Current Practices, Issues, and Needs of Contentarea High School Teachers in English Language Learner

1
Current Practices, Issues, and Needs of
Content-area High School Teachers in English
Language Learner Instruction

• Principal Investigator Seonhee Cho, Ph.D
• Sub-Investigator HaNa Kim, M.S.

2
Study Team Members

• Marilyn Brown
• Hopewell City Public Schools
• Jane Green
• Richmond Public Schools
• Lorie Staples
• Colonial Heights High School
• Trudy Watkins
• Thomas Jefferson High School

• Raglan Ines
• Hanover County Public Schools
• Suzan Moore
• Powhatan County Public Schools
• Ana Watson
• Henrico County Public
• Terry Franson
• Chesterfield County Public Schools
• William James
• Richmond Public Schools

3
High School ELLs at Risk

• High dropout rates
• BICS vs. CALP (Collier, 1989 Cummins, 1982)
• Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills 6
  mons.-2yrs.
• Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency 4-8 yrs.
• Depth of subject matter knowledge and heavy
  language demand of high school curricula
• Graduation requirements Passing of the SOL
  (Standards of Learning)
• Non-college bound track (e.g., PE, Art) (Harklau,
  1999)
• Lack of cooperation and communication between ESL
  teachers and content-area teachers due to the
  firmly established disciplinary boundary
  (Harklau, 1994)

4
Effective Instruction for ELLs

• Access to appropriate curricula qualified
  teachers instructional resources
• ELLs learn faster and better when language
  instruction is combined with content (Chamot
  OMalley,1994 Gibbons, 2002 Echevarria, Vogt
  Short, 2004
• Well-implemented, cognitively challenging, not
  segregated, and sustained programs of five to six
  years duration (Echevarria, Vogt Short, 2004
  p. 8).
• Content-Based ESL SDAIE (Specifically Designed
  Academic Instruction in English) Sheltered
  instruction
• More responsive content-area instruction to ELLs
  needs (Harklau, 1994)
• The role of content-area teachers in ELLs
  academic achievements is critical.

5
Significance of the Study

• Documentation of current issues and practices in
  relation to ELL instruction.
• Identification of content-area teachers
  challenges and needs.
• Comprehension of content-area teachers academic
  expectations for ELLs in order to develop more
  effective and tailored ESL curricula for
  successful classroom integration.
• Suggestions of supportive infrastructure and
  professional development.

6
Research Questions

• What are the current practices of content-area
  teachers working with ELLs?
• What challenges do content-area teachers
  experience in teaching ELLs?
• What expectations do content-area teachers have
  for ELLs?
• What types of support and training would
  content-area teachers like to receive to provide
  efficient instruction to ELLs?

7
Research Methodology

• Survey 211 teachers in 6 high schools affiliated
  with MERC (Metropolitan Educational Research
  Consortium) participated in this study.
• A questionnaire was distributed at a faculty
  meeting and collected after the faculty meeting
  or the following day in 4 high schools.
• Data Collection March 2007-June 2007
• Data Analysis SPSS 15.0 (Frequencies Valid
  Percent)

8
Table 1 Demographic Characteristics of Survey
Participants ()
9
Table 2 Number of ELLs to Teach ()
10
Table 3 Foreign Language (FL) Background () N201
Table 4 Helpfulness of FL Skills in ESL
Instruction () N170
11
Table 3 Challenges in Having ELLs in Classes ()
12
Table 4 Basic Skills ELLs Should Know ()
13
Table 5Current Practices of Content-area
Teachers in ELL Instruction ()
14
Table 6 Types of Support to Receive ()
15
Table 7Useful Training to Instruct ELLs
Effectively ()

• ltNotegt
• Social studies teachers indicated cultural
  understanding as very important or
• important (90.0), while the other content-area
  teachers rated ESL instructional
• Strategies as most important training.

16
Challenges

• Teachers perceived language barriers as most
  challenging, ELLs lack of background knowledge
  in content-area as second most challenging, and
  lack of time and resources as third most
  challenging.
• The majority of teachers perceived that cultural
  differences between teachers and ELLs was
  considered least challenging.
• However, teachers in different discipline areas
  indicated what challenged them the most in
  varying ways.

17
Current Practices

• The majority of teachers tended to adjust their
  speech rate, allowed extra time always/often
  and sometimes.
• They never or rarely provided different
  materials, different tasks/assignments, or
  different assessment to ELLs.
• About 38 of teachers never or rarely
  consulted with ESL teachers.

18
Essential Skills that ESL Should Know

• The majority of content-area teachers expected
  ELLs to have English reading writing skills and
  English speaking listening skills before
  integrating into their classes.
• About 50 of the teachers perceived that study
  skills and basic knowledge of content-area were
  also important skills that ELLs should have
  before integration.
• However, the results varied across
  discipline-area.

19
Support Training

• The majority of teachers expressed that they
  would like to receive bilingual instructional
  materials followed by professional
  training/development.
• Bilingual teacher support was considered the
  least important.
• The majority of teachers indicated that ESL
  instructional strategies would help them the most
  in order to teach ELLs effectively.
• The second most important training that they
  considered was assessmenthow to assess and grade
  ELLs.
• They perceived language training as least helpful.

20
Table 9Open-ended Comments (N74)
21
No Mainstreaming (N6)

• Children who do not speak/read/communicate
  English should not be put into SOL Science
  courses until they achieve a degree of language
  competency. It was not fair to the children. We
  should not be lowering standards to accommodate
  non-English. We should not be assessing on a
  different standard. Are we restructuring our
  educational program for illegal immigration?
• ESL students need to be taught separately unless
  they are FLUENT English speakers ESL students
  would benefit most from having ESL immersion
  instead of having our school system adapt to
  their languages.
• I think ESL students should have English
  immersion training rather than have the system
  adapt to their language. It worked for all 4 of
  my grandparents. Im not trying to be meanI do
  think that is best.

22
Benefits of Mainstreaming (N3)

• I LOVE working with my ESL students. They bring
  enthusiasm and diversity to the classroom. Having
  ESL students in mainstreamed classes helps
  non-ESL students to know and understand and
  definitely appreciate other cultures. ESL
  students benefit greatly from being with regular
  students as it helps them not only learn VA/US
  history but to communicate verbally and in the
  written word in English. I can definitely see the
  difference between September and June.
• Encourage them to take electives in the
  performing arts so they can converse with native
  speakers and overcome inhibitions regarding their
  use of and comfort with the English language.

23
Isolation Lack of Support (N2)

• Appear to be marginalized by teachers and
  administrators because they don't win
  scholarships or have 4.0 or greater averages.
  Some students' parents don't know how to moderate
  for them w/ teachers or administration.
• Notice self-esteem issues isolation b/c
  communication is difficult.

24
Awareness of ESL Issues (N2)

• ESL is very critical, a major need for modern
  America.
• I have worked with ESL students in the past and
  believe that we need to focus on these issues.
  They are comprising a larger percentage of our
  population and as a result, affect our economy,
  culture etc. in a greater way.

25
Conclusion Diverse Views of ESL

• Open-ended comments showed a broad spectrum of
  teachers diverse views of ELLs and instruction.
• While a third of teachers expressed positive
  opinions of ELLs, some teachers expressed
  dissatisfaction with having ELLs in mainstream
  classrooms.

26
Suggestions

• More bilingual instructional materials and
  supplementary materials should be provided for
  teachers.
• Provide training with ESL instructional
  strategies for teachers.
• Develop better communication venues between
  teachers and parents.
• More collaboration and communication between ESL
  teachers and content-area teachers.

27
Increasing comprehensibility

• Adjust speech rate and enunciation.
• Introduce key vocabulary.
• Use visual aids.
• Provide information or directions to tasks both
  in oral and written forms.
• Connect students prior knowledge to new
  knowledge.
• Break down information, including directions,
  into sequential steps when presenting them.
• Use less text-dense instructional materials.
• Teach learning strategies.

28
Increasing Assignment and assessment modification

• Assignment
• Offer a word bank.
• Offer models and outline.
• Assign fewer questions.
• Offer graphic organizers to express content
  knowledge.
• Classroom-based assessment
• Procedural accommodations bilingual
  dictionaries extra time second chance
• Modify test questions and forms.
• Provide alternative assessments (e.g., oral exam,
  portfolio, informative journals)
• Grading focus on content and on progress

29
Increasing Interactions

• Create heterogeneous group work Group work is
  critical in that it increases students
  interaction time and is less intimating and
  therefore, students are more likely to take a
  risk to speak out.
• Pair up an ESL student with an advanced ESL
  student (possibly the same native language)
  and/or a native-speaking student Newcomers
  especially can benefit from this type of buddy
  system. Assigning specific roles of buddies can
  increase effectiveness.

30
Increasing Awareness

• Think like a linguist Be mindful of and analyze
  the languages that you are using in the
  classrooms as well as those that exist in the
  text and instructional materials. This will help
  you also adjust your speech and texts to make
  them more comprehensible.
• Think like an outsider School and academic
  functions are cultural practices. The idea of
  thinking like an outsider will help you
  defamiliarize from what you are used to. As a
  result, you will be able to see what you have
  taken for granted and assumed that ELLs already
  know.

31
Increasing Collaboration Communication

• Set up a regular meeting time if possible This
  is as much an administrative issue as it is a
  pedagogical one. Administrators must be made to
  understand the value of continual collaboration
  over one-shot professional development.
• Discuss students weaknesses, strengths, and
  progress.
• Share the goals of each unit, instructional
  handouts, and assignment tasks In doing so, the
  ESL teachers will be able to provide more
  responsive instruction in their ESL class that
  can support the work of content-area teachers.

32
References

• Chamot, A. U., OMalley, M. J. (1994). The
  CALLA Handbook Implementing the
• cognitive academic language learning approach.
  New York Longman.
• Collier, V. (1987). Age and rate of acquisition
  of second language for academic purposes. TESOL
  Quarterly 21, 617-641.
• Collier, V. (1989). How Long? A Synthesis of
  Research on Academic Achievement in a
• Second Language. TESOL Quarterly 23, 509-531.
• Cummins, J. (1980). Psychological assessment of
  immigrant children Logic or institution? Journal
  of Multilingual and Multicultural Development,
  97-111.
• Curtin, E. (2005). Teaching practices for ESL
  students. Multicultural Education, 12, 22-
• Echevarria, J., Vogt M., Short, D. J. (2004).
  Making content comprehensible for English
  learners The SIOP Model (2nd ed). Boston
  Pearson.
• Dong, Y. R. (2004). Preparing secondary subject
  area teachers to teach linguistically and
  culturally diverse students. The Clearing House,
  77 (5), 202-206.
• Fu, G. (2004). Teaching ELL students in
  content-area classrooms at the secondary Level.
  Voices from the Middle, 11 (4), 8-15.
• Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding language,
  scaffolding learning. Portmouth, NH Heinemann
• Harklau, L. (1994). ESL Versus content-area
  classes Contrasting L2 learning environments.
  TESOL Quarterly, 28, 241-272.
• Harklau, L. (1999). The ESL learning environment
  in secondary school. In So much to say
  Adolescents, bilingualism, and ESL in the
  secondary school, ed. C. J. Faltis and P. Wolfe,
  42-73. New York Teachers College Press.

33
References

• Penfield, J. (1987). ESL The content-area
  classroom teachers perspective. TESOL Quarterly,
  21, 21-39.
• Layzer, C. (2000). Whos afraid of bilingual
  learners? The role of teachers attitudes and
  beliefs. New York NY, National Council of
  Teachers of English. (ERIC Document Reproduction
  Service No. ED 440386)
• Montgomery, P. S., Roberts, M., Growe, R. (2003).
  English language learners An issue of
  Educational Equity. (ERIC Document Reproduction
  Service No. ED 482753)
• Reeves, J. (2004). Like Everybody Else
  Equalizing educational opportunity for English
  language learners. TESOL Quarterly, 38, 43-66.
• Reiss, J. (2005). Teaching content to English
  language learners. Longman.
• Sharkey, J. Carolyn, L. (2000). Whose
  definition of success? Identifying factors that
  affect English language learners access to
  academic success and resources. TESOL Quarterly,
  34, 352-366.
• Verplaetse, I., S. (1998). How content teachers
  interact with English language learners. TESOL
  Quarterly, 7, 24-28.
• Youngs, C. S. Youngs, Jr. G. A. (2001).
  Predictors of content-area teachers attitudes
  toward ESL students. TESOL Quarterly, 35, 97-120.