Text Adaptations for ELLs:

1
Text Adaptations for ELLs
2
Why Adapt?

• ESL students have a very hard time understanding
  texts and instruction in English, especially at
  the upper grade levels
• Some ESL students come to our schools with
  limited formal school experiences
• When all children participate in instruction,
  classroom management is less of an issue

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Two Primary Ways of Adapting Text

• Simplified Texts
• Texts can be linguistically simplified by
  substituting frequently occurring vocabulary for
  infrequently occurring nontechnical vocabulary,
  shortening sentence length and restructuring
  sentences to reduce their complexity. The goal
  here is linguistic simplification to improve
  readability. When simplifying a text for ELLs,
  the purpose of adaptation is to eliminate overly
  complex language that might prevent the student
  from understanding the main ideas of text.

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Two Primary Ways of Adapting Text

• Elaborated Texts
• Elaborated texts aim is to clarify, elaborate and
  explain implicit information and make connections
  explicit. Words are often added to increase
  comprehension. The goal is to make a text more
  coherent and limit the ambiguity within it.
  Unlike linguistic simplification, improved text
  coherence (or understandability) does not
  necessarily decrease the difficulty of a text as
  measured by readability formulas.

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Potential Benefits of Text Adaptation

• Linguistic simplification will presumably
  decrease the language load a reader must grapple
  with, allowing ELLs to concentrate on
  understanding the content of the text without the
  burden of language complexities. Simpler
  vocabulary would allow a learner to focus on
  essential meaning rather than become frustrated
  with overly complex words
• If a text is elaborated, it should provide
  greater text coherence and lead to higher levels
  of simplification. An elaborated text should
  make implicit references very explicit

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Potential Drawbacks of Text Adaptation

• A text that is simplified may prevent the
  students from being exposed to the vocabulary and
  text structures that they will eventually need to
  know
• An elaborated text might make for more coherent
  and comprehensible reading, but a the same time
  remove inherent ambiguity that makes reading
  interesting
• Although texts should be easy enough for students
  to understand, tasks that are too easy never
  provide learners with the opportunity to see what
  they can actually accomplish

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An Example Todays Cricket

• The batsmen were merciless against the bolwers.
  The bolwers placed their men in slips and covers.
  But to no avail. The batsman hit a lot of
  fours. They hit some sixes. No ball hit the
  stumps. No ball was caught.

• The men were at bat against the bowlers. They
  did not show any pity. The bolwers placed their
  men in slips. They placed their men in covers.
  It did not help. The batsmen hit a lot of fours.
  The y hit some sixes. No ball hit the stumps.
  No ball was caught.

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The most important aspects of ELL text/lesson
adaptation are

• Strong lesson planning
• Plenty of scaffolding
• Use of graphic organizers
• Using the teachable moment
• Careful error correction

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Who Will Benefit From Adapted Texts?

• Adapted texts may not meet the needs of all ELLs.
  A students specific learning needs and
  background knowledge must be taken into account
  when deciding to use adapted texts with a
  specific reader
• An elaborated text, which explicitly explains a
  concept that might not be familiar to an ELL who
  is not from the United States.

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Why Would Reading An Adapted Text Be A More
Effective Solution Than Other Teaching Strategies?

• Coherency of subject matter
• Key points are already outlined
• ELLs feel as though they are part of the class
  rather than being given work that is too simple
• Test construction may be clearer for teacher and
  students
• Curriculum requirements

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How Will Adapted Texts Be Used?

• The need for adapted texts may not be ideal for
  all instructional settings
• The need for adapted texts depends in large part
  on how much support, or scaffolding, a teacher is
  able to provide during reading
• Individual considerations of students

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When Will Adapted Texts Be Used?

• A adapted text should be considered only when the
  teacher feels that comprehension will be
  substantially limited if the text is not changed
  in some way
• The goals of a particular lesson should also be
  considered when deciding on text adaptation

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Againthe most important aspect of lesson design
for ELLs is

• Scaffold
• Scaffold
• Scaffold

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Where can I look for help with adaptations for
ELLs?

• In the Teachers Edition
• On-line
• General Education colleagues
• Special Education Teachers
• The ESL Teacher