Last week I read an article in The Oregonian newspaper that shared that test scores had dramatically increased this year for English Language Learners. That’s good news, right?
Then why was I so discouraged by what I read? Because the article quoted a bunch of people attributing the success to schools focusing on explicit grammar instruction. Ugh…
Thankfully, Stephen Krashen did a little further digging. He discovered that the state used a different test this year. It’s certainly not good science, he points out, to claim there is a connection between different teaching methods and a change in test scores when you use a different form of measurement!
I’d certainly recommend reading his analysis, which includes a summary of the research critiquing the effectiveness of focusing on explicit grammar instruction with English Language Learners.
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