5 Tips How To Support ELLs at Home

How ELL Parents Can Help Their Child at Home

Usually at the beginning of the year parents of ELL students might ask you what they can do at home to help their child learn English. The following 5 Tips how to support ELLs at Home will help parents of ELLs to support their children’s language learning at home. It doesn’t matter if parents speak English, just as long as they commit to helping their child with his or her English language skills the student will benefit from these tips.

1.Encourage parents to interact with their children in their home language. 

Parents can talk about why things are the way they are in the world( why are the leaves falling etc.) if parents are illiterate, tell them to share stories, fiction, and non-fiction, or sing songs in their home language. Explain the benefits of cooking with them at home, and that those activities build background knowledge. Suggest that they do activities and explain why they are doing them. Like going to the bank together, and modeling fluid conversations in the L1. Having a language-rich environment in the home language is crucial for language development. First-language literacy enhances second-language acquisition. Most literacy skills are transferable so it always helps if parents talk and have conversations with their children in their home language.

2. Encourage parents to read together or tell stories in the home language 

Tell parents to ask wh-questions about the stories they read at home. The more background knowledge, the more easily the child will learn the concepts they need in English. Colorin Colorado has handouts available in 16 languages with 8 tips for parents to help their children read. Don’t forget to advise parents to get a library card and get books in the home.

3. Watching English educational programs and English Learning Websites 

PBS has this program called SuperWhy and kids love it. SuperWhy is good to learn the English sounds, and letters and learn to read. My favorite site as a kindergarten teacher was Starfall.com students can learn the letter sounds and listen to stories.  Getepic.com is a website with 40,000 books, audiobooks & learning videos. You can find more Free and Fun Elementary Reading Websites for Kids here!

4. Encourage parents to play games with their children

Playing games such as Scrabble and Boggle, HeadsUp or games from parents’ culture is a fun way to interact with children while learning a language. Children will build relationships and learn through time spent interacting and playing with others. When parents play with their kids it allows them to see things from their child’s perspective, so many skills are practiced like; problem-solving skills, reading, social skills and must important having fun together.

5. Support homework

Even if parents don’t speak English they can help in different ways. Telling children the importance of going to school, reading books, and checking their homework will help children to understand the importance of education. If children are having difficulties understanding homework in English, parents should explain concepts in their home language first. Once children understand then work on the homework in English.

You might want to check out Colorin Colorado‘s website it has great resources for parents!

What do you advise your ELL parents? Let me know in the comments.