How much help will this report provide for teachers of ELLs? A preliminary review of the Executive
Summary (August, 2006) and the section of the full report on "Educating Language Minority
Students" reveals these four potentially important general recommendations:
1. Literacy in the native language is an advantage. We already knew this (see, for example,
Collier & Thomas, 1997), and it doesn't help teachers working in situations where literacy
instruction in the native language is not possible.
2. Substantial coverage of the five essential elements of reading instruction helps.
However, this finding is based on only 14 studies that looked at instruction of the essential
elements of reading with ELLs. Because of the small number of studies, this recommendation is
based on the fact that there is nothing in these 14 studies that contradicts the findings of the
numerous studies of native speakers that were reviewed by the National Reading Panel. Also
because of the small number of studies, no specific practices could be advocated for teaching the
essential elements of reading to ELLs.