Four Strategies to Increase Emergent Bilingual Language Acquisition

Emergent Bilinguals (EBs), also known as English Learners, are one of the fastest-growing student segments in schools, accounting for roughly 10% of all U.S. students. Effective teachers are crucial to EBs’ ability to master English and meet academic standards. Teachers prepared with bilingual strategies can accommodate these learners. They can effectively adapt instruction and create a positive, equitable learning environment that bridges literacy gaps and fosters the growth of all students. 

Students whose first language isn’t English have unique needs because they do double duty in school: They are simultaneously learning a new language and their lesson content. They are well equipped to do so, but they still need and deserve to be met with the understanding and appreciation it takes to do this extra work. By honoring this hard work and dedication, we can encourage positive identity formation and avoid labeling these hard workers as an “intervention group.”

Of course, teachers want to support these students in their English acquisition journey. However, not all teachers understand how to best instruct EBs or multilingual learners. Culturally responsive and sustaining instruction centered on the strengths, needs, and perspectives of all students is an excellent way to celebrate and support a diverse student population.

Here are four strategies to help EBs work toward English proficiency.

1. Embrace the heritage language

To address EBs’ needs, teachers must be knowledgeable about those students’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This includes a basic understanding of each student’s first language. Understanding the language can be as basic as being able to correctly pronounce a student’s name. While this may seem like a small matter, taking the time to learn the correct pronunciation signals to EBs that they are accepted and important. As a result, they feel less anxiety in the classroom environment, which frees more of their emotional and cognitive bandwidth for learning.

Research has also found Emergent Bilingual students are able to transfer many skills from their first language to facilitate their acquisition of reading skills in the second language. A student’s heritage language provides background knowledge, such as grammar, teachers can leverage to help students learn a new language. When teachers have a more sophisticated understanding of the grammar and syntax of a student’s heritage language, they can reference specific elements to aid EBs’ learning.

2. Combine spoken words with visual aids to enhance listening comprehension

EBs often have difficulty mentally translating oral explanations or instructions at the same speed as their teachers are speaking. Bilingual strategies to help EBs better understand spoken instructions include modeling the actions with gestures when giving explanations.Teachers can also provide students with written or digital visuals for further support. Providing written aids can be as simple as writing key pieces of information, such as academic terms, on the board while speaking. In addition, teachers can help EBs learn academic language by creating vocabulary posters. The purposeful inclusion of diagrams or graphics alongside concept explanations can help EBs (and all other students) grasp lesson content more quickly.

3. Provide explicit instruction

Explicit instruction involves providing clear, direct explanations for every part of a lesson to enhance students’ understanding. In addition to defining lesson components like the learning objective and the lesson’s integral concepts, teachers model the tasks to be performed and share samples of what the completed work could look like.

To provide those ongoing explanations, teachers break each lesson into smaller steps. The “step-by-step” nature of explicit instruction provides students with a logical sequence, which along with the explanations, makes it easier for EBs to understand what’s being taught.

4. Offer resources to support speaking up during class

Since EBs are learning to read and speak English simultaneously, they need explicit, evidence-based instructional methods that incorporate speaking practice. Providing scaffolding techniques will help students practice and think through how to share their ideas and insight in their new language. An added benefit of the scaffolding is that EBs are developing their comprehension of the new language at the same time they are focusing on lesson content.

Scaffolding techniques include sentence frames or language frames such as, “The ___ is on the ____.” Repeated use of the frames’ fill-in-the-blank formats familiarizes students with the grammatical structure and syntax of a complete sentence and enables them to create their own sentences quickly and easily as they answer questions during a lesson.

Helping Emergent Bilinguals Acquire Higher English Proficiency

Lexia English Language Development™ can help teachers reduce the time and effort required to provide EBs with speaking and listening practice. The Adaptive Blended Learning program, which also hones students’ grammar skills, uses interactive academic conversations to help students in grades K–6 develop their confidence and linguistic proficiency when using the English language. With 4.3 million conversations practiced in the program last year, Lexia English helped thousands of students across the U.S.

Students practice their speaking and listening skills in a safe, non-judgmental, and culturally responsive environment. At the same time, they hone their subject knowledge from content areas such as math, science, social studies, general knowledge, and biographies.

Research has shown that students who use Lexia English make significant gains in oral language (speaking), consistent with the program’s focus on speaking and supporting English language development through academic conversations. In fact, one in three moved up a proficiency band in their respective language standard in the program. Students demonstrated what they learned across an average of 25 Presentations of Knowledge. Additionally, students using the program acquire English language literacy skills, which highlights the connections between oral language and broader literacy development.

The importance of confident, capable educators cannot be overemphasized. Teachers who are prepared and supported throughout their careers with bilingual strategies and professional learning opportunities are better equipped to meet the needs of all students—meaning they can develop and deliver content-rich, culturally responsible curriculum.

Providing teachers with science of reading resources that directly support English language acquisition is essential to improving academic outcomes for EBs. 

Discover how you can join thousands nationwide in helping students accelerate literacy learning and develop confidence using Lexia English.