How UDL can help ELLs

First of all, yes, the education field overuses acronyms. Even though Universal Design for Learning (UDL) was not originally designed to specifically benefit English Language Learners (ELLs), the core principles are of special interest to those who serve students leaning English. ELLs are overrepresented in special education, mainly because many officials are not trained to differentiate between a disability and a limitation that is language-based. Difficulties in reading are often labeled as reading disabilities, and problems with pronounciation and speech are often labeled as speech disorders, even when many times these problems do not exist within the student's home language.

The nice thing about UDL is that it doesn't really matter if a problem is because of a disability or a language barrier--the principles will simple help the student learn. UDL helps ELLs in a variety of ways:

• First, utilizing podcasts, language learning software, and translations can help students who have not learned to read English yet, or who do not read English at the same level as their English-speaking peers.
• Utilizing media such as sound effects, videos, and computer images can help students to understand complicated concepts easily and quickly. For example, the concept of courage is not easily explained to non-English speakers. But by using a quick video of a mouse bravely facing down a cat, most students have a "lightbulb moment" and make the connection to the word courage in their home language. Similarly, students can learn completely new concepts through the use a video clip--sometimes a concept is best understood visually.
• Allowing students to show you what they have learned in a way that may be less print heavy than a traditional paper meets the goals and objectives for the lesson while still ensuring learning for the student. If you want your students to be able to compare the characteristics of civilizations, they can do that just as well (if not better) by using a powerpoint presentation as they can in a 4 page comparison essay. (The only exception to this is when writing itself is what you are assessing.)
• Using images to supplement text enhances the understanding of English Language Learners in a regular classroom withought singling them out.

One additional thing to remember about UDL is that it does not mean you should use technology randomly or indiscriminately. Rather, a teacher must think carefully and thoughtfully about how to make existing material accessible to students who either learn differently or require accommodation. For example, if I was teaching about the concept of mountains vs. hills, and my students could neither read nor understand their social studies book, I might utilize pictures and video to enhance my instruction. The danger is in not being able to justify why and how a particular technology is used. Allowing students to create powerpoint presentations is helpful; allowing them to play with the transitions for 45 minutes is a waste of educational time. The balance is in ensuring that time spent on technology is truly beneficial and helps to meet specific educational goals.

http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_limited.html

http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/tools/imagecollector.cfm