Have you ever been in a place where no one understood you and you understood no one?
I was fortunate enough to study abroad in Italy during my college career. After being in Rome for two weeks I felt comfortable ordering cappuccinos, buying pizza, and navigating the trains. My family came over for a visit, and after a wonderful night of eating pasta and drinking vino they put me into a cab instructing the driver (in English) to take me back to my dorm. Shortly after getting into the cab, I realized the driver spoke no English whatsoever, and my limited Italian was not getting me very far. He giggled and smiled into the rearview mirror never stopping a steady stream of Italian chitchat. I smiled nervously and nodded back terrified that I would never make it back to my dorm. He chuckled a few times as I looked around for a familiar sight. Finally after what seemed like hours I saw a cathedral that looked vaguely familiar, and after a few more blocks he had safely deposited me at my dorm. While my experience ended well, I wonder if that is how my English Language Learners feel every day in my classroom. Are they smiling and nodding while secretly terrified? Are they looking around desperate for something familiar? Do they feel trapped with someone who can't understand them? Do they feel hopeless? These questions provide the rationale for the following project.
After considering these questions for awhile, I decided to talk to my District ESL Coordinator.
I have read a statistic that Biology courses have as many new vocabulary words as an introductory level foreign language course. I am especially concerned with how my ESL students perform in Biology. After interviewing my District ESL Coordinator, I realized all ESL students are different, just like mainstream students. They have different learning styles and different levels of proficiency with English, and differentiation should be carried out appropriately.
When students are first introduced into an English speaking school, our primary goal is to encourage them to be proficient in English, not just their native language. To do so, we can offer supports in their native language in the form of visuals, interpretations, Latin roots, and multiple examples. We can encourage them to use a program such as Google translate that will repeat new vocabulary words back to them so they can practice their pronunciation. Just like students of poverty, she explained, ESL students tend to be visual learners and need to make connections between content and their everyday lives.
I have made an effort in my classroom to elicit prior knowledge when learning new concepts, but she also shared that ESL students’ home lives may be very different from mainstream students. Often Hispanic families live in family groups with parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents under one roof. When these students arrive in the US, they are most often placed with a cousin, distant relative, or friend of the family they’ve never even met. They lack the familial support system that is intrinsic to their culture. Without feeling like their basic needs of safety and security are being met, they cannot advance far on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
When students are first introduced into an English speaking school, our primary goal is to encourage them to be proficient in English, not just their native language. To do so, we can offer supports in their native language in the form of visuals, interpretations, Latin roots, and multiple examples. We can encourage them to use a program such as Google translate that will repeat new vocabulary words back to them so they can practice their pronunciation. Just like students of poverty, she explained, ESL students tend to be visual learners and need to make connections between content and their everyday lives.
I have made an effort in my classroom to elicit prior knowledge when learning new concepts, but she also shared that ESL students’ home lives may be very different from mainstream students. Often Hispanic families live in family groups with parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents under one roof. When these students arrive in the US, they are most often placed with a cousin, distant relative, or friend of the family they’ve never even met. They lack the familial support system that is intrinsic to their culture. Without feeling like their basic needs of safety and security are being met, they cannot advance far on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
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Of course not all ESL students are Hispanic, but those that I teach in my classroom are. If you are unsure about the cultural traditions of your ESL students, ask your district coordinator or better yet, ask the students.
When conducting interviews to learn more about how I could better serve the ESL population of my school, I learned a lot about these students. One particular student who immigrated in the fourth grade said he was terrified coming to school. He recalled as he was learning English he wished the teacher would just talk slower so he could hear the words better. Most of my Hispanic students are fluent in English, now, but I still have several English Language Learners. I will speak slower and clearer when talking to them from now on.
The Take-Away Message
You have to know your students, again, just like mainstream students. While in the state of Arkansas you are not required to provide translations, you have that liberty if you see fit. You may want to pair English Language Learners (ELL) with two peers - one high-achieving native English speaker and a bilingual student. Have the ELL student repeat instructions and/or bounce their ideas and questions of the bilingual speaker in their group. Always search for a connection from the content to real life experiences, culture, values, and/or home life. When you are assessing learning use your judgement as to how much interpretation you provide, and use technology as a tool. If ELL students are more comfortable typing in Spanish, let them do so, then copy and paste the text into Google translate. You want to keep in mind the goal, though. Is it more important for that student to understand the intricacies of photosynthesis or be able to communicate in English when they graduate high school? It's all about balance.
ESL Students in Biology Class
To better understand how ESL students felt about my biology course, I gave this survey to all of my tenth grade biology students. I wanted to know if ESL students felt like they were learning as much and enjoying the course as much as mainstream students. I also wanted to know what specific strategies and activities my students enjoyed and felt like they learned the most from. I separated responses from ESL students and mainstream students and compared the data. While this is a small sample size and an even smaller “experimental” group (the ESL students), some of the data was surprising. The survey used a Likert-type scale to determine how the class compared to other classes. I converted the raw data to percentages and used Excel to graph the data, creating one graph of mainstream students responses to each question and one graph of ESL students' responses. The comparison of this data is explained in detail below.
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When asked if it was harder, easier, or about the same, no more than 20% from either group reported it was harder than their other courses. However, the 5 on the Likert-type scale indicated it was the “Hardest class ever,” and this option was only chosen by ESL students. While it appears I need to increase the rigor of the course overall, at least some of my ESL students are not adequately supported. Overall, ESL students ranked the class lower than mainstream students on enjoyability compared to other classes. All mainstream students indicated they learned an average amount or more from the course, but 17% of ESL students indicated they learned less in my course than their other courses. While 52% of mainstream students indicated they learned a lot more in my class than other classes, only 17% of ESL students reported that. Again, I believe this because I am not differentiating enough for these students.
The survey asked both what activities students like the most and which they learn the most from. The answer choices were the same for both questions. ESL students reported they learn more from lab exercises, hands-on activities, videos, and interactive notebooks. When asked what they liked best, interactive notebook activities did not appear. In fact Google classroom assignments, individual reading, and group reading were reported as activities liked best but did not appear on those in which students learn the most. The teacher talking did not appear on either question response for ESL students. The teacher talking appeared on both versions of the question for mainstream students. It seems that direct instruction provides little learning or engagement opportunities for my ESL students.
The survey asked both what activities students like the most and which they learn the most from. The answer choices were the same for both questions. ESL students reported they learn more from lab exercises, hands-on activities, videos, and interactive notebooks. When asked what they liked best, interactive notebook activities did not appear. In fact Google classroom assignments, individual reading, and group reading were reported as activities liked best but did not appear on those in which students learn the most. The teacher talking did not appear on either question response for ESL students. The teacher talking appeared on both versions of the question for mainstream students. It seems that direct instruction provides little learning or engagement opportunities for my ESL students.
Vertical Divider
After I received the results from the survey, I immediately began changing my approach. Biology students had just finished an assessment, so instead of jumping into the next unit, I decided to provide an additional hands-on activity. Students participated in an engineering challenge in which they had a limited number of materials and time to assemble an airplane that would "fly" down the hallway. They could test their design as many times as they wanted to, and they were free to use the internet to help them research. I have never seen one particular ELL student light up as much as he did testing his airplane. He always shies away from activities that bring attention to himself, but when it was his turn to test his plane he stood proud and then laughed at himself when it immediately crashed. Paper airplane competitions know no language barriers.
When asked what was the hardest part of the course, mainstream students reported complex concepts, but ESL students reported keeping their interactive notebooks organized. Complex concepts were not among reported answers for ESL students. The last question asked what students do when they don’t understand something. The top two answers for mainstream students were ask the teacher and ask a neighbor. The top two answers for ESL were ask the teacher and Google it. I wonder if this indicates some ESL students are shy about asking their peers. Additionally the response to this last question concerned me because several of my ESL students do not ask me when they don’t understand. They will “do nothing” (one of the responses) until I come around and either repeat the instructions or ask another student to interpret my instructions for the emerging English language learner.
While the responses from my last question indicate not all students were being honest and calls into question the validity of the survey, I can still take away some valuable lessons from this. First, all students are different and in need of appropriate differentiation. Second, differentiation may look totally different for two ESL students based on their current language proficiency, prior knowledge, home life, etc. Lastly I cannot assume direct instruction is enough for ELL students and must provide supports for them. My District ESL Coordinator reminded me teaching ESL students is like teaching elementary students how to read. We have to be patient, provide support, give examples and visuals, and remember everyone learns at their own pace.
Uno mas thing...
In an optional open response question on the survey I asked students what could I do next year to make future students more successful. While I had fewer ESL students than mainstream students take the survey and of that small group, some chose not to respond to that question, I created Wordles from the responses. A Wordle takes a selection of text and creates a word cloud from it. The more times a particular word is repeated, the more often it occurred in the text.
Most mainstream students indicated there was nothing I could do to improve, i.e. "Nothing, this class is great!" However, few ESL students reported nothing. The words that appeared often in their responses were "lab exercises," "visuals," "class work," "worksheets," and "drawing." I will definitely be taking these concepts into consideration when planning units for the future.
Action Plan
In order to better plan for my ESL students, I have added a section to my lesson plans to indicate how I will differentiate for English Language Learners. I will provide vocabulary support by encouraging students to make flash cards with the English definition on one side and the Spanish definition on the other. Another idea is to use research-based strategies from the Literacy Design Collaborative such as porthole carousel. I will continue to survey my students and work with the ESL coordinator to adjust my teaching strategies.
Resources for ESL
- Google Translate
- Literacy Design Collaborative
- ESL Resource Center
- Breaking News English
- ESL Lounge
- Activities for ESL Students
- 5 Minute English
- Can We Close the Achievement Gap?
- English Question Forum
- Vocabulary Support
- Learning English
- English Learning Games
- Flash cards
- 20 Minute ESL Lessons
- Vocabulary Games
- ESL Podcast
- English with Jennifer
Add your favorite ESL resources and/or comments, questions, and suggestions in the comments below.