" Children learn best when they like their teacher and they think their teacher likes them."
- Gordon Neufeld
- Gordon Neufeld
English Language Learners in Special Education
English Language Learners are often placed in special education due to their lack of fluent English, assessments that cause misdiagnosis, and improperly trained personal. Yet, there are a percentage of ELL students who need special education for varying disabilities. They require a positive learning environment, a team of teachers who work together, and effective instruction.
Positive Learning Environment
A positive learning environment allows the children to grow. Teachers need to set high goals for their students to foster their full academic potential. Also, the teachers should develop a relationship with their students. The ELL students need to know that someone is there who cares and wants to help them in any way. Subsequently, the teacher can learn about the student’s culture. From this, the teacher can use the student’s background knowledge to build upon and relate concepts. A respect for the parents also plays a major role in the student’s environment. A positive relationship between the teachers and parents that involves frequent communication can follow back to the classroom to enhance the positive environment.
A Collaboration of Teachers
A team of teachers who work together is significant to the success of the ELL student. Most importantly, the teachers need to communicate with each other to corroborate that they are on the same page. This can include successful strategies used, pertinent information about the student, an understanding of their background, and where they fall academically. These are just a few things teacher need to communicate on. Their respect for the student and the parents should also be shared. They need to comprehend the student’s situation and react similarly. Also, they all need to understand the stages of second language. The stages of second language can often be confused for a disability. By knowing the stages the teachers can make interpret the child’s actual needs.
Effective Instruction
Most importantly, effective instruction is necessary for an ELL student with special needs. This includes utilizing strategies that are deemed effective. Teachers can ask find out about a student’s background by asking the students, parents, or other teachers questions. The student’s instruction and assessment can be based on their previous schooling, skills, and culture. An understanding of their language can add to their instruction. Their language could be similar in ways that would allow the teacher to build from or completely different in others where the teacher might need to focus to reconstruct skills. Any prior knowledge they have can be used to shape to new concepts and review of old concepts. The content should be meaningful and involve real experiences. Furthermore, the children should be placed according their academic skills and special needs not their language proficiency.
Intervention and Strategies
Prior to being placed in special education interventions can be used to prevent referral to special education. Early intervention services are exerted as soon as child’s special needs are observed. The services can help the students to stay on task with their level. It is pertinent that the services are intense and early. Response to Intervention is a three-tiered model to help struggling students. The model involves determining the grounds for the student’s difficulty and offering supports through intervention and instruction. The intention of the model is to prevent misdiagnosis of disabilities in students.
Strategies
Once the students are placed in special education, English language learners require various strategies to set them on the appropriate path of education. The array of strategies that exist for ELL students with special needs vary based on many factors. Some of the factors include the type of disability, the amount of English spoken, the age of the child, subject area, area of weakness, and interests of the child.
Yet, some effective strategies include:
- Using their prior knowledge
- Review and use ideas
- one on one instruction
- Relate ideas across subject areas
- Provide unknown background knowledge