 What do you think is the best approach for teaching English Language Learners in the content areas?

Can you picture yourself in a situation where you cannot understand the language being spoken around you? Due to the limited language proficiency, you might not make friends and participate in the classroom activities and it may make you fearful and frustrated. Many English Language Learners are likely to feel this kind of frustration. When it comes to teaching content areas to ELLs who struggle to grasp the content, teacher can play a pivotal role in bridging many gaps by tapping into the background knowledge that students bring with them, making the content more accessible based on ELLs’ experiences and cultural expectations, and providing ELLs’ parents with the information they need about their children’s progress in school. Even though there are a number of effective approaches, Two Way Immersion (TWI) program seems to be one of the most effective approaches to help ELLs make transitions as smooth as possible and deepen their understandings about the content areas as much as possible because language learning in TWI programs takes place primarily through content instruction and communication using both languages.

It’s because, TWI program integrates fairly equal numbers of language minority and language majority students for all or most of the day, and provides content area instruction and literacy instruction to all students in both languages. In other words, TWI programs strive to provide all students with the opportunity to develop bilingualism, biliteracy, and cross-cultural awareness in their second language. These three factors are key assets that will help participating students meet the demands of the society they belong to as well as the needs of the individuals to be well-educated citizen of the 21st century as a whole.

It is very important for all teachers involved in program to have a uniform philosophy about the benefits of TWI programs and have a shared vision for implementation. I’ll cherish the dedicated TWI teachers to try to make the content comprehensible to the nonnative speakers, while still making the lessons stimulating and challenging to the native speakers. Due to the integrated nature of TWI programs, TWI teachers also need to possess strong interpersonal skills that allow students to function well in cross-cultural environments. In other words, not only do TWI teachers need to be able to promote student outcomes, instructional strategies, and positive cross-cultural relationships among students in their classes, they also need to be able to work effectively with other staff members and parents involved from both cultural groups. Therefore, I’ll ask teachers to attend the planning or substantive training sessions mandatorily to be qualified and skilled teachers with the help of veteran teachers and try to adjust disagreements among staff regarding program features to facilitate the work of two-way teachers, improve dual-language teaching skills through collaborating with team members, and renew enthusiasm for teaching. In addition, I’ll hire a bilingual coordinator and parents who are bilingual to support staff and facilitate the need for positive cross-cultural attitudes among all school staff.

TWI programs are additive bilingual programs which help all students maintain and develop oral and written skills in their first language while simultaneously acquiring a second language. In that sense, TWI programs are very effective in promoting equity for the two groups of students and working to equalize the status of the two languages and the two language groups of students. This can lead to high self-esteem, motivation to study hard, belief in academic competence, perception of a positive school and home environment, and so on. In sum, TWI programs are very efficient to promote bilingualism and biliteracy, grade-level academic achievement, and positive cross-cultural attitudes and behaviors in all students.

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