Incorporating Nonlinguistic Cues into ELL Instruction Communicating what we want to say, how we want to say it is the goal of expressing ourselves linguistically. For English language learners (and their teachers), the ability to do this successfully in their new language presents a challenge. In the content areas of teaching, it is particularly important to bring out the information that a student already knows in his native language - even when he does not have the linguistic ability to express himself in English - to evaluate his level of understanding and involve previous knowledge. The use of nonlinguistic representations provides a way to bridge the gap between actual understanding and the ability to express that understanding for English language learners. For teachers, non-linguistic cues or representations represent an effective alternative method in the process of delivering language and content instruction. In this essay I will discuss why non-linguistic representations work differently than linguistic methods. I will also evaluate selected Teachscape videos to discuss how some teachers use these methods, tasks that help English Language Learners develop authentic use of their new language, and the difference between a student-centered and teacher-centered classroom .When a student learns a new concept, that information is stored in two ways: linguistically or non-linguistically. Traditional teaching methods present new concepts linguistically to students; in other words, by having them read and/or listen to the information they are supposed to learn. In the student's long-term memory, that information would form similar to a sentence. On the other hand, non-linguistic r...... middle of paper ...... in English, it is difficult to assess what they already know, what they understand and what they have learned. By using non-linguistic representations to bridge the communication gap, English Language Learner instructors can provide a more accessible learning opportunity for all their students and better assess their specific content knowledge at every level of their development. References Hill, J., & Miller, K. (2013). Non-linguistic representations. Classroom instruction that works with English language learners (2nd ed., pp. 86-98). Alexandria, VA: ASCD. ebrary.com Using SDAIE for English Language Learners. (n.d.). Teachscape professional learning suite. Retrieved May 26, 2014, from http://learn.teachscape.com/Saba/Web_wdk/Learn/content/contentrepository/Launch.rdf?title=Using%20SDAIE%20for%20English%20Language%20Learners&id=cninv000000000001073