Exploring the emotions and needs of English language learners: facilitating pre-service and in-service teachers' recognition of the tasks facing language learners

Abstract

The population in the United States has become more diverse, but the number of teachers in public schools who are fluent in another language is limited. Furthermore, statistics attest that few teachers have adequate training to work with English language learners (ELLs). Teachers who lack training and have not struggled to learn another language may not realize the complexity faced daily by ELLs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to apply instructional methods, which mirror experiences faced by real children in real classrooms, in order to allow pre-service and/or in-service teachers to be subjected to the mixed emotions experienced by English language learners in their class. In six different classes, the researchers immersed a total number of 155 undergraduate and graduate students in a 15-minute oral presentation in Dutch.Data from a post-survey indicated that teacher candidates developed empathy and extrapolated the message that ELL students in classrooms in the United States face serious but surmountable challenges that take time to overcome. As a result of the findings, we recommend teacher preparation programs include language requirements and interactions between teacher candidates and language learners.

Developing a Complex Portrait of Content Teaching for Multilingual Learners via Nonlinear Theoretical Understandings

“…Learning formats (e.g., face-to-face, online, and/or hybrid courses) and a variety of assignments were examined for their ability to help teachers apply theory to practice as well as develop assets-based perspectives (Choi & Morrison, 2014; Lavery, Nutta, & Youngblood, 2018; Walker, Mahon, & Dray, 2017). Several studies discussed implementing specific interventions in a course or PD session or series, such as immersing participants in a foreign language (Zhang & Pelttari, 2014), modeling research-based strategies (Andrews & Weisenberg, 2013), engaging in reflection and data analysis (Li & Peters, 2016), conducting narrative inquiry (Pu, 2012), science-specific interventions focused on literacy (Lee, Adamson, et al, 2008; Lee, Maerten-Rivera, Penfield, LeRoy, & Secada, 2008), inquiry-based teaching (Adamson, Santau, & Lee, 2013), and pedagogy (Heller, Daehler, Wong, Shinohara, & Miratrix, 2012). Many of these interventions, even brief ones, affected teachers (and students) positively.…”

Linguistically Responsive Teaching in Preservice Teacher Education: A Review of the Literature Through the Lens of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory

“…This definition is useful to illustrate the purpose of the mediating spaces and devices used by teacher educators in the orientations system: to make possible opportunities for cognitive dissonance (i.e., instances in which an individual is confronted with new information that contradicts her beliefs or values; Adcock, 2012). These opportunities occurred as part of PSTs' university-based coursework, such as cultural and/or language immersion and language simulations (e.g., Alfaro, 2008;J. Zhang & Pelttari, 2014), or engagement with or observation of MLLs in classroom or afterschool settings (e.g., Dresser, 2007;Fitts & Gross, 2012).…”

Mainstream Teacher Candidates' Perspectives on ESL Writing: The Effects of Writer Identity and Rater Background

“…They revealed neither transfer of negative stereotypes about ESL learners (Lindemann, ), nor suppression of stereotypes by softening criticism (Rubin & Williams‐James, ). Rather, they expressed a form of empathy, especially for speakers of Spanish, in part because those teacher candidates had obtained a firsthand experience of learning Spanish as a second language (Zhang & Pelttari, ). When it came to the Chinese guise, however, the teacher candidates may have had little or no prior knowledge they could refer to because none of them reported having learned Chinese.…”