Learning to teach academic language

Abstract

English learners (ELs) in US K-12 classrooms are falling behind their peers as they struggle to develop the proficiency needed to succeed in an academic setting (NCELA, 2012). The majority of teacher preparation programs are not preparing teacher candidates (TCs) with the skills needed to help recently mainstreamed ELs succeed in their content area classrooms (Bunch, 2011). This study examined how one undergraduate, secondary education teacher candidates who had participated in supplemental trainings developed their ability to recognize linguistic demand, shelter instruction, and promote academic language proficiency. Using a Sequential Mixed Design (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2006), this longitudinal study examined the journals and lesson plans submitted by 31 undergraduate, secondary education TCs as they progressed through their prepractica. Six of these TCs were followed as case studies, with observations and interviews collected during their full practica. Collective data analysis indicates that TCs scored higher on all measures when they were in a linguistically diverse classroom. Furthermore, recognition of linguistic demand precedes ability to plan instruction: many TCs were able to recognize linguistic demand in lessons they observed, but few were adept at describing or designing sheltered instruction that could promote academic language development. For many participants, the attention to linguistic demand was focused largely on content-specific vocabulary that is challenging for all learners. However, a small number of TCs were able to attend to the morphological and lexical aspects of their content areas that would be especially difficult for ELs. In classroom observations a few participants were able to plan instruction that sheltered content and promoted academic language. Findings also indicate that supplemental trainings and infusions into methods courses helped TCs to realize the linguistic challenges of their respective content areas. Most importantly, the findings suggest that TCs are better able to focus on the language of instruction when they witness instruction that is focused on language. Therefore, TCs learn best how to support ELs when they observe and teach in linguistically diverse classrooms with knowledgeable mentoring teachers and field supervisors.