Leveraging the Academic and Socioemotional Strengths of MLs in General Education Settings

Format

Individual Presentation

Presenters

• Dr. Elke Schneider, Winthrop UniversityFollow
• Kimberly Oxley, Winthrop UniversityFollow

First Presenter's Institution

Winthrop University

First Presenter’s Email Address

schneidere@winthrop.edu

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Elke Schneider (PhD) has been teaching literacy, special education, and multilingual learner education at undergraduate and graduate levels since 1994 at Miami University of Ohio, SUNY Fredonia and for the last 22 years, Winthrop University in South Carolina. Wherever she worked, she found ways to run literacy support clinics for struggling learners in K-12. Additionally, for almost 15 years, she has trained pre-and inservice teachers to accommodate instruction and assessment for multilingual learners through large federal grants that led to ESOL endorsements or ESOL teacher certifications. She also engaged in several multilingual teacher training projects in Europe. Her research focuses on teaching other languages to students with learning disabilities, multisensory structured literacy, and metacognition.

Second Presenter's Institution

Winthrop University

Second Presenter’s Email Address

oxleyk@winthrop.edu

Second Presenter's Brief Biography

Kimberly Oxley has been working with K-12 and adult Multilingual Learners for the past 20 years. Since 2017, Kimberly has been preparing future educators as an instructor in the College of Education, Sport, and Human Sciences at Winthrop University. She teaches courses centered on culturally sustaining pedagogy and serves as the Educational Studies program director. Previously, Kimberly was a Multilingual Learner teacher in Pennsylvania and Virginia, directed a middle school Newcomer Program, and was an ML Specialist in the Shenandoah Valley. She holds an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Penn State University with an ESOL Specialist Certificate.

Submitter

I am submitting this proposal as one of the presenter(s)

Location

Vernon

Strand #1

Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership

Strand #2

Heart: Social & Emotional Skills

Relevance

This presentation addresses the strands of Head (Academic Achievement & Leadership Closing achievement gaps and promoting learning for all children and youth) and Heart (Social & Emotional Skills Fostering social and emotional skills and the social climate for all children and youth) in that the details provide research-evidenced practices for multilingual learners (MLs) (=head strand). Additionally, the heart strand is included by providing strategies to ensure a smooth acculturation in an emotionally safe learning environment that invites healthy risk-taking in a new culture and language.

Brief Program Description

After exploring (1) the linguistic resources and cultural assets Multilingual Learners (MLs) carry through their language development and cross-cultural experiences, and (2) educators' opportunities and responsibilities, presenters share a variety of research-evidenced practices that leverage MLs’ academic and socioemotional strengths in general education settings. Meaningful ways to engage and partner with MLs' families as valuable educational collaborators and cultural resources are included.

Summary

Multilingual learners (MLs) present the fastest growing school population nationwide. This has led to a shortage of teachers properly prepared to meet MLs’ academic and social-emotional needs. Therefore, this session equips attendees with a) an understanding of the language and acculturation phases MLs experience and b) their legal responsibilities and rights to advocate for MLs. In the main part of the session, attendees learn how educators can amplify MLs' linguistic resources and cultural knowledge in these varying phases to strengthen their academic language (oral language, reading, writing, vocabulary) across different content areas in a learning environment. Suggestions on how to partner with MLs’ family members are shared as well. Resources are shared to facilitate immediate implementation of strategies.

Evidence

Purpose:

In the past 20 years, the number of multilingual learners (MLs), students speaking a different language at home than daily in school, has been growing steadily. Currently, MLs represent the fastest growing student population nationwide with 5.3 million MLs (10.6% of the total public school population) in public schools (NCES, 2024). Consequently, nationwide there is a shortage of teachers properly trained to meet MLs’ academic and social learning needs, including ML teachers and general education teachers (Ariza & Coady, 2018; Heineke & Vera, 2022; Hoover, et al., 2018; Gallager & Scrivner, 2025; (USDE, 2016; Vega, et al., 2024).

Content:

Given this challenge, attendees learn 10 research-evidenced practices for general education and content area teachers to effectively support MLs’ socioemotional needs and leverage their academic potential. First, basic second language acquisition and acculturation phases are highlighted so attendees recognize the value of the presented strategies. Then, educators’ legal obligations and rights to differentiate instruction for MLs are shared based on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 requires public schools by law to ensure that MLs can succeed in school.

Next, the ten research-evidenced academic and social-emotional support practices (Ariza & Coady, 2018; Echevarria, et al., 2017; Hoover, 2018; Lau & Shea, 2024; Soland & Sandilos, 2021) include strategies to a) create safe and welcoming learning environments that engage all students in natural opportunities to learn from and with each other; b) integrate MLs’ heritage language and culture in learning, including engagement of and with family members (Paradis, 2022), c) strengthen MLs’ oral language, vocabulary, reading and writing and d) differentiate assessment approaches. The session concludes with 5 minutes reserved for a Q & A.

Evidence = references listed 6-10

Ariza, E., & Coady, M. (2018). Why TESOL? Theories & issues in teaching English to speakers of other languages in K-12 classroom (4rd edition). Kendall Hunt.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M.E., & Short D. (2017). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP model. London, UK: Pearson.

Gallagher, M. A., & Scrivner, S. (2025). Teachers’ beliefs about language diversity and multilingual learners: A systematic review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 95(4), 822-861.

Heineke, A. J., & Vera, E. M. (2022). Beyond language and academics: Investigating teachers’ preparation to promote the social-emotional well-being of emergent bilingual learners. Journal of Teacher Education, 73(2), 145-158.

Lau, W. S., & Shea, M. (2024). Empowering English learners in the classroom through culturally responsive social-emotional teaching practices. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 45(7), 2880-2897.

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (2024). English Learners in Public Schools. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved August 30, 2025, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cgf.

Paradis, J. (2022). Supporting ELL families through the school library. In Harvey, C. A. & Church, A.P. (eds) School library management. (pp. 79-83). Libraries Unlimited.

Soland, J., & Sandilos, L. E. (2021). English language learners, self-efficacy, and the achievement gap: Understanding the relationship between academic and social-emotional growth. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR), 26(1), 20-44.

U.S. Department of Education (USDE), Office of Postsecondary Education (2016). Teacher shortage areas, nationwide listing 1990-91 through 2016-2017. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ ope/pol/tsa.doc

Vega, H., Howell, E., Kaminski, R., & Bates, C. C. (2024). Reaching teachers of early multilingual learners through professional development: A systematic literature review. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1-17.

Learning Objective 1

Participants will be able to expand critical awareness of their advocacy rights and legal responsibilities to provide appropriate personalized supports for multilingual learners and engage family members effectively in their educational settings based on the provided examples.

Learning Objective 2

Participants will be able to identify MLs’ language and acculturation stages based on student performance and behavior and respond appropriately to MLs’ varying needs and skills.

Learning Objective 3

Participants will be able to design effective academic and social-emotional learning supports in their educational settings based on the provided examples.Multilingual learner needs, emergent language learners, general education, content area education, academic and socioemotional support

Keyword Descriptors

Multilingual learner needs, emergent language learners, general education, content area education, academic and socioemotional support

Presentation Year

2026

Start Date

3-3-2026 1:00 PM

End Date

3-3-2026 2:15 PM

Recommended Citation

Schneider, Dr. Elke and Oxley, Kimberly, "Leveraging the Academic and Socioemotional Strengths of MLs in General Education Settings" (2026). National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference. 50.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2026/2026/50