Career and technical education, commonly referred to as career-tech ed or CTE, encompasses a wide array of industry-specific classes designed to enable high school students to explore career options and develop 21st-century skills for the modern workplace. Classes range from preparation for immediate post-graduation jobs not requiring college degrees such as veterinary technician and cosmetologist to more intensive and academically rigorous programs in industries like cybersecurity and business management, intended as pathways to further education. Well-designed CTE offerings integrate career and academic skill building, along with soft skills valued in contemporary work contexts, such as teamwork, communicative competence, and ethical decision making (California Department of Education, 2024).
Enrollment in CTE programs can benefit secondary multilingual learners (MLs) enormously. The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) extolls the educational virtues of CTE participation for MLs, including improved high school graduation rates and greater transition to college than their non-CTE peers. For participants from recent immigrant families, CTE programs foster valuable employer–learner connections and extended networks.
Additionally, completion of CTE programs yields employment opportunities in high-demand careers such as health care and advanced manufacturing, with competitive salaries exceeding the national median wage
Of equal importance, CTE programs provide developing English speakers engaging hands-on opportunities for relationship building and “productive talk,” in which peers work together to investigate solutions to a problem or create a product (Gregoire-Smith, 2024).
Obstacles to CTE Enrollment for Newcomers
Despite the boundless merits of CTE course enrollment for recent immigrants, institutional roadblocks can prevent aspiring multilingual candidates from enrolling in CTE programs. Newcomers, in particular, typically lack prerequisites for STEM programs while also having a daunting number of core academic courses to complete for high school graduation (Sugarman, 2023). To sustain ML participation in CTE programs, developing English speakers must complete required English language development (ELD) coursework to advance their English proficiency. Optimal CTE programs successfully pair English language instruction with occupational skill building and do not rely upon separate ELD coursework to solely shoulder the responsibility of advancing students’ English language and literacy skills (Advance CTE, 2024).
CTE Reading Barriers for Multilinguals
Multilinguals who are enrolled in CTE coursework—yet still qualify for ELD services based on their most recent English language proficiency (ELP) data—face abundant challenges while attempting to access the demanding text and vocabulary that complement the hands-on activities of CTE courses. The average CTE instructor anticipates dedicating precious instructional minutes to technical presentation and relevant practicum, with an expectation that students will handle required reading prior to class. This is an unrealistic assumption, as emergent bilinguals are not yet equipped with the English language knowledge and reading proficiency to independently tackle the highly technical and procedural manuals, reports, articles, and textbooks of CTE curricula.
To thrive in CTE coursework during secondary school and beyond, MLs deserve accommodations that promote their technical and linguistic competence along with their ability to effectively deal with course reading demands. Because high school CTE courses of all kinds are increasingly viewed as on-ramps to some form of postsecondary career training, MLs should exit their high school programs with productive coping skills for independent reading and studying of course materials as they work toward certification in their chosen careers.
School districts should prioritize equipping CTE faculty with a research-informed and productive toolkit of strategies to help less-proficient readers and MLs gain access to course texts. Experienced ELD practitioners who have supported emergent bilinguals in secondary coursework are well suited to offer professional learning and coaching for CTE colleagues. However, a brief in-service training focusing upon stages of second-language acquisition, coupled with basic recommendations to use visual cues, real objects, the Frayer model, and modified verbal delivery, will likely backfire with practicum-oriented CTE colleagues hesitant to modify their syllabi with language and literacy guidance. Educator preparedness must concentrate on evidence-based instructional practices that will be perceived as relevant, manageable, and impactful by practitioners who may be industry leaders yet lack understanding of the complexity of learning a language and content simultaneously (Advance CTE, 2022). Further, professional development providers must utilize an asset-based approach to curriculum and instruction with STEM-oriented colleagues, integrating well-designed support materials that capitalize on students’ diversity (NASEM, 2018).
Preparing MLs for CTE Reading Assignments
In this article, we will address high-leverage instructional practices promoting informational text access that can be effectively justified and demonstrated to CTE instructors and implemented across disciplines. The practical guidance we provide stems from our collective experiences working directly with high school and college faculty seeking productive ways to support English learners enrolled in their industry-focused classes. As every career-pathway curriculum includes a variety of informational texts, providing CTE educators with reading support that isn’t too labor intensive or time consuming tends to be well received. Our three areas of focus for dedicated in-class instruction are 1) text previewing, 2) supported reading aloud, and 3) teaching high-leverage vocabulary.
Strategy 1: Guide Text Previewing
To support MLs and their classmates who are equally daunted by course reading material, CTE providers can dedicate a reliable fraction of instructional time each week to helping students gain entry-level access to their focal text. Whether the course material be a traditional textbook, a safety manual, or an industry article, less-proficient readers will benefit from a hands-on, explicated walk through the assigned selection. Informational text previewing, the process of surveying the text organization and features, is a productive strategy used by successful students and professionals with heavy reading loads.
Informational text previewing helps a student reader accomplish important goals. This preliminary survey of essential features enables the reader to identify the text focus, assess the level of complexity based on the content, language, and length, and determine an appropriate reading and study plan. An inexperienced and ill-equipped high school reader is apt to forego reading altogether or start on the first page of a complex text and read a brief amount until utter confusion and exhaustion set in. Coming to class at least having previewed an assigned technical selection provides a CTE candidate with a mental outline of the material and increased odds of being able to engage in the instructor’s related presentation and hands-on practice.
Daugherty (2017) points out that common text features in STEM curricula such as headings over sections, bolded vocabulary, and visual representations help the reader identify important information presented in the material, call the reader’s attention to essential terms, and explain what technical and academic words mean. Many MLs enter CTE coursework with keen interest in acquiring practical school-to-work skills but limited experience navigating technical materials in their home language or English. A step-by-step guided tour of the week’s focal reading selection is a reasonable expectation for a CTE service provider serving a diverse student clientele, including adolescent emergent English speakers.
Steps in Guiding Text Previewing
We recommend that ELD support staff provide CTE educators with a compelling rationale for in-class text previewing and hands-on demonstration of the process. CTE colleagues in fields as diverse as nursing and computing will recall coping strategies they utilized during their career training to manage their course reading load. Prior to modeling the process of guided text previewing, consider facilitating a discussion with colleagues in small groups responding to this prompt: What process did you typically follow in your early career training to complete a demanding informational text reading and study assignment? Participants are likely to acknowledge that they completed an initial text preview to gauge the text focus, complexity, and supportive features they could rely upon to build basic understanding if time constraints made a thorough reading unlikely or impossible.
Following are some practical tips, drawing from well-received professional development endeavors:
- Make a photocopy of the text selection to display, ideally using a document camera. This will provide a visual aid that can be marked as you offer guidance and explanations. If a core textbook is the only course reading source, provide students with a photocopy of the first chapter to practically interact with during the guided walk-through.
- Direct students to have their copy of the focal selection in hand as you guide them through the process of reading, highlighting, and labeling each feature.
- As you point out a key feature, audibly name it, clearly label it, and explain its function. (See Visual 1for common informational text features in CTE and STEM curricula.)
- Read aloud the title, subtitle (if included), author’s name, publication source, and date.
- Read aloud the introduction or abstract (if included).
- Read each heading and clarify what the section will discuss.
- Point out bolded topic-specific technical terms and marginal glosses with additional high-utility academic words and their meanings.
- Look over visual representations and aids such as tables, charts, graphs, and symbols.
- Read aloud the text conclusion, summary, or last paragraph.
- Glance quickly at end-of-text questions.
- Point out the most essential section(s) within the text.
- Assign a manageable amount of follow-up reading with a realistic time frame.
Strategy 2: Supported Reading Aloud
Emergent bilinguals depend upon their teachers for classroom practices that will advance their text understanding and literacy skills. To achieve entry-level access to challenge-level text, MLs must first be able to read the content relatively fluently. Fluent reading is the ability to read print material with accurate decoding, appropriate pacing, and prosody. Prosody—that is, meaningful expression—involves suitable rhythm, intonation, stresses, and pauses for the text. Because students acquiring English approach CTE course reading material with gaps in language knowledge, they cannot be expected to achieve fluency and grasp text meaning after only one pass at a priority text section. In career-focused classes as well as core subject areas, high school faculty can provide effective models of fluent reading to support all basic readers, English learners and English speakers alike (Kinsella, 2024).
Repeated reading is the most evidence-based practice for improving students’ fluency skills (NICHD, 2000). Repeated reading incorporates two essential elements: 1) giving students the opportunity to read and then reread the same text passage, and 2) having students practice reading orally with teacher guidance provided as needed. Understandably, CTE faculty cannot be expected to devote multiple class sessions to guided oral reading of a course text. It is a reasonable expectation, however, for a career-tech educator employed by a school district to analyze an assigned text and identify critical content for supported in-class reading. Predictable priorities for teacher-led reading are the text introduction or abstract, summary or conclusion, and a few key sections with essential content related to hands-on activities.
The oral cloze fluency routine (Harmon and Wood, 2011; Kinsella, 2024) is a research-informed instructional sequence for teacher-mediated oral reading that models fluency while assigning students an observable task of involvement. Rather than passively listening as the teacher reads aloud a text section, students follow along, silently tracking, and chime in with the word the teacher has selectively omitted within a sentence.
Students pay close attention to the teacher’s pronunciation, intonation, and timing and stay engaged because they are expected to fill in the missing word. The most struggling class readers may not be able to pronounce every omitted word,
but they will not be singled out or embarrassed and they will benefit from a skillful reading model.
Cloze Fluency Routine Defined
To build oral reading fluency and comprehension, the teacher reads aloud a text segment at a moderate pace with expression, omitting a few carefully selected strong word choices within different sentences, while students follow along silently and chime in chorally with the missing words to show they are accountably engaged in the reading process.
Steps in Using the Cloze Fluency Routine
Prepare the text: Look over the text sections you intend to read aloud and identify the words you plan to omit. Omit two to four words per paragraph, depending on the length and complexity of the text segment. Highlight strong word candidates at the ends of phrases or sentences, natural places to pause, while avoiding multisyllable words that will likely pose pronunciation difficulties. Use different colors to highlight words for the first read and a second read if time permits. Omitting words on the fly, sans preparation, may lead to poor choices that break up logical phrasing or to excessive omissions.
Explain the task: Direct students to follow along silently as you read each sentence aloud and to chime in with the words you omit. Emphasize that you will only omit a few words, one at the beginning, middle, and end of the text segment, and that you will choose strong words (vs. prepositions, articles, etc.) you know they can pronounce. Encourage students to look carefully at the words, rather than passively listen, and use their finger, pencil, cursor, or guide card to track the text and silently follow along.
Read aloud: Read aloud at a moderate rate with enhanced expression, leaving out a few pre-taught or familiar words that come at the end of a meaningful phrase, each within a different sentence. Pause briefly after omitting a word for students to respond chorally. If some students do not chime in, or if they struggle with pronunciation of a word, clearly restate the word and repeat the sentence to get students back on track. Repeat the process as needed, picking up the pace slightly and omitting different words.
Strategy 3: Teaching High-Leverage Vocabulary
Highly targeted and persistent vocabulary instruction can dramatically improve reading ability and lesson engagement for students acquiring English as a new language (August and Shanahan, 2006). After synthesizing studies addressing English-learner academic achievement, Baker and research colleagues identified explicit instruction of prioritized curriculum-aligned words over several days as the most impactful lesson practice to support emergent bilinguals in content-area coursework (Baker et al., 2014).
Since planned, explicit vocabulary instruction has such a pedagogically defensible track record with MLs for improving reading and lesson comprehension, CTE educator preparedness must concentrate on a few viable instructional practices for addressing high-leverage technical and cross-disciplinary words within course texts. Informational texts tend to include resources and visual aids for addressing technical and topic-specific terms. While guiding the text preview, a CTE educator can point out critical boldface terms, which are typically followed by definitions, explanations, and examples. Marginal glosses highlight additional technical terms, often low-incidence words less central to the unit focus.
CTE faculty can avail themselves of visual aids and representations within their course material to address technical terms essential to the unit focus. Similarly, concrete objects and diagrams, pictures, or video embedded in presentation slides can support students in grasping the meaning and function of technical vocabulary. During demonstrations and hands-on activities, educators can highlight words in context and conscientiously emphasize pronunciations and meanings to engage students and promote retention.
To achieve basic access to current text assignments and develop adequate reading skills for future CTE coursework, MLs at all levels of English proficiency require more than clarification of essential unit technical vocabulary. Career-tech ed texts, from manuals to technical reports, are written with complex syntax and lexical precision. They include cross-disciplinary words, uncommon in casual conversation or narrative texts, that appear with regularity in technical explanations, descriptions, processes, and comparisons. The words highlighted in Visual 2 are examples of high-frequency academic words CTE candidates must learn in order to advance in their technical studies and attain a position in their desired career paths.
To navigate their CTE course materials and improve their speaking and writing skills, MLs need to develop a productive working knowledge of words that are used with regularity in professional communication in their field of study. A careful review of even a few sections of a CTE text assignment will yield a plethora of widely used academic words aligned with key language purposes for academic and professional communication. Notice the high number of cross-disciplinary nouns and verbs identified in a relatively brief three-page article “Oxyfuel Cutting: Safety Inspection” for a CTE welding course (see Visual 3). CTE educators, like their high school science, math, and social studies colleagues, must assume some responsibility for building their students’ toolkit of these cross-disciplinary words for informational text reading and writing rather than abandon them to Google Translate.
Steps in Teaching High-Utility Academic Words
Explicit, interactive vocabulary instruction has a clear goal of guiding students in gaining ownership of critical new words. The process of building productive word knowledge, the ability to use a word competently in speech, begins with actively involving students with reading, pronouncing, chorally repeating, and accurately copying the target word. To get a conceptual handle on a new academic word, students require an efficiently explained meaning conveyed in accessible language such as a familiar synonym, rather than a protracted formal definition that includes other unfamiliar words. A widely used but abstract academic word such as identify or impact may be challenging to convey with a simple sketch or concrete object. Alternatively, an illustrative example sentence, complemented by a related picture, can help students create a vivid mental image while also helping them understand how the word functions syntactically and semantically in an academic statement.
The vocabulary note-taking guide profiled in Visual 4 was prepared to explicitly introduce high-utility academic vocabulary students would encounter in a focal text within a high school CTE welding course. The guide includes key elements that should be addressed when developing precise understandings of a high-utility academic word.
Without an opportunity to see and correctly pronounce the target word, explore a relevant example, and take some form of notes for review purposes, few learners will recall the meaning or hazard using the word in the context of a future lesson. The blanks provide opportunities for students to focus on engaging in repetition and listening comprehension while taking a few important notes, including copying the word and its cognate or translation and completing the meaning and example sentence provided by the instructor. This explicit instructional process is stepped out in Visual 5, highlighting the teacher’s sequential moves and the students’ cued, accountable responses.
To support developing English speakers in competently using the word and interacting with peers, a CTE instructor can enhance the guide with a response frame. Rather than simply posing a question and hoping for voluntary responses, a response frame focusing upon a common topic deepens students’ understanding and facilitates effective application. A well-crafted response frame should include the target word in a context familiar to students, allowing for a range of ideas for successful completion. To illustrate, note in Visual 4 the diverse ways in which the response frame designed for the adjective adequate could be completed by a high school student, ranging from passing a class to being eligible for a scholarship. An added advantage of a relevant response frame is that MLs have a supported opportunity to flex their second-language muscles, be recognized by peers, and further enhance their word knowledge by actively listening to their peers’ engaging contributions.
Concluding Thoughts
We must prepare CTE educators who have the desire and skills to engage linguistically diverse students in their course literacy tasks as well as their practical applications. For many professionals newly teaching the tools of their technical trade to multilingual learners, this is unchartered territory. By integrating into professional preparedness some practical strategies for assisting ML scholars with text access, we can help our CTE colleagues create a more welcoming and successful pathway toward high school graduation and career entrance.
References
California Department of Education. (2024). “CTE Fact Sheet for School Leaders.”
Advance CTE. (2022). “Making Good on the Promise: Improving equity and access to quality CTE programs for English learners.”
Advance CTE. (2024). “Supporting English Learners in Career Technical Education.”
August, D., and Shanahan, T. (Eds). (2006). Developing Literacy in Second Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Center for Applied Linguistics.
Baker, S., Lesaux, N., Jayanthi, M., Dimino, J., Proctor, C. P., Morris, J., Gersten, R., Haymond, K., Kieffer, M. J., Linan-Thompson, S., and Newman-Gonchar, R. (2014). Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School (NCEE 2014-4012). US Department of Education.
Daugherty, M. K., Kindall, H. D., Carter, V., Swagerty, L. M., Wissehr, C., and Robertson, S. (2017). “Integrating Informational Text and STEM: An innovative and necessary curricular approach,” Journal of STEM Teacher Education, 52(1). doi.org/10.30707/JSTE52.1Daugherty
Gregoire-Smith, M. (2024). “Paving Pathways for Multilinguals.” Language Magazine.
Harmon, J., and Wood, K. (2010). “Variations on Round Robin Reading. Middle Ground, 14(2).
Kinsella, K. (2024). “Supporting Multilingual Learners in Developing Reading Fluency across the School Day.” Language Magazine.
NASEM. (2018). English Learners in STEM Subjects: Transforming Classrooms, Schools, and Lives. National Academies Press.
NICHD. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read.
Sugarman, J. (2023). “Unlocking Opportunities: Supporting English learners’ equitable access to career and technical education.” Migration Policy.
Kate Kinsella, EdD ([email protected]) has served as the pedagogy guide on three recent US Department of Education–funded research initiatives focused upon advancing achievement of K–12 multilingual learners. The author of researched-informed curricula supporting English language development, including English 3D and READ 180, she provides training and consultancy throughout the US to equip colleagues with understandings and skills to educate MLs with respect and efficacy.
Jennifer Finney-Ellison, MSEd ([email protected]) is a teacher educator and ELD curriculum writer with extensive experience in providing professional learning, coaching, and consultancy to K–12 educators and agencies across the US. She is the co-author of a research-informed ELD curriculum, English 3D, Grades K–3.
