The CATESOL Journal

Many students, especially English language learners (ELLs), struggle when they write. This study examined the various writing strategies 3 Spanish-speaking bilingual student teachers used to help their elementary school ELL students write. This was a case study that looked at how these student teachers used their primary language, among other writing methods, to help their ELLs access writing strategies so these students could write effective English compositions. The authors used the interviews of student teachers, their lesson plans, and reflective journals to identify the instructional methods these student teachers used with their students. These methods included strategies such as helping their ELL students write their ideas in Spanish and English and using Spanish and English cognates to build students’ word banks. The knowledge from this study is important because it showed how ELLs may benefit when their teachers use the students’ primary language to help them write English compositions.