Addressing The Needs Of English Language Learners Case Study

Addressing the needs of English Language Learners will increasingly emerge as an area of concern for schools across the nation. Collier and Thomas (2009) in their book Educating English Learners for a Transformed World, state “students whose first language is not English are the fastest growing demographic group in public schools in all regions of the United States” (p. 3). The National Center for Education Statistics (2017) states that the number of students who are English Language Learners has increased by approximately 300,000 from 2004-2005 to 2014-2015, with 77.1 percent of these students having a first language of Spanish. There are several instructional models that can be implemented in order to provide supports that make it possible
Other traditional models known as sheltered or structured English instruction include “strategies and methods that make the content of the lesson…more comprehensible to students who are not yet proficient in English” (Smith, Coggins and Cardoso, 2008). However, Freeman, Freeman and Mercuri (2005) assert that dual language immersion education is the most effective model of instruction for English Language Learners. In this type of program students develop proficiency in both their first and second languages (p. 11). Thomas and Collier (2012) assert that when comparing the longitudinal growth of English Language Learners “only dual language programs eventually close all the achievement gaps”, and English Language Learners will usually outperform even their native English speaking peers after six to eight years in a dual language program (p. 94). In spite of these facts, approximately 96 percent of English Language Learners participate in only English only or pull out instruction (De La Garza, Mackinney and Lavigne, 2015). There are
Kim, Hutchison and Winsler (2015) cited research that showed when comparing transitional and maintenance programs that students in maintenance programs had higher achievement and generally more positive results. Angela Murphy (2014) points to a study of English Language Learners in New York that indicated that by the end of third grade students’ scores in an English only immersion program had fallen significantly below national average in both reading and math while students in the transitional program increased in reading while decreasing in math. Students in the maintenance program met national norms in both reading and math (Murphy, 2014). Data from longitudinal research completed by Collier and Thomas (2009) indicates that students in transitional programs often perform at the same level as students in maintenance programs during the early primary years (p. 55). As the transitional students are phased out of bilingual instruction beginning at about third grade, their achievement results begin to decline demonstrating as much as a twenty-six