Improving outcomes for English language

learners (oral and literacy learning)

 Abstract

English is a widely spoken language all over the world. It has now
occupied a place of pride among the language of global communication. It may
create certain difficulties for those countries where the educational facilities are
not very conducive.

Hence, there is a need to help the children come out of their linguistic and
social barriers to learn English language. There should be an endeavor to create
uniform and universal access to standard based curriculum and the teachers
should be well trained.

Academic performance of English learners should be improved by

following a pragmatic process of teaching. Students should be motivated to talk
and high-Quality Literacy Instruction should be imparted.

There should be Powerful Vocabulary Instruction powered with explicit

writing. A system should be created where is there is a possibility of continuous
improvement. The use of structured pairing enhances instruction and has a
potential to allow students to be actively engaged. It can give them more
opportunities to respond to meaningful academic content. Instruction should also
be enhanced with the use of visuals.
Introduction
The English people used to say that the sun never sets in the British
Empire and now it can aptly be said that the language of English rules the world.
With 400,000,000 individuals who speak it as a second language and
350,000,000 who speak it as their native tongue, English is definitely a widely
spoken language. Even in this age of global village, English is still unavoidable in
the totally computerized world of today. Hence naturally this language scores
over others in several ways. In this part of the world a person who doest know
English is treated as an illiterate.

In a country like India where most of its population lives in villages it is

difficult to teach English. Approximately 4.5 million English learners are enrolled
in the nation’s schools, and over 40 percent of teachers have English learners in
their classrooms. Academically, these students face huge challenges to master
academic content and the English language simultaneously. The term “English
language learners” is used to identify persons whose native language is one
other than English and whose difficulties in speaking, reading, writing, or
understanding the English language may hinder the individual from the ability to
achieve academically in classrooms where the language of instruction is English.

Communication plays a vital role in today's global challenge, be it in

education, business or personal relations. Among the often used mediums for
communication, the English language serves as a deciding factor in bridging the
gaps in communication which can make or break international relations and state
of affairs. Of the numerous exchanges that occur around the world in any given
day, English dominates the front lines.
Though the numbers do not necessarily imply the dominance of the
English language or the exact number of users, it does, however depict the
significance of English in the mainstream of universal growth. A means for
making school level academic content (e.g. maths, science, social studies) more
accessible for English language learners while at the same time promoting their
English language development offering key policies and useful strategies for
building capacity and creating learning environments conducive for the academic
success of all students.

The need for improving the outcomes for English language

learners

With the increasing use of SMS service provided through mobile phones,
the people, especially the students have lost the touch with proper literary usage
of English language. We might find a section of the students who are able to
speak the language very fluently, but make a lot of grammatical blunders while
using the very same language while writing. We can also find another section
that are able to communicate well on the paper, but cannot communicate fluently
when it comes to the verbal usage of the language. Hence, it is the need of the
hour to improve the outcomes for English language learners.

Helping students overcome academic, linguistic, and social barriers in

classroom discussions is the main objective. The discussion tools and theories
can be applied within any subject area and are especially beneficial for English
learners. Classroom discussions promote academic success by building powerful
communication and reasoning skills.
English Language Development Standards: Development,
Linkage, and Professional Development

English language development (ELD) standards should be linked to academic

content standards (e.g., English-language arts, mathematics, science,
history-social science).
Teachers should assist to give English learners universal access to rigorous,
standards-based curriculum in their classrooms.
 • They should provide framework and tools for evaluating English learner
performance data from multiple sources.
• They should also Review essential questions to guide accountability for
English learner and former-English learner success.
• The teachers should discuss the strategies for setting performance
expectations and monitoring the progress in English language
development (ELD) and academic core subjects.
• Intensive, thorough investigation of the most current and confirmed
research on teaching English learners to achieve high levels of academic
literacy.
• They should plan and teach lessons with an emphasis on academic
language development
• They should teach academic vocabulary and reading comprehension
using research-based strategies
• They should employ teaching strategies that increase student
engagement and opportunities for oral language practice
• They should implement a school wide systems approach to language
teaching to close achievement gaps

English Learners and the Language Arts (ELLA)

English Learners and the Language Arts (ELLA) is a comprehensive,

coherent, and high-impact process for improving the school wide academic
performance of English learners.

The process includes

• Providing systematic and explicit instruction for academic vocabulary

and other forms of academic literacy
• Increasing active participation and student engagement
• Scaffolding their students' opportunities for language practice
 • Making rigorous content comprehensible
• Implementing routines to foster a positive classroom climate

Methods of improving the outcomes

Effective Pedagogy for Diverse Learners

• Culturally Relevant Education: every country should educate their youth in

their culture to safe guard the continuity of the past. hence Culturally
Relevant Education is very important.
• Maintaining High Expectations and Accountability: education is a very
important field and hence should be maximum importance given to
education and any person responsible for misadventures in the field of
education which will jeopardize the future of the young population of the
country. Hence every citizen has high expectations and accountability on
policy makers regarding education
• Valuing Students' Home Languages: every country has its own language
and for the continuity of culture and religion and it should be given its due
importance.
• Socializing Students to Become Members of Academic Language
Communities: to improve their knowledge in academic languages

Increasing Student Engagement

• Getting Students to Talk

• Supporting Students to Use Academic Language
• Cooperative Learning Processes
• Setting Up and Maintaining Routines to Increase Active Participation

Second Language Development

• Examining the Expectations of School Language

 • Everyday Versus Academic English
• Scaffolding Listening and Reading Comprehension
• Oral Language Development
• Explicitly Teaching the Features of Language
• High-Quality Literacy Instruction

Powerful Vocabulary Instruction

• Intentional and Explicit Instruction of Academic Words

• Developing Word Consciousness
• Wide Reading Across the Content Areas
• Independent Word Learning Strategies
• Assessment of Word Knowledge

Writing

• Scaffolding Academic Writing

• Making Text Patterns Explicit
• Incorporating Academic Vocabulary into Student Writing

Creating Systems for Continuous Improvement

• Screening, Formative, Diagnostic, and Summative Assessment

• Efficient Grade Level Meetings
• Peer Collaborative Coaching
• Data-Informed Instructional Decision-Making
• Professional Literature Groups
• Classroom Monitoring
• Response to Intervention (RtI)
English Learners, Language, and Literacy in the Early Years
(ELLLEY)

English Learners, Language, and Literacy in the Early Years (ELLLEY)

introduces foundational concepts related to second language acquisition, home
literacy and language practices, and emergent literacy skills. Research and
theory are creatively woven together with practical, daily, evidence-based
strategies. Our results-oriented approach comprises interactive seminars and on-
site technical assistance.

The assessment of ELLs

Include ELL students in their annual state assessments of

reading/language arts, math, and science – not exempt them.
• Assess ELLs in a “valid and reliable manner.”
• Provide reasonable accommodations, including, to the extent practicable
“assessments in the language and form most likely to yield accurate data
on what such students know and can do in academic content areas,” and,
if needed, with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Education.
• Identify the languages for which student academic assessments are not
available and “make every effort to develop such assessments.”
• Assess ELL students who have attended schools for three or more
consecutive years in English, though a waiver for a maximum of two
additional years may be granted on a case-by-case basis.
• Annually assess English-language proficiency in the areas of reading,
writing, speaking, and listening.
These provisions provide important parameters for assessing ELLs.
However in this brief, poor or an altogether lack of guidance for their
implementation has weakened many of these provisions

• enhancing the empirical research base for readers in Grades 4–8,

 • using both narrative and expository text to develop and test effective
interventions that promote content knowledge and language and literacy
development,
• investigating the features of instruction and text modifications that facilitate
learning for ELLs (e.g., traditional instruction v. ESL-enhanced instruction,
teacher-guided instruction v. group work, traditional text v. modified text),
and
• Designing, testing, and delivering professional development that ensures
that teachers implement effective classroom practices to help ELLs
achieve high standards.

Case study

Adaptations of Peer-Assisted Learning for English Language

Learners: Application to Middle-School Social Studies
Classes

It is necessary to address the learning challenges of EL learners by

focusing on practices that enhance students’ understanding of social studies
content and of expository text by providing them opportunities to learn and use
the language associated with social studies. The model of instruction shares
various features recommended for high quality instruction for all students
including peer mediated learning, research-based practices for vocabulary
instruction, the use of media to build comprehension, and the development of
background knowledge.

The use of structured pairing enhances instruction in three ways. First,

paired activities increases students’ access to and practice with the language
associated with content area instruction. Second, pairing students to read and
work together provides an interactive and motivating structure for learning. Third,
through the use of paired activities, English language learners have the
opportunity to participate in class discussions by providing modeling and
practice. Peer mediated learning has the potential to allow students to be actively
engaged and can give them more opportunities to respond to meaningful
academic content.

Vocabulary words are to be chosen to build student academic language.

Practices included expanded students to understand word meanings by providing
them opportunities to encounter new words in texts and videos after receiving
explicit instruction of word meanings. The explicit instruction of word meanings
included several components: a student-friendly definition, a Spanish cognate if
appropriate, an illustration, and two sentences to contextualize the target word,
and examples and non examples.

Instruction should also be enhanced with the use of visuals. Vocabulary

and background content instruction should be enhanced with the use of video
and graphic organizers. Traditional teaching of history depends heavily on
students being able to independently read textbooks. Video provides access to
challenging content for ELLs. Short video clips are used to create meaningful
access to the content by providing students with an alternative to grade-level
text. In addition to providing access to content, the video provided additional
exposure to key vocabulary and concepts as well as opportunities for discussion.

Additionally, graphic organizers are used to organize information that was

read, watched in videos, and discussed into meaningful conceptual groupings.
The graphic organizers facilitate ELLs’ comprehension of the “big ideas” by
helping students discuss and write the most important information from their
lessons.

Conclusion

Learning English language is definitely important in this competitive world.

So the English language learners should be taught the English language and
their academic contents simultaneously. This would definitely be an advantage
as language of instruction is English (mostly) and so by learning English the
academics can be understood in a better way. So government should take
enough steps to make it easy for the English language learners to learn English.
Also the teachers should be well trained and graphic displays, presentations
should be shown in an interesting way to the English language learners so that
they can learn it in an easy way.

References

http://www.cal.org/create/

http://www.wested.org/cs/we/view/rs/828

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/conferences/improving-outcomes-
english-language-learners-oral-language-literacy-learning

http://l05.cgpublisher.com/proposals/956/index_html