Why Do Math Teachers Do Not Accommodate For ELL Students

I think one of the reasons that math teachers do not accommodate for ELL students, besides the time limitation, is that they don’t realize the extent that the students’ lack of academic langue is causing them. Especially when the students have a good grasp of the everyday language. Every year teachers have the shy quiet students that do not like to talk in class, and when an ELL student comes that does not have a good academic language they will naturally not talk as much as the rest of the children. I think that it is very easy and less cognitive demanding for a teacher to just assume that the student is quiet and shy and prefers not to talk in class. I was pleasantly surprised to read teachers/researchers are aware of the importance of …show more content…
By easier I mean that there is a particular was to do it: word and definition (even though there are different forms to do them). Doing the acquiring vocabulary versus sociocultural perspective is requires less cognitive demand. I think that for teachers in the most part it is hard not to immediately correct an ELL student’s grammatical or pronunciation errors because they are teachers, they are used to teaching/correcting and making sure things are just right. So, they start fixing the most obvious error and thus often neglecting the more important mathematical learning. I think that ELL learners probably have more difficulties in a reform math classroom than a traditional math classroom because of the justification and reasoning part. Most language learners understand more than they can reiteration back. I think that this goes for math language also. That during class discussion ELL students are unable to make statements that are mathematically rich because the hear math words, but they are not in their vocabulary yet. Thus, I think that class discussions are beneficial to them because they can have “That’s the word I was looking for