ABSTRACT
Effectively teaching mathematics content to English language learners (ELLs) requires instructional settings and situations in which students are engaged in solving interesting problems that encourage critical thinking along with basic skills development and practice. ELLs learn language and content best when they are involved in authentic and interactive environments. Instruction that emphasizes inquiry, problem solving, and communication provides ELLs a venue for enhancing their understandings, receiving input, and practicing “comprehensible language.” Such classrooms focus on language-rich activities that require students to question, describe, explain, hypothesize, debate, clarify, elaborate, verify, and evaluate. Teachers must recognize that ELLs are able to develop inquiry-based and problem-solving strategies before they are language-proficient (Jarrett, 1999). ELLs can enhance their language development as they move from concrete to more abstract content while solving problems. However, this is possible only when such activities are relevant to students’ experiences and provide them opportunities to solve problems as they engage in various literacy-related aspects of mathematics.
