WHO ARE OUR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS?  2

Who Are Our English Language Learners?

Diversity has several dimensions, such as language, socio-economic status, culture, and
immigration status, all of which have an impact on English Language Learners (ELLs). Students
come from different linguistic backgrounds; some are monolingual, others bilingual, while others
are multilingual (Honigsfeld & Cohan, 2015). Thus, different levels of language proficiency
cause diversity in the classroom. Culture is another dimension that creates student diversity. A
classroom may comprise of students of different cultures. Socioeconomic status is another
dimension of diversity, which refers to the social and economic position of the student’s family
in terms of occupation, income, and education. Some students live n low socioeconomic status
situations, while others live in high socioeconomic status situations and this has an impact on the
English language learner. The fourth critical dimension of diversity of immigration status.
Variations in immigration status occur in the sense that some students are born to immigrant
parents, while others are visiting the U.S or living temporarily in the country, and another
category comprises of students who migrate to the country and have already completed all the
necessary paperwork to acquire citizenship.
Diversity dimensions may affect students negatively. First, they may create uncertainty.
For example, a student may be worried that his or her parents will be deported. Such a scenario is
likely to affect the student’s attention in class and consequently, the academic performance. The
best way to deal with such a situation as a teacher is first to understand that students are unique
and must be handled as such. The teacher should then reaffirm the students and provide
necessary guidance to the parents if necessary, on how to get the proper documentation to reside
in the country. Poverty may also impact on ELLs as their family’s ability to provide learning
resources is constrained. Such children may not own a computer at home making it difficult to

WHO ARE OUR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS?  3
complete assignments requiring such digital tools. Teachers can intervene by assisting such
students access digital tools in the school library, from where they are in a better position to do
well in their studies.
One of the “Get to Know You” activities that I would use with my ELLs is the Paper
Airplane You. The activity involves students writing facts about themselves on a piece of paper,
folding it into an airplane made of paper then throwing the paper up. Each student then picks one
paper that lands near them then read the facts written on the paper and tries to make guesses on
who the paper could be describing. I think that this strategy is effective in helping me get to
know more about my students as it gives them a chance to describe themselves. Also, students
get to learn more about one another, and it helps them live harmoniously with each other. I
would use the knowledge learned to decide on the best teaching strategies to use to accommodate
all students. Also, I would use the information acquired to create small groups that comprise of
diverse students as this would help them interact and learn more about other students that have
certain aspects that are different from them. Through the groups, learners would learn how to
embrace diversity. The activity is described in the URL below:
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/esl-icebreakers/

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References

Honigsfeld, A & Cohan, A. (2015). Serving English language learners [Electronic version].
Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/