2. How in the context of a project like this do you support a student who understands very little English?
All of my students understand very little English. They learn English from doing the project. I teach them some language and then they write a story using the language that they learned. What I think it demonstrates is that they have an understanding of these words because if you don't ask a student to use the words in their real life, then you can't be sure that they are understanding it completely. You can ask them to do interviews and have them write up little questions and answers, but when you have them do a project that has a final product, it's so meaningful to them that they really want to get it right.
