Literacy Practices That Support Multilingual Student Success Across Content Areas 

January 23, 2026

Multilingualism is the norm, not the exception, across our country. In the United States, nearly one in five students in public schools now speaks a language other than English at home, and Multilingual Learners constitute one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. student population. 

Practices that support Multilingual Learners enhance instruction for all students. WestEd’s recent Leading Together webinar explored how educators can foster literacy success across content areas for multilingual students while strengthening learning for all. 

Led by Annette Gregg, the director of English Learner and Migrant Education at WestEd, and Amanda Nabors, a research associate for the Literacy team at WestEd, the session provided four key strategies that educators can use to support Multilingual Learners in becoming disciplinary thinkers across science, history, math, and other content areas. 

What Is Disciplinary Literacy? 

Disciplinary literacy is the ability to read, write, and think like experts in a particular field. This approach is rooted in the idea that each discipline has distinct ways of producing and sharing knowledge. Whether it’s justifying claims in math, analyzing cause and effect in history, or describing processes and making predictions in science, students don’t just need the content; they need to learn the different ways of using language explicitly. 

This approach recognizes that literacy isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. It has nuances in different subject matters, and students need opportunities to practice using the disciplinary language of each specific subject. This approach also empowers students to become informed thinkers and engaged participants in building and challenging knowledge. 

Four Strategies for Supporting Multilingual Student Success 

1. Foster Opportunities for Disciplinary Discourse 

Discourse doesn’t just happen on its own by simply putting students in groups or pairs. Educators must be intentional in fostering interaction. Here are some things educators can do: 

• Provide abundant opportunities for peer interaction throughout each period so that students develop language and deepen understanding through their own talk. 
• Design open-ended questions and tasks that invite extended responses rather than one- or two-word answers. 
• Use structured discussion routines and protocols in which Student A responds first and Student B must respond to Student A. This will ensure that all students participate regardless of English proficiency. 
• Provide linguistic supports like sentence stems and language frames that students can reference during conversations. 

2. Encourage Translanguaging for Meaning Making 

Translanguaging is how multilingual students naturally speak and think. Rather than code-switching between separate language systems by context, translanguaging involves using a unified linguistic repertoire that allows students to integrate all their linguistic assets. This approach promotes inclusion and is linked to stronger disciplinary learning and language development in both English and home languages. Here are some things educators can do: 

• Create welcoming physical spaces with multilingual word walls and classroom guidelines in multiple languages. 
• Design collaborative tasks with linguistic flexibility, such as comparing local ecosystems to those from students’ home countries. 
• Use high-quality instructional materials like bilingual books and multilingual resources. 

3. Make Language Functions Visible 

Language is a meaning-making tool, but for Multilingual Learners it’s not enough to hope they’ll pick it up. Teachers should call out the language used when explaining an idea versus describing something, using tools like sentence starters, anchor charts, and think-alouds. 

Example: When students describe animals in science class, they might learn body-part vocabulary (trunk, wings, fins). Making language visible means explicitly teaching typical English description words, such as is, are, has, or what something can do to form descriptions: “Elephants are big,” “bees have wings,” “fish can swim.” 

This exercise builds the ability to think and talk about how language works, helping students structure their thinking and express ideas more clearly across languages and subject areas. 

4. Leverage High-Quality Instructional Materials and Asset-Based Practices 

Students are most engaged when they see themselves and their communities reflected in the materials they use. While there’s no single go-to curriculum, small additions can go a long way. Educators can make evidence-based materials work by 

• assessing materials for reflection of students’ identities and disciplinary norms and then supplementing with multilingual books or family collaboration; 
• taking inventory of disciplinary conventions to make explicit how scientific texts read differently than those historians might use; and 
• tweaking everyday routines like using bilingual books for whole group reading, comparing maps from different cultural perspectives, or having caregivers record affirmations in home languages. 

Ready to Support Multilingual Student Success? 

Learn more about WestEd’s work in English learner and migrant education and literacy instruction. Watch the full webinar and view other webinars in the Leading Together series.