Language in Development in the United States: Supervising Adult ESOL Preservice Teachers in an Immigrant Community

Abstract

Community is more important than English to many of the families at Valley View and if I want to create English opportunities I can never do so at the expense of community members.—master's student in a field-based ESOL methods class Literature on globalization and language teaching generally points to the potential of English to be simultaneously a colonizing threat to language and culture and a resource for economic opportunity and social change. This conflict translates into a dilemma for English language teachers and for professors who teach methods classes. This article discusses a teacher educator's journey through these issues by documenting curricular innovation in an adult ESOL methods course for preservice teachers. In the course, preservice teachers engaged with the community by spending the majority of course time in the community of the language learners, that is, in the homes of a Spanish-speaking community of primarily Mexican immigrants in the southeastern United States. By taking part in the community of English language learners and by developing an appreciation for the Spanish language and for the customs and quality of life there, the preservice teachers attained the resources and knowledge to teach English from a critical perspective. The reflections of these novice teachers suggest that practice in the context within which language teaching effects development can provide preservice teachers some of the experience necessary to think through their role in this process.