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Teaching Students who are LEP/ELL

LEP = Limited English ProficiencyELL= English Language Learner

LEP/ELL Demographics in the United States:

In the United States, there are over _____ LEP students.

A majority of LEP students are first or second generation Hispanic immigrants, though we have LEP students from across the globe in every state.

Many LEP struggle with reading and writing, and need your help for them to have success!

How do we determine if a student is LEP/ELL?

When students enter the US education system, the parents must first fill out a “Home Language Survey,” which indicates if the main language used in the home is English.

If the main language is NOT English, then the student must take an English assessment (the W-APT) to determine English proficiency.

This test will result in a score between 1 and 6 for each of the main communicative areas (Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening). If a student struggles in any of those regions due to limited English, they will be labeled LEP/ELL, and will have access to LEP services or will have their academic progress monitored by an ESL teacher.

Why is the W-APT/WIDA test score important?

As the teacher, it is very important to know and understand your LEP/ELL students’ WIDA scores. These scores range from 1 to 6, and reveal which communication areas the student may have trouble with.

The highest score a student can have is a “6” in any area, and this should indicate that the student has native-like English skills in that area.

The lowest score a student can have is a “1” which indicates they have little if any English communication capabilities in that area. These students are often new to the country and there fore called “newcomers.”

The next slide reveals the general English capabilities of students on each level from 1-6.

Performance definitions of

WIDA LEP scores:

As seen on the chart to the side: a student who scores a “1” can only produce words or short phrases, whereas a student who scores a “6” has very specialized and technical English production.

What do we need to keep in mind while reading a students’ WIDA

scores? Students develop different capabilities at different speeds. Often, LEP/ELL’s develop the speaking and listening English

proficiency much sooner than reading and writing. Speaking/listening depends on social vocabulary, and is picked

up quickly in the lunch room/school yard, but Reading/Writing depends on more academic language, and takes much longer to acquire (5-7 years).

Therefore, a student may have native like speaking/listening, but is not able to succeed in reading/writing still because they do not have the academic language required.

A brief guide: A few reasons that LEP/ELL students struggle in

content Limited vocabulary: this prevents students from fully understanding

and comprehending grade-level texts. This also limits a student’s ability to produce academic and technical analysis in writing.

Low reading levels: Many LEP/ELL students have below grade-level reading skills, in fluency and/or comprehension. Therefore, even simple reading tasks may be difficult of confusing for ELL’s.

Writing: Due to many factors (grammar, limited vocabulary, limited syntax, etc.), LEP/ELL’s often struggle to communicate fluently in writing. While the student may often understand a concept, they may have difficulty expressing that idea in English.

Background Knowledge: Finally, LEP/ELL students may have difficulty understanding content due to a lack of or different background knowledge about the world. If students have little familiarity with a concept, they will have difficulty understanding the information and connecting it with prior knowledge.