Single Sythesis paper (2)

ELL Performance in Reading, Literacy, and Social Sciences

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Overview

Over the years, there have been many debates about to what degree school

systems should go to in order to educate ELL students. There has also been a lot of

discussion about the way in which students are taught reading, writing ,and social

sciences. One can find many methods that are supposedly tried and true, but then

fall out of fashion. There has also been much debate over when and how one

should test ELL students in the age of high stakes testing. Research such as

methods in which students are taught literacy and social sciences, and trends in

testing data will be explored in the three or so topics in this paper.

ELL Students’ Performance in Social Sciences

Background

The ELL population has increased dramatically in the last eleven years.

From the 1993-1994 school years to the 2004-2005 school years, the ELL

population has increased by 68%. (Misco & Costaneda, 2009). According to the

court case Lau vs. Nichols (1974); all students are entitled to participate in a

meaningful education, regardless of their first language. Additionally, according to

the court case Plyer vs. Doe (1982), all students, regardless of their immigration

status are entitled to an education and all the protections of the 14th amendment.


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Therefore, even though ELL students find social sciences difficult, educators are

obligated to offer these courses to ELL students in a meaningful manner.

Challenges of Social Sciences for ELLs

Social studies, otherwise known as social sciences, is difficult, even for non-

native speakers, because of the nature of the text (Brown, 2007). In order to

understand social studies, students must gain a conceptual understanding of

historical events, geographic positions, and the impact of events on society.

Although ELLs can rapidly pick up conversational or social language, it takes

between 5 and 7 years for ELLs to reach grade level in academic language. Also,

there are little cues such as facial features, intonation, or gestures to help ELLs

understand the text. Likewise, there is not a predictable sequence oftentimes in the

text used in social sciences. Equally important is the fact that many ELLs lack

background knowledge, and if there is background knowledge, it is often

mismatched with the topic of discussion. (Brown, 2007).

Other problems that could cause barriers in ELLs performance in social

sciences include the fact some ELLs may have had no formal schooling and the

fact that the background knowledge ELL students do have is oftentimes not valued

by their schools. Also, teachers may not be familiar with students’ cultures within


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their rooms, so the y do not know how to incorporate ELL students’ culture into

the curriculum (Weisman & Hansen, 2007).

According to Brown, The text that is used in social sciences is often difficult

to read as well, especially for ELL learners. There is often unfamiliar vocabulary

embedded in the text. The sentence structure is also oftentimes confusing. There

are complex sentences, and sentences with dependent clauses. There are also series

of facts, ideas, and concepts within one sentence, which can be confusing as well

(2007).

Strategies to Increase ELL’s Achievement in Social Sciences

Although ELLs do have a difficult time comprehending information

presented in social sciences, there is research to support strategies that could help

ELLs better understand the subjects that fall in this category. Brown suggests the

use of content maps and having students outlining units. The author continues by

suggestion the use of guiding questions, simplifying text, and assisting with

reading complex text (2007).

Misco and Castaneda state that educators should respond to four main areas

of concern when teaching social sciences. These areas of concern are building


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empathy for the difficulties associated with learning a new language,

understanding how a second language is acquired, adapting curricula to students’

language needs, and employing literacy skills in the discipline. A strategy the

authors advise using is the reverse chronological approach.

The reverse chronological approach takes on a thematic approach to social

sciences. This approach towards teaching social sciences starts with what the

student is familiar with and works backwards. It naturally facilitates the use of

primary sources, supplementary reading and cooperative inquiry, avoiding many of

the problems that can arise from textbook based teaching. By starting with the

most current and working backwards, students can make connections within

themes within social sciences (2009).

Although these strategies seem to work with ELLs thus far, there is very

little research available in regards to ELLs' performance in the social sciences.

More research is needed to determine if these strategies do indeed increase an

ELL’s achievement in this area of academia.


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Trends in Testing Data of ELLs in Language Arts

Using Data to Determine Achievement

One set of data many people look at to determine if we are meeting students’

needs when it comes to instruction is that of standardized testing. It is assumed that

if students’ scores remain the same, they are not learning, therefore we must be

doing something wrong. States are beginning to look at these data more critically

to determine money districts receive, teacher pay, and various correction actions

that need to be made to be sure that schools tests scores improve. Although there

is much to learn about educating ELL students, determining where these students

are and what they have learned may not be best assessed using high stakes tests

data.

Since the implementation of NCLB (No Child Left Behind) in 2001, states

have put more and more emphasis on students’ performances on high stakes

testing. Horn, the white 13 year old white students were achieving at about the

level of 17 year old African Americans while the Hispanic students continue to

underperform based on the 1996 NAEP test. It is noted that the ways ELL students

and students with disabilities are rated are different from their white, African


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American, and not disabled counterparts; therefore one must be careful when

looking at these data. High- stakes testing can also be linked to a higher dropout

rate among Hispanics. Analysis of these test results also show that without

appropriate accommodations, ELL students typically continue to underperform.

Research supports that even with a student’s increased performance in high stakes

testing, there is not necessarily evidence to support that there is increased learning.

Also, increases in these high-stakes tests often do not carry over from one year to

another. These trends are nationwide. In Massachusetts, students are given a test

called MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System). On this test,

only 52% of ELL students scored needs improvement or higher while 88% of white

students scored needs improvement or higher. This article concludes by suggesting

that the trends in the high- stakes testing do not necessarily reflect the learning

being done of the ELL student (Horne, 2003).

Why ELLs Do Not Perform as Well

Scores from NAEP of ELL learners from 2005 were compared to those who

were not ELL students. Seventy-one percent of ELL students scored below basic

on the reading portion of the test compared to only 27 % of the non-ELL students.

This research focuses on how to help these students perform better on reading.


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Lack of background knowledge, the use of idiomatic expressions and little

knowledge of US history could all be barriers that show ELL students’

performance is not increasing on these tests over time. It is concluded that

although there may be many reasons ELL students do not perform as well on high

stakes tests, it is still the nation’s goal to educate all students, including ELLs.

(Alliance for Excellent Education, 2007).

Jamal Abedi and Patricia Gandara state that each subgroup is faced with its

own set of challenges when testing (2006). It is emphasized that ELL students do

perform below average compared to non-ELL students in Reading, but they are

performing close to the same in Math as well. It should be noted that it is common

practice among states to have ELL students take the Math portion of the high

stakes tests even if the ELL students are not required for a couple of years to take

the reading portion. The authors remind readers that students take time to acquire

the skills they need in order to be able to perform well on high stakes tests. By

definition, ELL students do not have a strong command of the language. Thus,

standardized tests that are designed to challenge non-ELLs are even more difficult

for ELL students. Because of awkward workings in the tests, they do not

accurately reflect what ELLs truly know. However, because of the NCLB Title I

accountability requirements, ELL students are required to be assessed with the


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same tests that are developed and field tested with native speakers of English.

Abedi and Gandara (2006) determine that the reason that ELL students consistently

rank lower on these tests, and it looks like there is no growth of ELL students, is

that ELL students are rarely used to give the baseline for the score, or used in field

tests. Also, student’s linguistic and cultural factors may hinder a student’s ability to

fully understand materials in a way in which they will do well on assessments.

Since ELL students are affected by many different factors, it is not possible to

present a clear picture of all the issues involved in the educational experiences of

ELL students; nor is it possible to accurately judge what ELL students are learning

using the same measure as is used for non-ELL students.

In summary, there seems to be a consensus that high-stakes standardized

testing is not the best way to judge what an ELL has learned, or what he or she

knows. There are many factors, such as linguistic and cultural factors that may

make it hard for ELLs to do well on tests designed for non-ELL students. It can

also be concluded that just because it appears that ELL learners are not achieving

in literacy, or any subject at levels of non-ELL students, these students are not

learning the material.


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Barriers of ELL Students when Learning Literacy

ELL learners are facing many barriers when learning literacy in English.

According to Deapua and Marshal (2010), ELL struggle because they lack a strong

academic background in their own language. This is specifically true of English.

These students often lack a proficiency in English as well.

Also, other cultures often have a strong support structure in their schools.

These cultures are more nurturing to students whereas schools in the United States

tend to be more individualistic. For example, cultures such as those in Mexico and

Central America often promote a familiar relationship with educators and students.

Similarly, in the Hmong culture teachers are considered “second parents.” In

contrast, US systems encourage a gradual separation of students and encourage

them to become more independent.

Another barrier, according to Musanti and Pence (2010) suggest ELLs have

to learning literacy is the fact that ELLs cover up what they do not know. They do

not want to appear dumb; therefore they act as if they understand concepts.

Research supports the fact that if you cover up not knowing a concept, it makes it

more difficult to learn it.


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A third barrier that ELL students have in learning literacy is the fact that

there is a difference in the social language structure and the academic language

structure (DeCapua & Marshal, 2010). Because these language structures are

unique to their place in society, it is confusing to the ELL who is just learning the

language. It takes between five and seven years for an ELL to acquire academic

language at grade level. Also, because the social language structure is easier for the

ELL students to grasp, many teachers misinterpret these students’ knowing this

language and assume they should be able to do well in school.

To overcome these barriers, some school systems have implemented

Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Although many schools see this

as a solution to an ever increasing problem, it actually has many barriers as well.

Some of these barriers include the fact that many ELL students may come to this

country with little or no technology skills. Also, this program proves to be very

costly. Funding is an on-going problem to keep this program in the schools. Lastly,

the ELL may not accept technology, even if he or she is able to learn it. (Shao-

Chieh Lu, 2006).

Along with many other barriers, ELLs have a challenge when learning

English. There is research to support that ELLs’ difficulty in acquiring academic


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language is legitiment. Culture is instrumental in shaping one’s views of the world

and how he or she organizes and processes information (DeCapua & Marshal

2010). Thus, schools should understand these barriers and work around them.

Teacher attitudes can also be a barrier ELLs have when learning literacy.

Research is mixed about how teachers feel about ELLs. Most research, however,

points to a more negative feeling towards these students, especially if you ask

teachers about having ELLS in their classrooms.

According to research conducted by Karabenick and Clemens (2004), only

43% of teachers said they would like to have ELLs in their classroom. Also, 45%

of teachers believe that if an ELL student is not able to express himself, it is

because he or she does not understanding. Likewise, 63% of teachers believed that

ELLs take more of their time in the classroom than non-ELL students. Most of the

teachers also favored emersion to other methods of instruction for ELL students.

Overall, teachers in this study were positive when questioned about ELL students,

though they were more comfortable with ELLs at their school than in their

classrooms.


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According to Youngs and Youngs (2001), mainstream teachers’ attitudes

toward ESL students are likely to affect what ESL students learn. Teachers’

attitudes and expectations of students often lead to students behaving or learning as

expected. Teachers influence their students, even if they are unaware that they are

communicating these expectations.

Attitudes not only in the classroom, but also in society have become

increasingly negative in the past few years (Walker, Shafer, and Liams, 2011).

Evidence to support the fact attitudes are increasingly negative include the fact that

referendums have been passed banning bilingual education and have negated ELL

instruction to a single year of structured immersion in California, Arizona, and

Massachusetts.

Additionally, in a study by the authors, the overall attitudes of teachers

towards ELLs appear to be neutral to strongly negative. Only 18% felt that ELLs

perform well and school. Also, 16% of those surveyed felt that ELL students came

from places where education was inferior. Equally important, 70% of mainstream

teachers were not actively interested in having ELLs in their room. In the same

way, 25% of the mainstream teachers felt it was the responsibility of the ELL

learner to adapt to the American culture to learn.


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Strategies for Instructing ELLs in Literacy

Background

Much research has been conducted to determine what should be done to

increase ELLs’ performance in literacy. In order to effectively increase these

students’ achievement in this area, one must know how students in general read.

According to Cumming (2010), there are two basic components of reading which

are conceptually distinct; these two components are word level and text level.

Cummings suggests that there should be a balanced approach to reading instruction

that combines the provision of ample opportunities for literacy engagement.

A background of how ELLs learn is also important to know when

considering strategies to instruct ELL students. Teachers should understand the

patterns of reading development among ELL students as well as language

acquisition of ELLs. The order that ELL students acquire a new language

generally follows this sequence, according to the author: 1) conversational fluency

2) discrete language skills 3) academic language proficiency. It is important that

educators do recognize that conversational fluency comes much earlier than

academic fluency. For example, ELL students typically acquire conversational


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fluency within one to two years. On the contrary, ELLs usually take between five

and seven years to gain academic fluency at grade level. In order for ELLs to catch

up within six years, the author states that an ELL student must make 15 month

gains each 10 month school year. The average native speaker only gains about 10

months of academic gain in a 10 month school year.

Linguist estimate that in order for a student to get by in conversation, he or

she needs to know about 2000 word families, which is why ELLs are able to grasp

conversational language much earlier than academic language. Additionally, there

are many clues to conversation that facilitate in the ELLs understanding of

conversation. Examples of clues that are included in conversational language

include eye contact, gestures, facial expression and intonation. Since academic

language is oftentimes more formal and abstract, ELLs have a difficulty

understanding it (Cummings, 2010).

Strategies

Because ELL students do struggle with academic language, it is important

that educators learn strategies that can aid in these students better understanding it.

In the same way, it is important that teachers are aware of these strategies when

teaching literacy. Some of the strategies include including writing strategies as


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reading and writing are closely related, building literacy skills in the first language,

increasing background knowledge, and using translations.

One approach that many schools in California and Texas have tried is

bilingual education (Cheung, 2005). In both studies mentioned by the author, the

schools that incorporated the bilingual model were more successful that similar

schools in the same area that did not incorporate bilingual education. Although this

approach is not widely used in much of the country, research does support the fact

that bilingual education is successful.

If bilingual education is not an option, using an ELL’s first language still is a

good strategy to use. For example, teachers can incorporate cognates and use

students who share the same first language to translate (Vacca-Rizppoulos &

Nicoletti, 2009). Also, according to Vacca-Ripzppoulos & Nicoletti, incorporating

bilingual flip books is a good strategy. A flip book has the words or lessons in

English on one side and the native tongue on the other side. Additionally, if a

student has a higher functioning ELL classmate in the class, this student can act as

not only a translator, but later one who clarifies concepts that are difficult to

understand in English.


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Another strategy one should incorporate when teaching ELL students is to

incorporate visual cues. To illustrate, one may bring in real examples of new

vocabulary words. (Vacca-Rizopoulos & Nicolettie, 2009). Also, concept maps,

mind maps, and word maps help students to visually see how words connect in

english.

In addition to the afore mentioned strategies, one must also build an ELL’s

schema, or background knowledge to make what he or she is reading more

meaningful (Stotte, 2001). According to Stotte, the reading process involves

identification of genre, formal structures and topics. Some students’ difficulties in

reading may be problems brought on because of insufficient background

knowledge. There are many ways one can build this background knowledge. Some

ways an educator may work to build and ELL’s schema include lectures, the use of

visual aids, demonstrations, and real live experiences such as field trips.

Additionally, the use of discussion and role play can help with building an ELL’s

background knowledge. It is also important to include text previewing and

discussion of new vocabulary terms.


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References

Ab ed i, j, & Gand ara, P atric ia. (2006). P erfo rmanc e o f englis h

language learners as a s ub gro up in large -s c ale as s es s ment:

interac tio n o f res earc h and p o lic y. Ed uc atio nal

Meas urement : Is s ues and P rac tic e , (winter), 36-46.

Alliance for Excellent Education. (2007). Urgent but overlooked: The literacy

crisis among adolescent English Language Learners. Washington, DC:

(Available at: http://www.all4ed.org/files/UrgentOver.pdf)

Ho rn, Catherine. (2003). High-s takes tes ting and s tud ents :

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Brown, C. (2007, September/October). Strategies for making social studies texts

more comprehensible for english language learners. The Social Studies, 185-

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Perez, D, & Holmes, M. (2010). Ensuring academic literacy for ell students.

http://www.all4ed.org/files/UrgentOver.pdf


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American Secondary Education, 38(2), 32-43.

Misco, T., & Castaneda, M. (2009, Spring). "Now, what should i do for english

language learners?" reconceptualizing social studies curriculum design for

ells. Educational Horizons, 182-189.

Stott, N. (2001). Helping esl students become better readers: schema theory

applications and limitations. The Internet TESL Journal, 7(11).

(available at http://iteslj.org/articles/stott-schema.html)

Weisman, E., & Hansen, L. (2007, December). Strategies for teaching social

studies to elementary level ells. The Education Digest, 61-65.

The Oyez Project, Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982) available at:

(http://oyez.org/cases/1980-1989/1981/1981_80_1538)

Intercultural Development Research Association, Lau v. Nichols, 414 U.S. 563

(1974) available at (http://www.idra.org/mendezbrown/lau_case.html)

http://www.oyez.org/cases/1980-1989/1981/1981_80_1538


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I pledge n my honor that I have neither given nor

received unauthorized aid on this work, and I am

unaware of any violation of the Student Conduct

Code by others

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Single Sythesis paper (2)