The Role of an ELL Teacher

In order to be effective and affective educators, we need to understand how culture can affect the education of children. Our nation is shifting towards a more culturally diverse population as more people come to the United States. English Language Learners in the American school system is constantly growing and there are now more than five million children who are ELLs. English Language Learners in today’s schools are often overwhelmed with the sole process of learning another language while still learning their native language. As a future educator, I have to show my future English language learners compassion, patience, and love. I know how it felt to be in their shoes when I was younger and I would hate for other students to feel the same way I did. English language learners are often overlooked and are not given the right resources because the lack of education that a teacher may have towards them.

The goal of my teaching is to actively encourage learning. One of my objectives in teaching is to help students take control of their learning and be active. I believe that to be the most effective as an educator, I must create a safe inclusive environment that welcomes and accommodates a variety of learning styles and encourages students to be active in their individual learning. I believe that promoting a self-sufficient way of thinking is an important key in student success both in and out of the classroom. Students should be able to feel as if the materials covered in class can help them in their day to day life and can actively help them create a better world. Education should be fluid and constantly changing to meet the demands of students.

An English-language learner is a student who is learning how to communicate fluently in English. This student usually comes from non-English speaking homes/background. Most people believe that ELL students are immigrants but most ELL students are actually native born citizens whose parents just don’t speak English. ELL students are identified as such by the forms that the parents have to fill out when registering their children in school and then a formal assessment of their English literacy, which they are tested on reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The test should identify how much they understand and know the english language. English language learners need predictable routines/signals that they can follow, this will allow the students to not feel alarmed of change and they know what is to come. They need to feel welcome and wanted in the classroom. English language learners need to feel like they are appreciated and are being a part of the classroom. It will take an ELL student anything from 6-8 years to reach proficiency. Sometimes it can take a student much more time to learn the English language. The more the student knows/is fluent with his home language, the easier it can be to learn a new language.

Education, culture, and family concededly go hand in hand. The more the teacher learns about where his/her students come from, the best the teacher will be able to do their job. The teacher will be able to better support his/her students in the classroom and make ELL students more welcome. Informing ourselves about where our ELL students is a must and will help us tailor their education more appropriately. We should be able to invite students and/or their family to be able to tell us stories, share food, show and tell, etc. This will most likely raise the self-esteem of the students and feel like they are being respected by the teacher and his/her peers. Often ELL's students families immigrate to the United States in hopes of providing a better education for their children. Some parents have an utmost respect for their children's teachers but they might believe that they must separate themselves because the teacher is the professional, meaning sometimes parents are not used to taking an active role on the education of their children. It is up to the teachers to welcome and invite parents to come in for conferences, help with homework at home, and be able to make decisions together when it comes to their children's education.

Sheltered instruction is a teaching method that employs a wide variety of strategies to modify instruction so students can best learn a second language and the concepts. The teacher provides a varied method of instruction to create multilevel content that helps students discuss, read, and write. Sheltered instruction is beneficial to beginning level ELLs because it promotes the use of socializations and doesn’t focus entirely on language development. Some strategies that work well with ELL students are learning about the culture of your students, scaffolding, allowing group work, and to try and make things visual. Learning about your students and where they come from, can teach you a lot about how your students are going to learn the best. It can explain a lot for why they do certain mannerisms and will allow you to scaffold the lesson based on what they might know. Allowing students to work in groups will also help ELL students to learn because they will follow behaviors from students who already may know English and can help each other. Students may be afraid to ask for help and allowing them to work together can ease the nervousness of asking questions. Making your lessons more visual friendly can help ELL students because it will help students associate certain things with its visual component. A student will be able to associate certain mannerisms if the teacher shows it to them and is repeated. Errors will always happen in the classroom, but they can be handled in a way that will not embarrass the student. The teacher should ask the student if they want to rethink their answer, that will most likely have the student rethink their answer. Peer reviewing also works well with correcting mistakes because their peers are the ones that can catch undetected errors and explain to them why it doesn’t sound right or what could be better. Also, having individual conversations giving students feedback will help clarify their ideas. This will help validate and emphasize their message, rather than their errors.

English language learners are constantly facing a lot of challenges by struggling to fit into a new society, and learn a new language. Teachers have an important role in meeting the needs of students who have unique social, emotional, and academic needs. Every student will be different because they all come from different backgrounds and cultures. It may feel daunting trying to manage different needs into every lesson but the teacher should not feel as if she has to plan a million different ways to plan her lessons. When the teacher becomes culturally aware and gets to know his/her students and where they come from, it becomes easier for the teacher to develop a relationship with the student and gain the student’s respect. ELLs face unique challenges but represent a tremendous asset to the United States when they are helped reach their full potential.