I am going to get right into it. My current question is how to best help students who are not native speakers best learn the language as effectively and efficiently as possible.

My goal in this post is to share the research I have found thus far (which I will continue to update as I go) that helps aid my understanding of the best practices to educate students who are non-native speakers (English is not their first language).

As a past high school teacher and as a current elementary-school tutor, I see the challenges students experience in learning a new language. My experience for 25 years is the concept of “immersion.” Non-native speaking students are placed in a traditional classroom and should learn English from being exposed to it. However, immersion is not sufficient for non-native speaking students.

As Tim Shanahan, from the University of Illinois at Chicago suggested, many individuals feel that immersion will work, for “‘we’ve got the kids integrated, they’re in classes with other children who know English, they’re going to be hearing the lessons in English, and the kids will be talking on the playground, and these kids will pick up English just like that’” (Stavely, 2023). Shanahan’s point is that immersion is not enough for students who speak English as a second language to become proficient in speaking, reading, and writing English.