Should teachers avoid making accommodations for their ELL students to promote student English learning? How much should teachers accommodate for their ELL students? ELL students are encouraged to learn English and accommodations may undermine this initiative. As a teacher of a certain subject, do we assess their knowledge of that subject exclusively or do we allow their English capabilities affect their performance
During my practicum, I was faced with an ethical dilemma. I was teaching mathematics and assessing my students on their mathematical knowledge and I noticed that my ELL students struggled with word problems. It was clear they understood the mathematics behind the problem but simply did not understand what the word questions were asking. I discussed with the schools ELL teacher and he informed me that the test is part of their learning of the English language and that I should not make any accommodation for them. I argued that I am testing them on their math knowledge not their English skills. Inevitably, I retested these students with a verbal and rephrasing of the question to help them understand what the question was asking. As a result, those higher achieving students were successful and those who still did not understand. I believe the action I chose was the correct one that result in a fair and valid assessment of the students’ content knowledge of mathematics.
Resource to consider
Mihai, N. E. P. S. F. (2006). Assessing English language learners’ content knowledge in middle school classrooms. Middle School Journal.
In this paper, the authors express that not every test for ESL (ELL) needs to be a language or literacy test. Some teachers do not consider testing adaptations and accommodations “fair’ to their native English-speakers. In reality, any test given in English automatically constitutes as unequal testing environment for linguistically diverse students. It is critical to understand the English language proficiency of ELLs to properly assess their content knowledge. Otherwise too much adaptations may result in unfair advantages.
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