Developing pedagogical practices for English-language learners: a design-based approach

Abstract

This study draws on the application of sociocultural theory to second-language learning and teaching to examine the impact of a design-based research approach on teacher development and literacy instruction to English-language learners (ELLs). Design-based research methodology was employed to derive theoretical suppositions relating to the process of learning as well as the means by which this process is supported. Our research questions were: (a) How will this professional development model result in shifts in teacher thinking about language and literacy learning for ELLs; (b) what innovations in teachers' repertoires of practice will be developed; and (c) in what ways will these shifts in teachers' thinking and innovations in their repertoire of practice bring about new forms of language and literacy learning? Our findings point to the need to place development in the forefront of teacher professional development models. Also foregrounded is the importance of promoting teachers' critical reflection on classroom practices and of creating hypotheses for pedagogical change vis-à-vis new understanding about students' linguistic, cognitive and academic needs.

Keywords:

• teacher professional development
• English-language learners
• design-based research
• pedagogical practices

Notes

1. We use the term dialogic in a Bakhtinian sense (although Bakhtin allegedly never used the word himself), which emphasizes the inherently responsive nature of dialogue, involving individuals acting at a particular point in time and space, in reaction to what has gone before and in expectation of what is to follow (Holquist, 1990).

2. The contextualization of vocabulary activities was an adaptation of the Frayer Method of Vocabulary Learning put forth by Dorothy Frayer and her colleagues (1974), consisting of a type of graphic organizer that helps students develop relationships and categories associated with vocabulary and allows students to link vocabulary to their personal experiences. This method was discussed in one of our teacher–researcher study group meetings.

3. Mode is here defined as an organized, regular and socially specific means of representation (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001).

4. Although we had other forms of data that demonstrated the ELLs' growth in reading comprehension and English-language proficiency, the school district where this research took place was most interested in standardized test score data for the ELLs in order to comply with regulations of the No Child Left Behind Federal Education Act.