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Language Differences
The purpose of this entry is to describe how teachers can structure their classroom and use explicit instruction to help students with language differences— students who have a first or home language other than English—succeed both academically and socially. With schools becoming increasingly diverse, it is important for all teachers to know how to use classroom management and instruction to provide students with language differences the optimal environment for them to succeed.
An estimated 21% of the students enrolled in K–12 public schools speak a language other than English at home. This number has more than doubled since 1980. It is estimated that 67% of public schools in the United States have students who are classified as having limited English proficiency. There are over 450 home languages spoken and some districts have as many as 150 different languages represented. With increasingly diverse classrooms, it is important for teachers to know how to use classroom management to help students with language differences succeed—as the example of third-grader Du Lia is intended to show.
Du Lia’s family recently arrived from Thailand after fleeing their native Myanmar (formerly Burma). His family lived in a refugee camp where he had little formal schooling before arriving in the United States. Du Lia attended a newcomer center where he learned some basic English and school structures. He was recently placed in Mrs. White’s 3rd grade classroom where he receives about an hour of pull-out English as a second language (ESL) instruction daily. Mrs. White reports that Du Lia is either disruptive or unengaged when he is with her. She reports that during transitions, he is most disruptive, often poking his peers with his fingers. During classroom instruction he is generally unengaged, with his head down on his desk, and appearing to be daydreaming. Mrs. White is concerned about his behavior but is unsure what to do given the language differences. She consults with Ms. Miller, the ESL teacher, to see what strategies may help Du Lia in her general education classroom.
There are several ways in which teachers can use classroom management to ensure students with language differences are able to participate and learn in their classrooms. Through this intentional process, teachers are able to create a safe and secure environment for students with language differences and reduce students’ anxiety, thereby enabling them to learn. These include (1) using predictable structures and routines, (2) using visuals to provide language support, and (3) intentionally building vocabulary and understanding.
Establishing Predictable Structures and Routines
Using predictable structures and routines allows students with language differences to experience a stable and predictable environment (see Table 1). For some students with language differences, this is the first time they have a predictable schedule. When students know what to expect they are able to focus their attention on the instruction and not on worrying about what will come next. In addition, repeating classroom routines using consistent language allows English language learners to learn new vocabulary and concepts through the repetition.
| Table 1 Examples of Routines and Their Benefit to Students With Language Differences | |
|---|---|
<> ... | |
- Age, Grade, and Setting
- Age and Classroom Management
- Developmentally Appropriate Practice
- Early Childhood Education and Classroom Management
- Elementary Education and Classroom Management
- Field Trips
- Field Trips, Legal Requirements for
- High School and Classroom Management
- Kindergarten and Classroom Management
- Middle School and Classroom Management
- Physical Education and Classroom Management
- Positive Youth Development and Schooling
- Recess
- Rural Schools
- Assessment
- Applied Behavior Analysis
- Assessing and Promoting Treatment Integrity
- Assessing Classroom Management
- Assessment of Students
- Assessment of Teacher–Student Relationships
- Assessment of Tests and Exams
- Behavioral Online Screenings for School Settings
- Beliefs About Discipline Inventory
- Curriculum Compacting
- Documentation and Classroom Management
- Functional Analysis
- Functional Behavioral Assessment
- High-Stakes Testing
- Intelligence
- Quantitative and Qualitative Studies
- Research-Based Strategies
- School Climate: Assessing and Improving
- Screening and Classroom Management
- Screening and Monitoring for Academic Success
- Target Behaviors
- Teaching as Researching
- Treatment Integrity
- Universal Screening
- Whole-Class Measurement of Disruptive Behavior
- Community (Classroom and Schoolwide)
- Caring Approaches
- Climate: School and Classroom
- Cooperation and Competition
- Democratic Meetings
- Democratic Practices in Classrooms and Schools
- Human Rights Education
- Inclusive Classrooms
- Japanese Model of Classroom Management
- Just Community
- Open Circle
- Quaker Education and Classroom Management
- School Climate: Assessing and Improving
- Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports
- Service Learning
- Warmth and Classroom Management
- Development (of Students, Teachers, and Classrooms)
- Beginning Teachers and Classroom Management
- Classroom Management Consultation Strategies
- Classroom Organization and Management Program
- Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning
- Consulting with Teachers
- Council for Children With Behavioral Disorders
- Dropout Prevention
- Human Rights Education
- Inservice Teacher Education
- National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
- Reflective Practice
- School Climate: Assessing and Improving
- Social and Emotional Learning
- Social Problem Solving
- Social Skills: Meanings, Supports, and Training for Developing
- Teacher Education and Classroom Management
- Teacher Knowledge, Beliefs, Attitudes
- Teacher Self-Awareness
- Teacher Self-Efficacy
- Teacher Teaming and Professional Development
- Teachers-in-Training
- Diversity: Ability, Disability, and Special Needs
- American Sign Language
- Assistive Technology
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Autism and Inclusion in Classrooms
- Autism Spectrum Disorders
- Behavior Disorders
- Behavior Support Plans
- Bilingualism and Students With Disabilities
- Conduct Disorder
- Council for Children With Behavioral Disorders
- Deaf Students
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)
- Disabilities and Classroom Management
- Dyslexia: Individualizing Instruction
- Gifted Students and Effective Classroom Practices
- Inclusive Classrooms
- Intellectual Disabilities (Mental Retardation)
- Language Disorders
- Learning Disabilities
- Medication for Emotional and Behavioral Problems
- Oppositional Defiant Disorder
- Service Learning and Special Education
- Severe Disabilities and Classroom Management
- Special Education and Hispanic Students
- Special Education and Peer Support Strategies
- Spiritual Supports for Students With Disabilities
- Students With Hearing Impairments
- Teachers and Families of Children With Special Needs
- Technology for Struggling Readers
- Diversity: Culture, Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Gender
- African American Styles of Teaching and Disciplining
- American Individualisms
- Anti-Bias Education
- Asian American Students
- Asian Americans as Model Minority
- Bilingual Education
- Chinese Model of Classroom Management
- Cultural Diversity
- Culturally Different Students in Gifted Education
- Culturally Pluralistic Classrooms
- Culturally Responsive Classrooms
- Culturally Responsive Classrooms for African American Students
- English Language Learners and Classroom Behavior
- English Learners
- Gender and Classroom Management
- Haitian Students
- Home–School Connections With Latino Families
- Immigrant Children and Families
- Inequities and Class Discussions
- Japanese Model of Classroom Management
- Language Differences
- Linguistic Diversity and Classroom Management
- Muslim Students and Classroom Management
- Native American Students
- New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms
- Religious Diversity and Classroom Management
- Sexual Orientation and Classroom Management
- Social Skill Instruction for Latino Students
- Socioeconomic Status
- Special Education and Hispanic Students
- Underachievement and African American Students
- Underachievement and Culturally Different Students
- Urban Schools
- History (Leaders and Movements)
- Instruction (Curriculum and Pedagogy)
- Academic Disciplinary Practices
- Active Student Responding
- Art: Studio Approaches to Learning Environments
- Arts for Learning Environments
- Character Education
- Computer-Assisted Instruction
- Curriculum and Classroom Management
- Curriculum Compacting
- Differentiated Instruction
- Digital Technology and Classroom Management
- Fostering Classroom Engagement
- Homework
- Humor
- Instruction and Cognitive Load
- Instructional Rounds
- Interactive Teaching
- Lesson Planning and Classroom Management
- Managing Classroom Discussions
- Managing Groupwork
- Motivating Students
- Multisensory Instruction
- Promoting Purpose and Learning Environments
- Reading, Language Arts, and Classroom Management
- Social and Emotional Learning for Young Children
- Spatial Activities and Manipulatives for Early Education Classrooms
- Story Writing
- Student Interest, Stimulating and Maintaining
- Teaching Philosophies and Approaches
- Tiered Assignments
- Video-Aided Instruction
- Whole-Class Methods
- Writing and Classroom Management
- Methods for Preventing and Managing Problem Behavior
- Active Listening and I-Messages
- Application of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports to Schoolwide and Classroom Settings
- Behavioral Supports for Secondary Education Classrooms
- Check In/Check Out
- Choral Response
- Class Meetings
- Clocklight
- Cogenerative Dialogue and Urban Classrooms
- Conflict Management
- Corporal Punishment
- Desists
- Detention
- Developmental Discipline
- Differential Treatment and Reinforcement
- Discipline Codes of Conduct
- Discipline, School and Classroom
- Disruptive Behaviors, Positive Approaches to
- Engaging Students Through Opportunities to Respond
- Extinction
- Good Behavior Game
- Help-Seeking Methods
- Learning Contracts
- Lessons and Lesson Planning
- Limits and Limit Setting
- Methods for Managing Behavior: Types and Uses
- Methods, Ineffective
- Monitoring
- Negative Reinforcement
- Office Referrals
- Peer Mediation
- Planned Ignoring
- Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports
- Praise and Encouragement
- Preventing Antisocial Behavior at the Point of School Entry
- Preventing Behavior Problems
- Proactive Classroom Management
- Proximity: Meaning and Uses
- Punishment
- Reframing
- Reinforcement
- Reminders
- Reprimands
- Rewards and Punishments
- Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports
- Self-Regulation and Sensory-Affective Co-Regulation
- Self-Regulation to Solve Problems
- Suspension and Expulsion
- Teachers’ Language to Motivate Effort
- Time-Out
- Token Economies
- Organization of Learning Groups, Teaching Teams, and Administrators
- Organization of Time, Space, and Materials
- Beginning the School Year
- Classroom Organization and Management Program
- Materials in Early Childhood Classrooms
- Organization of Classrooms: Space
- Organization of Classrooms: Time
- Reminders
- Routines
- Schedules and Scheduling for Secondary Schools
- Space: Elementary and Secondary Classrooms
- Spaces for Young Children
- Transitions, Managing
- Policy and Procedures (In-Class, In-School, State, and Federal Government)
- Bullying and the Law
- Educational Reform and Teacher Effectiveness
- Emergency Procedures and Students With Disabilities
- Field Trips, Legal Requirements for
- Government Policy and Classroom Management
- Guns: History, Policy, Consequences
- Individualized Education Programs
- Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
- Law and Classroom Management
- No Child Left Behind Act
- Policy, Teachers, and Young Children
- Restraint and Seclusion Policy
- Rules and Expectations
- Safety, Policies for Ensuring
- School Discipline
- School Restructuring
- Schoolwide Discipline Policies
- Special Education Laws
- Problem Behaviors
- Relationships
- Attachment to Teachers
- Authority and Classrooms
- Authority, Children’s Concepts of
- Climate, School and Classroom
- Co-Teaching for Inclusive Classrooms
- Cogenerative Dialogue and Urban Classrooms
- Collaborative Approach to Classroom Management
- Community Approaches to Classroom Management
- Democratic Practices in Classrooms and Schools
- Ethics, Power, and Classroom Management
- Exemplary Teachers
- Expectations: Teachers’ Expectations of Students
- Home–School Connections
- Open Circle
- Peers and Peer Relations
- Physical Contact and Classroom Management
- Power and Classroom Management
- Sharing Authority
- Styles of Teaching
- Teacher–Parent Partnerships
- Teacher–Student Relationships
- Teacher–Student Relationships and Behaviorally At-Risk Students
- Trust, Building
- Warm Demanders
- Warmth and Classroom Management
- Welcoming Greetings at the Beginning of the School Year
- Systems (Interpersonal and Behavioral)
- Theories, Approaches, and Theoretical Constructs
- Approaches to Classroom Management: Types
- Attachment Theory
- Attribution Theory
- Behavioral Approaches, Foundations of
- Classroom Management and Maslow’s Humanist Psychology
- Community Approaches to Classroom Management
- Conditions for Learning
- Constructivist Approaches
- Creativity and Classroom Management
- Definitions of Classroom Management
- Democratic Practices in Classrooms and Schools
- Developmental Approaches
- Developmentally Appropriate Practice
- Differential Treatment and Reinforcement
- Dynamic and Relational Systems Theory
- Ecological Approaches
- Emotion Regulation
- Evidence-Based Classroom Management
- Executive Function and Behavior Problems
- Feminist Perspectives on Classroom Management
- Identity
- Institutional Racism
- Interpersonal Attribution Theory and Classroom Management
- Learning Styles
- Locus of Control
- Milieu Management for Children With Emotional and Behavioral Special Needs
- Mindfulness Practices for Teachers
- Mindfulness-Based Approaches to Classroom Management
- Montessori and Classroom Management
- Moral Development Theories
- Motivation, Intrinsic and Extrinsic
- Negative Reinforcement
- Play, Learning, and Classroom Management
- Points of Entry and Classroom Supports
- Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports
- Progressive Education
- Prosocial Behavior
- Punishment
- Quaker Education and Classroom Management
- Reinforcement
- Relationship-Based Approaches to Classroom Management
- Resilience
- Respect
- Responsive Classroom Approach
- School Psychologists
- School-Based Occupational Therapy
- Self-Determination Theory
- Self-Management
- Self-Regulated Learning
- Sensory Integration
- Social and Emotional Learning
- Sociocultural Theories and Classroom Management
- Target Behaviors
- Zone of Proximal Development
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