The world of education is filled with jargon and acronyms that are short-hand terms that we hope encapsulate major groups, issues, and solutions. Like any culture, we gain new terms with whatever is popular at the moment (for example, social emotional learning) and pass on terms that seem outdated, inaccurate, or problematic (think “at risk youth”).

In my 10 years as an educator, I have worked almost exclusively with what we call “long-term English learners”. This acronym is one that teachers in California are especially familiar with, given that it is a sizable group within the EL demographics (11% of the EL population in the 22-23 chart). While the basic definition of an LTEL is a student that essentially has been an English learner for 6 or more years, these parameters often miss out key ways in which this group of students present their strengths and challenges.

After a decade of working with LTELs, I strongly believe that understanding the context of what it means to be a “long-term” English learner is crucial in teaching this group of students. We know as teachers that there is no guaranteed way to help all students succeed, as much as we’d love for that to be the case. However, with some inquiry and intentional, well-planned steps, we can craft strategies to help our LTEL students succeed not despite of, but rather in addition to, their label.

Below, I list three ways in which I believe we must recontextualize and redefine our LTEL group if we are to provide a quality of education that puts their needs and strengths are the forefront.

#1 LTELs are often born and raised in the US.

Over the years, I’ve noted that most of my LTEL students are US-born and raised. Granted, this might be in part due to our school’s location, the CA Bay Area, but when we factor in that students must have been designated as EL for 6 or more years (which could be all of their elementary school education), it makes sense that a big part of them have been in the US their whole lives.

In my case, most of my LTEL students have immigrant parents (Spanish speakers, most of them from Mexico or Central American countries) and they were born in the US some years after their parents emigrated. I have had a smaller group of students that have come from the ELD programs in middle school and who are actually immigrants themselves, as well as a few students who were born in the US but lived in their parents’ home countries for a few of their school years.

So if many LTELs are born and raised in the US, why does this make a difference? Most of the material I studied in my credential program and in the professional development workshops I’ve attended over the years focuses on EL students that are new to the country– newcomer ELs. That assumption makes sense on paper but often fails to the needs of LTEL students that are not only familiar with but often identify with American culture and language. If these students have been in US school system all of their education, being treated as a “newcomer” could not only feel confusing but also unfair. Especially if the rest of the post applies!

#2 LTEL students may identify English as their primary (or even sole) language.

If many of our LTEL students are born and raised in the US, it may come as no surprise that they may also consider English to be their primary language. Unlike newcomer EL students that likely attended schools in their home countries, LTEL students have had most, if not all, of their education in the US. Therefore, even if they have been speaking another language at home, they have had exposure to English for at least six years through their schooling.

Referring to my own experience, I have seen most of my students feel more comfortable speaking in English and perhaps sprinkling a few words from the other languages they know from time to time. I have also had students that don’t actually speak another language fluently, though their parents do. Thinking back to my childhood, I remember how my younger brother (born in the US) almost forgot how to speak Spanish until he started spending a few weeks in the summer visiting relatives in Mexico– thus reinforcing the language again. Forgetting how to speak their home language can be understandable, especially for younger siblings who have had their older siblings bring English into the home. I am not surprised when I hear an LTEL student explain that they understand very little of their parents’ home language, just as I am not surprised when another LTEL student speaks their home language fluently and prefers to communicate in it too.

Because of the range in familiarity and connection to the English language, teaching LTEL students is most effective when we inquire and understand how each student has interacted with the multiple languages they’ve been exposed to. And understanding this relationship can help us figure out what the gaps in skills are– whether they are mostly rooted in reading or writing. This key knowledge can help us to better plan what scaffolds to use and, just as important, when to remove scaffolds.

#3 LTEL students may not know that they are labeled as “long-term English learners”.

Taking into account that LTEL students are likely born and raised in the US and likely consider English their primary language, it stands to reason that a considerable amount also don’t realize that they are labeled as any type of “English learner”. Compared to newcomer EL students who are most often placed in ELD classes and those with specialized sheltered instruction, many LTEL students no longer receive these services because of either the structure of their school system or because their English skills seem comparable to their English only peers.

In my case, I teach at a school that has developed a program specifically for LTEL students in order to support their literacy skills with the goal of reaching a level of literacy that fully prepares them to succeed in all of their courses. While we are likely not the only school or district with a specific LTEL program, it’s rare to find this to be the case due to the limited resources for EL program funding. It makes sense to focus time, money, and effort into helping newcomer EL students because their needs are very clear. It also makes sense that when LTEL students seem to be so similar to their English only peers, they then get placed in the same courses. And when the struggles of their knowledge and usage of English reading and writing skills appear, looking at their past history with English language learning might not be our first instinct.

Every year when my LTEL students have to take the ELPAC test, many question why they have to take the test. After taking it, they explain that most of the kids testing were newcomers and they wonder why they keep getting pulled to take the test too. Again, it’s understandable for them to feel this way: if they were born here (or even if they weren’t, but have been in the US for 6 or more years), it would feel strange to take a test that is, from what you can tell, for kids who recently immigrated to the US. It would feel even weirder if you consider English to be your main language, especially if the home language your parents speak is one you have very limited knowledge of. This is the reality for many of our LTEL students– they don’t really see their “status” until annual testing time comes around.

I won’t get into the complexities of what it takes to longer need to take ELPAC test or getting RFEP (re-designated as fluent English proficient) status– I’ll save that one for another day! My hope is that by understanding who our LTEL students are and what their unique relationship with the English language is, we can develop strategies and curriculum that supports their literacy skills while providing them an appropriate challenge that has the same, if not more, rigor as their English only peers. If the past decades have taught us a key take-away about languages, it’s that we are better off when we can fluently speak more than one language. Our LTEL students have the potential to harness that gift and really make it one of their ultimate strengths and we, as their teachers, can guide them in that tough but worthy journey.