Comparing Test‐Taking Behaviors of English Language Learners ( ELLs ) to Non‐ELL Students: Use of Response Time in Measurement Comparability Research

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of an 8-week academic navigational capital group with English language learner (ELL) students. Minimal research exists examining ELL students’ acquisition of navigational capital skills (skills needed to navigate and succeed in academic settings) in school. We used a pre- and postintervention survey to measure the impact of the group. Results showed growth in the academic navigational capital skills of all participants. Such increases represent a starting blueprint to consider when working with ELL students.

Download Full-text

English Language Learners in Canadian Schools: Emerging Directions for School-Based Policies

TESL Canada Journal ◽

10.18806/tesl.v29i0.1121 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 29 ◽

pp. 25 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Jim Cummins ◽

Rania Mirza ◽

Saskia Stille

Keyword(s):

English Language Learners ◽

Academic Success ◽

Language Learners ◽

English Language ◽

School Administrators ◽

Academic Learning ◽

Esl Teachers ◽

Ell Students ◽

Literacy Engagement ◽

Biliteracy Development

This article attempts to provide ESL teachers, school administrators, and policymakers with a concise overview of what matters in promoting academic success among learners of English in Canadian schools. We review research focused on bilingual and biliteracy development, the nature of academic language, and the roles of societal power relations and identity negotiation in determining the academic achievement of English language learners (ELL). On the basis of this research, we propose the Literacy Engagement framework that identifies literacy engagement as a major determinant of literacy achievement for ELL and non-ELL students. In order to enable ELL students to engage with literacy, the framework highlights the importance of teachers scaffolding meaning, connecting with students’ lives, affirming student identities, and extending their awareness and knowledge of language across the curriculum. The application of the framework is illustrated with reference to the literacy and academic learning experiences of two ELL students in the Toronto area.

Download Full-text

Ensuring Social Justice for English Language Learners

Research Anthology on Instilling Social Justice in the Classroom ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-7706-6.ch030 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 489-506

Author(s):

Juan A. Rios Vega ◽

Cecile M. Arquette ◽

Hwa Lee ◽

Heljä Antola Crowe ◽

Jana Lynn Hunzicker ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

English Language Learners ◽

Language Learners ◽

Teacher Candidates ◽

Cultural Awareness ◽

English Language ◽

Future Research ◽

Credit Hours ◽

Ell Students ◽

Course Work

Bradley University's embedded English as a Second Language (ESL) endorsement program was first implemented during the 2015-2016 academic year. This program consists of eighteen credit hours of course work specified by the Illinois State Board of Education in order to prepare teachers to work with students who do not speak English as their first language. Now in its second year, early outcomes of the program are quite positive. This chapter describes the program and its development in detail, and analyzes the program's strengths and weaknesses, focusing especially on teacher candidates' knowledge of pedagogy and cultural awareness as it relates to social justice in education for English language learner (ELL) students. The chapter concludes with recommendations for programming and future research.

Download Full-text

English Language Learners and School Belonging: Implications for School Counselor Practice

Professional School Counseling ◽

10.1177/2156759x19834442 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 22 (1b) ◽

pp. 2156759X1983444

Author(s):

Qi Shi ◽

Jennifer Watkinson

Keyword(s):

English Language Learners ◽

Academic Success ◽

Language Learners ◽

School Counselor ◽

English Language ◽

School Personnel ◽

School Belonging ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Student Needs ◽

Ell Students

Using an evidence-based framework in a mixed-method study, we examined the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs) in a middle school in the eastern United States and identified strategic intervention approaches to enhance ELL students’ sense of school belonging to promote academic success. We illustrate how describing a problem as part of an evidence-based framework can lead to a targeted intervention for ELLs. When describing the problem, we considered intersectional social identity factors of ELL students. Problem description revealed how ELLs perceived their relationships with teachers, how school personnel viewed ELL student needs, obstacles to meeting ELL student needs, and current solutions. Suggested interventions focus on a culturally responsive bibliotherapy approach.

Download Full-text

Teaching Disciplinary Literacy to Adolescent English Language Learners: Vocabulary Development and Reading within the Disciplines

TESL Canada Journal ◽

10.18806/tesl.v37i1.1329 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Yingling Lou

Keyword(s):

English Language Learners ◽

Language Learners ◽

Paradigm Shift ◽

English Language ◽

Vocabulary Development ◽

Disciplinary Literacy ◽

Learning Needs ◽

Literacy Teachers ◽

Ell Students ◽

Diverse Learning

Recent research on disciplinary literacy has called for a paradigm shift among secondary content teachers from perceiving themselves as disciplinary content transmitters to disciplinary literacy teachers who model and engage students in reading, writing, inquiring, and doing like experts within each discipline. How do content teachers incorporate disciplinary literacy and stay responsive to the unique and diverse learning needs of the adolescent English Language Learners (ELLs) who are integrated in the mainstream classes? Drawing on Moje’s (2015) 4Es framework and a translanguaging pedagogy, this paper presents a set of instructional practices to support content teachers in integrating disciplinary literacy within the disciplines to enhance adolescent ELL students’ learning in vocabulary development and reading. La recherche récente en matière de littératie dans toutes les disciplines appelle à un changement de paradigme chez les enseignants des différentes matières du secondaire pour se percevoir non plus comme des transmetteurs de contenu de la discipline mais comme des enseignants de littératie de la discipline qui servent de modèles et motivent les élèves à lire, écrire, se renseigner et à se comporter comme des experts à l’intérieur de chaque discipline. Comment les enseignants de contenu incorporent-ils la littératie dans leur discipline et restent-ils à l’écoute des besoins d’apprentissage uniques et variés des adolescents qui apprennent l’anglais (AALS) et qui sont intégrés dans les classes ordinaires? En s’appuyant sur le cadre 4E de Moje (2015) et sur une pédagogie translangagière, cet article présente une série de pratiques d’enseignement visant à soutenir les enseignants de contenu dans l’intégration de la littératie dans toutes les disciplines de façon à enrichir l’apprentissage des adolescents ASL en matière de développement du vocabulaire et de lecture.

Download Full-text

How EFL Learners Fill in the Blanks of an X-test: Think-Aloud Protocol

International Journal of English Linguistics ◽

10.5539/ijel.v7n1p178 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 178

Author(s):

Hamid Ashraf ◽

Mona Tabatabaee Yazdi ◽

Aynaz Samir

Keyword(s):

English Language Learners ◽

Language Learners ◽

English Language ◽

Cognitive Strategies ◽

Think Aloud ◽

Research Papers ◽

Efl Learners ◽

Test Taking ◽

English Instruction ◽

Shed Light

Since SLA literature remains researchers unaware of the mental processes involved in the X-Test taking (in contrast to C-Test which there are plenty of available related studies), this article aims at exploring cognitive strategies that EFL learners may use while answering an English X-test, which like the C-Test has been modified, adapted and used in many research papers. To this aim, thirty EFL respondents from Mashhad, Iran, were randomly asked to answer a reliable and valid X-test. All of them participated in introspective methods of think-aloud and retrospective interviews during and after the test administration. To analyze the data only the exact word scoring procedure was employed. The results showed participants used various cognitive strategies in taking the X-Test. It was also revealed that respondents experienced more strategies when filling out an X-Test comparing to related literature of C-test, which could be an indicator of the importance job of cognition in X-Test taking. It is hoped that the article can shed light on the underling cognitive strategies that English language learners’ use, and provide a chance for educators who want to better understand the learners’ cognitive processes in order to assist them identify problems and improve their English instruction.

Download Full-text

The impact of language and high-stakes testing policies on elementary school English language learners in Arizona.

Education Policy Analysis Archives ◽

10.14507/epaa.v14n13.2006 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 14 ◽

pp. 13 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Wayne E. Wright ◽

Daniel Choi

Keyword(s):

Elementary School ◽

English Language Learners ◽

Language Learners ◽

English Language ◽

High Stakes Testing ◽

High Stakes ◽

Ell Students ◽

Sheltered English Immersion ◽

The Impact ◽

Sheltered English

This article reports the results of a survey of third-grade teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs) in Arizona regarding school language and accountability policies—Proposition 203, which restricts bilingual education and mandates sheltered English Immersion; the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB); and Arizona LEARNS, the state’s high-stakes testing and accountability program. The instrument, consisting of 126 survey questions plus open-ended interview question, was designed to obtain teacher’s views, to ascertain the impact of these polices, and to explore their effectiveness in improving the education of ELL students. The survey was administered via telephone to 40 teacher participants from different urban, rural and reservation schools across the state. Each participant represents the elementary school in their respective school district which has the largest population of ELL students. Analyses of both quantitative and qualitative data reveal that these policies have mostly resulted in confusion in schools throughout the state over what is and is not allowed, and what constitutes quality instruction for ELLs, that there is little evidence that such policies have led to improvements in the education of ELL students, and that these policies may be causing more harm than good. Specifically, teachers report they have been given little to no guidance over what constitutes sheltered English immersion, and provide evidence that most ELL students in their schools are receiving mainstream sink-or-swim instruction. In terms of accountability, while the overwhelming majority of teachers support the general principle, they believe that high-stakes tests are inappropriate for ELLs and participants provided evidence that the focus on testing is leading to instruction practices for ELLs which fail to meet their unique linguistic and academic needs. The article concludes with suggestions for needed changes to improve the quality of education for ELLs in Arizona.

Download Full-text

Preparing to teach English language learners : exploring the change in mainstream teachers' perceptions of ELL students in two online certification courses

10.32469/10355/44230 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Nilufer Guler

Keyword(s):

English Language Learners ◽

Language Learners ◽

English Language ◽

Mainstream Teachers ◽

Teachers Perceptions ◽

Ell Students

Download Full-text

Mathematics Preservice Teachers Learning About English Language Learners Through Task-Based Interviews and Noticing

Mathematics Teacher Educator ◽

10.5951/mathteaceduc.1.1.0010 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 10-22 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Anthony Fernandes

Keyword(s):

Preservice Teachers ◽

English Language Learners ◽

Best Practices ◽

Language Learners ◽

English Language ◽

Middle School Mathematics ◽

Language Learner ◽

Ell Students ◽

English Only ◽

Mathematics Educators

This article describes the 3rd cycle of an intervention in a mathematics content course that was designed to foster awareness among middle school mathematics preservice teachers (PSTs) of the challenges that English language learner (ELL) students face and the resources they draw on as they learn mathematics and communicate their thinking in English-only classrooms. Pairs of PSTs engaged 2 different ELL students in a videotaped task-based interview using 4 measurement tasks. Following each interview, the PSTs wrote a structured report guided by Mason's (2002) framework of noticing. The results of the intervention indicated that the PSTs went beyond awareness of ELLs' needs and challenges and also adopted strategies outlined in the literature that were aligned with best practices for teaching ELLs. The article also discusses the potential of the intervention and how it can be used by other mathematics educators.

Download Full-text