Page 83 - Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools. First Edition, Covering Grades 1 to 12. 2010

CHAPTER 8 | english language learners: modifications and accommodations
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
CONTEXT
Ontario schools have some of the most multilingual student populations in the world. The first language of approximately 20 per cent of the students in Ontario’s English-language schools is a language other than English. Ontario’s linguistic heritage includes many First Nation and Inuit languages; the Métis language; many African, Asian, and European languages; and some varieties of English that differ significantly from the English required for academic success in Ontario schools. Many English language learners were born in Canada and have been raised in families and communities in which languages other than English are spoken, or in which the variety of English spoken differs significantly from the English used in Ontario classrooms. Other English language learners have arrived in Ontario
as newcomers from other countries. These students may have experience of highly sophisticated educational systems, or they may come from regions where access to formal schooling was limited.
Research has shown that it takes five to seven years for most English language learners to catch up to their English-speaking peers in their ability to use English for academic purposes.
It is essential for all educators to understand the distinction between modifications and accommodations as well as the importance of providing either or both, as needed, to English language learners. These measures contribute to fairness and social justice for many students in an increasingly multicultural environment.
Accommodations
A variety of types of accommodations may be used to support English language learners as they develop English language proficiency. These include the following:
Accommodations related to instructional strategies, such as
• extensive use of visual cues;
• use of graphic organizers;
• strategic use of students’ first languages;
• allowance of extra time;
• pre-teaching of key words;
• simplification/repetition of instructions as needed;
• simultaneous use of oral and written instructions.
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