MEETING THE LINGUISTIC NEEDS OF ENGLISH LEARNERS THROUGH THE TEACHING AND LEARNING CYCLE

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2019-05

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Though there is a great deal of research concerning second language instruction, the same cannot be said of research meant to guide the design and delivery of instruction for English Learners and how teachers’ perceptions of their effectiveness can influence their daily instructional practices. Through this mixed method action research study, the author examines the impact that training, practice, and support with the teaching and learning cycle has on educators’ instructional practices for ELs. Teachers’ beliefs and methods were analyzed using both a presurvey and postsurvey and through observation before and after training, practice, and support with the teaching and learning cycle. The author of the study worked with a large urban school district located in the Central California Valley, which has approximately 10,000 EL students. A total of 33 K-12 teachers participated in a Likert-type survey, professional learning focused on the teaching and learning cycle, follow-up support, and other observations. This study concludes that, once these teachers were trained and supported in the teaching and learning cycle, they found it to be an invaluable instructional model for English Language Development. These teachers then relied more heavily on various language acquisition instructional strategies, which created more language-learning opportunities for their EL students. As a result, teaching background knowledge, learning about text types, jointly constructing texts together, and opportunities for students to speak in class all increased while student distractions decreased. The overall findings of this study demonstrate that, when supported at the district and site levels with professional learning and a universal belief in language acquisition for ELs, teachers provide more language-based instruction for their English Learner students.

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