In English-dominant countries, it is crucial to prepare teachers for culturally and linguistically responsive and equity-oriented teaching for multilingual language learners (MLLs), particularly with the growing linguistic diversity in K-12 classrooms. In the U.S. context, preservice teachers (PSTs), especially those who are English monolingual, often find it challenging to use linguistically responsive instructional strategies when teaching MLLs with a beginning-level English proficiency. In this article, we describe a simulation activity that we used in a U.S. university for PSTs to build empathy and experience the need for asset-based linguistically responsive teaching of MLLs. Sheltered instruction is content-based instruction making grade-level content in English comprehensible to English learners (Peregoy & Boyle, 2017), whereas translanguaging pedagogy refers to beliefs and instructional practices that leverage fluid language use of MLLs (García, Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017). Although both instructional approaches are widely discussed in U.S. TESOL teacher education, their tenets are different. The former endorses English-medium instruction focusing mainly on English language development; the latter advocates bilingual instruction centering on bilingualism and social justice. However, considering their respective pragmatic and pedagogical values, teacher educators and practitioners have been seeking ways to blend sheltered instruction and translanguaging (e.g., Ponzio, Ceballos-Zapata, & Briere, 2021; Tian, Robinson, & McConnell, 2022). Simulations have been used in TESOL teacher education to place PSTs in MLLs' learning situations. This method allows PSTs to experience MLLs' learning challenges, develop empathy for MLLs, and understand the need for culturally and linguistically responsive instruction (de Oliveira, 2011; Wright-Maley & Green, 2015; Zhang, 2017). Simulation lessons can also develop PSTs' equity knowledge and dispositions (Bukko & Liu, 2021). A simulation activity, “Being a Korean Language Learner,” was designed to immerse PSTs in contrasting (monolingual submersion vs. sheltered-translanguaging) learning environments. The purpose was to foster PSTs' empathetic understanding of MLLs' challenges in a monolingual classroom and pedagogical thinking about the synergetic use of sheltered instruction and translanguaging strategies that can concomitantly promote English language development, leverage bilingualism, and advance social justice for MLLs. The context was an undergraduate TESOL methods course in a Midwestern U.S. university in fall 2021. This course prepares K-12 PSTs to teach English as a new language in content areas. The instructor (Woongsik) was an Asian Korean-speaking multilingual. The students were 21 preservice elementary teachers, most of whom were white English monolinguals who grew up in the Midwest, except for one Latina and one Asian PST who grew up in bilingual homes speaking Spanish and French, respectively. Hyunsil, a Korean-speaking bilingual, joined the in-person class to act as a Korean-English bilingual student during the simulation. Prior to this activity, the PSTs had read about sheltered instruction and translanguaging strategies in Peregoy and Boyle (2017) and Wright (2019). In the first part of the activity, Woongsik delivered a first-grade-level language arts lesson using Korean as if he were a Korean-monolingual teacher teaching in a Korean-medium classroom. The Korean written language was transliterated using the English alphabet so that PSTs could attempt to sound out and write words. The instructor first asked PSTs to describe their homes in Korean (Figure 1). The PSTs were silent. Then he read aloud a picture book “keun juhwangsaeg eollug (The Big Orange Splot)” written by Pinkwater (1977) in Korean while showing the Korean text and pictures on the screen. Then he asked post-reading questions in Korean, to which no one answered. Then the instructor distributed a worksheet with a writing prompt and asked students to describe their dream homes in Korean (Figure 1). Some attempted to copy the prompt, but others' worksheets were empty. This submersion experience was followed by a discussion (Figure 2). The PSTs shared frustrations and confusion. Next, Woongsik repeated the same lesson in Korean, but this time he used sheltered instruction and translanguaging strategies. The instructor began with the same opening question in Korean but told PSTs to discuss it with partners in their own languages (Figure 3). He asked Hyunsil to translate for him and for her peers. Most PSTs in the class depended on her translation, and all PSTs freely discussed using English. The instructor went over the content and language objectives and introduced key vocabulary words with visuals and translations in English, Spanish, and French, which were printed and displayed on the wall (Figure 3). During the read-aloud, the instructor showed a Korean-English bilingual version of the same book and used slowed speech, gestures, and dramatization. The post-reading questions were simplified to allow PSTs to answer nonverbally or in one word and Hyunsil translated the questions. During the writing time, the instructor provided sentence frames, provided modeling, used Google Translate to communicate with PSTs, and encouraged writing in English words (Figure 3). Following this lesson, the second discussion questions were posed (Figure 4). Many PSTs shared that they felt more engaged because they could use their own language. They also found the use of visuals, gestures, a bilingual book, and Hyunsil's translation helpful for reaching content and language objectives. It [the activity] just really opened my eyes to how English language learners feel when they can't understand what you're saying and you're not providing them any of that support or any means to understand what you're saying. … That was a really good activity because you realize it, but you don't actually experience it until you're actually in it. I've never had that experience, so I really liked that. Later, during the field experience at a local elementary school, Woongsik observed that the majority of PSTs incorporated sheltered instruction and translanguaging strategies in their language arts and math lessons for a small group of MLLs and English-monolingual students. Some PSTs introduced key vocabulary with pictures, facial expressions, gestures, and Spanish translations to make their instruction in English comprehensible. Some did a read-aloud or shared reading using Spanish-English bilingual books. MLLs were encouraged to answer in Spanish and were arranged to work in pairs using all their languages. However, a few PSTs used only sheltered instruction strategies because they felt their MLLs were not proficient in Spanish or because they regarded their MLLs as being proficient enough in English. This simulation was limited as a one-hour episodic activity, making it challenging for the instructor to carry out a two-phase simulation and in-depth discussions. The lack of a more theoretical and critical discussion may have led some PSTs to dismiss translanguaging as merely a scaffolding strategy that is unnecessary when MLLs are English-proficient. Nevertheless, the instructor's use of a less commonly spoken language in U.S. society seemed to help PSTs experience what it feels like to be an MLL with a beginning-level English proficiency in an English-medium classroom. We strongly recommend multilingual TESOL teacher educators in English-dominant societies actively use their linguistic assets to help PSTs experience and understand MLLs' viewpoints and bilingualism from a social justice perspective. For future suggestions, teacher educators could incorporate long-term simulations combined with theoretical and critical discussions and written reflections, collaborate with fellow multilingual teacher educators who speak minority or Indigenous languages, and simulate other content-area instructions such as math and science. Woongsik Choi is a PhD candidate and graduate teaching assistant in literacy and language education at Purdue University. He was previously a high school English teacher in South Korea. His research interests include TESOL, bilingual education, translanguaging pedagogy, and multilingualism. Hyunsil Park is a doctoral student and graduate research assistant in literacy and language education at Purdue University. She achieved a master's degree in TESOL from the University of Southern California. Her research interest area is teacher education using culturally responsive teaching and intercultural competence frameworks. Virak Chan is a clinical assistant professor in literacy and language at Purdue University. He has extensive experiences in English language teaching, program coordination, and teacher professional development in Cambodia and the United States. He has researched and published in the areas of language planning and policies, linguistic landscape, and teaching writing. We would like to thank two students who participated in the interview, and editors and reviewers who provided us with constructive feedback.
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Apr 13, 2024
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