Constructing Usable Knowledge About the English Language for Preservice Teachers

• In Event: Key Issues in Preparing Preservice Teachers of English Language Learners

Abstract

Scholars of ELL teacher education highlight the importance of presenting language structure, variation, and interaction to pre-service teachers who are more likely to teach ELL students in their future classrooms. Although pre-service teachers are users of English language often from birth, they need to make their knowledge of English explicit and usable for teaching English language learners. Drawing upon analyses of 50 pre-service teachers’ responses to test items that assess their understanding of linguistic and literacy concepts, this paper will present examples of some of the misunderstandings pre-service teachers have about the English language to teach English language learners in their future classrooms. In doing so, the paper will address an important gap between research and practice in pre-service teacher education about language use. To plan future directions, controversial linguistic concepts that show inconsistencies between educational scholars and scholars in educational linguistics will be presented.

Authors

• Youb Kim, University of Northern Colorado

• Alaska Black Hults, The Pennsylvania State University