Questions to Ask About Your Multilingual Students

Each year, more educators welcome multilingual learners into their classrooms. While teachers want to do right by their multilingual students, they aren’t always sure where to start or what questions to ask. If that’s you, this guide might help.

Here are five important questions to ask the English language learners (ELL) staff on your campus to learn more about your students and ensure that you’re equipped to support them from day one. 

1. Who are my multilingual students, and what is their language background?

The most helpful thing that you, as a general education teacher, can do is to keep track of your multilingual student population: know who they are, what language they speak at home, how long they have been in this country, and what areas or skills they struggle with.

In schools with many multilingual learners, the ELL staff on campus often share this information with all teachers at the beginning of the year. If that is not the case at your school, you can ask the ELL teacher or coordinator to share their roster; many schools create one to keep track of student information. The roster typically lists students’ name, first language, years in the program, and current English proficiency level.

2. What do the scores mean?

Knowing students’ English proficiency levels doesn’t help much unless you know what each proficiency determination means. As an ELL lead, I always provide professional development aimed at Gen Ed teachers to break down scores and show what a student at each level is capable of understanding and producing—and what they’ll need help with.

If your school doesn’t provide specific training, don’t worry! You can find lots of guidance online. State assessment providers such as WIDA, ELPAC, and ELPT have performance-level descriptors or Can-Do Statements. With this knowledge, you will be prepared to meet your students where they are, while providing productive challenges to help them grow.

3. What support is available outside of my classroom?

Knowing which skills and content that students are learning in the ELL classroom will help you better connect instruction and reinforce academic language across contexts. With this knowledge, you can plan targeted support so that they can learn English alongside your specific content. Are they focusing on oral language? Academic vocabulary? Reading comprehension? Grammar? When you know, you can find natural places in your lessons to build on those skills, creating a more cohesive learning experience.

Ask the ELL teacher or coach to share high-impact strategies and resources you can use to make your content clear and support language acquisition. Strategies include using sentence frames, providing visuals and realia, preteaching vocabulary, and strategically incorporating bilingual resources. Small shifts can make a big difference.

Collaborating with the ELL specialist isn’t about adding more to your plate—it’s about making every lesson count, so every English learner makes progress. Remember: Language and academic skills go hand in hand. As students improve their English, they will perform better in your content and become more confident, able to comprehend more complex texts and articulate their thoughts in speaking and writing.

4. What can I expect from my Multilingual students in terms of participation?

Have you ever had an ELL who kept quiet during your lessons, never raised their hand, struggled with completing tasks, and wouldn’t respond when called on? This is a common experience for teachers: You feel like you tried everything to get that student to talk, but without results.

Some students might be quiet not because they’re not learning, but because they’re in the “silent period” of their language acquisition journey or are navigating unfamiliar classroom norms. This is especially true if you work at a school with a large recently arrived student population. Other times, students may understand more than they let on and say they don’t speak English to avoid participating.

Ask the ELL teacher to interpret what you’re seeing and offer strategies to support students while encouraging participation. Keep in mind that multilingual learners need more processing time to fully comprehend your questions and more prep time before they are ready to share an answer. Extending wait time, leading with think-pair-shares, and allowing them to write down an answer before saying it out loud are excellent ways to support shy students and build confidence.

5. How do I communicate with families who speak another language?

It’s easy to assume that the ELL teacher handles all communication with multilingual families, but building strong relationships is a shared responsibility. As the classroom teacher, you are the primary point of contact for your students’ learning, and families value hearing directly from you.

Find out what systems are in place at your school when it comes to parent communication. Some schools have designated bilingual staff available to help; others rely on online platforms or partner with external agencies that provide translation services.

It’s best to use clear, straightforward language when reaching out to parents who are English learners themselves—for example: “Dear parent, I would like to talk to you about your child to share how they are doing in class. Please let me know a good time to call or meet” or “I wanted to share that your child did a great job in class today! I am proud of their hard work.”

You don’t have to be a language acquisition expert to be a great teacher for multilingual learners; you just need to be intentional about your support and willing to collaborate.

The above questions are a starting point to ensure that you have the tools and knowledge you need. When students see that every educator believes in their potential, they show up with more confidence, feel connected, and are more likely to participate in the classroom.