How to address the needs of English Limited Learners

A Researched Investigation on Best Practices for English Language Learners (ELL

Introduction

ELL students represent a large percentage of the population within schools in the United States . This group of students is actually increasing more than that of English speaking students (Shore , 2001 This group also has a very high drop out rate , coupled with low ranking grades , academic achievement and scholarly expectations . Truly , ELL students are considered an at-risk ' population (Thompson , 2000 . In to confront this challenge , teachers are faced with a unique situation that requires a unique solution

in to help these students not only learn the English language , but also to bring them up to speed with the academic material congruent with modern learning standards

The focus of this investigation asks the question , How can teachers best instruct English Language Learners (ELL ) students when these mostly monolingual teachers are often ill-equipped with the necessary tools and environments for optimum learning ' The investigation will then state a hypothesis as to the proposed best models under which teachers can best instruct ELL students . The will then support this hypothesis cross-referencing literature reviews which outline non-traditional models of instruction that have proven to be the most effective in instructing limited English learners . It will then finally look at some of the conclusions to be derived from the investigation , reflecting on how teachers can best inspire students , and offering a few real-world application scenarios to the adjusted models

Hypothesis

The current modal that schools use to deal with ELL students is that of the sorting paradigm ' This model normally sorts ' ELL students into low-quality education programs which do not challenge or inspire students . For this reason , many students will drop out of school and will not obtain a high school diploma . It is hypothesized that if ELL reform involve high-quality programs integrating other modules that differ from the current monolingual teacher / traditional teaching scenarios , more success can be achieved by ELL students

Despite vast changes in second language acquisition theory and pedagogy in the last fifty years , an English-only classroom fronted by a teacher who is monolingual or who is encouraged to behave as if he or she is monolingual , has remained the dominant practice in the teaching of ELL (Ellis 2004 ) Furthermore , non-traditional teaching scenarios also instill more of a sense of purpose and placement into students who are confronting the challenges of a new culture and a new language . Finally these nontraditional models incorporate a greater sense of individual self esteem and opportunities for success than traditional models Non-traditional models help students assimilate the culture , traditions values , attitudes that are associated with their new language and surroundings

This will outline some of the recent literature supporting the hypothesis in favor of non-traditional ELL models , and will take a critical analysis that expounds upon some of the downfalls of traditional methods

Review of Literature

Studies show that most teachers are ill-equipped at dealing with the different levels of language acquisition . A recent study from the Johns...