8/25/2024

Seven Emergent Bilingual Strategies For Developing Language Comprehension

Learners who don’t yet speak fluent English may still be able to decode English words because they understand basic language principles, but that is not enough for true language comprehension. Learners who come to the table with valuable language skills and knowledge have many assets for learning English, and these Emergent Bilinguals (EBs) already hold the tools necessary to develop strong comprehension skills. 

This blog post offers insight about the latest research for fostering student confidence, creating a sense of belonging, and helping EBs build upon what they intuitively know as language learners to excel in school and beyond.

A Word About Teaching Emergent Bilingual Students

Teaching English-learning students to speak and comprehend oral English is a critical component of learning how to read and comprehend written English. It’s difficult to learn to read and comprehend words if you do not know what they mean. Therefore, oral language, spoken and listening comprehension, influence word recognition and are critical to reading comprehension. 

Recent research supports this simple view of reading for EBs and offers many instructional strategies to support students adopting an additional language, most significantly:

• Providing explicit, systematic instruction in foundational decoding skills
• Offering English Language Development (ELD), instruction specifically designed for Emergent Bilinguals
• Setting high expectations and building knowledge in both their home language and the language of instruction for positive transfer

Equally important is using students’ assets to help them become bilingual. To successfully teach EB students language comprehension, educators must honor students’ heritage languages and value their prior knowledge. 

This SmartBrief examined the importance of teaching English from an asset-minded orientation and how to use this approach for better language development. By taking an asset-minded approach, educators can honor learners and what they already know and place value on their prior knowledge and lived experiences.

Educators can use any of these seven strategies to effectively help students embrace English and maintain pride in their own culture and language. 

Seven Emergent Bilingual Strategies To Try Today

1. Embrace their heritage language

A student’s first language is a valuable asset that can be leveraged to learn the new language. Teachers can take advantage of the language mechanisms and skills the student already knows and understands and position learning English as an opportunity for growth.

2. Adjust instruction to meet their needs

Using a scaffolded approach, teachers can ensure students have opportunities to practice using the language in meaningful ways. This builds comprehension of the new language and gives students the opportunity to express themselves. Technology can play a critical role in differentiating instruction. 

3. Offer opportunities for speaking practice

Research shows that oral language, namely the skills and knowledge involved in listening and speaking, is the foundation of later reading ability. Having a solid foundation in oral language helps learners become successful readers and strong communicators.

By teaching students how to have an academic conversation, they learn both how to ask and answer questions. Provide scaffolding for students, such as sentence starters, to guide conversations between students. For those who require more guidance in asking and answering questions, consider sentence frames or language frames for constructing meaningful sentences and phrases.

4. Create opportunities for listening comprehension practice

The goal of literacy and reading is comprehension; learners must understand what they’re reading. We know students can understand a higher level of language than they can speak, so take the opportunity to provide input at their listening level and practice oral comprehension as a means to scaffold reading comprehension.

5. Encourage class discussions

The more students can experience genuine interactions with English-speaking students, the more they learn. You can create situations where all students discuss an event or story or visit places all students enjoy. Encourage discussions about the items that allow Emergent Bilinguals to experience authentic language with real-word context. If it is a story, provide it in their native language and in English so EBs can better contribute to class discussions. 

6. Embrace accents

Accents connect students to places, history, and culture. Appreciating accents prepares all students for an increasingly globalized world and can actually lead to better comprehension for those learning English (White, 2016). Use tools that counter accent bias and are culturally familiar and relevant to all students. For instance, Lexia® English Language Development™ is a K–6 adaptive blended program that exposes students to a variety of accents and reflects the English accent variation found not only across the U.S. but around the world. 

7. Leverage technology

Effective artificial intelligence (AI) can provide useful real-time data, give feedback about student speech, and create differentiated learning paths automatically based on performance. With pinpointed data, a teacher can know exactly where a student is struggling and is able to group students with similar needs, saving time for everyone involved. 

This level of timely and individualized performance data is key to identifying where Emergent Bilinguals are in language proficiency and to help teachers develop action plans to prioritize daily instruction. For instance, in Lexia English, reports are designed to help answer questions about students’ program use, instructional next steps, and progress, such as:

• At what level of content are my students working?
• How much time are my students spending on the program each week?
• What instructional resources would students benefit from?
• How should I prioritize my instructional time with students?
• Which students should I pair or group together for conversational practice?

These strategies apply to content teachers and literacy teachers alike. By tapping into students’ language assets, educators help students develop better comprehension and create an inclusive classroom, which benefits all students. Becoming bilingual and bi-literate has cognitive and social-emotional learning benefits: Students develop empathy through awareness and respect for other cultures and customs.

To learn more about how you can adjust literacy instruction and find clarity about applying the science of reading to support EB literacy instruction, check out this expert guide: Words Matter: The Power of Asset-Based Instruction With Lexia.