English Learners

English Learners (ELs) are students who are still developing reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills in English. The EL population, which is one of the fastest-growing K–12 student populations in the United States, is made up of students with varying degrees of exposure to English and levels of competence in their first language. Regardless of their language literacy background, ELs must acquire foundational reading, academic language, and conversation skills in English in order to be successful in school. Both Lexia's curriculum and assessment solutions specifically target each of these skills, helping EL students develop fundamental reading skills with the rest of their classmates while providing educators with real-time student performance data that pinpoints a student’s exact skill gaps to strengthen interventions.
 

  • Aligns with best practices in English Learner instruction
     

  • Provides audio directions in Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Hatian-Creole, Vietnamese, and Arabic.
     

  • Helps students work independently and successfully at all levels of language proficiency
     

 watch the academic Language webinar

 

EL Educators See Success with Lexia

"Lexia Reading Core5® gives our English Learners a boost of self-esteem and confidence along with the background knowledge they need to catch up to their peers. We are able to move forward together at a pace that includes everyone."

—  Lisa Smiertelny, 3rd Grade Teacher and RTI Chair, Rolling Prairie Elementary School, IN

 

read lexia's english learner research

Who Lexia Helps

Who Lexia Helps

Newcomer EL students with beginner-level language and reading skills:

  • Learn key comprehension strategies for listening and reading

  • Develop phonological awareness and phonics skills that are integrated with oral language development

  • Leverage picture-based activities to build concrete and abstract academic vocabulary 

Students with proficient language skills but weak reading skills:

  • Develop sophisticated vocabulary and strong academic language

  • Read challenging narrative and expository texts to develop advanced comprehension strategies

  • Learn figurative language and word concepts such as idioms, similes, and metaphors


 

How Lexia Helps

Supports phonological awareness and phonics at the earliest skill levels

Systematic, intensive work in the areas of phonological awareness and phonics teaches students the sound structure of English and allows them to build on this knowledge in the acquisition of phonic word attack strategies for reading.

 
Enhances vocabulary knowledge

Activities designed to enhance vocabulary knowledge focus on on words with multiple meanings, analogies and shades of meaning, idiomatic expressions, as well as Latin and Greek affix and root meanings. 
 

Develops key comprehension strategies

Activities include the development of skills such as imaging and sequencing in both oral and written language and move to higher order thinking skills such as determining the main idea, drawing inferences, predicting outcomes, and summarizing.  


Builds fluency

Fluency instruction is built systematically through activities that focus on word identification, vocabulary knowledge, and sentence structure. Paragraph-level fluency activities are designed to increase speed of processing while maintaining a focus on meaning.


Improves speaking and listening skills

Speaking and listening activities combine teacher-led instruction and dialogue and structured peer discussions. Small group activities enhance the use of oral language through asking and answering questions related to important vocabulary and content.

WIDA PRIME V2 Correlation

WIDA PRIME V2 Correlation

Lexia Reading Core5® has been recognized by WIDA as satisfying all 44 criteria under the WIDA PRIME V2 Correlation for English Language Development Standards. This designation provides further credibility for Lexia’s research-proven instructional program, which is currently used by more than 2.6 million students, and has been shown to help EL students close the academic gap.

This correlation highlights the important ways in which Core5 helps language learners develop English literacy skills. Specific examples in the correlation note that Core5:

  • Builds academic language at the discourse, sentence, and word/phrase level

  • Connects language development standards to state academic content standards

  • Challenges all learners at all levels of language proficiency

  • Provides scaffolding supports for students to advance

Download the full Correlation

WIDA PRIME 2 correlation Lexia Learning

See How Lexia Can Help Your English Learners
Research and Best Practices
  • Blog
The Critical Role of Oral Language in Reading Instruction
Thursday, March 8, 2018
The Critical Role of Oral Language in Reading Instruction

Oral language is often associated with vocabulary as the main component. However, in the broadest definition, oral language consists of phonology, grammar, morphology, vocabulary, discourse, and pragmatics. The acquisition of these skills often begins at a young age, before students begin focusing on print-based concepts such as sound-symbol correspondence and...

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  • Blog
2 Classroom Strategies for Teaching Multisyllabic Words
Thursday, November 16, 2017
2 Classroom Strategies for Teaching Multisyllabic Words

There are two related but different strategies to approach the identification of words with more than one syllable: syllable division and structural analysis. While application of the phonic word attack strategies related to syllable division is important for identifying one- and two-syllable words, these strategies may not work as well...

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  • Blog
Carefully Structuring Effective Intervention
Friday, October 14, 2016
frustrated young boy in class

The first step to structuring an effective intervention is to identify the students who need help and the skills with which they are struggling. Frameworks such as RTI and MTSS recommend ongoing assessment to determine student needs:

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  • Blog
Using Personalized Learning to Promote Educational Equity
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Using Personalized Learning to Promote Educational Equity

Educators across the country are striving to promote equity in their classrooms and schools. Personalized learning is one strategy that helps in this effort by meeting all students where they are and providing the tools they need to master each subject. This individualized approach goes a long way in classrooms...

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  • Blog
Advantages of Learning Management Systems in K–12 Classrooms
Thursday, March 1, 2018
Advantages of a Learning Management System in the K–12 Classroom

Learning management systems (LMS) are software or web-based applications that provide a central, integrated space for educational resources, including content resources, assessment tools, grading tools, and administrative tools. They offer a portal through which students are able to access learning materials and see their assignments and grades, and make administrative...

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