Reading and Writing Strategies for ELL's

Chapters 20 and 21 of Brown’s book talked about reading comprehension and writing for ELL’s. One of the things that interested me was learning about how much goes into reading and writing in a second language. ELL’s have to remember and learn so much about genres of literature, cultural norms, and academic language. They also have to learn a different culture of academics and reading and writing if they are old enough to have attended school prior to coming to the US. Additionally, the academic nature of school is very different than the slang English they may hear other places. As teachers we need to teach them skills to help this transition easier. Such as skimming texts or reviewing their writing samples before turning them in. Then there is the question of authenticity. How authentic are the tasks we are giving our students? What types of writing tasks do ELL’s really need to know about? That is when real writing and display writing come into play. “Real writing […] is writing when the reader doesn’t know the answer and genuinely wants information […] Written exercises, short-answer essays, and other writing in test situations are instances of display writing” (Brown 395-396). I think that we should try and incorporate more of real writing into display writing tasks, for ELL and native speakers alike. We don’t get enough instruction on real life writing skills during high school. This is not to say that academic writing and research papers aren’t important, but shouldn’t we try and teach what is going to be employed?

The question is, how do we really teach the students these skills effectively? Ferris discusses this in his article. One of the simple things that he states is this, “Second language acquisition takes time” (Ferris 92). Although this truth seems trite, it is very true. We can’t expect our ELL’s to immediately flourish into amazing readers and writers of English when they’ve only been in the country a short amount of time. It takes a long time to perfect a language and we can’t get hung up on that. Some things that we can do to help them are very realistic, such as giving them more time to complete work, teaching them the importance of editing and revising, and teaching them to self-edit (Ferris 96). I personally believe that one of the best ways to become a good writer is to be a reader. Research has shown this in native speaking children. When they spend a lot of time reading books, their writing generally improves. I really believe that one of the ways we can improve overall literacy rates in ELL’s is by promoting reading. And we need to provide them with authentic and culturally relevant literature that they will enjoy. Brown discusses this in his chapter about reading. What are some other ways that we can improve literacy skills in ELL’s? How do we reach them where they are in reading/writing level? If we become discouraged about strategies not working, what do we turn to?