Case Study Analysis: English Language Learners

English Language Learners (ELL) constitute a diverse population of students who learn English in school. They come from non-English speaking homes, as well as numerous cultural and economic backgrounds. ELL students may benefit from various types of language support programs. It is important to recognize the strengths that ELLs bring into the classroom. ELL students often have a combination of grammar knowledge, cultural background, curiosity, and risk-taking that should be celebrated in all learning environments.

 

While many ELL students have developed basic communication skills in English, they still struggle with academic language. This disconnect can make classroom instruction difficult, as it requires modified instruction in the student’s academic courses. ELL students face many challenges when reading literature in English. Most literature in today’s education curriculum is culture-bound. This means that students are often expected to have prior knowledge of literary genres such as fairy tales, myths, legends, and tall tales. It is the teacher’s responsibility to help students activate prior knowledge or build background information in order to access the literature. ELL students also need to develop word recognition and decoding skills in order to learn new vocabulary. Teachers must provide technical and qualitative instruction on the English language. This includes teaching idioms and figurative language, text structure, writing mechanics, and other standards-based literary concepts. Moreover, it is crucial for the teacher to establish an inclusive classroom environment where ELL voices are uplifted and welcome.

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Peer Assisted Learning Strategies for Reading (PALS)

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Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) is an evidence-based practice that meets the needs of English Language Learners through peer-mediated instruction, where students in pairs take turns serving as a coach and as a reader. In the PALS approach, teachers team a higher-performing reader with a lower-performing one in order to develop students' fluency and comprehension skills.  Students engage in activities such as partner reading with retell, paragraph shrinking, and prediction relay. This provides students with more opportunities to read and allows students to receive corrective feedback from one another. PALS promotes collaboration and positive social interactions in the classroom. It encourages students to be actively involved in peer-mediated sessions that accelerate achievement in reading.

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Regular peer-assisted learning opportunities allow ELL students to practice and extend what the teacher has taught during regular instruction. Partner work is most effective for tasks in which correct and incorrect responses can be clearly determined. These tasks include text reading and phonological awareness activities (i.e. identifying sounds in words.) With clear instruction and guidance, students with varying abilities in English language proficiency benefit from collaborating with one another to help clarify and reinforce literacy instruction. PALS meets the needs of ELL students by providing opportunities to receive comprehensive input, produce comprehensive output, and negotiate meaning in literary texts. ELL students may feel more comfortable asking questions and engaging in conversation with classmates whose unique perspectives shed light on complex topics. This works to build community in the classroom and foster agency among ELL students whose voices are integral to the academic discourse.  ELL students work in tandem with peers to deepen their understanding of lesson-specific content, as well as enhance their reading development by engaging in peer-mediated discussions where multiple perspectives are welcome. The resulting environment is one where all students' voices are acknowledged and uplifted to create an inclusive learning space.

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