Unlocking the Research on English Learners: What We Know—and Don't Yet Know—about Effective Instruction

There is surprisingly little research on common practices or recommendations for practice with the more than 5 million ELs (English learners) in our nation’s schools, many of whom come from families in poverty and attend lower-resourced schools. This absence of adequate research applies to all areas, including promoting English language development and instruction in content areas such as math and history. One of the 2006 research reviews noted “a dearth of empirical research on instructional strategies or approaches to teaching content” for ELs. A subsequent review of research on content area instruction for ELs echoed the same theme. Rather than providing a list of instructional practices specifically validated by research as effective with ELs—which would be a short list—I instead identify three important principles based in the research. These are:

I. Generally effective practices are likely to be effective with ELs.
II. ELs require additional instructional supports.
III. The home language can be used to promote academic development.

There is also a fourth principle: ELs need early and ample opportunities to develop proficiency in English (see page 13 for an article devoted to that topic). For each of the three principles listed above, I provide specific examples from research on ELs.