As a student becomes more proficient in her native language, her ability to develop English literacy becomes stronger. Therefore, as an ESL -- English as a second language -- teacher of middle school students, you will need to employ a teaching strategy suited to students of their age and educational level. There are many strategies designed with the middle school ESL student in mind, and they are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Consider the requirements of your own class before deciding on a strategy.

Slowing Down
The development of an ESL student's English ability has many parallels to that of the student's native language. Some teachers use this concept as a teaching strategy. That is, you can teach your middle school ESL students just as you would teach middle school native English speakers. However, because of the difference in learning speed between these two groups, you will need to slow down all aspects of your teaching, from planning lessons to speaking in class.

Interactive Teaching
Many middle school ESL students prefer to be taught by means of interactive learning. Teachers who wish to use this concept to create a teaching strategy should use many forms of classroom interaction. This strategy includes role playing, asking questions and allowing students to freely ask questions, reading aloud, and conversing in class.

Motivated Teaching
Students at the middle-school level tend to have a small vocabulary. Some teachers take this into consideration when designing a course, and design a course in a way that motivates ESL students to move forward with their studies. This strategy makes use of careful material selection. Materials are selected that should make heavy use of the students' existent vocabulary while simultaneously teaching them a new practical vocabulary. If you wish to use this method, you should consider your students' backgrounds first, and allow them to focus on topics familiar to them.

Highly Structured Classroom
Middle school ESL students tend to spend most of their time in school in ESL classrooms. In addition, they are often in mixed classes that include students of both similar and different backgrounds. To discourage students from speaking their native tongues, some teachers use a strategy of structuring the classroom into diverse groups. The teacher using this strategy organizes the groups so as to make it unlikely that non-English languages are spoken during group discussions, conversations or other activities. This allows for more practice of English.