VIDBE-Q Volume 68 Issue 1
students in special education (Hamayan et al., 2023). Henceforth, you likely have
at least one student on your caseload who appears to lack or lacks English
language proficiency.
As an English language learner, I always start by laying the groundwork for
my learning. I regularly utilize this technique when I teach future TVIs at Florida
State University. We begin by defining terminology that starts with dissecting
words to their roots, origins, and meaning. In essence, we lay the foundation to
learn a new concept by tying it to prior understanding when possible. As vision
professionals, you work with a heterogenous population across ages, disabilities,
placements, and for the sake of this article and upcoming presentations, languages
spoken by clients. First, it is necessary to distinguish between Dual Language
Learners (DLLs) and English Language Learners (ELLs). At first glance, the
designations may seem to refer to an identical idea, yet they are different.
Dual Language Learners, or DLLs, are students simultaneously learning
English and their home language prior to entering Kindergarten (Li et al., 2010).
These are the students who we encounter while providing early intervention
services to families or who may enter preschools to receive special education
services. Their learning is ongoing, as they are connecting words to objects,
subjects, and experiences. An English language learner or ELL has developed the
foundations of at least oral communication in their home language. Li and
colleagues (2010) characterize this population by the challenges of learning the ins
and outs of academic English while keeping up with all their peers in content
learning (e.g., reading, mathematics, and science). Students are expected to
understand and learn what is being taught at grade level while simultaneously
producing acceptable oral and written work in English (Li et al., 2010). Some
federal precedents and laws make provisions to ensure that multilingual students
