As I am building my website, an area that I kept circling back to is that English language learners are not like any other new students that join our classroom. They could be coming from other countries and maybe even war-torn countries. In this case they could be very scared and unsure of their new surroundings. Also, we need to realize that our English language learner’s culture and beliefs could be very different from our own country's culture and to take that into consideration. There are 6 factors that an educator should consider when they have an English language learner in their classroom (Levine et al., 2012).
- Adjustment process-cultural adjustment
- Prior experience with English- may be reluctant to share what they know
- Previous schooling- might have different routines and expectations
- The presence of learning exceptionalities
- Personality factors
- Motivational factors -Students will learn a language more easily if they identify with others
Building a classroom environment that is warm, welcoming and safe is essential.
Reference
Levine, L. N., Smallwood, B. A., & Haynes, E. R. (2012). Listening and speaking: Oral language and vocabulary development for English language learners (Hot Topics in ELL Education, B. A. Smallwood, Ed.). Center for Applied Linguistics.
