English Learners in the General Education Classroom
Introduction
English learners spend most of their school day in general education classrooms. By adding accommodations and scaffolds to lessons and assessments, teachers can meet the needs of English learners at all proficiency levels. Best practices help English learners both achieve the learning objectives of the class and develop English skills.
Understanding how languages are learned will greatly assist in developing more effective lessons with accommodations to increase comprehension for English learners.
View the Immersion trailer, from Media That Matters. The film presents the experience of a typical day for a newcomer in school.
Table of Contents:
This resource covers the topics listed below. Select a topic to jump to that section.
Creating a Welcoming Environment for English Learners
High Expectations with High Supports
English learners bring strengths and experience that can be leveraged for learning in the classroom. Research shows that English learners reach high levels achievement on state tests and graduation rates when compared to their monolingual peers. Achieve the Coreʼs Peers and Pedagogy contains support for serving English learners with this lens.
Educators can support the success of English learners by maintaining high expectations accompanied with high support. Addressing Significant Disproportionality in Special Education Resources provides support.
Setting Up the Classroom to Support English Learners
Reducing English learners’ anxiety promotes a learning brain state that is more productive for language learning.
Effective strategies for setting up the classroom to support English learners:
- Create a classroom that is welcoming and supportive to all students.
- Create an image- and text-rich environment to connect pictures or objects to text.
- Label objects in the classroom in English and in the home languages, when possible.
- Use word walls and anchor charts with visuals and translations.
- Display literature, maps, and flags.
- Provide direction in home language for important school skills, procedures, updates, and announcements, when possible.
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How are Languages Learned?
Acquiring a new language is a challenging endeavor. While some individuals appear to grasp a new language effortlessly, the majority encounter difficulties. Understanding this aspect of language acquisition is particularly valuable when considering how to effectively teach English learners in the classroom.
Colorín Colorado’s Language Acquisition: An Overview presents the stages of language acquisition with instructional strategies for each stage.
- Provide comprehensible input. Students acquire a new language when the language presented is just above their current level of proficiency and is presented in a way that is comprehensible. For example, when teaching about rocks and minerals, use a lot of visuals, illustrations and videos, gestures, and actions. Use cognates and studentsʼ home languages. Repetition is important.
- Allow time for new language learning which takes time. Social language is acquired more quickly, usually in 1-3 years. This is the language used on the playground, in the cafeteria, and is usually highly contextualized. Younger students may speak without an accent and sound like native speakers in casual conversation. Academic language is much more complex and takes from 5-7 years to develop. This explains why some English learners can have a high-level oral proficiency yet struggle with academic reading and writing.
- Recognize that language learning varies for everyone. It is not uncommon for newcomer students to go through a silent period where they are listening but not yet ready to talk. English learners at this stage need to listen and not be forced to talk. Teachers can provide comprehensible input and allow them to express their ideas in their home language, through gestures and pictures.
- Develop a low anxiety environment which is ideal for productive language learning. English learners are not just learning English, they are also adjusting to a new country, a new school, and making new friends. Create a welcoming and safe classroom environment in which English learners feel comfortable. Use humor and games to ease challenging tasks.
- Make language learning meaningful, purposeful, and authentic. English learners benefit from daily social interaction and group work. Group work allows for comprehensible output, so English learners are supported as they develop oral language skills.
- Explore the wide range of prior experiences and home language skills of language learners. English learners understand norms, apply life skills, and have a vast home language repertoire. These skills and experiences can be leveraged as strengths for instruction. Teachers can make classroom connections between current learning objectives and English learnersʼ prior experiences, teaching English learners how to use home language skills when learning content and language.
Visit the Literacy for English Learners page for information and resources on home language.
Access The Teacher Toolkit, designed to showcase techniques for effective teaching, to find explanations, templates, and videos of strategies in action.
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The Six Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners
The steps to providing English learners with quality instruction in the general education classroom can be achieved by understanding and incorporating the six principles listed in The 6 Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners, published by Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) International Association (2018). The 6 Principles: Grades K–12 - Online Resource page contains detailed information on each of the principles and practical implementation with videos and classroom activities.
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Best Practices for Supporting English Learners
- Enunciate clearly and speak slowly. Add gestures, point directly to objects, or draw pictures, when appropriate.
- Write clearly, legibly, and in print. English learners may have difficulty reading cursive.
- Develop and maintain routines. Use clear and consistent signals and language for classroom instructions.
- Repeat information, and review frequently. If a student does not understand, try rephrasing or paraphrasing in shorter sentences and simpler syntax.
- Check often for understanding, having students demonstrate their learning to show comprehension, rather than making “Do you understand?” inquiries.
- Avoid idioms and slang words.
- Present new information in the context of known information.
- Use word walls by topics that include pictures, real items, related vocabulary, sentence models, and translations. Refer to the word wall frequently during the lesson.
- Create and refer to anchor charts that show a process or information that students can refer to during the lesson. The chart can include pictures, illustrations, and translations.
- Discuss/Review the lesson’s objectives and activities, and list instructions step-by-step. Model, when possible.
- Present information in a variety of ways. Repetition is invaluable.
- Provide frequent summations of the salient points of a lesson and always emphasize key vocabulary words.
- Recognize student success frequently. Be aware that in some communities, overt individual praise is considered inappropriate and can be embarrassing or confusing to the student.
Best practices for Supporting Middle School English Learners in Content Classes can be found in this Ohio video.
Effective teaching practices for English learners are good practices for all students.
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Instructional Strategies for English Learners
Routines help English learners, especially those who are emerging, engage in the classroom. It is less confusing when English learners know what to expect. Lessons proceed in a similar format each day and include classroom and instructional routines that are consistently used.
Scaffolds in the Content Classroom
Scaffolds provide temporary supports for English learners to access the content while developing their English proficiency. Scaffolds need to match the students’ proficiency in English. For example, the use of the home language is an appropriate scaffold for newcomers. Teachers may translate learning materials, using translation apps or bilingual aides, to work with the students. Once English learners acquire some English, use of direct translation into the home language can be reduced.
Scaffolds can change and become more complex as English learners progress. For example:
- Emerging level English learners need sentence starters, such as “I have___. I like/don’t like ___. Where is ____?”
- Progressing level English learners can use sentence starters with academic language, such as “In my opinion ____. The author is saying _____. I concluded that _____.”
| Scaffolds |
Implementation |
| High use of visuals |
Visuals (pictures, images, gestures, actions) assist learning new vocabulary and provide comprehensible input. Add visuals to presentations to help all students. For a unit study, set up a word wall on that topic with critical words and phrases along with visuals and translations and even real items. Anchor charts with visuals add support in all content subjects. |
| Use of the home language |
The home language can serve as an initial bridge to learning English. It is particularly useful for emerging level or beginning English learners to increase comprehension while learning in content classrooms. The home language can be leveraged using word walls, group work, cognates, bilingual texts, and bilingual dictionaries. For an example of translanguaging, visit the Literacy for English Learners page. |
| Explicit vocabulary instruction |
Choose a small number of essential vocabulary words from Tier 1 and Tier 2 to teach explicitly. For an example of this strategy in action, view the Ohio video Instructional Routine for Explicit Vocabulary Instruction. |
| Sentence stems and frames |
Sentence stems and frames support English learners as they learn how to express their ideas in English. |
| Repetition, slow speech |
Instructor repeats key phrases or important directions while using slow and clear speech. Paraphrase as needed. |
| Manipulatives |
Students are provided interactive learning experiences using hands-on materials and manipulatives. |
| Student interaction |
Students need time to process new ideas and practice language skills. Plan lessons to incorporate all four language domains (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) with frequent opportunities for interaction with partners and small groups. |
| Provide sufficient wait-time |
Allow additional time for student responses using whiteboards, different ways to show what they know, or pair work. |
| Total Physical Response (TPR) |
This strategy for teaching language or vocabulary uses physical movement in reaction to verbal input. |
| Build background knowledge |
Introduce basic concepts and vocabulary prior to direct instruction or reading of texts. Students can develop understanding of concepts in their home language and then build the academic language on the experience. |
| Modeling |
Show activities and directions with demonstrations and examples to help students who struggle with following verbal or written directions. |
| Graphic organizers and anchor charts |
Graphic organizers support comprehension by displaying information, relationships, main ideas, and details. They are also useful for summarizing text, pre-writing activities, or reviewing. |
| Text sets and adapted materials |
Use pictures, videos, and adapted text to build vocabulary and content knowledge for students who cannot yet comprehend the grade-level text. Texts can be adapted with the use of online resources. |
Explore more from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce:
Videos demonstrating strategies in action in Ohio:
The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model
The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model is a research-based instructional framework to help English learners acquire both academic content and English language simultaneously. This model guides teachers as they develop and teach lessons that address learning objectives for both content and language. Language learning objectives are based on the Ohio English Language Proficiency (ELP) Standards.
There are eight components to this lesson delivery system:
- Lesson Preparation
- Building Background
- Comprehensible Input
- Strategies
- Interaction
- Practice/Application
- Lesson Delivery
- Review and Assessment
For more information, explore:
Ohio educator Sara Levitt provides an overview of Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) in this video.
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Assessing and Grading English Learners
Assessing English Learners in the Classroom
English learners find support through scaffolds and accommodations in both instruction and assessment. Best practices for classroom assessments with:
- All English Learners — Teachers evaluate content comprehension rather than English proficiency.
- Progressing level English Learners — Teachers can:
- Reduce the number of test items.
- Offer translated tests.
- Permit tests to be read aloud.
- Provide alternative formats.
- Employ additional aids.
- Newcomers — Teachers allow various means of demonstrating understanding:
- Explain in their home language.
- Create visual representations.
- Match words with pictures.
- Label images and items.
Grading English Learners
Best practices for grading English Learners:
- Ensure English learners do not receive failing grades due to limited English proficiency.
- Provide scaffolds, specific supports, and accommodations to help English learners access the curriculum.
Examples of supportive school or district-level policies:
- English learners who can achieve a passing grade on their own (with support as needed) earn that grade.
- English learners who are making progress receive a Pass or Satisfactory. If no effort is made, the English Learner receives a Fail or Unsatisfactory.
- English learners can receive a combination of letter grades and Pass/Fail or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.
For more information, explore:
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Collaboration with the English Learner Teacher
Effective collaboration fosters a conducive learning environment for English learners. Teachers collaborate to:
- Align student content and language objectives.
- Share information about English learners' proficiency levels.
- Ensure consistency and continuity in instruction.
- Recognize the language demands of content areas.
- Design and implement appropriate scaffolding strategies for English learners.
The Content Classes with Integrated ESL Support section of the English Language Development Instruction page has more information on collaboration and co-teaching.
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Meaningful Communication with Parents and Families
General education teachers ensure that parents receive information in a way that is understandable to them.
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Resources
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These resources aim to bolster academic, student wellness, and college and career outcomes for Ohio's English learners. Resources were created through a collaborative effort between the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce and The Ohio State University's Center on Education and Training for Employment along with a dedicated group of family advocates, community leaders, school district staff, and teachers.
Last Modified: 6/11/2025 7:44:39 AM