The Evolution of Terms Describing English Learners: An ELL Glossary
By Ileana Najarro
Ileana Najarro provides a historical view of the terminology used for students who are learning English and how those terms have affected the services for these students.
The Supreme court ruling in 1974 required schools that received federal funds to provide language services for English learners so they would have equal access to education. The terms used at that time were non-English proficient (NEP) or the preferred term limited-English proficient (LEP).
Although “advocates and researchers early on noted how LEP connoted a view of students as having a deficit”, this did not change to ELL until 2002 with No Child Left Behind. EL became the official federal label with the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act and is still used by the Department of Education. Some other organizations and agencies use ELL.
However, these terms don’t acknowledge these students’ assets. Some researchers describe young children who are learning two languages at the same time as emergent bilinguals or dual language learners. Different programs may label students by the title of their department or program. If a school has an ESL department, then the students may be labeled as ESL, or if they are in a dual-language program, they may be called dual-language learners.
Through other iterations such as emergent bilinguals and bilingual learners, multilingual learner (MLL) has become accepted. While this is a positive term, legally, since it could be applied to English-speaking students in a dual-language program, it might allow schools to avoid providing needed language services.
At this time, it seems that there is no single term which can meet all of the necessary criteria to provide an asset based description of the learners that ensures that they will receive the services that will result in an equitable successful school experience.