Preparing Advocates: Service‐Learning in TESOL for Future Mainstream Educators

This study explores ways in which TESOL graduate students were engaged in service‐learning at a public university in the midwestern United States. It describes the experiences of both domestic and international students with service‐learning that was incorporated into a hybrid graduate‐level TESOL course. Data were collected throughout the semester through weekly discussions on Blackboard, three reflective journals in which students wrote about their experiences on‐site, and in‐person discussions in the classroom, as well as through a focus group interview at the end of the semester. Findings reveal how service‐learning contributed to developing students’ intercultural awareness, civic responsibility, and teacher identity. Students also appreciated the opportunity to share their experience with the class and receive support from their peers. Overall, service‐learning gave students hands‐on experience that allowed them to translate theory into practice, thus making their learning authentic, creative, and meaningful. The findings raise important questions for TESOL educators and researchers to address as we reimagine and reconceptualize the curriculum for promoting diversity and social justice. The article concludes with suggestions for implementing service‐learning in a TESOL program.

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 76%

A Catalyst for Change: Service‐Learning for TESOL Graduate Students

Cho

Gulley

2016

“…In addition to the issues highlighted above, students noted new insights around the following points: immigrants' struggles to maintain their cultural and linguistic identities in the United States, the incongruence of mainstream political representations of immigrants and immigrant learners' actual background experiences and stories, immigrants' strong motivations to learn English, the challenges of daily life in a second language, and the strong effects of culture shock. This potential for service‐learning to promote new perceptions of immigrants and ESL learners has been documented by other researchers (e.g., Curtis & Curran, ; Fitzgerald, ; Lopes‐Murphy & Martin, ; Moore, ). The extent to which my students wanted to engage with these broader issues was also reflected in their selection of topics for the final research paper, which included the following: U.S. media representations of Latinos and possible affective influences on English language development, the political situations of refugees in the United States, and localized efforts within the European Union to provide language education to Syrian refugees.…”

Section: Findings and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

Teaching in context: Integrating community‐based service learning into TESOL education

Schneider

2018

Interest in service‐learning within TESOL has increased in recent years. Teacher‐scholars have described multiple uses of such pedagogy in programs for students of English as a second language (ESL) and in courses of ESL teacher education. This article employs action research to focus on an introductory TESOL class at a U.S. university for which students volunteered as ESL tutors and teachers at local community‐based organizations. By describing the course design and implementation, and by drawing on a data set comprising both student writing and interviews with community partners, the article highlights an undertheorized value of service‐learning in TESOL: its potential to raise novice teachers' awareness about the sociopolitical contexts of language education and, in turn, to help them recognize the importance of attending to such dynamics in pedagogic decision making. In this way, the course offers a case study that can support TESOL educators who want to help teachers‐in‐training situate second language learners in larger contexts. Two specific recommendations that emerge from the study are the need to move beyond the traditional content areas of TESOL/second language acquisition in designing such courses and the importance of collaborating with community‐based organizations as true partners.

“… ESL‐specific: service‐learning in which international, undergraduate ESL students enrolled in colleges or programs in the United States or Canada perform some type of community service as part of an ESL‐specific course (Askildson et al., ; Heuser, ; Perren et al., ; Wurr, , ) ESL‐specific at 2‐year colleges: service‐learning in which ESL‐specific courses at a 2‐year college include a service component (Bippus & Eslami, ; Elwell & Bean, ) Graduate student or preservice TESOL: service‐learning in which ESL graduate students or preservice, native‐English‐speaking, and/or nonnative‐English‐speaking TESOL teachers conduct service‐learning, often by providing ESL instruction to local community members (Crossman & Kite, ; Kassabgy & Salah El‐Din, ; Moore, ; Rueckert, ; Smolen et al., ) …”

Section: Review Of Literature On Service Learning In Esl Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In her study “Preparing Advocates: Service‐Learning in TESOL for Future Mainstream Educators,” Jessie Moore () examined English education students’ perceptions of service‐learning in an “Introduction to TESOL” course at a large, private university in the United States. Specifically, Moore investigated how those students’ perceptions of service‐learning impacted their learning outcomes.…”

Section: Review Of Literature On Service Learning In Esl Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the introduction to that special issue, Adrian Wurr () noted that “although service‐learning in TESOL is in the early stages of development compared to other disciplines … research on service‐learning in TESOL is maturing rapidly” (p. 397). Recent scholarship has examined service‐learning in undergraduate ESL‐specific courses (e.g., Askildson, Kelly, & Mick, ; Bippus & Eslami, ; Elwell & Bean, ; Heuser, ; Minor, ; Perren, Grove, & Thornton, ; Wurr, , 2009), service‐learning and preservice TESOL teachers (e.g., Kassabgy & Salah El‐Din, ; Moore, ; Rueckert, ; Smolen, Zhang, & Detwiler, ), and service‐learning and ESL graduate students (Crossman & Kite, ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Service‐Learning in the Second Language Writing Classroom: Future Directions for Research

Swacha

2017

This article reviews the current literature on second language writing and service‐learning. Service‐learning has grown in popularity in higher education over the past two decades, but comparatively little research has been done on the learning experiences of second language writers in service‐learning courses. This article outlines the major contexts in which service‐learning has been discussed and notes gaps in the current research, such as limited studies on which type of service‐learning best supports learners of English as a second language (ESL) in writing courses and on undergraduate ESL students in mainstream writing courses that employ service‐learning. The article concludes by offering teachers and curriculum developers practical recommendations, based on the reviewed literature, for how to implement service‐learning in writing courses.