1. Effective Teaching Strategies for English Language Learners
Three Different Perspectives by
Jennifer Wheeler

2. Teachers Perspectives
Gestures and visual cues
Repetition and opportunities for practicing skills and using new language often
Use of objects, real props, and hands-on materials
Multi-sensory approaches
Multi-sensory approaches - all the senses are involved in learning (visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic).

3. Students Perspectives
Most Important
Instructional Strategies
Direct teaching and learning of vocabulary through listening, seeing, reading, and writing in short time segments
Specific informal assessments based on curriculum (Curriculum-Based Probe)
Fluency building (high frequency words)
Tactile vocabulary development steps
Combining kinesthetic and phonemic awareness
Least Important
Instructional Strategies
Using a book on tape as support
Acting out a story
Oral sharing and discussion on a topic related to the reading
Predicting what is going to happen in the story based on the title, headline, illustration, or initial sentence or paragraph
Visualization of a story or drawing a scene of a story
Curriculum-Based Probe – Students read aloud 3 basal reader passages; teacher marks where the student stops and asks comprehension questions based on what they have read.
Fluency building – practicing high frequency words through short assessments and exercises until the students’ know them well.
Tactile vocabulary development - using three-dimensional or tactile objects to help students learn to write letters and words.
Combining kinesthetic and phonemic awareness - using movement to help students learn letters and sounds.

4. International Perspectives
Demonstration
Choral Drill
Look and Say
Pictorial and Verbal Illustration
Association
Questioning
Narration or Storytelling
Read and Say
Demonstration - using real objects, performing actions, using gestures, and facial expressions.
Choral Drill - children all chant together following along as the teacher leads.
Look and Say - the students listen to the teacher while he or she reads a word, phrase, or sentence. Then the children point to the appropriate picture in print or object and repeat the word, phrase or sentence.
Pictorial Illustration – the use of blackboard drawings, diagrams, sketches, match-stick figures, photographs, maps and textbook illustrations to present words.
Verbal Illustration - giving a phrase or sentence that shows the typical use of the word in context.
Association – using synonyms, antonyms and simple definitions to teach vocabulary.
Questioning – to lead students to list, group, categorize and label (was not used to monitor comprehension).
Narration or Storytelling – Students are asked to read a passage and write a response.
Read and Say - students read a paragraph written on the board then either respond orally or write a response in their notebooks to a set of written questions. Then the students read their written responses which lead to a discussion related to their responses.

5. Bibliography
Facella, M.A., Rampino, K.M., & Shea, E.K. (2005). Effective Teaching Strategies for English Language Learners. Bilingual Research Journal, 29 (1),
Shyyan, V., Thurlow, M., & Liu, K. (2005). Student Perceptions of Instructional Strategies: Voices of English Language Learners with Disabilities (ELLs with Disabilities Report 11). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, National Center on Educational Outcomes.
Piller, B., & Skillings, M. J. (2005, December). English Language Teaching Strategies Used by Primary Teachers in One New Delhi, India School [Electronic version]. TESL-EJ, 9 (3), Retrieved April 13, 2009, from