I like the suggestions of a strong support system which would include some type of tutoring, I also believe that it has to do with vocabulary the more words they know the better they can speak. I also like the suggestions of bringing humor into the class and making the ELL students feel as comfortable as possible.
However lets not forget that the American school system is lacking in many facets compared to Europe. As an example, for a regular German student they take German for years, English is not considered to be a foreigen language so they take English for at least 6 years. Then, to graduate from something similar to highschool they have to have an additional 3 years of a foreign language. I am confident that this is similar in the eastern regions as well.
