Dictionary & Translation
- Unfamiliar words often become barriers for students while reading. ELLs can use the “Define” feature to read a word’s definition in simple English, see other sentences containing the word, and view a related image. They can also translate text into over 100 different languages.
- Users can now use the Google Translate Chrome Extension to translate the entire Actively Learn website and most of our free texts into another language. Check out this video to see how this extension works on our site.
Text-to-Speech
- Hearing a text read aloud builds listening skills and supports language acquisition. ELLs can use the “Hear It” feature to hear a word or section of text read aloud in English or translated to another language.
Extra Help
- The teacher can add “Extra Help” to questions or notes to provide targeted instruction for ELLs. “Extra Help” is a great place to include sentence frames, add media to support vocabulary development, and scaffold complex language and text features.
Text Chunking
- For many ELLs seeing several paragraphs of dense text is intimidating. The teacher can break up the text by inserting questions that require students to respond before they can continue reading. This allows ELLs to focus on smaller portions of a text -- reducing the cognitive load as they make meaning of the passage.
Download the complete Instructional Guide: 4 Ways to Accelerate Language Development for ELLs