Abstract
Increasing numbers of English Language Learners (ELLs) in U.S. classrooms have prioritized to building quality teacher education programs so that all teachers have the tools necessary to support their students. National, state, and local mandates have also enacted certain requirements to ensure that ELLs are receiving quality instruction with new language proficiency and content standards. Pressure has pervaded into teacher education programs working to immerse teacher candidates with good pedagogical practices for working with ELLs. This mixed method study on 144 PK-12 teachers with five or less years of experience highlighted the importance of teachers’ perceptions and efficacy beliefs in working with ELLs. Findings revealed a statistical significance in efficacy beliefs for teachers with an ESL certification as opposed to teachers without the credentials. Five in-depth cases augmented the finding to support how individual classroom practices exemplified specific ESL pedagogy learned from pre-service contexts to promote more efficacious behaviors.
Highlights
In the last 30 years, the student demographic population of the United States has been an enclave of diverse cultures from around the world and it has experienced significant changes
Some closed-ended items on the survey included: teachers’ biographical information; type of teaching certification(s) held (i.e. English as-a-Second Language (ESL), special endorsements, etc.); years of teaching experience; nature of teaching assignment; school locale; percentage of students who were identified as English Language Learners (ELLs); teachers’ ESL/ELL coursework experience; the amount of ESL/ELL training received in professional development; and teachers’ efficacy beliefs in how they felt other staff members at school improved their skills for instructing ELLs
Themes that were generated evolved around specific methodologies based on the CREDE’s Standards (2002) to highlight where teachers showed strengths around the consistency of implementing various ESL strategies. Both quantitative and qualitative procedures were carried out to determine whether teachers’ knowledge affect instructional decisions made for ELLs and whether their efficacy beliefs aligned with the strategies that were employed in the classroom for meeting the needs of ELL students
Summary
In the last 30 years, the student demographic population of the United States has been an enclave of diverse cultures from around the world and it has experienced significant changes. One major shift is the number of ELLs enrolled in United States’ schools. As the fastest growing segment of the overall student population, five percent of ELLs experience difficulty in speaking English. As a highly heterogeneous group of students, ELLs come with varied assets, socio-economic backgrounds, immigration status, and schooling experiences. The language diversity that is represented by ELL students in the United States is included in this unique population. While the majority of ELLs speak Spanish as their native language, there are over 450 languages that are spoken by ELL students in the United States (Kindler, 2002)
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