need of additional instructional support" (Baker et al., 2014, p.
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. Practice 7: Provide Small-Group Support in Literacy and English Language Development for English Learners Who Need Additional Support Many of the studies of ELs in grades 1-5 support the use of small-group academic support for ELs who require more time to develop prereading and reading skills, as well as in other areas of literacy and language development (e.g.
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, especially in the written texts that are used in school. The importance of literacy experiences to language development was highlighted in a recent study conducted by Massaro (2015)
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Cummins (2011) argues that literacy plays a pivotal role in the development of English proficiency because the only place ELs are likely to encounter the words, grammatical structures, and rhetorical features of academic language is in written texts.
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. In classroom writing activities, students of low socioeconomic status spent much of their time taking dictation and working with worksheets, whereas students of high socioeconomic status were provided opportunities "to exert their agency as writers." The case for literacy engagement as a critical factor in reading achievement is supported by research conducted over several decades.
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This study, involving 75 Spanish-speaking 5th graders from a school in the Chicago area, investigated whether a peer-led, open-format discussion approach known as collaborative reasoning would accelerate the students' English language development. Results showed that after participating in eight discussions over a 4-week period, the collaborative reasoning group performed significantly better than the control group on measures of listening and reading comprehension.
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PROMISING AND EFFECTIVE PRACTICES FOR EDUCATING ENGLISH LEARNERS IN GRADES 6-8 (MIDDLE SCHOOL) Young adolescents (typically aged 10-14)
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1161) capture the complex challenges facing both students and their teachers in middle schools as they pursue the dual goals of English language development and content area learning: Because literacy development is a multifaceted process that demands a number of separate, but related competencies (Duke and Carlisle, 2011; McCutchen, 2006; RAND Reading Study Group, 2002)
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. BOX 8-1 How Middle School Contexts Matter for English Learners In an ethnographic study of middle school English learners (ELs)
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Valdés's (2001) study shows that the social context of middle schools -- shaped by the sociodemographic characteristics of the ELs and how teachers perceive their capacities for learning both English and academic subjects -- can result in different classroom learning experiences and outcomes (see also Kim and Viesca, 2016)
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, and English language arts (Kim et al., 2011; Lesaux et al., 2010, 2014)
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illuminate situational factors that shape both teaching and learning in these classrooms, including criteria for small groups, whether such groups are based on skills or on a mix of English proficiency and literacy, and teacher beliefs about how students learn language. Studies of the roles of out-ofschool settings and youth organizations in supporting ELs' educational success in middle schools remain rare (Zhou, 2000)
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were the same as those required of students across the grade level, including students who were gifted and talented. Promising Practice 2: Support Comprehension and Writing Related to Core Content When students are not entirely familiar with the academic language teachers use for instruction or the language of the texts they are using, learning grade-level core content is at best effortful.
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. Research described above points to promising practices in the classroom instruction of middle school ELs.
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While there have been no direct studies addressing student engagement for ELs, the research on literacy engagement in middle school students appears relevant to ELs. Many ELs become classified as LTELs during middle school, and as discussed in Chapter 6, have begun to slow down in their development of English proficiency.
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PROMISING AND EFFECTIVE PRACTICES FOR EDUCATING ENGLISH LEARNERS IN GRADES 9-12 The structure and larger size of some high schools can make the transition from middle school especially difficult for ELs (e.g., Egalite and Kasida, 2016; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2009; Nield, 2009)
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. 12 Office of English Language Acquisition, Fast Facts: Profiles of English Learners, January 2015 (http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oela/fast-facts/pel.pdf [February 23, 2017]
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Sixteen percent of public school districts with high school grades and high school ELs reported having a newcomer program (Lewis and Gray, 2016)
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; • provision of regular peer-assisted learning opportunities; and • provision of small-group instructional support for students strug gling with literacy and English language development (Gersten et al., 2007)
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. Comparisons of the use of academic language in science or social studies with the use of language in literary narratives reveal how language can vary among disciplines.
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The study report notes that no particular program model or curriculum was responsible for the unusual success of the six schools, but specific design ele ments with related instructional practices made a difference:
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Such support S is a necessity for ELs, for whom the transition to secondary school may have involved a move to the United States, separation from family and friends, trauma, and the challenges of entering a world where little was familiar. • unified language development framework integrated content, the de A velopment of analytical skills and practices, alternative interpretations of content, and argumentation for those interpretations based on text analyses.
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. Promising Practices 3, 4, and 5: Provide Regular Structured Opportunities to Develop Written Language Skills; Develop Reading and Writing Abilities of ELs Through Text-Based, Analytical Instruction Using a Cognitive Strategies Approach; and Provide Direct and Explicit Comprehension Strategy Instruction The Pathways Project provides excellent examples of instructional efforts to develop reading and writing abilities and skills through text-based instruction.
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The project forcefully demonstrated that after 2 years of such instructional support, the ELs in this study had internalized these strategies and could apply them in the reading and writing they had to do in school (Matuchniak et al., 2014)
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The use of graphic organizers helped students see connections and relationships among ideas and to organize their thoughts before being asked to write about them. Such visual scaffolding enabled the students to gain access to the meaning of the materials they were studying, even at early stages of learning English.
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school in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan -- the Manhattan Bridges High School -- Hispanic students can chose an engineering or information technology focus while also developing their bilingual academic language skills. At the time of the Schools to Learn From study, 53 percent of the students at this school were ELs, many of them having experienced an interruption in their education.
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. Promising Practice 9: Provide Small-Group Instructional Support for Students Struggling with Literacy and English Language Development Among high school students classified as ELs are those whose struggles with language and literacy require instructional support beyond what teachers can ordinarily provide in the regular classroom.
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They need to learn to use strategies such as those used in the Pathway Project. CONCLUSIONS Conclusion 8-1: The following instructional practices are effective in developing elementary school-aged English learners' knowledge of academic subject matter: providing explicit instruction focused on de veloping key aspects of literacy; developing academic language dur ing content area instruction; providing support to make core content comprehensible; encouraging peer-assisted learning opportunities; capi talizing on students' home language, knowledge, and cultural assets; screening for language and literacy challenges and monitoring progress; and providing small-group academic support for students to learn grade-level core content.
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Conclusion 8-6: Research on instruction in academic language has focused on the acquisition of specific skills in isolation, rather than on the integration of these skills into higher level processing and linguistic competence. Some promising practices at the middle school level for developing academic language and domain knowledge include use of the student's first language to support learning across content areas; use of collaborative and peer groups to support and extend instruction; and use of grade-level texts with appropriate supports to provide access to complex language and content. Conclusion 8-7: The stakes for high school English learners (ELs)
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However, some promising practices include a focus on academic language development that embraces all facets of academic language and includes both oral and written language across content areas; structured reading and writing instruction using a cognitive strategies approach and explicit instruction in reading comprehension strategies; opportunities for extended discussion of text and its meaning between teachers and students and in peer groups that may foster motivation and engagement in literacy learning; provision of peer-assisted learning opportunities; and rigorous, focused, and relevant support for long term ELs. Conclusion 8-9: Research on the literacy engagement of English learn ers (ELs)
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. Identity texts and literacy development among preschool English language learners: Enhancing learning opportunities for children at risk of learning disabilities.
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. A review of the literature on teaching academic English to English language learners.
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. Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction for English Learners in the Elementary Grades.
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. A randomized experiment of a cognitive strategies approach to text based analytical writing for mainstreamed Latino English language learners in grades 6 to 12.
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. The long-term impact of subtractive schooling in the educational experiences of secondary English language learners.
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. Peer-assisted learning strategies for English language learners with learning disabilities.
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. WWC Review of the Report: A Randomized Experiment of a Cognitive Strategies Approach to Text-based Analytical Writing for Mainstreamed Latino English Language Learners in Grades 6 to 12.
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. Enhancing social studies vocabulary and comprehension for seventh-grade English language learners: Findings from two experimental studies.
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