Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals

Affirm the linguistic, cultural, and experiential assets that multilinguals bring into the classroom.

Now is the time to push past the limits of the long-term English learner (LTEL) label and embrace a new way of honoring secondary multilinguals’ valuable life experiences and academic potential. By focusing on experienced multilinguals’ strengths and what teachers can do, you’ll discover new avenues for teaching the academic language skills required for them to process content lessons and clearly communicate discipline-specific ideas.

This concise guide presents an easy-to-implement cross-curricular instructional framework specifically designed for secondary content teachers. Practical, research-based, and classroom-tested  this book includes:

• Four essential actions that foster the conditions for experienced multilinguals to reach the highest grade-level content and language proficiency
• Specific strategies with "try it out" prompts to encourage implementation
• Templates and anchor charts for structuring lessons
• Vignettes and stories from both the student and teacher perspective

There is nothing lacking with experienced multilinguals. All they need are the right conditions to unlock their potential―so they can express themselves as the mathematicians, scientists, historians, writers, and artists they know themselves to be.

Tan Huynh (he/him) (tankhuynh.com) is a career international school teacher, consultant, and author specializing in secondary multilinguals and teacher collaboration. Coming to America as a refugee at the age of 5, Tan vividly remembers the difficulties of acquiring a new language and integrating in American culture while nurturing his Asian roots. This experience is the main engine that drives his work today. At school, he spends most of his time collaborating with teachers and in content-area classes to make content accessible. The rest of the time is spent teaching English language and literacy skills. Outside of school, Tan often presents internationally to schools and districts to support their work with multilingual students. Tan also hosts a blog, online courses, and a podcast about teaching multilinguals. With whatever time is left, Tan likes to work out, play badminton, and get lost in nature with his dog child. You can collaborate with Tan at Tan@tankhuynh.com and @TanKHuynh on Twitter.

Beth Skelton (she/her) (www.bethskelton.com) is an independent consultant focused on creating equitable educational experiences for multilingual learners. She has been working in the field for over three decades teaching elementary, middle, high school and adult language learners in urban, suburban, rural, and international settings. As a university exchange student to Germany, Beth experienced firsthand the challenges that experienced multilinguals face when studying new content in their non-heritage language. She could communicate with peers, but still needed additional scaffolds to successfully write formal papers, read academic texts, and comprehend dense lectures. This influential experience still informs her work with students, teachers, schools, and districts around the world. Through workshops, coaching, and consulting, she advocates for all multilingual learners, especially those who have years of experience. Beth also enjoys hiking, skiing, yoga, playing marimba, gardening, and spending time with her family. You can connect with Beth by email at ellbeth@bethskelton.com or on Twitter at @easkelton.