English Language Learners Research Papers (original) (raw)

Given a growing asset-based approach to equipping English Learners (ELs) with the knowledge and skills to enter and succeed in postsecondary education, this brief examines ELs’ college readiness and postsecondary education outcomes in California. It includes a brief summary of relevant literature on college readiness among EL students. Researchers then present data retrieved from the California Department of Education on college readiness and postsecondary education. The results show that EL students lack access to college preparatory courses, have a low rate of meeting the state’s College/Career Indicator, and enroll in postsecondary education at lower rates than other groups. This policy brief concludes with recommendations for state-, district-, and school-level improvements for ELs’ college readiness and postsecondary enrollment.

- by
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- Higher Education, College Access, College Readiness, Postsecondary Education

This study examined how elementary preservice teachers modified cognitively demanding (Stein et
al., 2009) mathematics tasks for use with an English language learner during a four-week field
experience. In the examination of the preservice teachers’ lesson plans, written reflections, and video
recorded interviews, we identified three categories of modifications made to accommodate their
students: context, presentation, and language. The findings suggest that while the preservice teachers
increasingly attended to their students’ individual needs, they had limited strategies on which to
draw. Implications address the need for teacher educators to address the use of tasks with English
language learners.

- by Matthew Sakow and +2
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- Mathematics Education, Bilingual Education, English Language Learners

Pedagogies employing critical traditions have increasingly been used to
ameliorate achievement disparities and centralize issues of power in the education of Students of Color. In this study, I trace a teacher’s journey—new to critical pedagogies—as she learned about community cultural wealth and incorporated family histories as counterstorytelling curricula with her sixth-grade class of immigrant students in California’s Central Valley. I examine the pedagogical implementation with examples of students’ meaning-making. The teacher and students demonstrated what I am advancing as migration capital—or knowledges, sensibilities, and skills cultivated through the array of migration/immigration experiences to the United States or its borderlands. This study highlights the potential of community cultural wealth pedagogies and as pedagogical tools to counter deficit narratives with Latina/o immigrant youth.

- by rosa jimenez
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- Teacher Education, Critical Pedagogy, Latino students, Immigrant children

At institutions with significant populations of international and English Language Learning (ELL) students, writing centers are one of the best, if only, campus services that help with composition and language learning. However, institutions do not often provide adequate academic support for ELL students, who are frequently, but not always, international students (Nowacki, 2012). And there is rarely a sufficient support apparatus for these students to learn language (Nowacki, 2012). Given the high-stakes pressure for ELL students to demonstrate proficiency in English (Thonus, 1993), ELL students often use writing center services disproportionately in comparison to their native English-speaking peers. Despite the fact that ELL students use writing center resources in high numbers, there has been no correspondingly expansive body of writing center literature focused on this population (Nowacki, 2012). In order to not reinvent the wheel, it can be productive for writing centers to look to other fields for guidance on ELL students. For our purposes here, we found the field of research on teacher education to be useful and generative, as scholars in that space have, for decades now, considered the ways to best attend to the needs of ELL students in teaching and learning. In that field, a body of work termed linguistically responsive pedagogy (LRP; e.g. Aguilera et al., 2020; Lucas, 2010; Lucas et al., 2008) seemed particularly promising as a frame for enriching the work of writing centers with ELL students. Across our findings in this chapter, we understand there to be substantial overlaps between the work of writing center consultants and linguistically responsive educators. Our goal is to think about what LRP scholarship might offer writing center tutors working to better serve multilingual students. Because of the overlap we find between LRP literature and writing center research, we argue that writing centers can look to work on linguistically responsive pedagogies for constructing new writing center approaches for ELL students. We begin by examining the relationship between writing centers and ELL students in order to bring attention to the overlap between LRP and writing centers. We then provide an overview of linguistically responsive pedagogy. Lastly, we offer recommendations for how writing centers can translate LRP principles into writing center theory and practice.

- by Joseph Cheatle and +1
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- Literacy, Teaching and Learning, Education, Teaching English as a Second Language
- by Patricia Sanchez
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- Immigration, English Language Learners, Immigrants, Immigrant Education

Grounded in Hallidayan perspectives on academic language, we report on our development of an educative science assessment as one component of the language-rich inquiry science for English-language learners teacher professional learning project for middle school science teachers. The project emphasizes the role of content-area writing to support teachers in diagnosing their students’ emergent understandings of science inquiry practices, science content knowledge, and the academic language of science, with a particular focus on the needs of English-language learners. In our current school policy context, writing for meaningful purposes has received decreased attention as teachers struggle to cover large numbers of discrete content standards. Additionally, high-stakes assessments presented in multiple-choice format have become the definitive measure of student science learning, further de-emphasizing the value of academic writing for developing and expressing understanding. To counter these trends, we examine the implementation of educative assessment materials—writing-rich assessments designed to support teachers’ instructional decision making. We report on the qualities of our educative assessment that supported teachers in diagnosing their students’ emergent understandings, and how teacher–researcher collaborative scoring sessions and interpretation of assessment results led to changes in teachers’ instructional decision making to better support students in expressing their scientific understandings. We conclude with implications of this work for theory, research, and practice.

- by Cory Buxton and +2
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- Science Education, Academic Writing, English Language Learners

This study investigates the role of gender in influencing public speaking anxiety. Questionnaire survey was administered to the samples of the study. Technique of correlation and descriptive analysis will be further applied to the data collected to determine the relationship between gender and public speaking anxiety. This study could serve as a guide to identify the effects of gender differences on public speaking anxiety and provide necessary advice on how to design a way of coping with or overcoming public speaking anxiety.

We present an argument for the importance of a greater emphasis on content-area writing for middle school English language learners to support student problem solving abilities. We focus our work in the subject area of science, but a parallel argument can be made for other content areas. Currently, in U.S. middle schools, writing for meaningful purposes is receiving decreased attention as teachers feel pressure to cover large numbers of content standards. New Common Core State Standards have not diminished this concern. Additionally, the high stakes assessments that have become the definitive measure of student learning are overwhelmingly in multiple-choice format, further de-emphasizing the value of academic writing. To counter these trends, we propose the notion of educative assessment materials -writing-rich assessments that are designed to support teachers in better using assessments to promote meaningful learning. Such assessments benefit all students, but particularly English language learners.

- by Cory Buxton
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- Science Education, Academic Writing, English Language Learners
- by Patricia Dickenson
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- Education, Educational Technology, Special Education, Teacher Education

This study has been a collaboration of researchers at the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston and at the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston, with... more

English learners are a diverse group entering our schools with a wide range of backgrounds and needs. Many readily develop the necessary language skills and content knowledge, and progress satisfactorily. But others struggle and school presents major challenges. In this invited article, I describe the Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm (MALP®), a culturally responsive approach that builds bridges to formal education for these struggling learners. What do you first see when you look at this image? Some people say " a candlestick. " Others see the silhouettes of two heads. Is there a " wrong " or " right " answer; is there only one answer? No to both questions. This image is an optical illusion, that is, a drawing presenting an image that can be perceived in different ways. What you initially perceived as " the image " is just one possibility. I begin my discussion with this optical illusion to illustrate that there is not just a single way to understand the world around us, only one " reality. " As with this optical illusion, educators and their students may each see the world in very different ways, based on their significantly different prior learning experiences. This is especially true for struggling English Learners ( ELs) who for whatever reason have not fully participated in formal education and have developed ways of thinking and understanding that are anchored in realworld experiences. We, as

This study explored the impact of instructional interventions with four Middle School English Language Learners in Science. The initial focus was to determine the impact of explicit academic vocabulary instruction, including cognates, and small-group guided discussions in order to facilitate the acquisition of cognates, academic vocabulary, and comprehension of scientific concepts. To accomplish this, various methods were implemented to gather data: observational and reflective field notes, a cognate-circling task, along with group and individual interviews. Upon the initial data analysis, an emerging question surfaced which added an additional dimension to the research, and shed light on the complexity of the teacher/research role. Thus, data analyzed and reflected both original and emerging questions, uncovering various patterns that impacted students’ learning. It also provided insight into how a researcher’s roles can affect the types and quality of data. Implications are provided for researchers, classroom teachers, bilingual teachers, professional development providers, and university programs developing new teachers.

- by Jeff Mihlon
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- Science Education, Adolescent Literacy, Reflexivity, Teacher Research
- by Laura Baecher
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- English Language Learners, differentiated Instruction

When young refugee English language learners (ELLs) start formal schooling in the United States, the social-emotional learning (SEL) appropriate for the U.S. school context may be especially unfamiliar to them. By interviewing six elementary school teachers, this exploratory study examined how tea- chers describe refugee ELLs’ social-emotional competencies and what ped- agogical methods they report using with refugee ELLs for their social- emotional skills development. This study also considered to what extent teachers’ views of their refugee ELL students’ SEL and their self-reported pedagogies reflect their recognition of refugee ELLs’ funds of knowledge, teachers’ development of culturally sustaining pedagogies, and teachers’ use of power to promote equity and social justice in the classroom. The teachers identified a range of social-emotional skills, in particular social awareness and relationship skills, as important for refugee ELLs to develop. To help them, the teachers used various pedagogical methods, including explicit teaching, individualizing, creating a positive climate, and collabora- tion and support. However, the teachers’ views of their refugee students’ SEL and their self-reported pedagogical methods were largely deficit- oriented. Interpreting our findings within the existing literature from the critical perspective provides critical insights into teachers’ perspectives and approaches to supporting refugee ELLs’ SEL in early elementary grades.

- by Hyonsuk Cho
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- Refugees, English Language Learners, Social-Emotional Learning, Teacher Perspectives

U.S. schools face increasing pressure to ensure that all students succeed, yet the
dropout rate for English learners is alarmingly high, especially for those with limited
or interrupted formal schooling (SLIFE). Serving SLIFE can be challenging because they
not only need to master language and content but also need to develop literacy skills
and learn to operate in formal classroom settings. We describe a culturally responsive
instructional model that prepares SLIFE to access curriculum and instruction, and
succeed on standardized testing.

How to engage culturally and linguistically diverse students in learning science is a relatively new field of study. Researchers have begun to address this question using a range of theoretical perspectives, including: (a) a cognitively based perspective, (b) a cross-cultural perspective, and (c) a sociopolitical perspective. Although proponents of these perspectives share the belief that connecting students' cultural and linguistic experiences to the practices of science is central to student engagement, the specific approaches proposed to best achieve this goal differ. The authors explain each perspective using examples from representative research programs and discuss the unique ways that each perspective addresses the challenge of providing engaging and equitable learning opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students in science classrooms. They offer implications for instructional strategies that teachers can use to make their classrooms more engaging and equitable science learning environments for diverse student groups.

- by Cory Buxton
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- Science Education, English Language Learners
- by Ashley Mayworm and +2
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- Case Study Research, English Language Learners, Selective Mutism

In this session we propose a comprehensive framework to empower teachers of adolescent multilingual learners in curriculum development and professional growth. Building on post-methods pedagogy, the competencies pose learning areas that represent flexible principles designed to shift fundamental attitudes and knowledge informing teachers’ classroom practice and facilitating student learning.

- by Betsy Gilliland and +1
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- Teacher Education, English Language Learners

Public schools in the United States are federally mandated to identify and serve all students with disabilities. However, students whose native language is not English are at risk of being inappropriately identified or not identified for special education because issues related to language and culture complicate the identification process. This article presents findings from a qualitative multi-case study of state education agencies, school districts, and schools along the US-Mexico border. Document analysis and in-depth interviews revealed that state and district policies often lack meaningful guidance for educators in the field while bureaucrats working in state educational agencies and school districts are unprepared and lack time, knowledge, and resources to support schools and educators. The findings inform next generation policy initiatives and identify important lines of inquiry for further research.

- by D. Brent Edwards Jr.
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- Education, Special Education, Education Policy, English Language Learners

Scaffolding provides content-area teachers (CATs) with an effective means to integrate language instruction into content-area instruction for English language learners (ELLs). Data for this study were derived from 33 CAT discussions while they were pursuing professional development in an American university classroom over 32 weeks. The discussions yielded 408 scaffolding statements that were coded and analyzed. The findings identified linguistic, conceptual, social and cultural scaffolding as part of the CATs' personal practical knowledge. Also, the findings demonstrated that CATs' knowledge of cultural scaffolding is limited in comparison to other scaffolding strategies. The findings have an impact on the nature of ELL instruction and its effectiveness. r

Vocabulary represents a key barrier to language and literacy development for many English learners. This study examined the relationship between Spanish-speaking English learners' conceptually-scored Spanish-English vocabulary, academic English proficiency, and English reading comprehension. Second-and fourth-grade English learners (N = 62) completed standardized conceptually-scored vocabulary measures in the fall and state-administered standardized measures of academic English proficiency and English reading comprehension in the spring. Conceptually-scored vocabulary measures are designed to tap knowledge of the number of known concepts, regardless of the specific language (Spanish or English) used to label the concept. Regression analyses revealed that academic English proficiency and English reading comprehension were not predicted by the conceptually-scored measure of receptive vocabulary. However, both academic English proficiency and English reading comprehension were predicted by the conceptually-scored measure of expressive vocabulary. Importantly, the relationship between conceptually-scored expressive vocabulary and English reading comprehension remained after controlling for academic English proficiency. Results underscore the utility of measures that incorporate English learners' first and second language skills in understanding the vocabulary knowledge English learners bring to English language and literacy learning tasks.

This article explores the results of a study of Latino youth in New York City public high schools. We propose that the common element among the schools is what we call here transcaring, an overarching culture of care that allows for the creation of third spaces within school, transcending traditional dichotomies around language, culture, place, and measurement found in many U.S. schools. We identify the different threads that make up transcaring
strategies—translanguaging, transculturación, transcollaboration and transactions through dynamic assessments—focusing on each of its components by drawing examples from our data.

- by Ofelia Garcia Otheguy and +2
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- Education, Bilingual Education, Bilingualism, English Language Learners

Helping ESOL students find their voice in social studies

Many English language learners in Ontario's English-language schools receive support from a specialist English as a Second Language teacher. They also spend at least part of the school day in the mainstream classroom. This means that every teacher shares the responsibility for helping these students acquire English to the level required for academic success. According to Cummins and others, it takes five or more years for English language learners to catch up to English speaking age peers in academic language proficiency. Teachers therefore need an understanding of the language acquisition process and the difference between everyday and academic language. Teachers also need to plan differentiated instruction for learners at various stages in the language acquisition process. This paper suggests a framework for planning instruction based on the Cummins four-quadrant model.

- by Elizabeth Coelho
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- English Language Learners

With the current tide of anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiment, it is vital that educators and counselors incorporate strategies to meet the social and emotional needs of English-language learners. This case study investigated the impact of teacher practice and collaboration with counselors around culturally and linguistically responsive instruction for newcomer ELLs in a small urban high school over one academic year. Participants in the study included 9 teachers, counselors, and administrators interviewed individually by the researcher and 12 students who participated in focus groups. The researcher also conducted observations and took field notes throughout the year during both planning meetings and classroom instruction. Finally, the researcher analyzed documents including data from school climate surveys and audits. Using thematic analysis, the researcher first engaged in three rounds of coding in order to identify and refine potential key patterns across the data. Analytic memos were utilized as a way to begin the process of analysis. Later, the researcher triangulated between the different forms of data to corroborate themes and patterns. Findings suggest that school partnerships, distributed leadership, and collaboration can help generate a welcoming climate that addresses student needs both inside and outside the classroom.

- by Lisa Auslander
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- Teacher Education, English Language Learners, School Counselors

This study is a phenomenological study that examines the No Child Left Behind testing experience of middle school English language learners (ELLs) through their journal writing. Thirteen students in a seventh/ eighth-grade self-contained Chinese bilingual classroom wrote journal entries in response to a prompt asking their opinion of standardized testing; students responded in either Chinese or English. The author found that students had many incisive critiques of testing and test preparation, articulated reasons for not performing well, expressed their psychological or emotional reactions, and offered recommendations for improving the experience. Some students used their knowledge of the Chinese educational system to compare and contrast their testing experiences. The students' overall negative experience was due to overtesting, the ineffectiveness of remedial computer programs, " luck " as an unpredictable factor in multiple-choice tests, or their status as second language learners. Reactions of anxiety and fear of doing poorly also mattered. The author relates the concept of " student voice " to counter-narratives, identity construction, and resistance to dominant discourses about immigrant ELL students. She discusses how these " student voices " disrupt essentialized views of ELLs and recent immigrant students and urges educators to make the voices of immigrant and ELL students more prominent in classrooms. ENGLISh LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND STANDARDIzED TESTING In the early 1990s, during the debates around whole language versus phonics and the movement toward standards and its concomitant standardized statewide assessments, educators saw the focus of instructional discourse change from students and teachers co-constructing knowledge, thematic units, inquiry-based learning, and portfolio assessments to textbook series aligned with standards, direct instruction, accountability, and the use of standardized tests. For English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) educators, this move away from authentic assessments and

The purpose of this study was to explore how emergent bilinguals’ emerging identities interact with their language attitudes and choices in various contexts to create their investment in English, Spanish, and bilingualism. Using a mixed method design, the researchers analyzed surveys and social networking maps of 63 Mexican-American, bilingual fifth-graders in a one-way dual language (DL) school and then the interviews of 10 of these students. Findings indicate that students’ identities and investments show a strong correlation to their language use and language of instruction. Specifically, students’ investment in their languages suggest that we might reconsider strict language separation in DL programs while overtly attending to students’ investment in the minority language, Spanish. Most significantly, the language we use formally and informally affects students’ attitudes toward that language. Thus, greater emphasis on developing bilingual investment is an indispensable goal of DL programs.

In speaking about newcomers who are identified as English language learners, teachers can at times be heard saying that these children come to school “with nothing.” What teachers mean by “nothing” can vary. The word can be used to express limited literacy or numeracy, as defined in the most orthodox fashion. However, more often this determination of something versus nothing is based on a student’s ability to communicate and produce work within the rigid standards of “academic English” and “grade level.” It is for this reason that the use of translanguaging in all classrooms could be very beneficial to the way that teachers interact with their students and the way that student abilities are evaluated.
Translanguaging is the discursive practice, widely used among bilingual communities, in which linguistic features are adopted from fixed languages and combined into an integrated repertoire. Translanguaging, in an educational context, is situated within a constructivist and culturally responsive pedagogy that honors the richness, complexity, and fullness of students’ linguistic repertoires. Translanguaging creates a learning space for emergent bilinguals that more fully realizes the possibilities of social justice. It does this by shifting the discourse away from a deficit model of students with diverse languages, and creating translanguaging spaces that students experience as empowering, adaptable, relevant, and reflective of their own life experiences.

- by Maria Cioè-Peña and +1
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- Social Justice in Education, English Language Learners, Translanguaging

This article presents an action research study conducted in an English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) newcomer classroom. The author engaged in meaningful teacher research to learn about the importance of exploring the topics of moral values and behavior through the lens of English learners (ELs). The reading project was carried out during seven instructional days, and participants had the opportunity to learn English while engaging in purposeful discussions that revealed their cultural similarities and differences. The findings suggest that, from the participants' point of view, moral values and behavior are topics that should be learned in the household and enforced at school. However, participants also agreed that addressing these topics in the ESOL classroom is beneficial for those classmates with discipline challenges at school. In addition, data reveal important themes to consider when teaching reading to newcomer ELs.

- by Luis Javier Pentón Herrera
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- Action Research, Latino students, TESOL, Linguistics

This study investigates how teachers interact with immigrant-origin youth in particular school-based “contexts of reception” that mediate youth’s educational opportunities. One under-studied context is “sheltered instruction” where English learners (ELs) are placed into separate content-area courses to target their linguistic needs. This qualitative study highlights the unintended consequences of ELs’ placements by examining three in-depth teacher cases. Teachers’ accounts reveal how EL content-courses designed to increase access were in fact stigmatizing spaces where students made social distinctions and engaged in impression management to mitigate perceptions that they lacked intelligence because of their programmatic placements. Teachers also managed stigma in distinct ways, representing different orientations and communication strategies in response to students’ experiences of stigma. This investigation raises questions about the tensions embedded in how language status, race, and classification intersect with the very solutions intended to ameliorate inequalities, as well as teachers’ roles in the education of immigrant-origin EL youth.

In this study, the authors compare the validity of three nonverbal tests for the purpose of identifying academically gifted English-language learners (ELLs). Participants were 1,198 elementary children (approximately 40% ELLs). All were administered the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (Raven), the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT), and Form 6 of the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT). Results show that the U.S. national norms for the Raven substantially overestimate the number of high-scoring children; that because of errors in norming, the NNAT overestimates the number of both high-scoring and low-scoring children; that primary-level ELL children score especially poorly on the NNAT; that the standard error of measurement was twice as large for the NNAT as for the Raven or the CogAT; that ELL children scored .5 to .67 standard deviations lower than non-ELL children on the three nonverbal tests; and that none of the nonverbal tests predict achievement for ELL students very well.

This study describes a summer intervention program that took place in a low-performing middle school in California in the United States. Applying Robert Moses’ Five-Step Approach (Moses & Cobb, 2001), 10 pre-service teachers taught hands-on, experiential mathematics to 20 Latino English language learners (ELLs) who failed one or more courses in the previous academic year. At the end of the eight-week summer intervention program, the ELL students showed significant improvement on sixth-grade fundamental mathematical concepts. This paper focuses on the theoretical basis for this study, description of the sample lesson taught, results, and the cultural factors embedded in the project.

- by Ji Yeong I
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- English Language Learners

Although low English reading test scores play an important role in long-term English learners (LTELs) continued classification as English learners (ELs), limited research exists on how these students actually construct meaning with academic texts in English. This article uses a literacy-as-social-practice perspective to examine the reading practices that five high school LTELs vocalized during think-alouds with biology and English language arts texts. The findings document the focal students’ detailed understandings of the texts and identify four categories of meaning-making practices in which students engaged to differing extents during think-alouds: summarizing and identifying important information; making connections to background knowledge; going beyond the text; and recognizing limitations. These findings are significant because they provide a much-needed depiction of the actual reading practices of students who have remained classified as ELs for all or most of their academic trajectory.

- by Maneka Deanna Brooks
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- Literacy, Adolescent Literacy, Reading, Reading Comprehension

Teachers’ understandings of second language learning influence their practices in the classroom. This paper analyzes interview and classroom data collected during a year-long ethnographic study of two high school English language development classes to identify (1) what the teachers understood about second language (L2) development and L2 academic writing, and (2) to what extent these perspectives manifested in the teachers’ writing instruction. Analyses suggest that both the teachers felt that language could be learned inductively through exposure to models and that writing instruction should focus on essay structure and correctness. Their teaching, however, was also constrained by accountability pressures from high stakes writing assessments. I argue that the teachers’ approaches reflected a restrictive understanding not aligned with a situated perspective on language and writing development and therefore denied their multilingual students’ opportunities to learn academic language for writing.

For young dual language learners (DLLs) the process of learning to write and use language expressively differs from that of children who are monolingual English speakers. Yet these differences often remain unaddressed in curricula and in writing instruction. Despite a recent “identity turn” (Moje & Luke, 2009, p. 415) in the literacy field that has shifted attention to how children’s identities shape writing practices and motivations for writing, common frameworks for understanding identity in literacy processes have been used only in a limited way to consider identities of both
young children and DLLs. This article reports relevant theory and research on the writing identities of young DLLs to explicate a framework of writing instruction that is informed by these understandings. This framework is intended to provide a model for elementary-grade instruction that supports the language acquisition and writing development of DLLs, including positive self-identification with writing.

- by Christopher J Wagner
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- Literacy, Self and Identity, Multilingualism, Academic Writing

This inquiry examines how district English Learner (EL) leaders negotiate and shape their linguistic and racial identities within the landscape of racially desegregated urban school districts. Girded by the theory of LangCrit, an intersection between critical language studies (CLS) and Critical Race Theory (CRT), this study illuminates how EL leaders position language and language learning as their primary leadership aim. This language-centered focus resists the institutional practices of their desegregated districts that are principally shaped by binary racial frameworks of Black and white. Resisting the racialization of language, EL leaders negotiate their leadership actions through colorblind, colormute and nativist lenses that are shaped by their respective linguistic and racial identities. Implications within this narrative study assert that inter and intra-racial and cross-linguistic dialogue is necessary among EL leaders with other leaders of color to deconstruct equitable opportunities for ELs by centering and intersecting the constructs of race and language.

A t age 15, Tom emigrated from Sierra Leone, Africa, to the United States. He had had no formal schooling in his home country and was illiterate. Nevertheless, because of his age he was placed in 9th grade. Ndw, alter two years, Tom can speak English fairly well, but his academic skills, as well as his reading and writing abilities, are at a 4th grade level.

Identifying, assessing, and differentiating instruction for English learners with disabilities require
educators first to understand the complex interrelationships of language, culture, home, and
school factors that affect learning and behavior and then to consider these factors when
making decisions about students’ unique characteristics and needs so that they may thrive at
school. Leaders and educators will best be prepared to meet student needs by collaboratively
developing and implementing a process for educating English learners with disabilities.
Toward that end, the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 2785 calling upon the California Department of
Education to develop a manual that provides guidance to teachers and specialists in grades
transitional kindergarten (TK)/K–121
to help them appropriately identify and support English
learners with disabilities. In response, the Department of Education developed this California
Practitioners’ Guide for Educating English Learners with Disabilities to provide information
on identifying, assessing, supporting, and reclassifying English learners who may qualify
for special education services and pupils with disabilities who may be classified as English
learners. The manual or guide will also assist leaders in developing and implementing policies
and practices related to English learners with disabilities.

- by Elizabeth Burr
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- English Language Learners

This article examines how Arizona’s teachers of English learners negotiate between restrictive language policies and complex teaching conditions. This case study explores how middle school teachers in an urban school district make sense of the 4-hour English language development block, Arizona’s recent English-only policy. Findings indicate that teachers’ implementation of language policies in their classroom is shaped by their own language-learning beliefs and teaching experience. Teachers of English learners, instead of adhering to or rejecting the ideologies or approaches mandated by the state, make accommodations concerning their students’ English-language development and
content-area learning.

- by Erin Mackinney
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- Language Planning and Policy, English Language Learners

The fastest-growing student population in U.S. schools today is children of immigrants, half of whom do not speak English fluently and are thus labeled English learners. Although the federal government requires school districts to provide services to English learners, it offers states no policies to follow in identifying, assessing, placing, or instructing them. Margarita Calderón, Robert Slavin, and Marta Sánchez identify the elements of effective instruction and review a variety of successful program models.

- by Jessica Scott
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- English Language Learners

In this chapter, I flip the script. I use the work of a mother as an instructional case for TESOL educators. After problematizing dominant conceptions of LTELs, I examine the experiences of a middle school parent and future teacher: Susana Ávila (all identifying names are pseudonyms). Rather than focusing on what schools should teach Mrs. Ávila about advocating for her son’s education, I use her advocacy experiences to discuss what K-12 TESOL educators can learn about advocacy for LTELs.

Background/Context: Faced with rapidly changing demographics, districts are increasingly looking to partner with parents to support and improve student learning. Community organizing holds promise for pursuing educational equity through the development of low-income parent participation and leadership, but previous research has focused primarily on the use of structural social capital theory in qualitative studies to understand school-based organizing mechanisms and impacts in traditional urban centers.

- by Ann Ishimaru
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- Education, Educational Leadership, Community Organizing, Social Capital

Unlike most introductory Second Language Acquisition (SLA) books which generally cover core SLA theories and summarize research findings, this book by Elaine Tarone and Bonnie Swierzbin provides its readers with much hands-on practice in analyzing learner language. Guided by Dick Allwright's (2005) Exploratory Practice framework, the book adopts a case study approach to SLA by focusing on how six ESL adult learners from China, Mexico, and Central Africa use English as they engage in a range of elicitation tasks. The book is organized into an introduction and eight chapters. While Chapters 1 and 2 examine individual differences in L2 learning and survey key SLA theories respectively, the next five chapters (Chapters 3-7) explore how learner language can be analyzed from five different theoretical perspectives: error and target-like use (TLU) analysis, developmental sequence, interactional analysis, referential effectiveness, and complexity of language needed for academic purposes. The last chapter (Chapter 8) provides teachers with advice on how to analyze the language of learners in their own classrooms. Particularly striking is how the authors successfully manage to merge theory and practice throughout the book. Each chapter begins with the introduction of key SLA concepts which are subsequently applied to learner language data. For example, readers are introduced to the concepts of negotiation of meaning, interactional modification, and corrective feedback in Chapter 5, which focuses on learning in interaction. These concepts are then illustrated with sample data of actual language use by the six focal learners drawn from video samples. Following this, readers are then led to an exercise which requires them to put into application the newly introduced concepts. After this initial exercise, the notion of corrective feedback is further developed by the authors who go on to discuss and illustrate the different types of corrective feedback such as explicit correction, recasts, and prompts that are commonly used by teachers and learners. For concept reinforcement, readers are then led to another exercise which allows them to see how the different forms of corrective feedback emerge in the learner data. In short, the carefully engineered movement between theory and practice provides readers with the valuable hands-on and exploratory practice that frames the book. In addition to the video samples of learner language in the DVD which accompanies the book, readers will appreciate the transcripts of the learner language located at the end of the book as well as the list of recommended further readings for each chapter. Also noteworthy are the possible responses to the chapter exercises found in the answer discussion section at the back of the book. This makes this book a valuable resource not only for teacher educators, but also teacher-learners who intend to engage in self-study. The book culminates in a useful guide (Chapter 8) on how to embark on an independent research project with one's own language learners. Especially helpful in this last chapter are pointers on how to protect learners' rights and salient advice on how to collect learner language data. Another strength of this book is how the authors provide a critique of the different approaches to exploring learner language in each chapter. For example in Chapter 3, the authors identify some of the limitations of error analysis as a tool for looking at learner language, before

- by Peter De Costa
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- Adult learning, English Language Learners, Review, Adult ESL

Given the collaborative nature of the TESOL profession, models that provide opportunities for teachers and other school-based stakeholders to interact directly with students to more clearly understand their successes, challenges and particular needs are significantly needed. In this article, we advocate for the use of cogenerative dialogues, a promising practice for learning more about the teaching and learning needs of English Language Learners (ELL) students in a specific learning context. Cogenerative dialogues are discussions involving students and teachers that foreground problems and generate strategies to improve teaching and learning. The dialogues were implemented as part of a larger, mixed-methods study in in 2 urban middle school science classrooms in the USA. Findings included both beneficial outcomes and tensions for both ELL students and teachers. Benefits included: (1) creating opportunities for students to develop a voice; (2) assuming responsibilities for learning; (3) sharing responsibilities for language acquisition and learning; and (4) developing a sense of community. Two specific considerations are also discussed, which include the language proficiency levels of the students involved and cultural practices around critiquing teaching and learning.

Language minority students, many of whom come from low socioeconomic backgrounds, confront multiple obstacles to academic success and advancement. Yet the intersection between language minority students’ K-12 experiences and their potential to obtain higher education remains understudied. This paper examines how a set of institutional processes and practices—state-mandated classification, testing, and tracking—operates to systematically limit language minority students’ access to college-preparatory curricula. Using data from interviews, this study investigates Hmong American high school and college students’ experiences in English language development and mainstream academic tracks, as well as their perceptions regarding access to college preparatory courses. The evidence suggests that students tracked in English Language Development curricula not only have limited access to key resources, such as college preparatory courses, but also hold lower aspirations about college, compared to those who are in college preparatory tracks. The limitations of this study and implications for future research are discussed.

- by Yang Sao Xiong
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- English, Education Policy, TEFL, Immigrant children

Although the “burrito” is often served at Mexican restaurants and has a Spanish name (little donkey), it is rumored to have only become a food item in the United States by the Americans and was not served in Mexico before its popularity... more

Changes in policy and regulations affecting English language instruction often pose challenges for teachers serving ELLs with disabilities. The following is a personal reflection of one teacher’s creative use of space, resources, and collaboration to meet the disability- and language-related needs of ELLs with disability labels. The author illustrates specific challenges posed by New York State regulations, as well as solutions for meeting the legal obligation to students’ Individualized Education Plans in that teaching context. The author concludes that prioritizing the needs of ELLs with disabilities ensures equitable access to instruction and supports meaningful participation in the general education classroom.

- by Chelsea Stinson
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- Education Policy, Disability, English Language Learners

The growing population of English language learners (ELLs) in the nation’s schools is not limited to states like New York, California, Texas, and Florida, where their numbers have been high for many years; now, midwestern and southeastern states are seeing the greatest increases. For instance, the population of ELLs in Wisconsin saw a 140% increase between 1998 and 2008 (NCELA, n.d.). Instruction for ELLs is now of relevance to all teachers in the state, who may or may not have a background in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of key strategies that support effective instruction for ELLs in secondary English classrooms, with illustrative examples shared by both English as a second language (ESL) and English teachers. It is hoped that these will provide readers with some concrete ways to differentiate instruction to support ELLs.

- by Laura Baecher
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- English Language Learners, differentiated Instruction