What Parents Should Know About Supporting Their English Language Learners (ELLs)

In large general education classes, some ELLs do not always acquire reading proficiency by the end of the first grade. Many ELLs can sound out words but don't always understand what they are reading. Some schools do not always have the planning hours or the additional instructional support to support these students.

An initial dialogue between a parent and a teacher allows them to identify and clarify areas in which they seek easy-to-implement solutions to meet the needs of their students. Some general education teachers have planning hours to discuss how to support struggling readers. Other ESL and ELL teachers realize they can greatly benefit from each other's knowledge but just don't have the support or the time. Parents of course, can provide a variety of balanced reading activities that includes oral and reading in addition to the help your child may be receiving already.

School and/or district policies do not always provide parents with specific guidance and support on how to meet common ESL reading deficiencies. Parents need to become familiar with the areas in which their children may struggle in reading, such as those identified by Calderón. "Many ELL students, especially recent immigrants, are less familiar with the vocabulary, syntax, and phonology of English (CalderÓn et al.).

Understanding Areas of Instruction that May Affect Your Child's Reading

When young English language learners do not reach their potential, they may continue to remain bored and/or unchallenged which can cause potential discipline problems. The good news is that there is a lot you can do as a parent to simply prevent this from happening and becoming a bigger issue. Knowing the issues is key before developing a support plan to help an ESL child. Us the checklist below to help you identify key areas after discussing areas of difficulty with your child's teacher and as you notice particular difficulties in reading at home.

Understanding the Factors that Cause ELL Students to Struggle

The guidelines for defining a struggling ELL in the K-2 grades who may be at risk for reading failure vary. ESL and ELL students come from different learning backgrounds and contexts. The concept of at-risk typically refers to the potential degree of struggle with language learning issues. Many social, cultural, emotional and other learning factors may affect the extent of struggle. Reading difficulties are not always evident by language behavior and progress. Struggling ELLs' lack of progress does not always indicate that they are at-risk for areas of language learning. Both general education teachers with ELL students and ESL teachers with ESL students in small groups each face these issues.