Teaching English to Immigrant Students in the United States: A Brief Summary of Programs and Methods

Authors

  • Francisco Ramos Calvo School of Education Loyola Marymount University

Keywords:

Second language learning, teaching a second language, educational policy, minority groups, language skills, immigrants.

Abstract

Nearly ten per cent of the students currently attending public schools in the United States are classified as English Language Learners (ELL); that is to say, students who are learning English. The most important challenge this population brings to the educational authorities of their school districts and the schools they attend, is to find the most effective ways to teach them both English and the academic content pertaining to their grade. Since the methods traditionally used did not teach them either the vocabulary or the content needed for subjects such as Math or Science, they fell behind their English-speaking peers. It was necessary, then, to evolve toward a better integration of the language and the lesson content. The present article summarizes the objectives of the traditional methods, details the changes that have taken place in the last decades to improve the simultaneous teaching of English and academic content, and concludes with an explanation of the techniques most used today.

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Published

2003-11-01

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