Exploring the emotions and needs of English language learners: facilitating pre-service and in-service teachers' recognition of the tasks facing language learners

Abstract

The population in the USA has become more diverse, but the number of teachers in public schools who are fluent in another language is limited. Furthermore, statistics attest that few teachers have adequate training to work with English language learners (ELLs). Teachers who lack training and have not struggled to learn another language may not realise the complexity faced daily by ELLs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to apply instructional methods, which mirror experiences faced by real children in real classrooms, in order to allow pre-service and/or in-service teachers to be subjected to the mixed emotions experienced by ELLs in their class. In six different classes, the researchers immersed a total number of 155 undergraduate and graduate students in a 15-minute oral presentation in Dutch. Data from a post-survey indicated that teacher candidates developed empathy and extrapolated the message that ELL students in classrooms in the USA face serious, but surmountable challenges that take time to overcome. As a result of the findings, we recommend teacher preparation programmes which include language requirements and interactions between teacher candidates and language learners.

Keywords:

• language learners
• education
• emotions
• teacher preparation

Acknowledgements

Before conducting this research project on the campus of the College at Brockport: State University of New York, we taught the mini-lesson used in the project several times in various classes at the College at Brockport: State University of New York, University of Rochester, and Northern Illinois University. We thank Karen Carrier for the grant given Carole to attend the Project QUILL (Quality Instruction for English Language Learners) Summer Academy for Teacher Educators in 2006. Carrier developed the week-long seminar at the Department of Literacy Education, Northern Illinois University, through resources from the Illinois Resource Center. The lesson reported here was an outgrowth of that week of concentrated instruction.

Summary

The mini-lesson conducted in this study provided one opportunity for pre- and in-service teachers to experience negotiating with basic communication in another language. One hundred and fifty-five college students in a teacher preparation programme shared the mini-lesson, and 152 participants completed the survey that yielded the data for this study. We found that the participants perceived difficulties of language learning, reported increased empathy for language learners, and participants who had more experience with language learning and language learners reported more empathy than participants who had no prior language learning or experience with ELLs. However, for a growing percentage of students in the USA and other nations where English or another language is dominant, questions need to be raised about the efficacy of continuing to privilege only one language when cognitive and social benefits of learning multiple languages are clear (Brisk et al. 2002). We recommend that teacher preparation programmes continue or reinstate language learning requirements and that such programmes provide interactions with language learners as well as classroom experiences that highlight the realities of language learning.