How Does Understanding Acronyms Enhance Support for English Learners?
Understanding the acronyms associated with English learners is more than a linguistic exercise—it’s a vital step in creating supportive learning environments.
There are many acronyms to describe students who are learning English. Acronyms like EL, ELL, ML, and MLL are often used interchangeably, but each term applies to non-native English speakers. Understanding is essential to identifying these students and their needs in the English learning space.
EL stands for English Learner. At a national level, it is one of the most used and understood terms for students acquiring English as a new language.
ELL stands for English Language Learners. Like EL, ELL refers to students acquiring English as a new language but also stresses that they are learning its academic structure in the classroom setting.
EB is an acronym that means Emergent Bilingual, a more recent term that reinforces the reality of students learning and speaking more than one language. This is because students are developing in one language spoken in the home and another in the English language classroom.
ML is an acronym for Multilingual Learner. This term refers to students who acquire more than one language due to their language(s) spoken outside of school and the English they acquire at school.
MLL is an acronym that means Multilingual Language Learners. While similar to ML, the additional word "language” provides a distinction to reiterate the reality of learning the language for speaking and understanding the language's structure for reading and writing.
Understanding and identifying these acronyms encourages educators to be more aware and purposeful when meeting English learner needs in the classroom.
Paying attention to these distinctions serves as a good reminder and indicator for educators to be aware of specific student needs. No matter the acronym used by your school, we all share one common goal: providing students with the right tools to ensure their success.
