Integrating Content and Language Through Different Lenses: Science Teachers' Language-Related Knowledge and Linguistically Responsive Instruction

• In Event: Addressing Students' Language Learning in Math Science

Abstract

With the rapid increase of English learners (ELs) in U.S. schools, teacher educators have called for preparing content teachers with adequate language-related knowledge so that they can design and implement linguistically responsive instruction to assist ELs in learning both content and English. This multiple-case study investigates how three science teachers of ELs conceptualize language-related knowledge and how they integrate this knowledge with other domains of their professional knowledge to make instructional decisions. Our analyses show that while the three teachers shared some similar understandings of language and language learning, their approaches to integrating science and language differed in the nature of their integration and the ways in which they prioritized different aspects of the intersections of language, content and pedagogy.

Authors

• Kongji Qin, New York University

• Lorena Llosa, New York University

• Soohye Yeom, New York University