Rural Literacies and Multilingual Learners: A Mixed-Methods Study of Best Literacy Practices

• In Event: Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: Best Practices in English Language Development

Abstract

One in three Multilingual Learners (MLs) lives in rural settings and are more likely to have unqualified teachers and limited ML staff. English elementary literacy instruction becomes the defacto mode of instruction for MLs with supplementary support from reading specialists and limited ML staffing. Using a mixed methods design, including a best practice literacy survey, classroom observations and semi-structured interviews, findings demonstrate that best literacy practices were found to have a less impactful effect on MLs versus non-MLs. Further, general education teachers possessed subtractive ideologies about their students’ multilingualism and expressed ignorance about the differences between language learning and multi/literacy development. Alternatively, ML teachers also expressed concerns about their limited understanding of literacy best practices.

Authors

• Trish Morita Mullaney, Purdue University

• Marshall Klassen, Purdue University