“The face of the country is changing dramatically,” says Aída Walqui, director of WestEd’s Teacher Professional Development Program. According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, for example, the percentage of Latinos in the U.S. will increase by more than 300 percent in the next 15 years. Our education system must be prepared to meet the needs of these students and families. Traditionally, many have believed that a main difficulty for English learners is that they must learn the language before they can master the content being taught. According to WestEd’s recent report, “English Language Learners Need New Pedagogy to Meet the Latest Standards”, that mode of thinking is outdated. ELL students should be learning language and content at the same time. Language lessons should be connected to the subject matter the student is receiving in the classroom. However, doing this can be challenging for teachers. Teachers need support in order to better serve the growing ELL population. Teachers will need to be able to embed language lessons into their content delivery to assist students learning the English language.
Pepper is releasing a series of 5 ELL courses focusing on teaching English Language Learners. These courses were developed by the Understanding Language Initiative at Stanford University. Our next blog will highlight them - check back later this week to learn more.
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