English Language Learners (ELL) and Literacy Development

Reading comprehension is a complex process that depends on a number of different factors including a student's reading level, the difficulty of the text, and how motivated the reader is. In order to fully comprehend a piece of literature the reader needs to actively construct meaning while reading (Lesaux, Lipka, & Siegel, 2006; Graves, Juel, & Graves, 2007).

Imagine trying to do all this and not even being familiar with the language the text is written in. There are close to 10 million children in grades pre-K through grade 12 who speak a language other than English at home. These children are known as language-minority children, and they are the fastest-growing population in schools today. Language-minority students may speak only their native language, both English and their native language, or only English. It is possible that they were born in the United States, or that they have come to this country as immigrants or refugees ("English Language Learners," 2006). Approximately 4.7 million students, or about half of the language-minority student population, are faced with the dilemma of not having enough English proficiency to be able to succeed academically in traditional English classrooms. These students are known as English Language Learners, or ELLs (Carlo, 2007).

Since 1991, the ELL population has increased 95%. In some states it has grown to over 200% due to the large growth in the Hispanic subpopulation (Kamps et al, 2007; Carlo, 2007). California has the largest number of ELL students with 1,591,525, followed by Texas with 684,007 and Florida with 299,346. New York, Illinois, and Arizona also have a significantly large ELL population ("English Language Learners," 2006).

Students are considered to be ELLs when their native language is other than English. They must develop literacy skills, learn to read and write in English, and acquire content knowledge and content area literacy which could be quite a difficult undertaking. ELLs learn the English language when they enter school through the English as a Second Language (ESL) program or in a full inclusion classroom ("English Language Learners," 2006; Frederickson, 1999).

"English Language Learners" has defined literacy as traditionally being "the ability to read and to write" (¶ 4). However, in a real-world application, literacy becomes a "function of the interrelationships of listening, reading, speaking, and writing, as well as the ability to read critically, write appropriately, and cope with an increasingly global and technological society" ("English Language Learners," 2006, ¶ 4). Almost half, or 4,747,763, of all ELLs perform at significantly lower levels than their native English-speaking peers on measures of reading comprehension. ELLs also have high dropout rates and are frequently placed in low ability groups in school (Echevarria, Short, & Powers, 2006; Lesaux et al., 2006; "English Language Learners," 2006). This presents quite a challenge for these students as well as many teachers. Countless teachers are ill prepared to make content comprehensible for ELLs, and these students end up falling behind. The No Child Left Behind legislation states that "All children will have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to receive a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging state academic assessments" (U.S. Department of Education, 2002, p.15). Since the ELL population continues to rapidly increase it is extremely important that teachers support and ensure reading success for all students. This can be done if teachers are better prepared to work with ELLs, and they give effective literacy instruction to these students. Schools need to make certain that teachers understand the programs, theories, principles, and strategies that are most successful in educating ELL students. The teacher's role in the classroom has never been more important than it is today. The teacher has the crucial role of linking core academic instruction to the state standards (Reed & Railsback, 2003; Echevarria et al., 2006).

It is important for teachers to work within a students' linguistic comfort zone and eventually challenge the student by moving beyond what they can linguistically produce (Frederickson, 1999). They should be able to reach these students in a way that is easy for them to understand and use strategies that rely more on movement, visuals, and hands-on activities rather then language. Using different types of strategies will allow ELLs to "make connections between English vocabulary, sentence structures, and the concepts being demonstrated" (Carrier, 2006).