Tip #21: Supporting Our Multilingual Students

Contributed by Tyler Bradbury, Center for International Programs

It isn’t always evident if our students speak English as their primary language, but we can be sure that there are multilingual students in our classes. How can we enhance our teaching so that we are making lectures and materials accessible for these students? The good news is that many of these strategies make materials more accessible for ALL students!

Quick and easy ways to help students:

• Provide instruction that appeals to multiple learning styles.
• Be sure to have visual references and cues such as presentation slides, notes on the board, or lecture notes that can be annotated by the students. This helps students keep up with the lecture and information.
• When showing video, use the CC option to provide English subtitles.
• Instead of full class discussions, consider small group discussion where students feel more comfortable speaking up and asking questions. International students especially can be self-conscious of their ability to make themselves understood (because of language or pronunciation).
• Ask yourself if there is a reason for a time limit on your Canvas quizzes. Could the time-limit be increased or removed altogether?
• Allow for re-submission of essays for improved grades.
• If there are comprehension problems, don’t speak louder, slow down and speak clearly.

Tips that may challenge you and your teaching:

• If you have a large group who speaks the same primary language, consider encouraging group discussions in their primary language.
• For international students, do your research and be aware of the cultural teaching styles they are accustomed to. Find out if collaborative learning, class discussion, and freely questioning the instructor are styles they have experienced before or if they need help adapting.
• Increase your formative, low-stakes, evaluations, don’t rely solely upon structured quizzes and exams to give you an idea of how students are grasping materials. (See CTL Tip #20 for ideas!)
• Reflect on how imperfect English affects your grading and if it should.

Resources

• International English Language Institute - your resource on campus for help with any of the suggestions above
• How to Accommodate Different Learning Styles
• Formative and Summative Assessments (Yale)
• Recognizing and Addressing Cultural Variations in the Classroom  (suggestions begin on pg 6)
• Purdue OWL: Working with Multilingual Student Writers (especially the flowchart on pg 23)

References:

Creese, A., & Blackledge, A. (2010). Translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: A pedagogy for learning and teaching? The Modern Language Journal, 94(1), 103-115.

Lightbown, P., & Spada, N. (2013). How languages are learned (Fourth ed., Oxford handbooks for language teachers).