Educating English Language Learners

An Analysis of Emerging Research (July 2005)

By Denise McKeon, NEA Research

English Language Learners (ELLs) -- students who speak another language at home -- now account for 40 percent of California's student population. Their teachers are both on the front line and responsible for the bottom line when it comes to providing these students with the skills and knowledge to survive and thrive in the United States. 

Unfortunately, not much is known about how teachers feel about and cope with the challenge of teaching students who speak a language other than English, particularly when those teachers don't speak another language themselves.

A new study of California teachers -- Listening to Teachers of English Language Learners (Gandara, Maxwell-Jolly, and Driscoll, 2005) -- offers some insights into the way teachers feel about teaching ELLs and outlines the things they feel they need to be more effective in the classroom.

What the Study Looked At
The study set out to ask teachers about their greatest challenges with regard to educating English language learners, to analyze how these challenges vary (according to factors such as teacher experience, training, and student need), and to discover the kinds of support teachers have -- and need -- for doings their jobs effectively.

How the Study Was Done
A survey was administered to almost 5,300 educators from 22 small, medium, and large districts across California in either paper or online form. Although the survey sample was not randomly drawn, it was considered to be reflective of teachers generally. More than half of the K-6 teachers reported teaching their English learner students in mainstream settings, and more than half reported working in classrooms where their students received some sort of pull-out instruction.

What the Study Found
Nine major findings emerged from the survey:

1. Teachers focused on what they could do to improve student learning and did not blame students or their families for low achievement.
   
   
2. Communication with students and their families was of utmost importance to teachers; however, teachers most often mentioned communication, understanding, and connecting with students and their parents as the greatest challenge they faced.
   
   
3. Time is a serious problem. Having enough time to teach ELLs all of the required subject matter presented the second biggest challenge for elementary teachers. Secondary teachers expressed concern about students' ability to meet advancement and graduation requirements within the four years allotted for high school.
   
   
4. Teachers are frustrated by the wide range of English language and academic levels often found in their classrooms.
   
   
5. Teachers felt they were lacking the tools they needed to teach -- especially appropriate assessment materials to diagnose student needs and measure student learning.
   
   
6. The more preparation teachers had for working with ELLs, the more likely they were to cite serious problems/challenges and shortcomings in instructional programs, services, and resources for ELLs.
   
   
7. Teachers who had been better prepared for working with ELLs were more confident about working successfully with these students.
   
   
8. Teachers have had little professional development or inservice training on how to teach ELLs over the past five years; even those who have had some training found the quality spotty and uneven.
   
   
9. When asked what type of additional support teachers of ELLs might need, teachers chose four things:

• More paraprofessional assistance
  
  
• More time to teach students
  
  
• Additional time for collaboration with colleagues
  
  
• Better materials to teach English to ELLs

Read the full report: http://www.cftl.org./documents/2005/listeningforweb.pdf 
( 1,014 KB)

Reference

Patricia Gandara, Julie Maxwell-Jolly, and Anne Driscoll. (2005). Listening to Teachers of English Language Learners. A Survey of California Teachers’ Challenges, Experiences, and Professional Development Needs. Santa Cruz, CA: Policy Analysis for California Education, The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning, and U.C. Linguistic Minority Research Center.