Pull-Out ESL Instruction

The term pull-out ESL instruction refers to the common practice, used mainly in elementary schools, in which English language learners (ELLs) are placed in mainstream classrooms but are also “pulled out” of those classrooms for part of the day to receive English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction from a specially trained ESL teacher. Under federal law (e.g., Lau v. Nichols, 1974, and the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001), schools must ensure that ELL students learn both English and core academic content (e.g., math, science, social studies) simultaneously. Pull-out ESL instruction meets the first of these two requirements, as its purpose is to help ELL students learn English as quickly and effectively as possible. In practice, pull-out ESL models vary widely in terms of the types of ELL students, the amount of time allotted for instruction, the curriculum used, the skills targeted, the qualifications of the teachers assigned to this function, and the role of this program component as part of the total range of instructional services provided for ELLs. The pull-out ESL model is most frequently used (and most needed) in schools in which most classroom teachers do not have the training or certification to provide effective daily ESL instruction for ELL students in their own classrooms. Thus, pull-out ESL models are common in schools that do not have bilingual education programs or well-designed sheltered English immersion classrooms. In these schools, ELL students typically make up a smaller percentage of the population, and thus ELL students are placed in mainstream classrooms. However, some schools with bilingual and/or sheltered English immersion classrooms may also have pull-out ESL classes to service [Page 705]ELL students who are not participating in these programs, or the school may simply elect to use pull-out ESL to provide the ESL component of the bilingual or sheltered English immersion program.

The amount of instruction time varies greatly. In some schools, ELLs may be pulled out of their regular classrooms every day for anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours or more. In other schools, ELL students may be pulled out only 2 to 3 times a week. This frequently depends on the number of ELL students within a school and the demands placed on the time of the pull-out ESL teacher. In some districts, the number of ELL students in each school is small enough that a single ESL teacher may be sufficient to service two or more schools. In other cases, the ELL student population may be large enough to justify several pull-out ESL teachers at a single school. ELL students are entitled to ESL instruction until they are officially redesignated as fluent English proficient and no longer require special language services. However, some schools provide pull-out ESL instruction only to newly arrived non-English-speaking ELL students or to ELL students at the lowest levels of English proficiency. These schools operate under the assumption that once ELLs reach a level of basic oral English proficiency (i.e., they know basic vocabulary and can carry on a simple conversation), they will be able to continue learning English on their own in regular classrooms. This can be a questionable practice. Evidence from language proficiency tests given in California and other states show that many ELL students get stuck at the intermediate and advanced levels of English ability for several years. This suggests that ELL students at these higher oral fluency levels may need more intensive ESL than can be provided through the pull-out instruction alone. Until and unless that service is continued, the students cannot be redesignated as fully English proficient. This is especially true in reading and writing, as compared with oral English.

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