Transcript Strategies for Working with our Growing ELL Populations

Nancy Comstock
“Students who come from language
backgrounds other than English and whose
proficiency is not yet developed to the point
where they can profit fully from Englishonly instruction.”
(NRC Report, 1997)
English Language Learners are
a historically underperforming
population that many
mainstream classroom teachers
seem least comfortably
prepared to teach.

ELL students still spend the majority of
their time in mainstream classes.

Every teacher needs to understand the
language acquisition process in order to
support ELLs.
It IS good instruction but it is strong practice
matched with linguistic scaffolding that is
informed by an understanding of students’
language development.
Receptive
Expressive
Requires a reader or listener
to associate a specific
meaning with a given label as
in reading or listening
Requires a speaker or writer
to produce a specific label for
a particular meaning.
Listening
Words we understand
when others talk to us
Reading
Words we know when
we see them in print.
Speaking
Words we use when we
talk to others
Writing
Words we use when
we write
 BICS
 Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills
▪ Takes children an average of two years to acquire
conversational language he called BICS
▪ What you hear spoken on the playground or in the
cafeteria
 CALPS
 Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
▪ Type of language students encounter while reading a
textbooks or hearing formal speech
▪ Takes about five to seven years to acquire.
The amount of time for many
ELLs to approach grade-level
norms may be closer to a
range of 7 to 10 years.
Thomas & Collier, 2002

Long-term English learners will make about
6 to 8 months gain each year compared to
10 months of typical native speakers.

Compounded annually, the loss of 20 to 40
percent of academic growth can lead to
overwhelming academic frustration for
students.

If students are conversationally fluent,
teachers forget that these students still
require linguistic supports.

English language learns come to believe in
their own academic inferiority.

OSPI provides assistance for us on their
website:
 www.k12.wa.us
▪ Offices and programs
▪ Migrant Bilingual
▪ English Language Development
▪ Language Proficiency Levels and/or
▪ English Language Development Standards
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You will be providing assistance for a 7th
grader at an assigned level (presenter will
assign)
As a group determine the skills you are
currently seeing
Identify skills you are working towards
How can you scaffold instruction while
teaching your other students with strong
English skills?
Nancy Comstock
[email protected]
323-2738