Teaching Content Area Vocabulary to English Language Learners has been reprinted from Essential Teacher, March, 2008.
When I started teaching in an ESL pullout program in the 1980s, few materials were available for elementary ESL programs. So I adapted textbooks and workbooks from the general education curriculum to meet the linguistic needs of students who received ESL instruction for 30–45 minutes a day, but spent most of their time in the general education classroom. It became evident to me that classroom teachers needed to learn to adapt their teaching methods and materials to meet the needs of English language learners (ELLs) in their classes. I began to examine ways that I could help them do this. I focused on vocabulary development and modifying content area teaching methods and materials. In this issue, I discuss methods for teaching vocabulary to ELLs that can be used by ESL and content area teachers alike.