On Common Ground. All Students Can Achieve: English Language Learners and Academic Vocabulary Acquisition in the School Library, Part One

Part 1: What Language Do You Speak?

Hola! * Konnichiwa! * Shalom! * Marhaba! * As Salam Alaykom * Ní Háo! * Hujambo!

These words are “Hello” in seven different languages. Do their sounds resonate in your school hallways? There is a good likelihood they do. Nationally, one in five students speaks a language other than English at home. As our nation grapples with immigration, nearly five million children—almost ten percent of the U.S. student population—are designated as English Language Learners (ELL) and participate in a language assistance program (Migration Policy Institute). Educating ELL students has become a responsibility for all teachers. ELL enrollment spans school districts large and small, rural and urban. A recent Pew report projecting our nation’s shifting demographics illustrates that instructing ELL students for academic success will be an ongoing duty.

Instructing ELL students and holding them accountable to the same set of standards as their English-speaking peers is a federal mandate. It is not only an educational issue, it is an issue of civil rights under Title VI of the Civil Right’s Act (1964) and the Equal Education Opportunities Act (1974). Compliance with these laws is monitored and regulated by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In an effort to guide school districts in the development and implementation of ELL programs, the WIDA consortium has been working since 2002 to “advance academic language development and academic achievement for linguistically diverse students through high quality standards, assessments, research, and professional development for educators.”

Why Is This Important?

English Language Learners are among the most vulnerable of our students. They may enter our schools with limited literacy skills in their primary language, which can be a strong predictor of their academic success in learning to read, speak, write, and listen in English. For some, it can be their first experience with formal education.   

ELL students may possess conversational ability appropriate to their grade level, but this may lead teachers to believe that the ELL student’s literacy ability is higher than it really is. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) include vocabulary standards along with an instructional shift towards actively teaching students academic vocabulary, the language used in textbooks and teacher instruction. Whether or not a school system follows the CCSS, it is this academic language with which an ELL student may struggle. It can take four to seven years in an English language acquisition program to become proficient in the academic English used in the classroom (National Center for Education Statistics).

Teaching Academic Vocabulary

Academic vocabulary can be categorized into three tiers. Academic words are those commonly encountered by students in a unit or throughout a course and that have a range of complexity. For ELL students, achievement in the school library requires an understanding of library academic vocabulary. Our challenge, as school librarians, is to identify our academic content words and actively instruct students in their meaning and use. Without this instruction, students will hear and/or read words without the ability to link them to prior knowledge, construct meaning, and achieve comprehension.

• Tier One vocabulary consists of basic words students need to listen, read, speak, and write. These words are familiar, concrete, and tangible, often used in daily conversation. Examples include book, library, and computer.
• Tier Two vocabulary words (and phrases) are those used for information processing. They are more sophisticated and more specific. Examples include booklist and search results.
• Tier Three vocabulary is usually the most difficult to define and understand. It is content specific and not frequently encountered in daily conversation. It can include phrase clusters. Examples are OPAC, periodical, abridged, and cross-reference.

Action Steps

If you as the school librarian have not already developed a list of commonly used library vocabulary words, now is the time to create one. Review your list and assign a tier designation for each word. Do not be surprised as to how lengthy the list is or how many words you use daily that can be categorized in the more complex Tier Two or Tier Three. The next step? Assign a grade level for teaching words from all tiers. As you do this, consider the grade levels where a word will be introduced, reinforced, and mastered by students. Lastly, hold rich and meaningful discussions with library department colleagues, classroom teachers, and ELL teachers.

We expect that you will discover words used across disciplines—and establish common definitions to use in your instruction. You want to ensure consistency as you initially teach and then reinforce library-specific academic vocabulary. WIDA states, “Student development of Academic Language and Academic Content Knowledge are inter-related processes.” If we expect all students to truly achieve in the school library, we need to explicitly teach our content vocabulary as an integral part of the library curriculum and our daily routine. Identifying tiered vocabulary is a first step towards teaching the academic vocabulary ELL students (and all students) need to achieve in the school library.

Works Cited

Migration Policy Institute. "Number and Share of English Language Learners by State." http://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/number-and-share-english-language-learners-state

National Center for Education Statistics. "Fast Facts: English Language Learners." https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=96.

Pew Research Center. "Modern Immigration Wave Brings 59 Million to U.S., Driving Population Growth and Change through 2065." September 28, 2015. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/09/28/modern-immigration-wave-brings-59-million-to-u-s-driving-population-growth-and-change-through-2065/

WIDA. "Mission & the WIDA Story." https://www.wida.us/aboutus/mission.aspx.