Teaching English Language Learners To Read

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Nov 1, 2025, 2:59 PM

teaching english language learners to read

In this article, Kristina Robertson highlights ELL instructional strategies based on key reading components and skills. In addition, educators will learn more about the role of students' home language and oral language. This article is part of our guide on Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners. Image credit: Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages Learning to read is a complicated process. If you teach English language learners (ELLs), however, there are a number of ways you can support their literacy and language development through targeted instruction.

This article highlights ELL instructional strategies based on the five components of reading as outlined in Teaching Children to Read by the National Reading Panel (2000). This report is a study of research-based best practices in reading instruction and it focuses on the following five instructional areas: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, Comprehension. In addition, the article includes information related to two additional important areas of instruction for ELLs, oral language and the role of the home language. Each of these topics is explored below, and each section includes: You can and should use what you already know to be effective, research-based reading instruction to English language learners (ELLs). However, ELLs will need additional support in learning how to read, and the strategies here will help you to provide assistance in your everyday teaching, particularly for newcomers (students who have recently arrived in...

Note: This article was adapted from excerpts of the ESL/Bilingual Resource Guide for Mainstream Teachers (opens in a new window), published by the Portland, OR Public School District. Teaching reading to English language learners (ELLs) may seem daunting, but the good news is that you don’t have to learn an entirely new method. You can and should use what you already know to be effective, research-based reading instruction. However, ELLs will need additional support in learning how to read. The strategies below will help you to provide this much-needed assistance in the context of your everyday teaching, particularly for newcomers (students who have recently arrived in the U.S.). For more information, take a look at Colorín Colorado’s section on Teaching Reading (opens in a new window).

Look for reading material for English Language Learners (ELLs) that contains some of these characteristics, especially at the beginning of the school year: (This is the first post in a two-part series.) What is the single most effective instructional strategy you have used to teach English-language learners? This series is part of a longer series of questions and answers inviting educators from various disciplines to share their “single most effective instructional strategy.” Last week, educators shared their recommendations when it came to teaching writing. Today, Valentina Gonzalez, Denita Harris, Cindy Garcia, and Deedy Camarena offer their responses.

Learning to read is a complicated task. Learning to read in a new language is even more daunting. According to a report from The National Center for Education Statistics: As linguistic diversity increases in our classrooms, the need for effective ESL reading programs becomes more crucial. The recent emphasis on the Science of Reading has prompted many educators to wonder if these same strategies work for English learners. In this blog, we’ll explore evidence-based tips for newcomer ESL reading instruction as well as strategies for developing each of the five pillars of literacy.

In 2002, the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children was tasked with reviewing the research on best practices for teaching ELL students to read. When teaching foundational reading skills to English Learners, there are a few key points that educators need to remember. Research shows that ELs, like their peers, do best with explicit instruction in key components of literacy instruction, including phonological awareness and phonics. However, this instruction may need adjustments, including: Before beginning instruction, determine if students have any early literacy skills in their primary language, including knowing the alphabet, letter names, or letter sounds. If so, this knowledge is a resource teachers can tap into.

For example, if a student has learned to read in their primary language, they can apply the skill of matching a symbol with a sound in a new language. Students who have not learned to read in their primary language may have difficulty putting together new letters, new sounds, and new vocabulary words all at once. Dr. Claude Goldenberg goes into detail in the article Helping English Learners with Letter Sounds. Teaching English learners to read in English is a difficult but extremely rewarding journey. The role of the teacher involves not just teaching fundamentals like vocabulary and phonics but also finding ways to engage readers with text that they care about and want to read.

This article breaks down the stages of appreciating reading and provides strategies and resources to support teaching reading to English language learners. A note on language: in this article we employ the common phrase English language learner, along with the acronym ELL, to describe students whose first language isn’t English but are learning within a predominantly... school. However, we recognize the challenge of categorically describing these learners. Students who are learning English do not fit neatly into a single label. The appreciation of reading can be broken down into five stages.

These stages build on one another as we grow and learn. They deepen our understanding of the written word: So, what does this have to do with engaging English learners with text? It’s very simple. We regularly ask ELLs to start at Stage 4 in most of our classrooms. We say, “Let’s read this information about Mesopotamia and see what you can understand.” We fall into the content trap.

However, there are ways to engage our ELLs with texts and to sidestep the trap. The key is to foster a general interest in reading. By encouraging these students to engage with works that interest them, you are ultimately building the skillset they need to be successful in their classroom content reading. Give them time and help them find joy in reading. From there, they will be able to tell you all about Mesopotamia. A research-backed strategy can help teach how to decode new words and comprehend them in context.

Topics: Literacy, Curriculum and Instruction, English Learners The Simple View of Reading theory says that there are two primary areas of reading instruction required for proficient reading: knowing what words the letters create (word recognition) and knowing what the written text... All students need to develop word recognition and language comprehension skills to be successful readers. Philip Gough and William Tunmer designed this evidence-based framework in 1986 to better specify the essential components of successful reading. Now supported by decades of research, and with very little adjustment, it can be applied to instruction with young English learners (ELs)—students whose native language is not English. Word recognition begins with, and depends on, a fine-grained perception of sounds in oral language, or “phonological awareness.” In its purest form, phonological awareness is not about the visual nature of reading text.

It is about the oral nature of hearing language and the ability to identify discrete sounds in spoken words. Could you provide me with the references or studies on which you base the publication? Thank you The references are in the links in the article. Did you check them out? Could you (or writers on this topic) please include a comment or two on students who learn to read languages that aren’t written with an alphabet, but instead with characters?

My understanding from the folks who study these things in the brain is that the same brain circuitry needs to be constructed regardless of the nature of the orthography: sounds of words need to... So the brain circuitry is the same, but what needs to be taught depends on the language’s orthography, ie, how … Read More My understanding from the folks who study these things in the brain is that the same brain circuitry needs to be constructed regardless of the nature of the orthography: sounds of words need to... So the brain circuitry is the same, but what needs to be taught depends on the language’s orthography, ie, how the spoken language is represented in print. See https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Brain-New-Science-Read/dp/0143118056/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?adgrpid=107264848532&hvadid=657311949110&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9007811&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=7543701135943673303&hvtargid=kwd-314740169456&hydadcr=8037_13632797&keywords=dehaene+reading+in+the+brain&qid=1685505134&sr=8-1 The large and growing number of children for whom English is a second language has thrust upon the educational community practitioners no less than researchers extremely important questions and challenges not traditionally...

By far the most controversial of these is whether it is more desirable to promote literacy in a first or second language for limited-English-speaking children. Although far from conclusive, there is evidence that initial reading instruction in a child’s home language (e.g., Spanish) makes a positive contribution to literacy attainment (both in the home language and in English) and,... The question of how best to promote literacy learning in either or both languages is just as important but overshadowed by the politically more volatile issues of which language should be used and for... Researchers and educators possess scant empirical guidance on how best to design literacy instruction for such children in either their primary language or English, much less in both. Appropriate government agencies and private foundations are urged to sponsor research on the factors that influence the literacy acquisition of children for whom English is not the primary language. For various primary languages (e.g., Spanish, Khmer, Chinese) and along key language dimensions such as alphabetic and nonalphabetic writing systems and traditionally literate versus nonliterate languages, issues that need to be addressed include:

Teaching English Language Learners To Read

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