Effectively Using ESL Support
ESL support is a valuable resource
Whether you teach in a classroom or online, an ESL Support Instructor (SI) can help your students understand difficult vocabulary and concepts, communicate more effectively, review material, and prepare for important projects. And while ESL students must be enrolled in your class in order to get ESL support, all students can benefit from these services.
Get on the same page
Communicate with your SI about the kinds of support you would like, and when and how it would work best. Would you like your SI to participate in discussions, check students’ comprehension during critiques, ask clarification questions during class?
Collaborate
If you think students aren’t understanding a concept, key vocabulary, or instructions, invite your SI to rephrase it or break it down into language the students can understand.
Online, regularly go to the English-as-a-Second-Language Support discussion topic to see what your SI is posting for the students. Send comments if you have information to add. Refer non-ESL students who might benefit from this discussion topic as well.
Incorporate the SI into activities. For example, if students are working on their individual projects, announce that the SI will be circulating around the class and that they will practice presenting their projects when the SI gets to them.
Consult with your SI on how students could be paired up or what kinds of activities might be most productive for the ESL students.
Anticipate
An SI will be more effective with information in advance. Provide specific questions ahead of time that students will need to ask or answer during presentations or critiques so the SI can help students prepare.
Let your SI know what the students will need to know for tests so he/she can plan a study group targeting specific content and study strategies. When possible, provide the SI with study guides, terminology lists, etc. that they can use.
Empower
Give your SI permission and authority. An SI can’t require struggling students to work with him/her, but you can require students to work with your SI in class and in the study group.
Check in
Check in periodically with the SI on who is participating in study groups and how they are doing.
Make an effort to correspond with your SI at least a few times during the semester (an introductory email, a mid-point check-in, and the final review, for example).
At the end of the semester, review with the SI how the class went and how the instructor/support relationship could be more productive in the future.
Resources:
Don’t have ESL support, but have a student who needs it?
ESL Support Policy
Writing Lab
Online ESL support-Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Getting help for Students
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