Many Multilingual Learners avoid participating in class or avoid asking for help when they don’t understand something because they’re afraid of making a mistake or being laughed at. This is often the case with reluctant ELL readers.
But there are several things you can do to support them and overcome their hesitation and fear. Let me tell you a story about a student I once had…
Portrait of a Reluctant ELL Reader
Juan (not his real name) arrived in my class in the middle of the year.
He was homeless and his family had been placed in a hotel in the town I taught in.
He was on an IEP.
Juan’s speaking and listening skills were pretty good but his reading skills were very basic. He was clearly one of my reluctant ELL readers.
At the time, I was teaching a 5th grade ESL Social Studies class. We were doing a novel study with a book about Jamestown. Only two other students were in the class so everyone got lots of attention.
The other students liked reading aloud so I let them take turns with short portions of the text.
I gently corrected some, but not all, pronunciation errors they made but I did it in a very low-key way.
Juan never volunteered to read out loud.
Then, one day, he did. And he did a great job!
I was very careful to make only a few corrections when he was reading. After that, he volunteered on a regular basis along with the other students to read out loud.
Some time later, the special education director observed my class. He was astounded at Juan’s active participation and ability to keep up with the work. The director told me later that the way Juan behaved in my class was quite different from the way he functioned in his other classes.
I attributed my success to the fact that I did not cold call on Juan to read aloud and I let him follow along until he felt ready to participate. Also, Juan saw that when I corrected the other students, I did so in a kind way without embarrassing them, which gave him the confidence to try himself.
How Not to Embarrass Reluctant ELL Readers
1) Don’t cold call on them until they volunteer on their own.
2) Let them follow along silently until they feel ready to join in.
3) Correct all students, not just ELLs, with the same gentle tone so no one feels singled out.
4) Provide short, low pressure reading or speaking opportunities.
5) Use partner reading so they can practice with a peer first, if that is feasible.
6) When possible and practical, give students the text in advance so they can preview it on their own first.
7) Praise specific things they do well rather than just praising general effort.
8) When giving instructions, give them both orally and in writing and chunk them.
9) Let students know it’s okay to make mistakes – let them hear you try to say something in their languages so they can see it’s okay to be not perfect.
10) Always give students extra time to process info and don’t pressure them to respond quickly.
Conclusion: If you want Multilingual Learners who are reluctant ELL readers to participate more, focus on the classroom environment before the instruction.
In case you’re interested, the book I was using with Juan and his classmates was The Corn Raid. I subsequently created a complete novel study for the book, which you can find HERE. It’s a great way to combine Language Arts and Social Studies teaching. I taught the book for several years and all my students really enjoyed it.
If you have ELL reluctant readers who are also reluctant to speak in class, this blog post offers some strategies to get them to participate more.
