English as an Additional Language/ELL Intervention Strategies

This information is intended to be used as a resource for educators to find ways to help English language learners. It is crucial for educators to teach to students' learning styles. Moreover, identifying what is the best learning style to use is critical when teaching English language learners. ELL students, specially the older ones, can be proficient in their own languages, nevertheless it is common for them to experience difficulty when learning a second language. One of the reasons for this phenomenon could be because of the different learning styles the learner is used too.

Learning Styles

There are several different learning styles, but there is not one style that has been proven better than another on its own. Educators don’t just focus on any learning style specifically; in fact there is a significant overlap in all the different learning styles. Auditory learners are the type of students who recall everything they hear. They prefer oral instruction and they learn by listening and speaking best. This is particularly difficult for ELL learners because their input comprehension is not developed enough to process all the information at once. ELL students will remember what they were able to comprehend and more than likely will capture some of the context and not all making this a very challenging learning style on its own.

Visual learners will do best in an environment that they are able to see what they are learning about. Their comprehension ability is enhanced by presenting the information in a visual manner. Usually this information is presented by using maps, computer graphics, graphic organizers, charts, cartoons, posters, text with pictures, movies, etc. Today technology has taken visual aids in the classroom to the next level. There are so many ways in which you can present a topic to students using technology as a tool to aid a lesson in order to make a visual learning environment.

Kinesthetic learners are the type of learners that captivates new information by touching or manipulating objects. This type of learner usually involves the student’s whole body in learning or otherwise known as Total Physical Response. TPR is an excellent method to teach ESL\ELL students because they remember material best if they act it out and are involved in the interaction. Some examples of this technique is playing games that involve their whole body, movement activities, making models, following instructions to make something or setting up experiments.

Technology as Intervention Strategies

This is an interactive series of activities and games that teachers using McMillan Treasures Curriculum in elementary grades for language arts can access via the Internet. Students can try at home or they can interact with the website in the classroom during center time if the capabilities of computers will allow it. These activities are related with the story, vocabulary, and grammar that the students are studying in class. http://activities.macmillanmh.com/reading/treasures/

Great Resources and Links

1. Just as important to identify the student’s learning style is to identify the stages of language acquisition in the second language. Here is a great resource link to better understand the stage of language acquisition. http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/language_stages.php

2. Once the teacher is able to identify the best combination of learning styles to implement in the classroom, the stage of language development needs to be identified. Then a series of interventions and strategies are implemented, here is a good resource link on issues of identification and intervention methods. http://web.archive.org/web/20050516174907/http://www.crosscultured.com/articles/accult_cogn_handouts.pdf

3. What to do when you have an ESL\ELL student with special needs? Here is link to a great article on this matter and it is a source for great strategies to implement in the classroom. http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0108ortiz.html

4. Research Study: Early reading intervention for English language learners at-risk for learning disabilities: student and teacher outcomes in an urban school Published by: Learning Disability Quarterly - September 22, 2001 Author: Diane Haager http://www.colorincolorado.org/articles/cld_earlyreadingint.php

5. This is a list of accommodations and interventions strategies that could be adapted for ELL students; however these are specifically for Special Education students. http://atto.buffalo.edu/registered/ATBasics/Foundation/Laws/AccomList.pdf