Supporting Multilingual Learners

There are many reasons why learners may be recommended for language acquisition support. It is important to note that multilingual learners may not qualify for language support if there proficiency assessment rates them near a grade-level native-speaker proficiency. As stated earlier, learners also move through the language acquisition process at different rates and may "test out" or no longer qualify for language support at different times. The care providers of multilingual students who qualify for language support may also refuse formal language support at their discretion. Always check with your cooperating teacher or school site ESL coordinator for information related to supporting the learners in your specific classroom context.

Multilingual Learners

Once students are identified as eligible for language support through the WIDA proficiency assessment system, there are three further "types" of language learner required to be distinguished and identified for support within Minnesota state education law as identified by current research. A link to policies regarding English Learner Education in Minnesota is provided for you here.

Three additional distinctions made within multilingual learners receiving supports include the following groups:

1) Recently Arrived: Newcomers that are new to the country within the last 1-2 years.

2) SLIFE: Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education are students who do not have continuous educational experience equivalent to their age/grade level, usually due to refugee or other immigration-related life experiences. Minnesota was the first state to create policies to identify and support SLIFE specifically.

3) L-TEL: "Long-Term English Learners" are students who have received English language support services for eight or more years within the U.S. school system.

Language Learners' needs, strengths, and challenges can vary dramatically, even within the same classroom or among students from the same background. 

Having an effective way to evaluate students’ needs is crucial to helping students succeed. 

Some of a multilingual learner's strengths may include:

• Strong literacy skills in their native language
• Academic skills and content area knowledge developed in their native language
• Strong family support and commitment to children’s future
• Strong interest in education
• High levels of personal responsibility, resilience, resourcefulness, and commitment to success

Some of their challenges may include:

• Little or no formal schooling
• High levels of mobility in moving between schools (especially in the case of students from migrant farmworker families)
• Lack of access to effective, consistent language instruction, as in the case of students who have experienced bilingual education during one year and then English immersion in another
• Limited practice developing and using academic language
• Personal responsibilities that occupy hours during or outside of school, such as caring for siblings, working one or more jobs, and translating for families

For more fast facts regarding English Learners in the United States such as where there are ESL teacher shortages, access this infographic article "English Language Learners: How Your State is Doing (NPR, 2017).

Student WIDA Proficiency Scores

It is necessary to know the language proficiency scores and background information for all of your multilingual learners who are receiving support services in language learning based on their individual comprehensive WIDA scores.

Example Multilingual Learner Profile:

Differentiating with WIDA's CAN DO Descriptors

One challenge is for classroom teachers to know how they can best strategically support the identified Multilingual Learners in their class. Statistically speaking, ALL teachers will teach one or more  multilingual students throughout their careers. You can make a difference in the life and language of your multilingual learner- and there are many tools that have been developed to support you!

All schools are required to gather and report data measuring the language proficiency of individual multilingual learners using the WIDA assessment. While you do not need to be familiar with the WIDA assessment, you are expected to use this data to inform the academic language you select and present to students to help them succeed in meeting the lesson or unit objectives and goals.

One you have gathered the data about a students WIDA score, perhaps by asking your cooperating teacher, you can use the Can Do Descriptors to decide what your student "can do" without support and where additional language supports may be needed. The WIDA "Can Do" grade level descriptors for all 6 proficiency levels are linked in 6.5b Academic Language: WIDA Resources for Teaching Multilingual Learners within your SOE Lesson Plan Handbook. For more information about the philosophy guiding the creation of the Can Do Descriptors for supporting language learners, you can view this 2 minute video produced by WIDA or view this PDF:

Using the Can Do Descriptors to Inform your Instructional Planning

There are many steps in the process towards selecting academic language accommodations and supports for specific proficiency levels. As you explore ways to accommodate and support your language learners, the best place to start is to have a conversation with your cooperating teacher or colleagues. Because there are many steps and context is key to responsive differentiation for students needing academic language supports, here is an example created for you to help walk you through the process, which becomes easier with practice and familiarity with your individual students, subject specific content and standards, and grade-level or context. 

**We will use fictional 11th grade multilingual student "Tuaha", located with additional information in the profile available above, for this example.

Step One: Identify Individual Student Proficiency Levels

So, first as Tuaha's teacher can check his portfolio within her class's data set and finds that Tuaha is currently rated at the following WIDA levels: 

In this example, we can see that the same student may have greater proficiency in some modality areas more than others. The outcome of this is that the type of language support offered must reflect the academic language required as well as the SWRL (Speaking, Writing, Reading or Listening) primarily used to demonstrate or understand the lesson's learning objective. 

Step Two: Consider Your Instructional Goals and Objectives

More details about how to do this are available for you within this handbook in sections 2.5 Academic Language and Support and 6.5 Appendix E - Identifying Academic Language.

So, let's continue our example with our context. Let's say our example lesson objective relates an 11th grade Earth Science class and the following MN Science Standard and benchmark. I've pasted this MN Science Standard here so that you can see it in it's original language:

The objective, then, for this lesson with "Tuaha" could be something like: "Students will be able to (SWBAT) gather and synthesize information related to the how climate change impacts one MN American Indian Tribe through the oral presentation of a guest speaker representing the local tribal indigenous community".

For Tuaha and his classmates, I would present the objective as an "I Can" statement using student-friendly language as follows: "I can synthesize the phenomena related to climate change presented by our guest speaker from our (local) tribal community." (See 2.3 Central Focus and Alignment linked here and in this handbook for details on how to create your own "I Can" statements for use with students). I would use this opportunity to familiarize my 11th graders with the term "phenomena", one of the academic language forms they should be able to use when talking about their gathered data. 

As I plan, I would further identify the primary language modality or SWRL area needed for this objective and activity, which in this case is "Listening". The academic language needed for success for the primary language function "synthesize" in the above content objective might be as follows: 1) Form(s): Sustainability, phenomena, impact, 2) Syntax: "I have seen..." and "Over time, the Earth..."  3) Discourse: Extended Narration of Life Experiences

If this step is not easy for you, consider what language students will need to succeed and create "an anchor chart" for yourself or to share with students that demonstrates what may success look or sound like in practice or what may be the most important or relevant expectations related to student success. For a short explanation of anchor charts, download the one-page PDF found HERE.

Step Three: Consult What Your Multilingual Student(s) "Can Do"

Refer to WIDA's "Can Do" descriptors, linked for you in 6.5b Academic Language: WIDA Resources for Teaching Multilingual Learners of this handbook and found on the WIDA website under "Resources" or "Recursos En Español."

Search for the grade level band, SWRL language modality, and level related to your student(s). For future reference and convenience, I recommend downloading/printing the Can Do chart and writing the names of students for whom accommodations or supports might be needed based on their WIDA proficiency level results.

As an example, here is the WIDA Can Do Descriptor matrix that I would need to consult for our fictional student, Tuaha, based on his grade-level: 

Step Four: Select a SWRL Focus Area For This Lesson Objective

Based on my lesson's objectives and my example student, Tuaha, I am going to select discourse as academic language my focus. I do this because Tuaha has higher scores in the areas of Reading and Writing, but he could easily get lost in the extended narrative provided by the guest speaker as I see when I check what Tuaha "Can Do" in that are using the level 2 descriptor below:

I see that Tuaha can sort the guest speakers oral language statements according to time frames. This is great! This is what Tuaha "can do" and should be celebrated.

However, I also consider that my guest speaker will not be speaking in statements spaced by large amounts of "wait time", or a slower rate of speech than is normally used for story-telling and extended narration which can best be understood in a paragraph-like format. I realize that Tuaha may need an accommodation or support to help him keep pace with this oral presentation by our guest speaker.

Next, I will then consult tools like the matrices and charts below to inform my decisions and consider what may help Tuaha navigate this discourse level academic language need.

Step Five: Consider Recommended Accommodations According To Research

Any accommodations you decide to make for your multilingual students should be guided by the Five Principles for instruction of English language learners (Levine, et al., 2012). More information about these five principles and the evidence-based research grounding them are located here. In summary, Levine's Five Principles are: 

1. Focus on Academic Language, Literacy, and Vocabulary
2. Link Background Knowledge and Culture to Learning
3. Increase Comprehensible Input and language Output
4. Promote Classroom Interaction
5. Stimulate Higher-Order Thinking Skills and Use of Learning Strategies

For our example, I consider that "Tuaha" may have relevant background knowledge and experience in understanding and connecting with indigenous tribal cultures from his home country. I consider if Tuaha himself belongs to a dominant or non-dominant tribal culture or people, and if he might use that knowledge to infer key knowledge and insights throughout the guest speaker presentation. I decide that Tuaha most likely needs fewer accommodations for Principle number 2 (above) than many other students in the class. 

I then consider that Tuaha may need support and accommodation to assist with Principle #3- "Increase Comprehensible Input and Language Output" based on my selection of discourse as a focus for my academic language support for Tuaha and the need for him to understand the complex and extended narrative provided by our guest speaker. 

Finally, I consult the scaffolds to support Tuaha in the specific area of Listening using the "Go To Strategies Matrix" provided below. Here is the relative excerpt for "Listening":

I see that strategy recommendations for supports and accommodations include the above "Level 2- Emerging" notations and look to where Tuaha is moving towards in "Level 3- Developing". I see that Level 2 English learners can better understand spoken language that is "patterned or routine", which I note that my guest speaker will most likely not be using. I note that I already decided to model the form or term "phenomena" in my student-friendly lesson objective, which aligns with Tuaha's possible need to have academic language and vocabulary modeled. I note that Level 3 English learners often benefit from frequent comprehension checks and graphic organizers to sequence, along with ample "wait time" between oral utterances.

I decide that I will request our guest speaker to take frequent breaks for questions and to provide "wait time" for Tuaha in chunks. I allow Tuaha to speak to peers in class in order to clarify his understanding in English or his native language during these "Turn and Talk" times (see "Strategy Cards" below) as well as provide an opportunity for Tuaha to possibly share any background connection or deep understanding that he may have regarding our topic and objective. This opportunity to interact and share should assist all students, as well as Tuaha. 

Next, I consider that Tuaha and my other level 2 and 3 proficient students may benefit from having a graphic organizer provided for them in order to contextualize the guest speaker's narrative within my objective. I decide to use a simple T-chart graphic organizer, with one side labeled for comments and dates describing the phenomena given by the guest speaker, and one side labeled for Inferences and Insights students may have that could support their final synthesis relative to the stated science objective.

Step Six: Record Accommodations and Supports Given

In your School of Education Lesson Plan under the section 2.5 Academic Language and Support, you are required to explain and record your accommodations and supports given for each individual student with a language level under 6.0 on the WIDA scale to show how these multilingual students will be supported to meet the grade-level instructional goals.

Some academic language accommodations and supports may be given to all students because they will assist all students in meeting the instructional objective(s), and should also be recorded in this section.

Finally then, in our example, I consolidate and list my selected supports and accommodations within the UNW Lesson plan under "Academic Language Supports" using something like the following statements:

More examples of scaffolds, accommodations, and supports that would be helpful for Tuaha are located in the sample "Multilingual Learner Profile" located above and linked again for you HERE for your convenience.

A Final Note on Accommodations and Supports for Academic Language Learning: 

Please consider that academic language accommodations and selected supports are LESSON SPECIFIC. This means that listed accommodations and supports for academic language and multilingual learner supports should and will change each lesson according to the lesson objectives, tasks, and students' individual WIDA language proficiency level data. You should complete this process relative to each lesson and for each class that you teach, as this level of differentiation is not a "one-size fits all" model.

And though this particular task may seem monumental now, our program is designed to support you incrementally in this from your first field experience through student teaching.  My good news for you is that Identifying supports for multilingual learners does get easier with practice! It does take practice, which is why we, in the School of Education, are here for you!

Since you may have a variety of WIDA proficiency scores represented in your class, you may need to examine the academic language and supports needed at more than one level (1-6). You may also decide that no further supports are needed for your multilingual learners to achieve their instructional goals, in which case-- you may want to consider extending your lesson's instructional objective(s), language modality (SWRL), or the complexity of the academic language used to challenge and support your learners for whom the lesson content may be too easy. 

Additional Resources and Leveled Adaptations for Academic Language Supports

Finally, a reminder that collaboration with experienced your colleagues, such as your cooperating teacher and your school's Multilingual Specialist or ESL Teacher, is key to developing the best plan for meeting the needs of your individual learners, including your multilingual learners. 

Included below are further tools which have been developed to help you with the initial decision-making process of what your multilingual student(s) may need based on their proficiency scores in order to achieve the instructional goals and lesson objectives.

                   Strategy Cards:                        The Go To Strategies Project:                Virtual Supports and Accommodations for ELs:

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I highly recommend starting with the "Strategy Cards" as the most straightforward supports shown to be beneficial to all learners, including multilingual learners.

The "Go To Strategies Project" delivers a matrices based on the Five Principles that allow for a bit more nuanced support related to specific level and SWRL needs. For a deeper dive, a full copy of the "Go To Strategies Project" is available HERE, with pages 23-66 serving as an inventory of activities related to specific language proficiency levels aligned with Levine's Five Principles.

Thirdly, the "Virtual Supports and Accommodations for English Learners" document embedded below with accommodations by language level for sensory, graphic, and interactive supports relative to synchronous or asynchronous virtual learning and on-line tools used for each.