Supporting Listening and Reading Comprehension for Long Term English Learners
by Sarah Said
A student walks into your classroom. You work to build a relationship with the student and they have the ability to communicate with you about their favorite anime, problems with friends, and life in general. But, as you work with your class to read a content related text they struggle to understand what they are reading. They shy out of class discussions about a book your class just read, even though you thought they understood it. And, they keep asking you to go to the bathroom when there is a reading task they have to complete--yes, they are avoiding it. You’re perplexed because you think they have a better understanding of language than they really do, and even their language proficiency tests show a listening proficiency score that seems accurate. But, your student has been in a multilingual education program for more than six years and they are still struggling with academic listening comprehension at the levels of their peers and reading comprehension. What do you do?
For almost 20 years, I have grappled with students who are in a language proficiency program for a very long time and have not exited the program. Should the goal of our programs be exiting students so quickly? Should we take our time to really develop strong listening and reading comprehension as students continue through the program? We’re quick to judge when a student does not have the skills needed in content comprehension. Yes, our students may need more support in our classrooms and that’s okay. As there are times that students could need support that is not language support and may require intervention and assessment--we need to first do what is appropriate to support them in content comprehension in our classrooms.
This issue perplexed me for a long time in my career. As an English for English Learners teacher, I have found ways that have worked for me to support Long Term English Learner students in their ability to hold a meaningful content-based conversation in English and also comprehend a complex text in English. This blog will discuss the community of comprehension that I have created for my Long Term English Learners in my classroom.
“Tan Huyhn and Beth Skelton caution us to watch our language, saying that the term LTEL is a deficit-based, structural barrier that keeps students in a ‘negative whirlpool of low expectations’ that include remedial classes and barriers to advanced classes in secondary school (para. 6, Ellevation Education, 2023). I could not agree more. We need to update our language to update our understanding.”
Scaffold Up and Don’t Change The Text
The misconception we make is that we are quick to try to change the text for our learners. In the past, I have made the mistake of replacing a grade level text with an “easier” one. Yes, we don’t want to have our students feel frustrated with reading. However, we aren’t going to be able to build their capacity with language comprehension if we do not expose them to text that has the complexity that they need to be exposed to. It is inequitable when we don’t allow students to have the appropriate access to these texts. See here for an example of keeping the text at grade level. [insert High Standards, High Impact.]
So, what do we do to support our Long Term ELs when they are reading a text that is at grade level but not at their literacy level? It’s simple to say, “Scaffold up” but how do you do it? To support Long Term ELs, pre-teaching key vocabulary and concepts of a text is necessary as they are about to read the text. The misconception is that Long Term ELs do not need comprehensible input as their newcomer peers would. Comprehensible Input for Long Term ELs is highly necessary as they are still developing their ability to understand content literacy. This comes with explicitly teaching words to our students.
In addition to understanding vocabulary, being able to consciously identify the structures within the text related to sentences is key to strengthening the reading comprehension of these learners. When learners can deconstruct and reconstruct key sentences in a text for meaning, it will help students access the overall meaning to different parts of the text. Many people call conversations guided around these structures Language Dives. This activity engages students in understanding the content and arrangement of language of the text they are reading. You can read more about how to structure a language dive here.
Along with being able to work at the sentence level, teaching students strategies when they are on their own to understand paragraphs and sections of a complex text will serve them later in their schooling and careers. I have taught my students to “find the gist” of a paragraph and summarize it in fifteen words as they annotate the text. This is a strategy that has been around for years, but it is effective. You will need to model this in class for students and then have them try it in small groups before they can do this on their own.
Build a Community of Readers
Students who are Long Term ELs still struggle to see themselves in the language they encounter in schools. Whether they see themselves more in their home language or they just struggle with literacy, it is important for us as educators to provide pathways for students who are Long Term ELs to find their identity within the language. In an English class like mine, I work to build a community of readers.
What does this mean? This means that day by day students actively engage in complex texts that they care about. It also means that they engage with each other. First, we need to choose texts that are culturally relevant. This year, my students read the book I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez. For some of my students, the book being more than 300 pages was intimidating, but they actively engaged with the text as they learned more about the protagonist Julia Reyes. They saw themselves in Julia and wanted to read more. Class discussions were more engaging and lively than with other texts because this book described their world. Being in the Chicago area, where the book takes place, and many being new immigrants for first generation Latinx students, students were emotionally involved with what they were reading and connected. We even dug deeper into learning about other issues surrounding the text, like gentrification, mental health, and access to education. My class even went on a field trip for a walking mural tour in the Pilsen area of Chicago, the book’s setting.
Besides finding culturally relevant text, giving students the ability to choose a text to read independently or in a book club can also give Long Term ELs the opportunity to see themselves in language. Yes, we want students to read independently, but we can start off with building higher level reading. To this end, I really like the idea of book clubs because students have each other to support their ability to make meaning of the words and structures of the text. They can also grow a community within a small group through a connection to a book they all enjoy.
Students can connect over novels, but even working together to read short articles also builds their reading together as well. When I work with non-fiction articles with a higher level of complexity, I ask that students share the responsibility of reading a text paragraph by paragraph. As a team, they then summarize the text, and ask any questions about the text they may have. Later, we utilize the text in synthesis on topics and even research writing.
As we continue to grow our classrooms and programs for Language Learners, remembering that differentiation of instruction needs to happen because all Language Learners are not all the same. Our Long Term Learners sometimes do not receive the support they need because there is an assumption that they understand the language more. When we scaffold up a text that is complex and build a community of readers, we are bringing students closer to a language they have struggled with for years. Supporting Long Term ELs means creating a pathway for equity in learning.
To Further Your Learning:
Supporting Long-Term English Learners | Edutopia