Teaching young learners who have a limited English language understanding can feel like a daunting task.

Teaching students from an array of cultures, educational backgrounds, along with a language barrier, takes some getting used to. So here are some tips and teaching strategies for English language learners:

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The Challenge:
The biggest challenges with young learners is making them feel safe in an unfamiliar environment and speaking in their L2 (English). 

• The meet & greet at the start of each day is key. You should greet children as they walk-in

• The children should spend the first 10 minutes of the day adjusting to the environment. You could play simple vocabulary games and allow them to greet each other. This makes them feel at ease. 

• Brief them on the schedule of the day. It is useful to use visuals and keep the images consistent. For example, a picture of a knife, fork and plate to symbolise lunch-time. 

• At the end of each day (end & send), you should review the lexis and vocabulary of the day through a quiz. You could also review the previous vocabulary/ lexis at the beginning of each morning (morning quiz). 

• Remember to record their learning in their ‘learning journal’. 

• The magic word is "why". For every plan, there is always the question of why: students should use language to express ideas. This makes it necessary for them to speak English, it motivates them. 

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Scaffolding 
How much support do children need to experiment, observe and share? 
It depends. It's all about group work and meaningful collaboration. 
‘Classroom language’ is key: temples for asking questions, sharing opinions, turn-taking, agreeing and vocabulary to increase the work of others. 

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‘Target language’ is also key: names of objects, lexical chunks related to the topic, action verbs to describe. Visuals are also key. Learning by doing is a must. 
 

Assessment 
We need it for the children to understand what they have learnt;  we can understand what they have understood. But this does not have to be boring. It can be made fun through quizzes. We could also use multiple-choice questions to summarise what has been covered. It could also be used to consolidate learning. 

The learning journal is key. At the end of each lesson, you could ask the children an open-question about a topic and see what they produce in their learning journal. 

1. Connect with your students.
Picture this: you’re a student sitting in a class with a stranger at the front of the classroom who speaks a foreign language you can hardly understand.
It can be intimidating when the teacher launches right into their lesson without a hook.
It’s important to remember that students (especially kids) don’t learn from people they aren’t comfortable with.
Introduce yourself. Ask questions or do a get to know you activity. Get to know your students before you get started.
Learn and address your students by name, greet each student and make a genuine effort to get to know them.
Building a rapport will go a long way in creating strong relationships with your students and will help them learn better.
 

2. Create a comfortable learning environment.
Students need to feel safe and secure to express themselves fully.
By creating a positive learning environment, not just physically but emotionally, students will be more willing to try new things. And, more importantly, practise their English language skills.

Correct errors with compassion. Students are bound to make mistakes – that’s how they learn!
Try positive reinforcement strategies. Reward good work and effort (with praise and SKOLA awards). Positive reinforcement is a great way to make students feel safe but build a rapport.

It’s also essential to give students time to finish their work and answer questions, so be patient!
Keep in mind that students will most likely need to translate questions (in their head), formulate an answer and then translate it back to English. That whole process can take a bit of time, so it’s important to give students a chance to think it through rather than demanding a quick answer. Using teaching strategies like Think-Pair-Share will give students time to process information, answer confidently and increase participation.

3. Establish routines.
ESL students thrive with routine and structure.
Writing a daily agenda, having circle time or a sit-down activity for students when they enter the classroom will help students become familiar with their lesson plans.
Just make sure to post clear objectives. Students need to understand the purpose or end goal of the activity or lesson to comprehend the lesson’s content.
Using examples is a great way to bridge the gap between communicating objectives and student comprehension

4. Speak clearly and enunciate words. 
Slow down! You’re going to want to reduce your talking speed so that everyone in the class has a chance to hear every word you say.

A lot of language learners will agree that fluent speakers speak too fast (especially if, like Connor, they come from Liverpool). It can be hard to understand the whole message when you don't catch all of it.

Try to be mindful of the speed of your voice. And try to speak as clearly as possible by enunciating your voice.

Speak louder than you usually would. It’s really important that your students can learn how to pronounce vocabulary and hear all the nuances of a word.

5. Use non-verbal communication.
Time to flex your acting chops! Get creative and use your body language to express an action during a lesson.

One trick to help students learn important grammatical rules like prepositions is to use your body as a prop when using the word. For example, you can demonstrate each preposition by acting it out. When I say “in” I act out the action of putting something in my mouth and repeat patterns. Repetition helps people remember!

Tip: the more outlandish the action, the easier it is for them to recall it later.
You may also play a game of charades with your students!

6. Make things visual.
Make learning English interesting and fun, so it’s stickier.

One way to do that is by engaging learners with visuals or props. Bring your lesson plan to life by drawing on the board or sharing pictures, videos and art.

Label everything! 

Using labels on everyday classroom resources (like chairs, doors, desks, computers, pencils, etc.) will help students absorb new English vocabulary.

Also, word walls are a great way to create print-rich environments.

7. Check for understanding.
Think your students are gonna stop you in the middle of a sentence and ask for clarification when they don’t understand? Think again!
Most language learners get shy about admitting to the whole class they didn’t understand something.
You’d be surprised how many students pretend they understand when they have no idea what you’re talking about.
That’s why you should remember to pause after you say something or give instructions to check for understanding.
Ask a few more questions or explain the context a little more before you move on to make sure they took it in.

8. Be adaptable.
Teaching can be unpredictable. That’s why you’ll want to learn multiple ESL teaching methods.
It’s essential to bear in mind that lesson activities can (and will) fall flat on many occasions.
That’s why you should learn to be flexible with your lessons and prepare multiple ways to teach a specific concept in advance. Preparation is key!
Side note: The phrase, “do you understand?” should never be uttered in an ESL classroom. Students are frequently eager to please their teacher and will almost always answer this question in the affirmative.

9.  Create engaging lessons.
Small practices that we, as fluent English speakers, can take for granted can make learning English a whole lot easier and more enjoyable.
Make your lessons engaging and interactive for your students.
Do everything out loud (think alouds!) and make sure to demonstrate concepts in multiple ways to increase student understanding.
Using visuals, close activities and graphic organisers can all aid ESL students in their learning.
You could teach the same concept multiple times using different strategies such as singing, videos, actions, stories, etc.

10. Introduce new vocabulary or lexis before use in lessons (for young or lower level students).
For your weekly classroom routine, create a list of words or lexis that are related to the weekly themes.
At the beginning of each morning or week, go through each word or lexis, discussing the meaning and practising its use in sentences.
Post each word for the week at the front of the classroom, along with a visual conveying meaning.
It will act as a quick point of reference and make memorising words easier.
Learning vocabulary first, freed them up to focus on the overall learning objectives of the lesson.

11. Practise differentiated or adaptive teaching strategies.
There is differentiation and adaptive teaching. Try both. 

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"What is the difference between differentiation and adaptive teaching?
Traditional differentiation usually refers to planning different activities for different groups or individual students, depending on their attainment levels. It also refers to the action you take to remove barriers to learning.
Adaptive teaching is where you focus on the class as a whole. Essentially, it’s the difference between delivering up to 30 lessons at once to suit each individual and teaching one lesson with scaffolding.
The idea with adaptive teaching is that teachers are able to have high expectations in their classroom, with less room for the students to ‘coast’ by tackling a ‘mild spicy’ task every lesson. It is a move away from the ‘bottom group’ always being seen as the ‘bottom group’ and being given ‘bottom group’ work.
Every student is pushed to challenge themselves. Where scaffolding is provided for students, the plan is that those students are working toward becoming fully independent learners.
 

How effective is adaptive teaching?
The PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) found that ‘adaptive instruction’ is an approach that correlates strongly with student performance.
The Early Career Framework, which entitles new teachers to continued training following their Initial Teacher Training, references ​“adaptive teaching”, moving away from the term ​“differentiation” altogether, which is an important distinction."

See the full article here: differentiation vs adaptive teaching. 

• Read more about adaptive teaching: 

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/moving-from-differentiation-to-adaptive-teaching

• Read more about differentiation here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TGgG3t_EQC185OEQPH9cfW_VngzxRnsK