Page 10 - ELG2003 Mar Issue 469

El•Gazette 469.qxp_El•Gazette 469 25/02/2020 21:50 Page 10

RESEARCH NEWS .

Don’t judge a learner by their label:

US teacher expectations of ELLs

Label, not language level, may determine teachers’ perceptions, study finds

By Gillian Ragsdale

Labelling US school pupils as
English Language Learners
(ELLs) leads to lower teachers’
expectations, except where pupils NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE/UNSPLASH
are taught in a bilingual setting,
report Ilana Umansky and Hanna
Dumont in a working paper from
Brown University.
Classifying children by
language level is standard in the
US. By US federal law, the level of
English must be assessed when
children start school, and if it falls
below a certain threshold they are
identified as ELL students.
Almost 10 per cent of pupils are
classified as ELL, 80 per cent
being Spanish speakers. A
minority of schools run bilingual
classes, but transitional Sheltered
English Language or content-
based language programmes,
where ELL children are educated
separately, are common. Research shows that teachers may have lower expectations for ELL students
Not all English-speaking
countries do the same. In their teachers for three years. the students’ skills and knowledge higher in a bilingual setting. It
England, for example, 20 per cent The crucial comparison was in language, maths, social studies might reflect a difference in the
of children from 300 language between expectations of students and science. They also recorded kind of teachers choosing to teach
groups start school with English as classified as ELL and expectations whether Spanish was being used bilingual classes or it might be
an additional language (EAL). of students with the same ‘about half the time,’ indicating a something else associated with
The most common first language, background and level of English bilingual rather than English bilingual classes.
Punjabi, is spoken by less than two who were not labelled ELL. It was immersion approach to teaching. In the longer term, this finding
per cent of students, so bilingual not possible to change the ELL They found that teachers did will fuel the ongoing debate on
teaching is not an option. Schools classification of individual indeed have significantly lower use of the ELL label and the role
make some provision for EAL children but a quirk in the system expectations of their ELL students of bilingual teaching in the US. In
students but, unlike ELL in the allowed such a comparison to be than students with the same level the shorter term, knowing that
US, it is not a general made. of proficiency but not classed as teachers’ expectations are affected
classification. EAL-only Although all schools must ELL. These lower expectations by the ELL label enables teacher
programmes have been banned as classify students based on home were across all subjects. training to address this
discriminatory since 1985. language and English proficiency, In the bilingual classes, unconscious bias directly. As
So, is the US system of the way that proficiency is however, expectations of ELL America’s popular media
classification detrimental and if measured and the threshold for students were no different to personality Oprah Winfrey says:
so, why? Prior research in the US being classified as ELL varies, with those of non-ELL students. “You can’t change what you don’t
has already shown that just being as many as 25 separate proficiency Why might this happen? acknowledge”.
labelled as an ELL student can assessments being used across the Teachers are generally pretty
lead to lower exam scores across US. accurate in assessing students’ REFERENCE
all subjects. Exactly how and why This means that students skills and knowledge – but this n Umansky, Ilana, and Hanna
this happens is less clear. classed as ELL in one school accuracy decreases when they do Dumont. (2019). English Learner
Umansky and Dumont might not be so identified in not share their students’ Labeling: How English Learner
questioned whether teachers’ another. By giving all the children background. This is not a special Status Shapes Teacher Perceptions
lower expectations of ELL in the study their own proficiency fault of teachers, people in general of Student Skills & the Moderating
students might be eroding their tests, Umansky and Dumont were are highly prone to judging people Role of Bilingual Instructional
potential. They set out to able to compare like with like, i.e. from their own group more Settings. (EdWorkingPaper: 19-
compare teachers’ expectations of children with the same accurately (or even more 94). Retrieved from Annenberg
ELL students with those of non- proficiency scores but different favourably) than people felt to be Institute at Brown University:
ELLs by following the progress of labels. from a different group. http://www.edworkingpapers.com/
2,166 kindergarten children (just Each year, they collected data It is not clear why teachers’ ai19-94
starting school at age 5 or 6) and on the teachers’ perceptions of expectations of ELL students are

10 March 2020