Vocational Training for Newcomer Adolescent English Language Learners: Opportunities or Isolation?

• In Event: Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: Division G Section 3 Poster Session: Social Context of Multiple Languages and Literacies

Abstract

Schools often struggle to place secondary newcomer English language learners in academically and linguistically suitable courses. One option employed by many schools – placing these students in vocational courses – remains empirically unexamined. This paper presents findings from a study designed to identify strengths and shortcomings of a vocational training option provided at a secondary newcomer program in a mid-Atlantic state. Fieldnotes and teacher, students, and administrator interviews completed over the course of one semester suggest that although a major goal of students’ enrollment in vocational classes was to provide opportunities for interaction with monolingual English-speaking students, newcomers often remained isolated in vocational settings. This project suggests vocational options are linguistically and socially complex settings that require thoughtful design and implementation.

Authors

• April Simun Salerno, University of Virginia

• Amanda Kibler, University of Virginia