Following are general strategies for teachers when working with ELLs in the classroom. Many of these strategies
are good to use with any student, not just ELLs.
- Create a welcoming, low anxiety environment where students feel free to take risks
- Hold high expectations for all students
- Ensure help is readily available for the student such as setting up peer buddy tutors
- Show connections between students' lives and the lesson
- Use lots of visuals and hands on opportunities throughout the lesson
- Be aware of your speech rate and enunciation - students often need a slower speech rate to understand completely
- Incorporate body language and motions to increase student comprehension
- Give students opportunities to speak, but don't force them to speak
- If students are timid about speaking ask questions with either/or options to allow them to still demonstrate their understanding (Is this a pencil or a pen?)
- Correct errors by repeating what the student said in the correct form
- Don't worry about correcting all writing errors in the beginning - focus on one concept to correct at a time (i.e. noun adjective order)
- Check for understanding by asking questions or simply observing non-verbal signals of confusion
- Ensure students have significant wait time before answering a question - if they still can't answer, rephrase the question or answer it yourself
- Encourage students to use dictionaries to find meanings (if they can't guess the meaning) - don't always have them rely on a peer translator
- Tap students' background knowledge before starting a new unit - find out what they already know
- Define key vocabulary before any lesson - have students create their own vocabulary dictionary
- Provide opportunities for reading, writing, listening and speaking in any lesson
- Implement various forms of assessment - encourage students to demonstrate their understanding through various forms
