Long Term English Learners (LTELs)
Many districts have far more LTELs than they do “newcomers”, or brand new ELs. LTELs have either been in an English speaking school most of their lives or all of their lives and for whatever reason, their English language development has stalled at the intermediate level. There are several possible reasons for this:
- Possible lack of early exposure to literacy which exponentially increases the gap in learning.
- Poor to no development in their first language.
- When they get to the intermediate level, they have enough language to get by and therefore stop paying as much attention. Their language “fossilizes”.
- The content becomes more and more difficult and they fall farther and farther behind, so they feel overwhelmed and give up.
Usual Approach-
- SEI (structured English immersion) - mostly just immersion
- They are given simplified texts or texts in their first language (in which many of them never learned how to read)
- They are given Special Ed. Solutions- which sometimes help, but sometimes are not what they need
What really helps-
- Give enrichment experiences which help build background. Keep in mind that many difficulties are not related to skills or learning problems. (They are due to gaps in background and experiences to name a couple.)
- Encourage parents to read to their children from an early age.
- Give as much access to curriculum as possible and help them unpack meaning
- Engage them in instructional conversations where teacher facilitates the student’s discovery of how language works in complex texts. Also, texts need to grab their attention and be worth working on.
- Instead of simplified texts, they need complex and/or beautifully written texts. (They will also need more time to work on them as well as help working on them.)
Remember- just because they speak English well and might even sound like a native speaker, doesn’t mean they don’t need extra support in the content areas. They might have been born here, but still need help unpacking meaning.