How English Language Learners’ Linguistic and Cultural Diversity Figures in Literacy Instruction: Perspectives From In-Service ESL (English as a Second Language) Teachers

• In Event: Redesigning Curriculum and Instruction to Meet the Needs of English Language Learners in Content Areas

Abstract

I employed a case study of three experienced, in-service ESL teachers’ literacy instruction in ESL pull-out-push-in programs in two elementary schools in Midwest, investigating To what extent and how does English Language Learners’ linguistic and cultural diversity figure in literacy instruction in ESL classrooms? From a sociocultural perspective, I suggested understanding the intervention of ELLs’ diversity on literacy practices requires attention to how ESL teachers understand the diversity, what kind of secondary discourse that they intend to develop, and how strategies that teachers employ have the potential to promote collaboration and meaning construction in the discourse. As well, it is important to examine the political and school contexts in which ESL teachers exercise their agency in a particular school site.

Author

• Jing Fu, Michigan State University