A Curriculum Development Study: Crafting and Teaching Curricula for ELL Students in China

When teaching English Language Learners (ELL), it is important to understand the best practices and tools available to teach these students effectively and engagingly. In this curriculum development study, I examine and utilize effective and engaging practices for teaching ELL students and offers ten lesson plans taught to a native Chinese speaker that reflect the implementation and development of these practices. Research consisted of both practical and theoretical sources concerning critical pedagogy for teaching ELL students. An understanding of students’ background shapes an understanding of language transfer, thus providing a more tailored teaching approach (Rigby, 2004). The scaffolding of lessons present in the study utilizes the methods taught in current Teaching English as a Foreign Language courses (TEFL, 2025), with the lesson beginning with a warm-up activity, followed by direct instruction, controlled practice, and an open production activity. Teaching practices were also informed by other professional texts, using strategies from Singer (2018) and Serravallo (2017) for more engaging, hands-on writing, speaking, listening, and reading activities. Lessons were created using these scaffolding structures and engagement strategies, while also considering the needs and situations of the student. After each lesson, the success of the lesson as well as the student’s engagement and learning progress were recorded in order to inform the planning and implementation of the following lesson. Each lesson used a variety of exercises to challenge the student to improve their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, with homework assignments designed to accelerate learning beyond the classroom. Because the lessons were held virtually, a variety of technology tools such as whiteboards, annotations, and screen sharing were employed to effectively engage the student in each lesson. This study includes a breakdown of research conducted, a rationale for planned lessons, as well as a reflection about the effectiveness of various engagement and scaffolding strategies developed throughout the curriculum.