Katherine Lawrence, Moreland University M.Ed-Multilingual Learners Program

Over the last month of reading and completing the work for my M.Ed. on teaching multilingual learners, I have been able to compile a number of important principles and practices for successfully teaching multilingual English Language learners. This blog post presents what I currently think of as the 10 most important principles of language instruction from my point of view as a high school science teacher.  I work at a bilingual (English-German) international school in Berlin, Germany, where as of February 2023, nearly 1 in 4 residents (24.3%) have a migration background (The Local, 2023). Most of the students who I teach have a native language that is not English, and a large minority of my students speak three or more languages, including English, at varying levels of proficiency. The recommendations below provide insights on not only how to effectively teach these language learners subject content, but how to help them feel included, integrated and well supported in the learning...

The C6 Biliteracy Framework for dual language programs was created in order to facilitate the curriculum and lesson planning process for teachers serving in dual language programs. It was designed with the following three goals in mind for students (Dual Language Schools, 2019):  Bilingualism and biliteracy  Grade-level academic achievement in both program languages  Sociocultural competence The C6 Framework provides an alternative to traditional pedagogies that approach lesson planning and design classroom resources through a monolingual lens (Medina, 2021). The C6 framework, by contrast, puts bilingualism at the center of the learning process, and it does so with a strong emphasis on equity and social justice. Says Dr. José L. Medina, the developer of the C6 Biliteracy Instructional Framework, in a video by Dual Language Schools, “Our goal as dual language educators is to ensure that our kids understand that they have to dismantle the systems of oppression that continuo...

Serving the needs of multilingual and English Language learners (ELL) is as important in furthering diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work in schools as many other aspects of student identity such as racial and ethnic, socioeconomic, and immigration background. Indeed, there are also often and inevitably intersections between these identities in our students. I work as a science teacher in a bilingual (English-German) international school in Berlin, Germany, where as of February 2023, nearly 1 in 4 residents (24.3%) have a migration background (The Local, 2023). In Germany as a whole, that number is 27.2% of the population, with most coming from other countries in Europe, as well as the Middle East, Asia and Africa (Janjevic, 2022). While it is expected that the children of many of these families will enter the public/state schooling system, international schools will also be a key point of matriculation for migrant families. As such, the work I am currently doing as part of my M.E...