Supporting ELL Students

Academically

By: Monica Cabrera, Lisa Nguyen, Lupe Pasillas, Jessica Sandoval

What comes to mind when you think of
English Language Learners?
 Background
Defined: English Language Learners (ELL) is a classification used to describe a variety of
students learning English as a second or additional language for academic gains.

Most ELL students are

About two thirds of ELLs Under the No Child Left Behind
ELLs comprise 23.9% of born in the U.S. and are
students in the U.S. ELL students were required to
the U.S., K-12 public often second and third
come from low-income meet the same academic
school population. generation achievement standards as native
families
speakers
Approximately 80% of
ELLs are Hispanic in the
U.S. (Moore & Kiinger, 2014)
(Moore & Kiinger, 2014) (Freeman, 2012)
(Freeman, 2012).
ELL’s in California
● In the 2016–17 school year, there were
approximately 1.332 million English learners in
California public schools, which is less than the
year 2015–16.

● In 2016-2017 school year, the 1,332,405 English

learners constitute 21.4% of the total enrollment
in California public schools.

● The majority of English learners (72%) are

enrolled in the elementary grades, kindergarten
through grade six. The rest (28%) are enrolled in
the secondary grades, seven through twelve.
Although English learner data are collected
for 65 language groups, 94% speak one of
(California Department of Education, 2017) the top ten languages in the state.
 ● Collaborating with key
Achievement community stakeholders is
essential to closing the
Gap achievement gap
● Language barriers may also
result in infrequent outreach to
parents because of the time it
takes to access an interpreter
● Implementing culturally
sensitive interventions that
respect cultural diversity and
communication differences
Barriers to Academic Achievement
Language acquisition
(Pena & Maxwell, 2015)

Limited Academic resources

(Cook, Perusse, & Rojas, 2015 )

College Access & Finances

(Cook, Perusse, & Rojas, 2015 )

Isolation
(Cook, Perusse, & Rojas, 2015 )
 Needs of Population
Social
Emotional
Variety of stressful
environmental conditions that
impact their academic
achievement. (i.e., immigration,
family separations, poverty,
cultural conflicts between home
and school (Niehaus & Adelson,
2014)
Advocacy
-Overrepresentation into special
education .
-Evidence-based reading
interventions before placement.
(Moore & Klinger, 2014)
-Trained Professional (Cook,
Perusse, & Rojas, 2015 ; Aminy &
Karathanos, 2011)
Parent/Family Involvement and ELL Student Outcomes
A study by Niehaus and Adelson (2014) found:

● Parents were more involved when schools offered more

support and outreach services to ELL students and their
families.
● Increased parental support is linked to less
social/emotional difficulties among ELL students.
● ELL students who reported fewer social-emotional
problems were linked to higher academic achievement.

Implications:
1. Fostering parent/family involvement
2. Focus on the social/emotional development of ELL students
3. School counseling based interventions
Evidence Based Practices
● Peer-Mediated Incremental Rehearsal (PMIR)
○ Incremental Rehearsal → shown to be effective in teaching letter sounds & letter-sound expression
to ELL students in the past.
● Current study
○ Teachers nominated students that would benefit from additional reading support.
○ Teachers also nominated high-achieving students to be the peer tutors.
○ Word Reading Baseline Data → researchers assessed student’s ability to read words.
■ Created a set of 30 known words and 80 unknown words for each target student.
○ Tutor Training
■ 3-4 20 minute sessions
■ Modeled the intervention to the peer tutor (trained to introduce unknown words; tutors were
given a chance to practice; given a script on how to provide feedback.)
(Klingbeil et al., 2017)
Peer-Mediated Incremental Rehearsal (Continued)
● Intervention Implementation
○ Peer tutors → introduced IR and presented a mixed sequence of unknown words and known words
■ Sequence example: U1, K1; U1, K1, K2; U1, K1, K2, K3
■ Target students → asked to read the words aloud
○ Peer Tutors → immediate error correction
○ Each session was completed when 3 unknown words were taught
● Results
○ Positive relationship between PMIR and word reading
○ Improvements in word reading were maintained over time
○ Peers can deliver IR with similar degree of effectiveness to adults

(Klingbeil et al., 2017)

 A study by Banse et. al. (2017)
found that:
Evidence Based
● Teacher scaffolding allows
Practice: Math ELLs to participate
● Questioning
● Revoicing
● Think-alouds
● Self-talk
Activity: kahoot.it

kahoot.it
 References
Aminy, M., & Karathanos, K. (2011). Benefiting the educator and student alike: Effective strategies for supporting the academic language
development of English learner (EL) teacher candidates. Issues in Teacher Education, 20(2), 95-109.
Banse, H.W., Palacios, N.A., Merritt, E.G., & Rimm-Kaufman, S.E. (2017). Scaffolding English language learners' mathematical talk in the
context of calendar math. Journal of Educational Research, 110(2), 199-208.
California Department of Education (2017). Facts about English learners in California: CalEdFacts. Retrieved from
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/cb/cefelfacts.asp.
Cook, A. L., Pérusse, R., & Rojas, E. D. (2015). Promoting college access among Latina/o English language learners: Implications for professional
school counselors. Journal of School Counseling, 13(18), n18.
Freeman, B. (2012). Using digital technologies to redress inequities for English language learners in the English speaking
mathematics classroom. Computers & Education, 59(1), 50-62.
Klingbeil, D. A., Moeyaert, M., Archer, C. T., Chimboza, T. M., & Zwolski Jr., S. A. (2017). Efficacy of peer-mediated incremental rehearsal for
English language learners. School Psychology Review, 46(1), 122-140.
Moore, B. A., & Klingner, J. K. (2014). Considering the needs of English language learner populations: An examination of the
population validity of reading intervention research. Journal of learning disabilities, 47(5), 391-408.
Niehaus, K., & Adelson, J. L. (2014). School support, parental involvement, and academic and social-emotional outcomes
for English language learners. American Educational Research Journal, 51(4), 810-844.