Sheltered English Instruction. One type of instruction that offers promise in helping LEP students develop academic competence while also developing English proficiency is sheltered English. Sheltered English is an instructional approach used to make academic instruction in English understandable to LEP students. In the regular classroom, English fluency is assumed. Sheltered English programs may be either bilingual or monolingual, but English instruction is the key element in both.
Students study English in a sheltered class and all core subjects in their first language.
At the intermediate stage, math and science as well as English are taught in sheltered classes, while social studies and language arts are taught in the student's first language. At the advanced level, language arts and social studies are sheltered, and the student is mainstreamed for all other classes. The goal of the program is to mainstream the student gradually, but since some instruction occurs in the primary language, bilingualism is also possible. Schifini proposes a sheltered English program for students with intermediate English proficiency. At the first level of this two-level program, students study ESL and take sheltered math and science classes.