English language learners come from varying linguistic and cultural backgrounds and have different levels of English proficiency, so supporting them in your classroom is no simple task. Here is a list of strategies you can implement right away.

1. Incorporate language objectives in your lessons.

We always write a learning objective that is related to the content of our lesson, but we also need to ask ourselves what language is needed to meet that objective. Will students need to use adjectives to describe, or use words ending in -er and -est to compare? An example of a content objective and an accompanying language objective could be:

Content objective: Students will be able to compare the length of various objects in the room by using non-standard units of measurement.

Language objective: Students will be able to orally compare the length of various objects by using suffixes such as -er and -est (for example: longer, longest).

The Common Core speaking, listening and language standards are a valuable resource with respect to what language objectives are grade-appropriate.

2. Linguistic frames and word banks are your friends.

The cognitive load of a task is doubled when students do not have the language they need to access the content. Providing students with sentence starters to get their ideas flowing is a great beginning. But some children still need more language to express complete thoughts and ideas.

A linguistic frame provides the entire sentence to students with various parts omitted, depending on the level of the student. For example, shorter “blanks” and a word bank of pretaught words would be a highly supportive scaffold, whereas longer “blanks” without a word bank would reduce the support of this scaffold.

Highly supportive: My favorite character is _________ because he/she is __________. [Word Bank: Junie B., Ollie, kind, sneaky, funny]

Less supportive: My favorite character is _________ because in the part when ________________________, he/she is ___________________.

The Bilingual Common Core Initiative on EngageNY.org has aligned the Common Core standards with scaffolds differentiated for all language-proficiency levels and focused on using linguistic frames and word banks.

3. Engage kids with Total Physical Response.

Total Physical Response involves the use of our bodies to convey meaning by gesturing and acting out. One of my favorite times to use this strategy is during a read aloud because it keeps kids involved mentally and physically while they are sitting on the rug listening to the story. For example, a “rambling river” could be linked with a waving hand and forearm movement.

Entering and emerging English language learners will find it particularly helpful if you assign a specific gesture to a new vocabulary word and repeat that gesture every time the word is used because the physical movement creates neural connections in the brain that stimulate memory.

4. You can say that again! (No, really — say it again!)

Repeated exposure to language is a simple yet powerful tool we can use to build language for our English language learners. We can incorporate academic language and vocabulary into our daily routines as a means of exposing children to language they would not normally hear at home or at the playground. For example, you can replace a basic, Tier 1 phrase such as “go to the door” with “proceed to the door.” If you repeat that phrase as part of your routine, I can guarantee that students will start using “proceed” in all sorts of contexts. It may not be used correctly every time, but playing with language is our brain’s way of working it into our existing schemas and, if necessary, creating new schemas.

As you create lessons, be mindful of how you can weave repeated exposure to new words and phrases into different subjects throughout your day. During shared reading, you may highlight that “generous” is another word for caring or nice. Later on, during writer’s workshop, your class character might do something that is “generous” and you can add that word to your modeled writing.

5. And finally… chat up the English as a new language teacher!

As a classroom teacher, I should have reached out to the language experts in my school more often than I did. An English as a new language teacher can help you uncover an appropriate language objective for an upcoming lesson or suggest a linguistic scaffold appropriate for a particular student.

Talk with your colleagues, try out some of these tips, and enjoy the language production that will fill your classroom!