ENGLISH

LANGUAGE
LEARNING
Strategies for Teaching
English Language
Learners
By: Sarah Bowman, Denny Jensen, Sophia Larney, Sara Schmeichel
Languages in
Alberta

12% of
Albertans speak a
language other
than English or
French at home
ESL
English as a VS
ELL
English
Second Language
Language Learning
Strategies for Teaching EL Learners

● Value the student’s home language - encourage them to continue to use

it while learning English.

● Build family relationships - provide important information in their language

with the use of translators

● Be welcoming and mindful - children will likely be quiet at first

○ Provide them a buddy to sit with
○ Use visual aids, gestures, games
○ Use simple short sentences
○ Provide the opportunity to bring things from or about their home
country to class if they’d like to
Things to Keep in Mind

● Pop Culture References

○ Not necessarily a great way to relate to students
○ It can create a divide for your ESL students. While it engages English learners, those without
the knowledge base are left in the dark on its meaning

“… Silence protected them from humiliation…” (Duff, 2002)

● Expectations for ESL Students

○ High Expectations: 8 yr olds entering English schools must learn 4,000-5,000 words to catch
up to their English peers. English speakers gain on average 1,000 a year. (Coelho, 2016)
○ Gets higher and more drastic the older the english language learner is
Differentiation Literature
● Add images ● Wordless Books
● Simple
sentences
Resource ● Cultural Books
● Bilingual Books

s
● Key terms
highlighted

Tech Integration Benchmarks

● Simple Wikipedia ● Alberta ESL Benchmarks
● simplish.org for each grade and level
● rewordify.com ● Writing samples
● Voice to Text (AudioNote, ● Speaking samples
Mondly)
www.learnalberta.ca/content/eslapb
Teaching ELL Students in Alberta:
Resources
Character Card

Name
Country
Resources

Benchmarks
Creat
Grade
Level
About
blank piece of
paper
Literature
Teacher
Resources
ea
plan!

1. What language do you think this student speaks?

2. How would you welcome them into your classroom?
3. What resources (ie. literature) would you bring in?
4. How would you differentiate written text for this student?
5. What would you look for when assessing this student?
Ayoub Daniel
Syria Philippines
Grade 1 Grade 11
Reading Level 1 Reading Level 2

Ayoub has joined your classroom after moving to
Canada as a refugee from Syria. He loves horses
and learning about animals in general. He is
struggling with his basic vocabulary, particularly in
the classroom.
Daniel is very eager and enthusiastic but struggles to
communicate and quickly gets frustrated. He is
nervous about the upcoming 1984 book study. When
he is done school he wants to move back to the
Philippines to be a kindergarten teacher.

Mia Ana
Germany Venezuela
Grade 4 Grade 6
Reading Level 4 Reading Level 1

Mia recently moved from Germany to Lethbridge.

She has basic conversational English but needs to
work on her fluency when reading aloud as well as
specific classroom vocabulary. She misses her
hometown and talks about it often.
Ana is very shy and has a difficult time communicating
with you and her classmates. Her extended family still
lives in Venezuela and she often seems worried about
how they’re doing. She loves reading books, but not in
English.
Time to Share!

Ayoub Gautham
Syria India
Grade 1 Grade 3
Reading Level 1 Reading Level 4

Daniel Ana
Philippines Venezuela
Grade 2 Grade 6
Reading Level 2 Reading Level 1
Resources

Duff, P. (2002, March). Pop culture and ESL students: Intertextuality, identity, and participation in classroom discussions.
Journal of Adolescence & Adult Literacy, 45(6). 482-487.

https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/249af6f8-092e-44f4-a065-0a5e48ffc337/resource/82d4417f-71b9-4842-958a-279baec851e3/downlo
ad/2016-census-language-characteristics-of-albertans.pdf

http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/eslapb/index.html