Teaching as Sheltering: A Metaphorical Analysis of Sheltered Instruction for English Language Learners

Abstract

The term sheltered instruction (SI) has become a widely used metaphor representing a common pedagogical intervention intended to help English language learners simultaneously gain English proficiency and academic content knowledge. While existing research places considerable emphasis on observable pedagogical techniques that characterize SI, there has been little discussion of the sheltering metaphor itself or the variety of ways in which this term has been used by both researchers and teachers. In this article, I draw on lesson observations and interviews to consider how the metaphor of sheltering operates in three high school sheltered history classrooms. While all three examples demonstrate basic characteristics of SI, the observed instruction in each class created markedly different learning contexts and positioned the students in distinct ways. I characterize these diverse enactments of sheltered instruction as 1) sheltering as protection, 2) sheltering as nurturing, and 3) sheltering as separation. These lessons highlight the complex and sometimes competing aims of sheltered instruction and point to the potential of the sheltering metaphor as a rich site for professional development and future inquiry.

Notes

Notes

1 Krashen makes a point of distinguishing between language learning and language acquisition. In his work, he privileges acquisition over learning and refers to language “acquirers” instead of language learners. However, for the sake of transparency to a broader audience, I have chosen to use the term language learner where Krashen would have likely preferred language acquirer.

2 While SI continued to operate in higher education settings, for the purposes of this article, this literature review focuses on particular issues of SI in K–12 contexts.

3 Pseudonyms are used for the names of teachers and schools.

4 Language quilts are a four‐square table containing the definition of a vocabulary word, the native language translation, a sentence using the word, and an illustration.

5 Mountainside and Oak Heights were located in the same district and same city.