All elementary, secondary, and special education teachers in Massachusetts seeking initial licensure are required to earn a sheltered English immersion (SEI) endorsement. This endorsement is intended to prepare educators to support designated English learners (ELs) in the content areas. However, the course does not reflect current theories of…

When 'decoloniality' and 'decolonizing' have become words frequently used in conferences and journal publications in our field of Applied Linguistics/Language and Education, as well as on many academics' lips, we start to worry about how they too can be easily co-opted as buzz words emptied of their critical meaning and actional potential and…

Teachers face many challenges, including that of educating English language learner (ELL) students. These students are often placed in regular classrooms and create extra demands on the classroom teacher. Many strategies can be employed with ELLs that relate to best teaching practices. Potential trouble areas are discussed, as are the strategies…

The Thinking Folk project introduced Socratic dialogues as a pedagogical construct to develop critical thinking skills by drawing on the lived experiences of learners in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes. The resulting conversations were soon described as "real" talk by learners, which, in a process that not only…

This article targets a teaching dilemma found in today's schools, which is the challenge for teachers in our multicultural classrooms to provide appropriate, targeted instruction for the English Language Learner (ELL), most specifically, in the two critical areas of oral language and literacy. The concepts of experiential instruction in this essay…

The latest content standards in U.S. K-12 education are academically rigorous for all students, including a fast-growing population of English learners (ELs). Because these standards are different from previous standards in terms of not only their rigor but also their theoretical underpinnings, enacting instruction aligned to the standards will…

The purpose of this article is to help ESL (English as a Second Language) students or English language learners (ELLs) how to express or use moods correctly when they study English. The expression of moods was summarized and illustrated from various examples cited or given, on the basis of the writer's more than twenty years' teaching experience…

There is a growing body of evidence about the disproportionate impact the pandemic had on English learners (ELs). We sought to capture the complexity of learning conditions for this student population during the COVID-19 pandemic by interviewing 20 EL education leaders. These experts' experiences revealed that while remote learning posed…

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is committed to the cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional development of all children in Illinois. ISBE's Multilingual/Language Development Department is focused on ensuring that students with diverse linguistic repertoires and those who may benefit from additional support have equitable access to…

In December 2020, the WIDA Consortium released the "WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition." In the coming years, the 2020 Edition will be implemented across 36 states, the District of Columbia, and four territories and agencies in the US. The 2020 Edition also arrives at a time when the field of TESOL is…

The author, an adult education specialist, English language learner (ELL) and GED® test instructor, and an ELL herself, shares the perspective of being an immigrant student. The article follows an insider's view of immigrants negotiating knowledge of a new culture with instructors as leaders and gatekeepers to assimilation. From job…

This reflection essay reports on a book reading inquiry circle (BRIC) on Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" by English as a second language (ESL) faculty from a college located in the Greater Seattle area. Since professional development is usually not provided for ESL faculty in basic skills programs due to lack of funding at the…

In this article the author explores ways in which affinity spaces (Gee, 2004) can be adapted for English language instruction. Affinity spaces attract participants who enthusiastically share their passions, such as popular culture, video games, or literature. Researchers have found that affinity spaces contribute to improvements in reading…

Meeting the needs of English learners (ELs) effectively must be an individualized, purposeful, and data-driven process. Progress monitoring can help practitioners to target their EL students' most significant academic and linguistic needs and, subsequently, develop and deliver instructional programming that may help students develop to their…

Nonprofit commercials are an inspiring but often overlooked resource in language teaching. Teachers can use these short and thought-provoking films in different scenarios with communicative language activities and strategies and to help students practice skills that form part of Bloom's so-called higher-thinking skills, such as creating (using…