Helping Middle and High School Age English Language Learners Achieve Academic Success

Abstract

Middle and high school-age English language learners present a challenge for teachers. Some arrive with adequate formal schooling. Others have limited formal or interrupted schooling. A third group consists of long-term English learners who may have conversational proficiency in two languages but lack the academic language required for school success. The authors provide brief case studies of students representing each of these groups and then present four research-based keys for working successfully with struggling older English learners. They conclude by describing how one teacher implements the four keys with her English learners. The number of English language learners in schools in the United States has increased dramatically. According to the National Center for Bilingual Education (NCBE), over the last ten years, while the general school population in the United States has increased by only 24%, the number of English language learners (ELL) has increased by 105% (The growing numbers of limited English proficient students, 2000). In a review of the research on concerns about English learners, Garcia ( 2000) found that policy makers and school administrators at state and local levels have three main concerns. These are: (1) a growing number of students come to school unprepared, (2) a steady increase in foreign born children and youth enrolling in schools at every grade level, and (3) large numbers of native and non-native students with limited English proficiency. These changes in school demographics have had an impact on teachers across the country. As we have worked with pre-service and in-service teachers, questions such as the following often arise: “Why do some older students who have only been here a few months learn to read and write English so well while others, who have been here since kindergarten, still struggle?” “How can I help my English learners to read and write in English when they cannot read or write in their first language at all?” “What strategies and texts should I be using with bilingual students? “Who can expect me to get my bilingual students to read at grade level when they are all at so many different levels of

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