Literature-Driven Test Prep for Multilingual Students

Test season doesn’t have to work against your multilingual learners. It can be a powerful way to protect them, affirm them, and expand their opportunities. Let’s look at how you can use literature to turn test prep into equity work, not gatekeeping.

Name the real problem with test season

If you teach in an ethnically or linguistically diverse community, you already know the pattern. Test season arrives, pressure climbs, and suddenly, your rich, discussion-based reading routines give way to packets, timing, and red pens. Too often, our learners who speak a language other than English—or whose primary language is a sociocultural variety of English like African American English or Chicano English—get the message that the way they naturally speak is unacceptable on “high‑stakes” days.

I could never accept that.

So, I asked a different question:

“How can I use this same season to help learners see their linguistic flexibility as a superpower and protect them from the harm of monolingual-default expectations?”

And I’ll share with you some tools to do exactly that.

Reframe test prep as language affirmation

The first move is simple but non‑negotiable: Let’s tell learners the truth about tests!

• Tests are one snapshot, not the full story of their intelligence or potential.
• The language of the test is “School English,” not “better” English.
• Treat test season as practice in code‑switching and critical reading, not as proof of their intellect or abilities.

When you frame it this way, learners stop asking, “Is my language wrong?” and start asking, “What does this test expect—and how do I decide when to use which of my languages?”

That shift alone reduces anxiety and opens the door for real learning.

Use literary lenses on test‑like passages

Every text you teach can be framed with a clear analytical lens—character, structure, point of view, and more. During test season, deliberately tie that lens to the kinds of reading moves standardized tests demand, but do it without abandoning rich instruction.

Here’s how that looks in practice:

• Select a passage that feels “test‑like” in length and complexity but is still culturally rich and relevant.
• Name the lens for the lesson (for example, “Character and Conflict”) and have learners highlight places where language reveals power, identity, or perspective.
• Before learners ever see multiple‑choice questions, talk about the language itself: Where do you hear a voice that sounds like yours? Where is the author shifting to more formal School English? Why might they do that here?

Now, when learners finally get to test‑style items, they recognize that the same analytical muscles they use in authentic literary conversations are the ones the test is asking them to flex. They’re not “doing test prep;” they’re doing advanced literary analysis with clear signposts.

Lean on best practice emergent bilingual supports

If you have point‑of‑use supports for emergent bilingual learners—language objectives, suggested sentence frames, cultural or background notes—don’t put those away during test season. Lean into them.

For example, before a text that uses figurative language unfamiliar to many of your learners, you might:

• Use any provided background notes as a mini‑lesson connecting the expression to something from learners’ cultural or linguistic worlds.
• Offer sentence starters like “In my community, we might say…” so learners can surface parallel expressions from African American English, Chicano English, or other home languages.
• Co‑construct a quick chart: Home Language / School English / “Test‑Safe” Paraphrase.

Now, when learners face a question about a phrase’s meaning, they aren’t guessing; they’re drawing on a multilingual mental map you’ve built together.

Practice code‑switching without shaming home language

I hear this question from educators all the time:

“How do I prepare learners for academic writing without implying their home language is wrong?”

Test season is exactly when this tension shows up most clearly.

Here’s what I said to my learners:

• Your home language is powerful, precise, and not only fully legitimate, but necessary in certain spaces.
• School English is another language we’re adding to your repertoire; it’s not a replacement for how you speak at home.
• Tests will always evaluate your ability to read and write in School English, so we will practice switching into it strategically.

Then you can practice with short constructed‑response items about the literature or passage. Ask learners to answer first in their authentic voice, then work together to recast—or translate—the same idea in test‑appropriate School English, keeping the complexity of the thinking intact. The message is clear: we’re switching the code, not lowering the power of their ideas.

A simple three‑day mini‑cycle you can steal

So, what does this look like IRL? Here’s a three‑day mini‑cycle you can repeat with different selections:

Day 1: Access and affirm

• Read the passage aloud.
• Use your literary lens to guide a whole‑class discussion focused on voice, identity, or point of view.
• Invite learners to surface examples of their own language varieties that match what they notice in the text.

Day 2: Strategize like a test taker

• Introduce 3–4 test‑style multiple‑choice questions about the same passage.
• Model thinking aloud through one item, naming the reading moves:
  • “I’m looking at how the author’s word choice reveals attitude.”
• Let learners work in pairs using sentence frames and home‑language annotation before choosing answers.

Day 3: Write and code‑switch

• Give a short constructed‑response prompt tied to the literary lens.
• Have learners respond first in their most comfortable language, then translate into School English individually or in pairs.
• Celebrate examples of powerful code‑switching explicitly:

“Explain how the author’s language shows the narrator’s conflicting feelings.”

 “You just code-switched to match the task—that’s advanced writer work.”

This cycle keeps test prep rooted in dignity, intellectual challenge, and linguistic affirmation, instead of drills that erode confidence.

One final word

If you teach multilingual learners, including those whose primary language is a sociocultural variety of English, you are already doing equity work every day.

Test season doesn’t cancel that mission; it amplifies it.

Here’s my challenge to you: use the tools you already have and the new moves you’ve just learned. Let’s make sure every practice passage strengthens multilingual learners as readers and language users.

Dr. Almitra L. Berry serves as the bilingual/multilingual consultant for Perfection Learning's Connections: Literature program for middle school. Her work focuses on supporting educators who serve learners speaking languages other than English, including ethnolects such as African American English and Chicano English.