Supporting English-Language Learners in Social Studies Class: Results from a Study of High School Teachers

Abstract

Content-area instruction for English-language learners (ELLs) represents a growing area of instructional need in U.S. high schools. In this article, the authors focus on diverse approaches to developing an effective instructional environment for teaching secondary-level social studies curriculum to ELLs. The authors participated in a school-university partnership to support content-area teachers' efforts to increase ELLs' comprehension skills. The authors propose a multitiered approach to meet the needs of ELLs in the mainstream social studies classrooms by (1) providing social and cultural support during the process of acculturation, (2) providing explicit instruction in academic strategies necessary for successful comprehension of in-depth content using the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach, and (3) making social studies curriculum more accessible through strategies for reducing cognitive load without reducing content.