Strategies That Work

Supporting Emergent Bilingual Students in a Tutoring Session

Your student is doing something most people never do: learning academic content and a second language at the same time. Everything below assumes that.

This is a reference, not homework. Skim it before your first session, then come back to the part you need. You can also just ask HH, which knows all of this.

Where Is Your Student Right Now?

Students develop English across five levels. The level tells you how much support to give, not what the student is able to think about. A student can be Advanced in speaking and Beginning in writing at the same time, so watch what they are actually doing in the moment.

LEVEL 1

Pre-Production

In session: says almost nothing, may nod, point, or type in chat instead of speaking.

  • Highly scaffolded. This is the silent period, a normal stage, not refusal.
  • Never demand speech. Always keep offering it. "You can say it in Spanish." "You can just say the number." "Type it if that is easier."
  • Their camera is off, so put something on the shared screen they can annotate or answer in chat.
  • Show everything. Share your screen, draw it, label it.
LEVEL 2

Beginning

In session: single words or short phrases, often with errors.

  • Highly scaffolded, same as Level 1. Give sentence frames with most of the sentence already filled in.
  • Give a short word bank for the problem you are working on.
  • Pair every key word with a picture or a drawing.
  • Errors are expected. Model the correct form instead of correcting.
LEVEL 3

Intermediate

In session: understands the literal meaning, gets stuck on inference, idioms, humor, and cultural references.

  • Moderate scaffolding. Ask "what happened" before "why do you think".
  • Watch for idioms and cultural references in the text. They block more than vocabulary does.
  • Draw the organizer live on the whiteboard: two circles to compare, three boxes for sequence.
  • Break the task into chunks and check after each one by asking them to tell you, not by asking "do you understand?"
LEVEL 4

High Intermediate

In session: full sentences, can express opinions and ask for clarification.

  • Minimal scaffolding. Give the frame, then step back.
  • Push for the reasoning, not just the answer: "Say that again using the word from the problem." "Tell me how you know."
  • Hand them one frame and stop: "Because ___, I know that ___."
  • Grade-level text is reachable with some support.
LEVEL 5

Advanced

In session: participates fully, uses content vocabulary comfortably.

  • Little or no scaffolding. If they can do the next one without you, stop helping.
  • Still an emergent bilingual student. Do not assume no support is needed.
  • Careful: a student who has been in US schools for years may sound completely native and still not read or write academic English. Oral fluency is not evidence. Look at their writing before deciding they need little support.

⚠️ If a teacher gives you a different level

Texas is mid-transition. These five levels are the new ELPS, used in classrooms starting in 2026-2027. TELPAS ratings from spring 2026 still use the older four-level scale: Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, Advanced High. The word "Advanced" means different things in the two systems. On the older scale it is the second-highest rating, and that student still needs real support with academic reading and writing. If someone gives you a level, ask which scale it came from, and trust what you see the student doing in the session over any label.

The one thing to remember

Proficiency levels are not grades or judgments. They describe where a student is on a journey. Every level represents growth and capability, and emergent bilingual students bring linguistic and cultural knowledge that is an asset, not a gap to be filled.

The 90-Second Read

You will not have a TELPAS rating, and you may have never met this student before. You do not need a formal level. You need to know how much support to give in the next five minutes, and you can get that from two questions.

1. Start soft, as the program asks. Ask about their day, a favorite food, a sport. You are listening to how much language comes back, not to the answer.

2. Ask one open question about the homework: "Tell me what this assignment is about."

  • Nothing, or one word → treat as Level 1 to 2. Everything visual, yes/no questions, offer Spanish and the chat box.
  • A short phrase, with errors → Level 2. Sentence frames and word banks.
  • A few connected sentences, but they cannot read the directions aloud → Level 3 to 4, and the block is literacy, not language in general.
  • A fluent explanation → do not stop there. Have them read one sentence of the assignment out loud and tell you what it means.

When speaking and reading disagree, believe the reading.

One more question worth asking early

"Can you read and write in Spanish?" The answer changes everything. If yes, you have a shortcut: a Spanish explanation or a Spanish definition gives them the content immediately, and you build the English on top. Reading skills do not have to be relearned, only re-pointed at English. If no, do not assume the student is behind. A student whose schooling was interrupted needs more time and more concrete support, and none of that is about ability.

Scaffolding, and What It Is Not

Scaffolding is temporary, intentional support that lets a student reach grade-level content while their English is still developing. The key word is temporary.

✅ Scaffolding is

  • Supporting the language so the student can do the thinking
  • Matched to where this student is today
  • Something you remove as they get stronger
  • Visuals, frames, word banks, chunking, wait time

🚫 Scaffolding is not

  • Lowering the thinking. You can simplify the language of a text; the thinking stays at grade level. A 5th grader still does 5th grade work
  • Doing the work for them. That builds dependence, not skill
  • One-size-fits-all. A frame that helps Level 2 bores Level 5
  • Permanent. If it never comes off, it stopped being a scaffold

Pick the Strategy by What Is Blocking Them

👂 They do not follow what I am saying

  • You will not see the assignment in advance. While they tell you what it is about, skim it for twenty seconds and pick the three words the task turns on. Define those three, with a quick drawing or an HH image
  • Keep something on the shared screen while you talk, so there is always a visual anchor
  • Slow down, do not dumb down. Keep the academic word, "denominator" stays "denominator", and simplify everything around it. One idea per sentence, pause between sentences, say the important thing twice in two ways
  • Pause often. Ask them to show or tell you what they understood so far

💬 They will not talk

  • Give a sentence stem: "I think ___ because ___"
  • Wait 5 to 10 seconds. Silence is thinking time, not failure. Do not fill it
  • Offer the chat box or a reaction as an alternative to speaking
  • Let them rehearse the answer with you before saying the "real" one

📖 They cannot get through the reading

  • Build background first. One image or one question about what they already know
  • Chunk it. One paragraph, then talk, then the next
  • Type the hard words into the meeting chat with short definitions as you hit them, so they have a running list to scroll back to
  • Draw it live on the shared whiteboard: two overlapping circles to compare, three boxes left to right for sequence, a T with two columns for cause and effect. Ten seconds of ugly drawing beats a perfect organizer you do not have

✏️ They cannot start writing

  • Give a writing frame: "First ___. Next ___. Finally ___."
  • Give a word bank of the content words and transition words they will need
  • Write the first sentence together, then hand it over
  • Do one example of the same type out loud yourself, thinking aloud, not their assignment but a parallel one. Then hand it over

🔢 They can compute but miss word problems

  • The math is probably fine. The language is the barrier
  • Hunt the phrases: "per", "for every", "at this rate", "how many more"
  • Have them retell the problem in their own words before solving anything
  • Draw the situation before writing any numbers

🌐 They understand more than they can say yet

  • Very common: strong in conversation, weaker in academic reading and writing
  • Do not mistake a language barrier for not knowing the content
  • Let them show what they know in whatever way works: draw it, say it, use their home language
  • Then build the English on top of the understanding they already have

Situations You Will Actually Run Into

When the session goes silent

She joined three weeks ago, speaks very little English, and has not said one word. Her camera is off, as district policy requires, so you cannot see her face at all.

First, rule out the boring explanations. Ask her to type "hi" in the chat. If nothing comes back, her mic may be muted or broken, she may not have understood what you asked, or a parent may have told her not to speak to someone she does not know online. A muted mic is far more common than the silent period. Fix that before diagnosing anything.

If she is there but not speaking: a student new to English may be in the silent period, absorbing language while producing none. But silence alone does not tell you the level. A student at any level goes quiet when they are shy, tired at 7pm, or afraid of being wrong.

What to do:

  • You cannot watch her face, so build channels you can see. Put something on the shared screen she can annotate. Treat marks on the screen and messages in chat as her voice
  • Never demand speech, but never stop offering it: "You can say it in Spanish." "You can just say the number." "Say it after me." "Type it if that is easier"
  • Keep talking to her normally. At this level your talk is the input she needs
  • If she stays completely silent across many sessions, or was talking before and stopped, mention it to your coordinator. That is not pushing her, it is passing along something a teacher should know

When word problems stop everything

He solves the computation perfectly. Give him the same math inside a word problem and he shrugs. He talks easily and sounds fluent.

Word problems break down for four different reasons. Find out which one before you teach anything, because they need different responses.

  • Language. Have him retell the problem in his own words, in English or Spanish. If the retell is accurate, language is not the problem
  • The situation. Ask "have you ever seen this happen?" If the coupon, the lunch line, or the baseball score means nothing to him, explain the situation before the math
  • The math itself. If the retell is accurate and the situation is clear and he still cannot start, this is not a language problem. Knowing how to divide is not the same as knowing when to divide. Ask "are we putting things together or taking them apart?" and draw it
  • Prior schooling. Ask "how did you learn to do this before?" A different algorithm is not a mistake

About the signal phrases: "per", "for every", "at this rate", "how many more" are places to stop and ask what the relationship is. Never let a student map a word to an operation. "More" does not mean add: Ana has 12 more than Luis, Luis has 5 catches every keyword hunter.

When the answers are one sentence long

Her written work is detailed and thoughtful. Out loud she gives one-sentence answers and goes quiet. You know she has more.

What is going on: Speaking on demand is the highest-risk thing you can ask of a language learner. The gap is usually confidence and processing time, not knowledge.

What to do:

  • Give her the question in advance and let her think before answering
  • Hand her a stem that carries the academic structure so she only supplies the idea
  • Let her write the answer first, then read it aloud
  • Respond to the content of what she said, not how she said it

When "I don't know" is the answer to everything

Every question gets the same answer, and you can feel the session stalling.

What is going on: "I don't know" is often "I don't know how to say it," or "I don't want to be wrong in front of you."

What to do: Keep the door open instead of moving on. Try, in order:

  • "Can I give you some more information?"
  • "Do you need some more time to think?"
  • "Would you like me to repeat the question?"
  • "Can I rephrase the question?"
  • "Say it in Spanish and we will figure out the English together."
  • If none of that lands, stop asking and back up: "Show me where it stops making sense." Then do an easier version out loud yourself, thinking aloud, and hand it back

Say the permission line early, before you need it: "It is completely fine not to know. That is why we are here."

When they are frustrated or close to tears

It is 7pm, this is the third hard thing today, and the homework is winning.

What is going on: Usually this is accumulated exhaustion, not this particular problem. Pushing through a shutdown to finish the worksheet does not work and costs you their trust.

What to do:

Their Home Language Is a Tool, Not a Problem

A student who understands a concept in Spanish already understands the concept. Making them rebuild it from zero in English wastes what they know.

Let them think in both

  • Let them explain it in their home language first, then work on saying it in English
  • Point out cognates: fraction / fracción, equation / ecuación
  • Watch for false friends that will mislead them

If you do not speak their language

  • Ask HH for the word, and it gives you how to pronounce it
  • Use the BHH Spanish Cheatsheet
  • Partner with another Homework Helper who speaks it
  • Saying their name correctly matters. Ask, then practice it

Need a picture right now?

  • Ask HH to draw it. "Draw a simple picture of a fraction as a pizza, labeled in English and Spanish"
  • Takes about ten seconds, then share your screen with it
  • This page asks you to use visuals constantly. This is where they come from

Make it concrete and familiar

  • Anchor abstract ideas in something from their life, food, family, music, sport
  • A culturally familiar example does more work than a longer explanation
  • Ask about their world, then teach through it

If You Remember Nothing Else

Always

  • Wait 5 to 10 seconds after asking anything
  • Show it, do not just say it
  • Let them explain it back in their own words. Never ask "do you understand?", which almost always gets a yes
  • Fix content errors always, by asking not telling: "Walk me through that step." For language errors that do not block meaning, just say it back correctly once and move on
  • The student should do most of the thinking, and as much of the talking as their level allows. At Levels 1 and 2 you will talk more, and that is correct: your talk is their input

Never

  • Force a silent student to speak
  • Simplify the content instead of the language
  • Assume quiet means lost, or fluent means fine
  • Give the answer to move things along
  • Treat their home language as an obstacle

Adapted for tutoring from the Texas English Language Proficiency Standards, the Enabling Learning ELPS Online Helper, and the Bilingual Homework Hotline Handbook. HH draws on the same material, so you can ask it about anything on this page.

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