Reflections on Effective Classroom Language Instruction

What did you find interesting or new in your reading about effective classroom language instruction principles? 

In reading about effective classroom language instruction principles, there were a few ideas that stood out to me as particularly interesting or new. One idea that interested me was Li’s discussion of the importance of metacognitive strategies. Li (2012) clearly states that, “Teachers should make explicit metacognitive and specific learning strategies for ELLs” (p. 8). The argument here is that having a clear understanding of the metacognitive strategies at play is essential to second or foreign language learning, and that language teachers must make it a priority to make a variety of strategies visible, named, practiced, and examined for effectiveness in different scenarios. 

The other big piece that I found new and particularly helpful was the guidance from both Himmel and Medina (via Huynh’s blog) on specific steps one can take to write language objectives. Although the practice makes complete sense to me, when I previously taught at a dual immersion school we did not use language objectives in our lessons, and I have no prior experience writing them. 

Himmel’s guidance was more high-level, offering a series of questions to guide an educator’s thinking. Himmel (2012) encourages teachers to consider what specific vocabulary a student will need to achieve success with a given topic, what language functions directly relate to a given lesson, what language structures are commonly used in a focus area, what language usage is integral to a given task, and what strategies for language use fit naturally with a particular topic. 

On the other hand, the guidance that Medina offers is more immediately applicable. He offers three to four simple steps (depending on whether you intend to write a simplified or detailed language learning target) to create a language objective that is focused enough to be usable in a single lesson, but broad enough to allow for inclusion of the four language domains (as cited in Huynh, 2020).

I found these parameters extremely helpful both as a way to evaluate language objectives I read as well as to formulate new language objectives with a reasonable sense of certainty that they will be high quality.

What principles were presented in the readings and how did these principles relate to the ones developed by your small group?

Many of the principles detailed in our readings related to treating English language learners like complete people with unique backgrounds and experiences, the capacity to learn and succeed at high levels, and the desire for language learners to gain language skills that they can use in their personal and (if applicable) professional lives. For example, Li (2012) offers the principle, “Implement Challenging Curriculum with High Expectations.” As Alrubail (2016) notes, “ELLs are often overrepresented in special education classes due to a lack of training in helping teachers identify students’ needs and assessment when it comes [to] language skills.” This type of issue can easily be avoided by making content more accessible through differentiated texts and integrating students’ home culture and language into the classroom. 

Medina is another voice strongly advocating for offering a holistic education that takes into account language learner’s full selves. For example, he advocates for connecting content and a child’s lived experiences, such as by “asking students to think about how a content-specific topic shows up in their lives, families, communities, or cultures.”

My small group reflected many of these priorities as we discussed the ideas we found most compelling and relevant from our readings, particularly “Principles of Effective ELL Pedagogy” (Li, 2012). I am paraphrasing somewhat to polish some of our initial thoughts, but we came up the following principles for effective language teaching:

1. Seek to understand and be responsive to your students’ language levels and cultural backgrounds
2. Create authentic tasks for students to practice and apply their content knowledge and skills
3. Make metacognition explicit and visible
4. Introduce vocabulary authentically and in context
5. Tailor texts and other class resources to the language development levels of your students