The focus of education had dramatically changed over the last 30 years. We have shifted from primarily addressing the needs of native English-speaking students to including a rapidly growing number of children from linguistically and culturally different backgrounds. There has been much debate on the best ways to teach the ELL (English Language Learner) student, and this article will focus on some of teaching strategies that will help maximize learning for them. The strategies that will be discussed will be: input, environment, opportunities, networks, and the importance of guidelines.

Comprehensible input is imperative to the ELL students’ language acquisition. The student is only able to understand and learn when the information that you teach is meaningful. Some strategies that will assist you with this are: use clear, predictable, teacher talk; reduce the use of idioms; talk more slowly; simplify your vocabulary whenever possible; use key words; use linguistic and visual cues to direct the students attention to important points; and expand on the one-word or two-word sentences that students produce.

Environment is also an important factor for ELL students. Students who are in a relaxed and stress free environment are relaxed and more self-confident and therefore learn better. Some strategies to assist with this are: show genuine interest in the students, their language, and their culture; allow students to verbalize in their own language to help them understand concepts; avoid forcing students to speak - they will talk when they are ready; accept gestures, drawings etc. whenever possible; don’t correct grammatical or pronunciation errors - corrections can actually impede progress; continually reinforce students progress by keeping charts and cumulative folders to show how far they’ve come; and encourage students to share their backgrounds and cultures.

The best language learning comes from students’ genuine attempts to communicate. By providing students the opportunity to participate in activities within and beyond the classroom they will learn more. Some strategies to assist this are: promoting friendships - you can help them with this by introducing students to others who share their interests; integrate the ELL students within the classroom by making them feel a part of the group - this can be done by giving them duties within the class; and make cooperative learning an important part of every class - so students learn to work together towards a common goal.

Networks are important for the ELL learner because they allow them to have a support network within their school and community. This is important to help make the transition for the student a little easier. Networks can be set up by: Learning about the resources within the community - there are many agencies to help immigrants and refugees, so by finding which ones are operating in your community you are able to turn to them if your student needs counseling, answers to questions, or other help.

The final strategy that is useful when teaching ELL students is to have clear and unmistakable guidelines. This can be achieved by: making your classroom rules very clear - make sure you explain them well, using and interpreter if possible; and making sure that the consequences for misbehaviour are explained to the students - they need to know that unacceptable behaviour will have certain consequences that may be different than the method that they are used to. When doing this keep in mind the different cultural backgrounds that our students come from. It may be, for instance, that some students come from cultures where classes are tightly structured and in our less formal classes, they are unable to figure out what the rules are and how they should behave.

As classrooms across the world are becoming more richly diverse, every educator needs to consider the needs of the ELL student. When we think of the amount of time it takes to become fully proficient in another language, the opportunities to learn that are available to all students, the use of language as a tool for academic progress, and the creation of a shared learning community, we are taking steps in the right direction. These steps outlined in this paper must be integrated more into the educational setting for the ELL student so that we may effectively support the educational journey of our students.

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Sherri Rutherford