With the increasing linguistic and cultural diversity of students in U. S. schools, all teachers, regardless of the content area or grade they teach, need research-based strategies for assisting all students to gain English proficiency. This practical, concise guide shows teachers what they need to know about language, how it is learned, how it is used, and how teaching about it can be incorporated into lessons throughout the curriculum. Understanding Language in Diverse Classrooms offers a model of how learning takes place and describes the critical role of teachers in that model. It includes comparison charts showing how some of the most common heritage languages represented among present-day students compare with English, and it provides examples of hands-on materials including checklists, rating scales, and sample lessons to help teachers prepare to teach all their students in diverse classrooms. Each chapter ends with questions to stimulate discussion and reflection on major chapter points, to enable readers to review and evaluate the information and then integrate it into their own practice.
Language Development: Understanding Language Diversity in the Classroom offers comprehensive coverage of the language development process for pre- and in-service teachers while emphasizing the factors that further academic success in the classroom, including literacy skills, phonological awareness, and narrative. With chapters written by respected specialists in various fields, this interdisciplinary text illuminates the impact of language development on learning success and distinguishes between language differences and disorders, integrating illustrative case studies as well as helpful classroom strategies that teachers can implement right away.
The current thrust in the field of education is to improve teachers’ understanding of how research on best practices can improve student learning. The field of world language education introduces a double, perhaps a triple, bind: teachers must be able to design and deliver instruction that aligns with national expectations for developing students’ language and intercultural abilities for success in the global workplace, yet in schools across America, all K-12 students do not have the opportunity to study languages, even though research supports their astonishing facility for acquisition. Schools and teachers without resources, including time to investigate and implement evidence-based best practices, are ultimately held accountable for student performance. If world language teachers are to advocate for languages, they must use their expertise and share evidence of their students’ progress. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) recently began development of a national research priorities agenda for grades preK-16. Action research, which is classroom-centered and inquiry-based, can contribute to our profession’s efforts, as it helps us to increase awareness of the critical need for language study in grades preK-16. World language teachers can become teacher-researchers in their own classrooms, gathering deeply meaningful insights into their students’ progress that they can share with others. Teacher-researchers investigate innovative approaches in response to their questions about teaching and learning, which are rooted in daily experience. They engage their students in fresh learning activities, and student feedback helps them to make better decisions about instructional and assessment strategies. Results can be shared with stakeholders, including parents, administrators, school board members, and guidance counselors, as evidence of what all kinds of students can do in languages. At a time in our history when we are striving to prepare teachers for 21st-century schools that prioritize global competence, Action Research in the World Language Classroom is a timely resource for the profession. It describes a natural, engaging, motivating way to contribute, particularly for preservice teachers who are shaping their views and understanding about world language instruction and the connections between research and best practices. The book includes four studies conducted by preservice teachers during their student teaching internships in North Carolina public schools. The editor hopes that their work and observations will inspire and assist world language educators at all stages of their careers.
Arguably the whole point of education is to effect change in what people know and are able to do. Globalization has contributed to a common perception worldwide of the need to introduce changes to the teaching and learning of languages. The success of many attempts to do so has been limited by insufficient consideration of implementation contexts. Understanding Language Classroom Contexts explores and illustrates how what happens in any (language) classroom is influenced by (and can be an influence on) the contexts in which it is situated. A clear understanding of these influences is thus the starting point for planning effective change. The book considers many visible and invisible features of the multiple layers of any context, and provides a framework for understanding the types of factors that may influence whether changes (planned by a teacher or externally initiated) are likely to be successful. The book will help teachers (and educational managers or change planners outside the classroom) to understand why their classrooms are as they are and so to make informed decisions about what can or cannot (or not easily) be changed, and suggests how any changes might be appropriately managed.
Understanding Language and Literacy Development: Diverse Learners in the Classroom offers effective supporting strategies to address the cultural and linguistic diversity of students in contemporary classrooms. Discusses learners with different linguistic abilities—infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence—by suggesting effective ways to reach them based on their strengths and needs Emphasizes language and literacy supporting strategies in a variety of everyday classroom settings Includes activities and questions to motivate readers to think and develop their own perspectives on language and literacy development Considers a variety of different language acquisition experiences, including monolingual, multilingual, and language impairment Discusses different types of literacies, including digital and hypertext Connects language and literacy development to identity and motivation to contextualize learning styles for pre-service teachers Supported by a companion website that includes additional resources such as PowerPoint presentations by chapter and a summary of relevant information from the Common Core K–12 English Language Arts Standards
This book offers practical research-based advice for teachers and other educators on how to adapt school and classroom procedures, curriculum content, and instructional strategies in order to provide a supportive learning environment for students of minority language backgrounds who are learning the language of instruction at the same time as they are learning the curriculum.
Engaging with critical questions such as 'What counts as language?' and 'How can I know when a student is struggling with language?', Melinda McBee Orzulak explores how mainstream ELA teachers might begin to understand language in new ways to benefit both English language learner and non-ELL students learning in the same classroom.
This book introduces pre-service and in-service foreign language teachers to the basic concepts of critical educational study as applied to the sociological position occupied by foreign language education in the United States. Although contemporary foreign language teachers typically know about second language acquisition and instructional methodology, they are not prepared to understand issues of power in relation to, for example, language variety, language status, and education. The author addresses issues such as the supposed "failure" of foreign language education, the educational filter role played by language classes, the concept of foreignness as seen in national standards, language curricula and textbooks, and the implications of these issues in terms of power relationships and cultural mediation both in and out of the classroom. The reader is encouraged to analyze the forms of cultural struggle which can be found within the foreign language classrooms of the United States including the likely impact those struggles have on members of the dominant and subordinate cultures. Teachers are led through the development of skills in critical reflection and pedagogical application geared to social justice.
