Be(com)ing multilingual listeners: preparing (monolingual) teacher candidates to work with multilingual learners in mainstream classrooms

Abstract

Classrooms across the United States today often include students from multiple different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The teaching force, by contrast, has remained predominantly White and Anglophone with little experience learning additional languages (Athanases & Wong, 2018; Deroo & Ponzio, 2023; Pettit, 2011). When teachers themselves have limited experience with linguistic diversity, how can teacher ­educators raise teacher candidates’ (TCs) critical multilingual language awareness (CMLA) over the limited duration of the teacher certification process? This article analyzes the implementation of a CMLA project which engaged secondary TCs in becoming language learners themselves to reflect on the experience of being an early language learner. We collected written reflections from 49 TCs about their language learning experiences over 30 h and drew on the five domains of CMLA (Power, Cognitive, Affective, Social and Performance) (Prasad, 2022) to code the data set. We focus on the domain of Power to examine how learning a new language even for a short time can engage TCs practically in attending not only to mechanics of teaching and learning with multilingual students but also more critically to recognize the systemic power relations among languages and language users in schools.

RÉSUMÉ

Aujourd’hui, les salles de classe à travers les États-Unis comprennent souvent des élèves issus de multiples origines culturelles et linguistiques différentes. Le corps enseignant, en revanche, reste majoritairement blanc et anglophone, avec peu d‘expérience dans l‘apprentissage de langues supplémentaires (Athanases & Wong, 2018; Deroo & Ponzio, 2023; Pettit, 2011). Lorsque les enseignants ont eux-mêmes une expérience limitée de la diversité linguistique, comment les formateurs d‘enseignants peuvent-ils élever l’éveil aux langues critiques (CMLA en anglais) des stagiaires pendant la durée limitée du processus de certification des enseignants? Cet article analyse la mise en œuvre d‘un projet de CMLA dans le cadre duquel des stagiaires du secondaire ont été amenés à devenir eux-mêmes des apprenants de langues afin de réfléchir à leur expérience d‘apprenant précoce de langues. Nous avons recueilli les réflexions écrites de 49 stagiaires sur leurs expériences d‘apprentissage des langues pendant 30 heures et nous nous sommes appuyés sur les cinq domaines du CMLA (pouvoir, cognitif, affectif, social et performance) (Prasad, 2022) pour coder l‘ensemble des données. Nous nous concentrons sur le domaine du pouvoir pour examiner comment l‘apprentissage d‘une nouvelle langue, même pendant une courte période, peut inciter les stagiaires à s‘intéresser de manière pratique non seulement aux mécanismes de l‘enseignement et de l‘apprentissage avec des étudiants multilingues, mais aussi, de manière plus critique, à reconnaître les relations de pouvoir systémiques entre les langues et les apprenants de langues dans les écoles.

PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY

Classrooms across the United States today often include students from multiple different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. However, most teachers are white and English-speaking and do not have significant experience learning other languages. In this article, the authors explore the potential impact of individuals who are studying to become teachers spending 30 h learning another language so they can better understand the experience of their future multilingual students. In particular, the study explores how learning another language and reflecting on the experience can help future teachers be more aware of the various power relationships among languages and their speakers within schools. The study can inform other teacher education programs as they consider how to better prepare teachers for culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms.

Keywords:

• Teacher education
• critical multilingual language awareness
• tESOL
• power

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 The use of terms to classify multilingual learners in the US context is complex and, historically, often from a deficit-based perspective. To address this issue, whenever possible, we use the term “multilingual learner” (MLs) to reflect the diverse linguistic repertoires of students. To be consistent with the context of our study, we use the term “English as a Second Language (ESL)” when referring to aspects of the teacher preparation program, as this is the term used by the university. Finally, our TC participants often used the terms “English learners (ELs)” or “English language learners (ELLs)” interchangeably to describe multilingual students in the quotes provided, reflecting the common use of this term in schools at the time.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gail Prasad

Gail Prasad is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University, Canada. Her research focuses on critical multilingual language awareness and critical and creative approaches to multilingual education and teacher development. She has partnered in collaborative classroom-based research with teachers, students and their families in Canada, the US, France, Kenya and Burkina Faso. Her scholarship has been published in English and French in journals including TESOL Quarterly, the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, the Canadian Modern Language Review and Glottopol.

Esther Bettney Heidt is a School Network Researcher at the Multilingual Learning Research Center, part of the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research. Her research focuses on equitable approaches to multilingual teaching and learning within the context of international schools. A Canadian-trained teacher, Esther has worked in the field of international education since 2005, as a classroom teacher, teacher educator and educational researcher. She holds a PhD from the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Esther has a robust publication record, including articles in the Journal of Language, Identity and Education, Current Issues in Comparative Education and Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics.