English Language Learners

There are many English Language Learners (ELLs) in the United States. Therefore there should be progressive improvement in the programs for ELL’s students. Unfortunately there is a lot of stigma around certain languages, and on people whose first language is not English. This has created major setbacks in not only the education of student’s whose first language is not English, but also have created downfalls for the parents of these students as well. In 2010, the U.S census reported that 20% of the current population speaks another language other than English in the United States, and has since risen since then (Nieto, Bode, 2010). Throughout the years, there has been a great impact of court cases and key legislations. With these movements

With the growing rate of ELL students attending schools, their needs to be change. Teachers who are trained to help these students should not be the only ones with background on how to help them transfer to English. All teachers involved in that students education needs to help provide an easy way for them to make the transfer. Language is learned, therefore just like Math, science and reading they need to be taught the basics. Teachers need to organize their classroom to promote the best possible learning environment of an ELL student. Along with creating the optimal learning environment for these students, we also have to be aware of the standards we have to get them up to for positive progress within the school system and “testing.” ELL students are still required to take the same standardized test as a regular English speaking students. Even though ELL students who take standardized test place 20% to 30% below a non- ELL student (DeVoe J, 2007). ELL students are not given extra time to prepare for these test, which are written in English. So, teachers are expected to get ELL students up to “average” English by testing time, and if not that is an accountability issue which could have been avoided if the student was given some extra time to prepare. In retrospect, there is controversy over ELL students taking standardized tests vs. performance assessments. Standardized achievement tests are commonly used for assessment and accountability purposes because they have established objectivity, reliability, and validity as well as ease of administration and cost efficiency in scoring (Abedi, J, 2010). English language learners are often among the lowest-performing students in schools due to trying to learn a whole new language. Therefore, giving them a test in English can be beneficial, but does not show what they truly know other than to understand or comprehend English. Performance tests allow