Some Key Pedagogic Principles for Helping ELLs to Succeed in School

In this article, we put forward 4 pedagogic principles that we consider to be particularly important in helping English language learners (ELLs) to succeed in school. These principles are: creating multiple and varied opportunities for ELLs to use the target language in both speech and writing, promoting high engagement by building on students' interests, connecting the curriculum to ELLs' lives and their funds of knowledge, and working toward a tangible goal. We illustrate these principles in action by presenting 2 case studies drawn from our research. They show how the teachers with whom we worked used these principles to meet their students' needs in two demographically different classroom contexts.