About ESL/ELL
Focus Question: In what ways can teachers best help ESL/ELL students to maximize their learning?
Code: The code is :
301 for foreign-born students.
303 for Canadian-born students.
302 for International Students.
301 for foreign-born students.
303 for Canadian-born students.
302 for International Students.
Definition:
- English Language Learners (ELL): describes students whose primary or heritage is not English
- English as a Second Language (ESL) Classrooms: where these students learn English.
- English language learner (ELL) is a broad term used in North America to refer to fstudents who are learning English as a second or additional language. They may be immigrants from a country where English is not the national language or born in an English-speaking country but raised in a non-English speaking home or community. In either case, they are learning English in addition to their native or home language. Because of these circumstances, they are considered ELLs.
Characteristics &/or Observable Behaviors:
- “Ear learners”
- Use the wrong verbs or pronouns because they sound familiar (e.g. confident vs confidence)
- Called “ear learners” because they learn English by listening to music, watching TV, or hearing their friends talk
- Can help these students improve their English by figuring out how they first learned to speak English and go from there
- Students’ should maintain their proficiency in their first language, and then transfer their knowledge to the second language
- If they don’t, they may become “semi lingual” (being non-proficient in both languages)
- Important that students learn subjects such as math and science in their native language, then transfer it to English, so that they are not struggling to understand it in a language they may not be familiar with
- Using all their energy to understand a different language at the same time as learning something new - can be both frustrating and exhausting
- ELL learners may show discrepancies between English oral and literacy depending upon their educational and cultural background
- Normally context-specific social language develops more quickly than academic language. For most ELL/ESL learners, academic proficiency may take about 5-7 years, as opposed to 2-3 years for basic interpersonal communication skills
- Many ELL learners use familiar and highly used vocabulary and long simple sentences to demonstrate social language competency.
- “Ear learners”
- Use the wrong verbs or pronouns because they sound familiar (e.g. confident vs confidence)
- Called “ear learners” because they learn English by listening to music, watching TV, or hearing their friends talk
- Can help these students improve their English by figuring out how they first learned to speak English and go from there
- Students’ should maintain their proficiency in their first language, and then transfer their knowledge to the second language
- If they don’t, they may become “semi lingual” (being non-proficient in both languages)
- Important that students learn subjects such as math and science in their native language, then transfer it to English, so that they are not struggling to understand it in a language they may not be familiar with
- Using all their energy to understand a different language at the same time as learning something new - can be both frustrating and exhausting
- ELL learners may show discrepancies between English oral and literacy depending upon their educational and cultural background
- Normally context-specific social language develops more quickly than academic language. For most ELL/ESL learners, academic proficiency may take about 5-7 years, as opposed to 2-3 years for basic interpersonal communication skills
- Many ELL learners use familiar and highly used vocabulary and long simple sentences to demonstrate social language competency.