New Insight on Strategies for Teaching ELL Students to Read and Write

Part of chapter 3 discussed how to help English Language Learners learn to read and write. There are four well-known instruction types for teaching ELL students and these include English immersion, English as a second language (ESL), bilingual education, and primary language instruction. Here, there will only be discussion of the English immersion approach, and the bilingual education approach.

The English immersion approach is one of the most common ways for children to learn English. This approach includes allowing children to learn through peer and teacher interaction, but is typically most effective for children who are still developing their language and are young. Total immersion in any culture will often result in full language immersion for anyone of any age, however, many children will likely learn to speak the language that they are hearing, but may not learn how to read and write in the same language without proper instruction. It is important when using this approach that the young students are taught to associate each word that they learn with the physical depiction of the word as well in order to build overall vocabulary. While the acquisition of this language can occur through being immersed in the language, the student may still not know how to read or write the word. There are various strategies that can aid in the association of certain words with their physical form so that the student will see the word and will thus be able to read it, write it, and associate it with an object or action. For example if a student is from a Spanish speaking background and is learning the word "ball" creating flashcards and picture cards could be a key instructional tool to help the student learn to associate the words "ball" in English and "la pelota" in Spanish with the same image. Creating these flashcards would be simple. Stapling two notecards together and writing the word in English on one flap, the word in Spanish on the other flap, and drawing a picture on the back would be a great tool to help the student understand the words they are hearing so that later on they will be able to read and write the word. This will help develop the reading and writing portion once the student has already grasped the oral portion of the English language.

The bilingual education approach I found quite interesting. One approach within bilingual education is the transitional approach which entails a student replacing their native language with English. This is called subtractive bilingualism. The other approach within bilingual education is called the maintenance approach which entails a student learning English, but not replacing their native language. This is called additive bilingualism. There is also the two-way bilingual approach which is less common and includes teaching students  half of the curriculum in English and the other half in a different language. I believe that the best approach to bilingual education is to use the maintenance approach. Each student will maintain the language they know best, while adding to their repertoire with another language entirely. I feel that taking away someone's native language by using the transitional approach contributes to taking away their culture. The two-way bilingual approach is quite uncommon, likely because many teachers do not fluently speak another language. However, if a teacher lives in an area that is highly population with families and students who all speak a certain language, this approach may be appropriate to ensure that the students are gaining new mastery of the English language, but are also not losing their native tongue. Using a maintenance approach would also help students who only speak English to gain some insight into the culture of their classmates, but will also help them to learn new vocabulary in another language. The maintenance approach in an elementary classroom could potentially include having labels on different objects around the room, or having a class schedule in two languages. To increase vocabulary, students each week could choose a word from a story that they are reading, and share it with the class in English and another language during Morning Meeting. The maintenance approach thus works two ways and allows a more culturally diverse classroom to be presented.