Supporting English Language Learners in your Classroom

To create an safe, inclusive environment for all students, it is vital for teachers welcome English Language Learners by acknowledging their first language, culture and past experiences. Here are a few tips on how to help these children adapt to their new learning environment:

1. Encourage first language use.

2. Support all attempts to communicate.

3. Model and use gestures, concrete and visual representations.

4. Break down information into small, manageable chunks.

5. Encourage student to share and build on prior knowledge and learning.

6. Have an older student or student with a shared language buddy up.

It is critical that English Language Learners be supported in order to build their self-confidence. By recognizing the differing cultural backgrounds of one another, children will be better able to empathize and adopt an open-minded attitude that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. As teachers, we are given an incredible opportunity to encourage a loving, compassionate and curious mindset in our students that will infuse them with wisdom and experience as adults.

Tags: Classroom, ESL, English, Language, Learners, Tips

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Permalink Reply by Michael Yarborough on April 19, 2016 at 9:23am

Thank you for sharing these tips, first two are the most vital, as for me, in teaching ESL. All students are different and have their own backgrounds. Some are really shy, others are scared of using foreign language or have a lack of confidence because of their pronunciation.

And yes, it's a work for a teacher - to build a learning environment in which students will communicate with each other (if it's a group class) or in which student will have confidence in his/her language skills (while private lessons with a teacher).

By the way, I'm sure that many of ESL/EFL teachers will write this helpful article about teaching profession with a real pleasure: https://unplag.com/blog/teaching-profession

This article consists many valuable points, which have to be discovered by educators (especially if they are only at the beginning of their teaching career)

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Permalink Reply by Ed Vectus on April 20, 2016 at 2:47pm

Thank you Michael for sharing your resource! It's very helpful.

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Permalink Reply by Leesa johnson on May 20, 2016 at 7:12am

English is a international language. It works as communication path between two unknown person of different cultures. Instead of that we can also say that it connects cultures of different region. So we should respect the other culture specie. And should tried to connect with rest of the world.