Literacy for English Learners

Boy playing with cards of words and pictures

Introduction

Language acquisition includes comprehensive instruction in the four language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The intricacies of reading and writing instruction for English learners warrant discussion in this resource.

English literacy skills are paramount for the academic success and future opportunities of English learners. Literacy instruction for English learners is a priority for districts and schools. School leaders work on crafting a comprehensive plan and offering professional development in literacy to all educators while closely tracking progress. Collaboration is key, particularly for older newcomers and Students with Interrupted/Inconsistent Formal Education (SIFE).

Read Ohio provides the Science of Reading Toolkit with resources for educators to use throughout the year to implement literacy instruction.

Table of Contents

This resource covers the topics listed below. Select a topic to jump to that section.

Unique Needs of English Learners

English learners' literacy needs are quite different from most monolingual English speakers.

  1. English learners enter Ohio schools at all grade levels and with a variety of literacy skills.
  2. English learners develop oral English and acquire English literacy at the same time.
  3. English learners need access to grade-level text and concepts even if their literacy level is well below grade level.

To meet these unique needs, districts and schools align to Read Ohio.

Literacy has two distinct but interrelated parts:

  1. Learning the written code: phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency
  2. Language skills: the oral language needed to understand what is decoded

To comprehend text effectively, both components are necessary. Educators cannot postpone teaching English literacy skills until English learners have mastered spoken English. Literacy instruction can begin as soon as new English learners have acquired some basic survival English language skills. English learners, including newcomers, receive Tier 1 reading instruction in the classroom at grade level, and receive additional reading instruction based on their needs with the English learner specialist.

In the Read Ohio Literacy Academy presentation Literacy for English Learners, Claude Goldenberg describes the unique needs of English learners.

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Know Your English Learner’s Literacy Needs

The literacy background and needs of English learners provide valuable information for planning instruction. Some English learners may have minimal or nonexistent literacy skills in their home languages. For those with literacy abilities in their home languages, some skills can transfer to English. General education teachers and English learner teachers can analyze the following data to inform instruction.

Literacy background:

Assessment results:

  • Ohio English Language Proficiency Screener (OELPS)
  • Ohio English Language Proficiency (OELPA), or Alternate Ohio English Language Proficiency Assessment (Alt-OELPA)
  • Letter names and sounds assessment, key words for letters
  • Phonological awareness assessment
  • Fluency
  • Comprehension (for example, if a student has some phonics knowledge, give a short reading passage to determine if the student can comprehend.)
  • A writing sample in English or the first language, if possible

Explore the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce's webpage about High-Quality Instructional Materials in English Language Arts for approved core curriculum and instructional materials.

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Teaching Reading to English Learners

Asian family reading in library


icon of child readingThe National Reading Panel determined all learners need explicit instruction in the five pillars of reading:  

  • Phonemic Awareness  
  • Phonics 
  • Fluency  
  • Vocabulary 
  • Comprehension  

The National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth found that English learners need additional reading instruction that targets: 

  • Oral language development 
  • Use of the home language to support English literacy 
  • Explicit instruction on vocabulary and English language structures 

 For more information, explore:  

Home Language

English learners can benefit from literacy instruction in their home language, most commonly as part of a bilingual program. Educators can encourage students to engage in literacy development in their home language. However, most English learners in Ohio will primarily receive literacy instruction in English.

The home language serves as a bridge for acquiring English and can be extensively utilized in the classroom. Whenever possible, assess the literacy skills students possess in their home language, with assistance from bilingual assistants or interpreters if available. Additionally, educators can consider the writing system of studentsʼ home language, recognizing that not all languages use the same alphabet as English.

Instructional strategies for using home language include: 

  • Use the home language to teach vocabulary and build background knowledge.  
  • Teach cognates (words that are similar in two languages, like “problem/problema”).
  • Raise awareness of differences between languages (compare greetings, common phrases, proverbs, and syntax/grammar).
  • Allow students to leverage their home language with translanguaging (the ability to move fluidly between languages, drawing on students’ full linguistic repertoire for communication and sense-making).

Strategies for incorporating translanguaging in lessons:

 
General Content Lesson  General Content Lesson with Translanguaging
Vocabulary introduction
  • Vocabulary introduction with labels in multiple languages
  • Vocabulary introduction with cognates
  • Vocabulary inquiry
Teach content
  • Teach content with preview-view-review.
  • Teach content using texts with multiple languages.
  • Teach content with dictionaries in multiple languages.
  • Practice sentence building with content vocabulary.
  • Use syntax transfer when necessary.
Group practice of content taught 
  • Students grouped by home language for discussion and for projects
  • Texts and resources used in multiple languages
  • Sentence building
  • Syntax transfer
Independent practice of content
  • Reading and writing in home languages and English
  • Syntax transfer: individual conferences 

Adapted from: Translanguaging in Action: Pedagogy that Elevates, Jessica Dougherty, Ed.D, Western Oregon University, ORTESOL Journal, volume 38, 2021

For more information:

Translanguaging in Action: Using the Home Language in a Science Lesson shows an Ohio teacher using translanguaging for instruction.

Oral Language Development

icon of people talking with speech bubblesOral language is the foundation of literacy. English learners, especially newcomers, may lack English oral language skills. While some may acquire social English skills within 1-3 years, the acquisition of academic language requires more time. That process can take 5-7 years due to the abstract nature of academic vocabulary, the complexity of grammar, and the lack of contextual cues.

Oral language is more complex than just listening and speaking.

Elements of oral language:

  1. Phonology: The system of relationships between sounds or the way sounds are put together to form syllables and words
  2. Morphology: The study of words, word formation, and relationships to other words (Morphemes are meaningful units of language and include word parts, prefixes, suffixes, root, or base words.)
  3. Grammar/Syntax: The set of rules and principles that govern the structure and usage of a language
  4. Vocabulary/Semantics: Knowing what words and phrases mean, including multiple-meaning words and shades of meaning
  5. Register: Formal or informal use of English, how to address different audiences
  6. Pragmatics: The study of language in its context of use (how context, social factors, and speaker intentions influence the interpretation and meaning of language) 
  7. Prosody: Speaking with fluency, with appropriate phrasing, stress, and expression

Instructional Strategies  

Provide a focus in every English learner lesson on language comprehension:

  • Building listening and speaking skills through
    • Vocabulary development
    • Structured oral practice
    • Frequent opportunities for student interaction with teachers and peers  
  • Learning English in context 
  • High-quality instruction for essential emergent literacy skills, including oral language

For Emerging level students, speaking and listening develops more quickly than reading and writing.

  • Use themes to add meaning and teach both social language and academic language. Examples include school, colors, weather, food, animals, clothing, family, and houses.
  • Use read alouds to build vocabulary connected to the theme.
  • Use visuals to teach vocabulary.
  • Use sentence patterns, such as “This is a ___. I see a ____. I have ____. I like/I don’t like___. Where is ___?”
  • Use clear modeling.
  • Use prior knowledge to build background.
  • Use frequent opportunities for practice.

For Progressing level students, oral language development may involve: 

  • Using a text or essential questions
  • Pre-teaching vocabulary
  • Building background
  • Discussing the text
  • Summarizing 
  • Completing oral activities

In this video, an English learner teacher discusses how to build Oral Language Development for Elementary Students. 

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Teaching Writing to English Learners

icon of paper and pencil for writingWriting is often the last domain to acquire. Writing is a very complex skill, and academic writing is particularly challenging for English learners. 

Best practices for teaching writing to English learners: 

  • Teach explicitly the basics of formal academic writing.  
  • Use reading texts as mentor text for writing.
  • Write about reading to develop reading comprehension.  
  • Show exemplar grade-level writing samples to help students learn basic sentence and text structures of narrative and informational writing. 
  • Incorporate modeling and practice for teaching writing and building the basic structures of a sentence and paragraph.  
  • Provide daily writing instruction and/or practice.  

Explicit instruction in writing is essential, particularly for English learners who may find it challenging to simply be told to write. Writing is a skill that progresses sequentially, from words to phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. Analyzing students' writing samples helps identify starting points and allows for building upon their current skills. For instance, if a student demonstrates inconsistent use of verb tenses, teaching verb tenses is necessary. Similarly, if a student tends to write only short, simple sentences, instruction in sentence expansion and combination is warranted.  

Note, writing styles vary according to background and education; while Americans often favor directness, those with a different background may employ less straightforward approaches in their writing.

Read Ohio’s Literacy Academy contains helpful presentations and information on writing skills and how to teach writing effectively, such as Leveraging the Power of Explicit Writing Instruction. 

Instruction Strategies and Activities for Writing

For Emerging English Learners

English learners can write in their home language if they are literate. Translate their writing to get a sense of their writing skills. Writing activities include:

  • Draw pictures and talk about the picture (pre-writing). 
  • Form letter formations if not familiar with the Latin alphabet. 
  • Copy their name, words, and sentences to practice letter formation. 
  • Copy words from the board (only for very new arrivals). 
  • Write simple words as they learn to decode them. 
  • Draw pictures and write labels. 
  • Follow a model. (“My name is Tom. I am 15 years old. I come from Canada. I like to play basketball. I have two brothers.”) 
  • Take dictation. (Write “I go to the park.”)  
  • Provide sentence starters. (This is a _____. I like to eat ____. My favorite ___ is ____.) 
  • Expand sentences. (I have a dog. I have a large black dog) 
  • Provide a paragraph frame.  
    • (First, _____________. Then, _____________. Next, _____________ Finally, _____________.)
    • (_____________ is the best movie.  Reason 1: _____________. Reason 2: _____________. Reason 3: _____________. That’s why I think _____________ is the best movie.)

For Progressing Level English Learners

Writing activities include:

  • Talk about a topic before writing to discuss ideas, vocabulary, and possible sentences. 
  • Provide vocabulary needed for the writing topic. 
  • Teach connecting words (first, next, then, finally). 
  • Provide mini lessons on sentence structure. 
  • Use graphic organizers and sentence frames.  
  • Provide a model of the writing product. 
  • Teach explicitly how to write different types of sentences. 
  • Provide guided practice in sentence writing (like past tense sentences, joining sentences, and varying sentences). 
  • Present how to write in a variety of genres (such as narrative, opinion, and argument). 
  • Provide opportunities for quick writes in all content areas as well as more supported extensive writing.

Download: Instructional Strategies and Activities for Writing (Word) or Instructional Strategies and Activities for Writing (PDF)

For more information:

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Structured Literacy Approach

Schools and districts in Ohio are taking a systematic and coherent approach to literacy, grounded in the Science of Reading and utilizing the Structured Literacy Approach.

English learners benefit from the Structured Literacy Approach where instruction is explicit, systematic, and sequential. Multidisciplinary teams, including English learner professionals, align the tiers of support to ensure that English learners receive the same scope and sequence but with different intensity and focus and at various grade levels. English learners need a greater focus on developing oral language and capitalizing on their linguistic repertoire.

Read Ohio contains more information:

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Effective Literacy Instruction for English Learners

Effective literacy instruction for English learners includes:

Phonemic Awareness: Focus on the phonemes of English that don’t exist in the home language. Help English learners hear and produce the sounds by modeling mouth, teeth, and tongue position. Phonemic awareness is taught alongside phonics, connecting sounds to words.

Letter Knowledge/Alphabetics: Focus on letter formation, if needed, and spelling patterns that are different in English for those who are already literate in another language. For those without literacy, teach all letter sounds and names systematically.

Phonics, Decoding, Word Work: Provide explicit, systematic, and sequential phonics instruction following a scope and sequence. For those already literate, help English learners transfer skills from first language literacy to English by pointing out similarities. When teaching phonics, add visuals so students understand the words they are learning.

Concepts of Print: Not all languages write from left to right. Arabic, for example, writes from right to left. Model directionality, sweep from line to line and front to back. Talk about the purposes for text.

Fluency: Model fluency in English with appropriate pauses and phrasing. Choral reading, echo reading, and repeated readings are helpful.

Oral Language: Oral language precedes written language. Ensure that English learners develop a strong base of oral language to understand the text they read.

Vocabulary and Background Knowledge: English learners need both explicit vocabulary instruction as well as exposure to a wide range of listening and reading to acquire vocabulary in a timely manner. Add visuals, gestures, translations, and simple definitions to teach vocabulary before and during reading a text.

Comprehension: While comprehension is the product of decoding and language comprehension, there are comprehension strategies that can be taught and practiced, ensuring students comprehend what they read. Help English learners see the story or text structure, teach how to summarize, and use context clues, retell, infer, and visualize.

Cross Language Connections: Think of the first language as a bridge to English. Use cognates (words that are similar in both languages), give translations, and explain how sentence structures are different in English.

Writing: Teach letter formation, words, sentences, and paragraphs. Model different genres of writing, such as opinion, narrative, persuasive, and sequence.

Videos with examples of supporting literacy for English learners:

An elementary ESL teacher describes her instructional routines for building basic literacy in From Words to Worlds: Phonics and English Language Learners:

An elementary teacher shares how she helps her English learners by Adding Meaning to a Kindergarten Phonics Lesson:

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Instructional Strategies to Build Literacy

  • Provide English learners with many engaging and relevant texts.  
  • Use complex texts, with support.  
  • Build background knowledge prior to reading a text.  
  • Use the home language.  
  • Pre-teach vocabulary. 
  • Provide access points and scaffolds.  
  • Chunk the text into smaller parts. 
  • Integrate the four domains of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. (Phonics instruction can be combined with other domains for older students.)   
  • Provide multiple opportunities for English learners to practice foundational literacy skills.   
  • Structure opportunities for English learners to think critically about and respond to text through speaking and writing.   
  • Develop writing skills that connect to the reading.   
  • Use data to inform and adapt instruction (and share data with the team and the student).  
  • Plan scaffolding reading activities before, during, and after reading to build comprehension. During each phase of reading use:
    • Graphic organizers  
    • Home language to explain, discuss, and process reading

Review the following from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce:

At the Elementary Level

For Emerging Level Students

Use tools for scaffolding:

  • Labels (English or bilingual)  
  • Signs and posters 
  • Visual schedules and visuals of instructional routines  
  • Anchor charts  
  • Books that address different backgrounds or are bilingual
  • Illustrations 
  • Graphic organizers (containing words, pictures, other languages, and illustrations)

Develop oral language skills for English learners to fully access the curriculum.

  • Effective pull-out or push-in services align to classroom lessons and activities to reinforce instruction and fill in gaps.
  • Effective phonemic awareness and phonics instruction add pictures and meaning to the sounds and words being taught.
Some English learners need to build foundational literacy skills in English at different ages and grades. The English learner teacher designs lessons that provide foundational literacy skills and oral language development based on individual needs identified in assessment data.

Decode and encode (reading and writing).

  • Learn to decode a word first, then move on to encoding.
  • Use dictation to practice writing decodable words and then sentences.
  • Use decodable books initially and align them to the phonics being taught.
  • Provide explicit vocabulary instruction to read decodable books. Teach words like “a, the, I, see, this” until the student has sufficient phonics skills to decode them.
  • Introduce the book and teach vocabulary as needed to ensure that the students understand.

Use instructional routines regularly to support English learners. Examples include:

  • Using hand signals and gestures for letter sounds  
  • Tapping out sounds  
  • Using sound boxes  
  • Practicing letter formation   
  • Adding visuals for meaning  
  • Using graphic organizers  
  • Writing sentences

For Progressing Level Students

Select a text or topic that is relevant, build background, set a purpose for reading, teach vocabulary needed, make predictions, and use graphic organizers.

Use small group instruction regularly in the general education classroom.

  • Meet with a small group of two to four students with similar skill needs.  
  • Teach explicitly the skills needed.  
  • Monitor progress closely.

Build background knowledge to comprehend texts. For example, if the group is reading about baseball, ensure the students know the vocabulary words and how the game is played.

Include high-quality vocabulary instruction.

  • Teach critical vocabulary for reading a text.  
  • Make vocabulary instruction an important part of every content area.

Expose English learners to authentic and complex text (with scaffolds) throughout the school day across content areas.

Utilize scaffolds to add comprehensible input of the text.

Sample process for the first reading:

  • The teacher reads the text or part of the text aloud to the students.  
  • Whole group discusses what students understand.  
  • Then, students read the text individually, whisper read, or partner read.  
  • Next, the teacher chunks the text, stopping to ask questions.  
  • Students discuss their understandings (in home language or English), resolve misunderstandings, identify vocabulary in the text, complete a graphic organizer, or illustrate the text to show comprehension.
  • Students read again, annotating the text using the class routine.  
  • Students complete a task to show comprehension of the text. They may work in pairs to summarize, complete a Venn diagram, or answer questions finding text evidence.

Monitoring Progress

As English learners learn to read in English, teachers can:

  • Assess letter knowledge, phonics, and fluency on a regular basis.  
  • Assess comprehension through retelling, summarizing, matching, sequencing pictures or information, and answering questions.  
  • Use checklists of vocabulary learned.   
  • Record anecdotal notes.  
  • Provide targeted feedback and reteach as needed.

Find more progress monitoring strategies in Innovation Configuration’s Evidence-based Practices for English Learners.

Learn about Assessing and Grading English learners on the English Learners in the General Education Classroom page.

Vignette

In second grade, Vanessa, an English learner, struggles with distinguishing between the short “e” and short “i” sounds while reading and writing, which is common for native Spanish speakers. Initially, the teacher ensures Vanessa can hear the difference between the two vowel sounds. Following the "I do, we do, you do" method, the teacher demonstrates the sounds clearly, emphasizing mouth positioning and providing ample practice. Vanessa is then prompted to identify the sounds independently. Once she can distinguish the sounds, the teacher models their pronunciation once more, with Vanessa repeating until she can produce them accurately. Subsequently, the teacher transitions to activities where Vanessa practices reading and writing words containing both sounds.

Literacy Resources for Elementary:

English learners participate in the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, including the assessments and Reading Improvement and Monitoring Plans (RIMPs).

At the Secondary Level

​Developing literacy skills among middle and high school students is critically important, particularly considering the limited timeframe newcomers have to master English and content before graduation. Achieving academic success in these crucial years significantly impacts future endeavors. To effectively address these needs:

  • Establish a comprehensive plan aimed at expediting the student's reading proficiency and enabling access to grade-level content.  
  • Form a multidisciplinary team to assess individual needs and ensure that literacy instruction is both suitable and cohesive across disciplines.

Literacy development at the secondary level is determined by the grade level of the student, the language proficiency level, and the level of literacy in the home language.

Newcomers and Emerging level students, regardless of grade level and age, need:
  • Foundational reading skills in English  
  • Grade-level appropriate materials with scaffolds and supports; however, they can quickly connect to what they already know about reading in their home language, if literate.  
  • Pace and methodology matched to the age of the student; for example, older students can use non-fiction texts combining language and content, such as science, history, or biographies.  
  • Instruction that is always driven by assessment data

For Progressing level students with basic reading skills, teachers can focus on:

  • Refining written grammar skills  
  • Expanding oral and written academic vocabulary  
  • Honing the language skills required across the curriculum (predicting, summarizing, and synthesizing)

For more information:

Vignette

Binh immigrated from Vietnam. He attended school in Vietnam and is literate in Vietnamese. In Ohio, he started in ninth grade and took the OELPS. His scores were Listening 1, Speaking 1, Reading 1, Writing 1: Emerging. He was placed in two periods of ESL/ELA (English as a Second Language/English Language Arts) and an ESL Resource period. In addition, he takes a math class, a science class, and physical education. His English Learner teacher, Ms. Jones, administered the Phonological Awareness Screening Test (PAST) Test and Binh scored at the very beginning level. She then used American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) to learn about the Vietnamese language. She worked daily with Binh to teach the letter sounds and names. She focused on the phonemes that are different in English and combined phonemic awareness with phonics. She showed Binh the six main syllable types so he could break multisyllabic words apart. Binh learned basic phonics in just a few weeks as he was able to leverage his knowledge of reading in Vietnamese. Ms. Jones used decodable readers written for teens for Binh to develop his reading skills. As she was teaching decoding, she was also having Binh write or encode. Decoding and encoding reinforced each other. At the same time, she explicitly taught Binh basic vocabulary, social English, and introduced academic language. His listening and speaking skills developed quickly as he was motivated to make friends at school. His classmates were patient and helped him with new words, used online translation apps to talk to Binh, and encouraged him to speak.

With careful scheduling of classes, English Learner support and scaffolds used in the content classes, Binh was able to graduate from high school. He is currently attending a community college and plans to transfer to The Ohio State University and major in computer science. 

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References 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 7:42:14 AM