From Language to Language, Literacy, and Content - Ela Koziel

When an English language learner (ELL)  joins a class in which English is the language of instruction, the priority of the teacher is to teach that student English. Teaching content or literacy may seem less important at this point, since the student doesn’t have the tools to learn about math or volcanoes, not to mention close reading of texts or producing persuasive writing. And in fact, this is what often happens: an ELL is pulled out from the classroom for a substantial number of lessons during the week and concentrates on learning English. Full participation in the classroom instruction takes place only when the ELL has a good working knowledge of English. Is it the most productive approach? Definitely not. 

Years of research have shown that ELLs benefit the best from an integrated content and language instruction. Separating language learning from content and literacy instruction is much less productive and often leads to the lowering of the expectations of ELLs. This, in turn, results in a much slower progress of ELLs, as compared to their non-ELL peers, and often takes away their self-confidence. Studies and practice have shown that with rightly used tools, such as scaffolding, personalization, accommodations, etc., and a close collaboration of content and language teachers, ELLs can show their knowledge and skills independently of their proficiency in English. Luckily, this approach, called Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), is currently gaining momentum and we can expect a true transformation of the way we think about language learning.