What does it say!?!

Do you know what that says? No? Why not? Some people out there might know what it says, others might know enough to use a translator to figure out what it says. Imagine being in a situation where you needed to know what that said. In order to keep your job or get a positive performance review you suddenly needed to know not only what it said but how to write that kind of text? For many students with little to no experience in the English language, thrust into an English class this can feel like the reality. The teacher is writing something unrecognizable on the board, your peers all seem to get it and you are expected to get it too. It might even feel like your marks in school are dependent entirely upon your ability to read, write and speak a language you have no experience with. It can seem like an insurmountable challenge to do well in school because of it.

As teachers we have these students in our class. In 2022, in a multicultural country such as Canada, there are few classes that don’t have at least one student learning English at the same time as they are trying to learn curriculum content. Imagine how hard it might be to struggle with learning math, now imagine trying to learn math while simultaneously having to actively decode what your teacher is saying and writing on the board. You might then understand how frustrating it can be for our English Language Learners (ELL) students. It is our responsibility, as teachers, to help bridge the gap for these students. There are several ways in which we can do that but it requires some things from you as a teacher: patience, empathy, understanding and care. With none of these no intervention strategy will work.

The Ontario Guide for Educators: Supporting English Language Learners suggests several ways in which to help ELL students. First and foremost you need to establish a relationship with your students. By having a relationship with your ELL student you are best able to identify their needs. The guide for educators tells us that ELL students are best served by accommodating them. Modifying our learning expectations and outcomes for individual students so that they are in somewhat of a Goldilocks zone. Not too easy that they don't gain anything from the experience but not too hard either. You want the material to be modified so that it is just challenging enough that they grow in their knowledge and understanding without becoming overly frustrated and giving up. We also need to accommodate for their needs. An example of this might be having someone scribe for them in tasks where you aren't assessing writing in order for them to better share their thinking.

One major thing that I believe gets frequently overlooked, is that English Language Learner does not automatically mean people who are learning English as a second language. It can be tempting to automatically associate the two, and I even did it a few times writing this post. An ELL student can be someone whose first language is, technically, English but for some reason or another they are learning it late. I have had a few students who due to issues that caused them to be mute when they were younger or had such a huge speech impediment that they are only now learning how to speak, read and write in English. They should receive the same care and consideration as any other student learning English. Finally, what should be taken away from all of this is that ELL students are as capable as any other student, they just need help accessing avenues of displaying that learning. Oh, and the words at the top say "Warning! Tripping Hazard!" in Aurebesh, the written language from Star Wars.