1177/0040059916662248
ELLs
Rhonda D. Miller
Disabilities
With Learning
Language Learners
Instruction for English
Contextualizing
Ms. Monroe is an experienced fifth- with disabilities who are also ELLs strategies and fewer occasions of
grade teacher in a Title I elementary require additional attention to their independent reading make learning
school. This year her diverse language needs (Klingner, Boel, vocabulary during reading quite
classroom of 25 students includes five Linan-Thompson, & Rodriguez, 2014). inefficient (Jitendra etal., 2004). The
English language learners (ELLs) with Therefore, addressing the needs of What Works Clearinghouse (Baker
varying levels of English proficiency. ELLs with LD requires a set of et al., 2014) report recommends intensive
Three of the ELLs have been identified instructional strategies that are teaching of vocabulary over the course of
as having LD, and there are also four engaging and allow students to several days for ELLs. Researchers have
monolingual students with LD. Ms. experience academic success while noted that effective vocabulary
Monroe has experience with building English proficiency (Correa & instruction for both ELLs and students
differentiating her instruction to meet Miller, 2014). with LD requires multiple exposures to a
the diverse needs of the students in specific list of words and multiple
her classroom, but she has limited opportunities to use the words in
Contextualizing Instruction
experience teaching ELLs. How can reading, writing, and speaking activities
she ensure that all of her students will Academic content that is new to the (Gersten etal., 2007; Jitendra etal.,
have access to the material that is learner is both cognitively and 2004). Activities such as playing word
presented? How can she ensure linguistically demanding in that it games, word sorting, making cross-
success for all students in her contains sophisticated academic linguistic connections, and using graphic
classroom? language, unfamiliar information, and organizers can increase students
very few contextual clues (Cummins, exposure to and practice with new
1981). ELLs with LD require services vocabulary. There are four components
According to the National
that are designed to support language to effective vocabulary instruction: word
Clearinghouse for English Language
acquisition and processing needs. selection, explicit instruction, the use of
Acquisition (2015), ELLs made up 9%
These learners benefit from instruction graphic organizers and mnemonic
of students Grades K12 in the United
that is culturally and linguistically devices, and repeated exposure.
States during the 20112012 school
responsive. Features of culturally and
year. ELLs can experience a unique set
linguistically responsive instruction Word selection. It is important to
of challenges, including (a) a lack of
include providing support for language select vocabulary words that are
culture-matched background
development, building on students essential for understanding the lesson
knowledge and inexperience with
prior knowledge, and facilitating (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2008).
academic language and classroom
learning through positive classroom Choose an engaging passage of
discourse skills (Francis, Rivera,
experiences (Klingner, Boardman, informational text that connects to the
Lesaux, Kieffer, & Rivera, 2006), (b)
Eppolito, & Schonewise, 2012). There topic of study and contains the
communication difficulties, (c)
are three steps to providing culturally vocabulary that you want students to
inadequate opportunities to use
responsive instructional strategies that learn (Baker etal., 2014). Choose a
culturally-influenced learning styles,
teachers can employ in order to small set of words from the text (i.e.,
and (d) difficulty connecting
contextualize learning in the content eight to 10 words) so that students can
background experiences to learning
areas: (a) building vocabulary, (b) learn them more deeply (Baker etal.,
new material (Klingner & Soltero-
building background, and (c) providing 2014). Choose words that students will
Gonzlez, 2009).
ample opportunities to practice and frequently encounter while studying
For students with LD, difficulties
apply the information that students the chosen topic and words that have
with learning language-based
have been taught. multiple meanings.
activities can lead to difficulties
understanding content and navigating
reading and writing activities in the Step 1: Building Vocabulary
Ms. Monroe is teaching a social
content areas (Jitendra, Edwards, For ELLs with LD, limited English studies lesson about the growth of labor
Sacks, & Jacobson, 2004). Students vocabulary, ineffective word learning movements in America during the
to similarities between prefixes and immigrant (e.g., immigration, migrate) script, it is important to use explicit
suffixes in the two languages (e.g., and cross-linguistic associations (e.g., instruction techniques (Jitendra etal.,
-mente = -ly; facilmenteeasily, inmigrantes in Spanish, les immigrs in 2004) for teaching the meaning as
rapidamenterapidly). It is important French) to promote word learning well as the pronunciation of each
however, that students know the word strategies that can help her students to word. It is also important to
in their first language for the strategy read more independently. incorporate student-friendly
to be helpful (Baker etal., 2014). definitions (Baker etal., 2014).
Teaching cognates is another way to Figure 2 contains an example script
make connections to students native for teaching one of the target Ms. Monroe introduces the target
language. Many cognates are high- vocabulary words. As illustrated in the word, using visual supports of the written
frequency words in Spanish and
low-frequency words in English
(Caldern etal., 2005). Teachers should Figure 3. Concept Map Demonstrating How Concepts Are Related to Each Other
be aware, however, of false cognates,
What is it?
which are words that look similar in
two languages but have very different
A hot factory
meanings. For example, embarazada is where people
the Spanish word for pregnant, not What was it like?
worked
embarrassed; and asistir means to
attend, not to assist. See Table 1 for Low wages
more examples of cognates.