English learners and dual language learners are individuals whose first language is not English. They likely have a dialect or home language that is different than the language being spoken or taught in the classroom. The ability or expertise of these language learners can be very diverse. ELL’s are called language “learners” because their native dialect is different than English and they are “learning” the English language. Most educators use the terms English learners, English language-learners, non-native English speakers, and second language learners.
A survey from the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition recently estimated that over 5 million English learners were enrolled in US public schools from Preschool to 12th grade. This influx of English Learner enrollment grew the need for ELL instruction exponentially and our …show more content…
Howard Gardner in the 90’s further built off of Piaget to establish the theory of multiple intelligences, which defines the extent to which students possess different kinds of minds and which causes them to learn, remember, understand and perform in different ways. To consider the individual student and be able to connect and engage that student to literacy we muGuthrie’s study (2010) showed that students with high reading engagement but lower income and parent education that those students still showed higher reading achievement than students with lower reading engagement and the same background characteristics. This research suggests that reading engagement is more important than students’ family background. Gambrell’s “Seven Rules of Engagement” explore the factors in which we can adjust to support student engagement of reading. Several include text choice, interest in the reading topics and that this critical engagement is directly linked to student