As the mosaic of our classrooms becomes more diverse, teachers need to be able to celebrate the multilingual, multicultural students and provide the academic and social opportunities for their students. As well, teachers need to use culturally relevant pedagogy and diverse instructional strategies within the curriculum that will allow all students to develop meaningful language experiences. Through narrative inquiry and through qualitative research, I have examined my teaching practices and methodologies in relation to the observations and critical conversations with EAL teachers directly involved in the instruction and English language development as support for linguistically and culturally challenged students in the elementary school setting. I have taught a community of diverse learners with rich heritages and backgrounds in a multilingual classroom, and I have learned, from these four specialist teachers, to be more knowledgeable in teaching strategies and more adaptable in implementing culturally relevant content.
For a brief time, I was able to enter four different classrooms of students, who had come from many different countries and had been removed from their regular classrooms to receive EAL support. Through observations of these students, and interviews and dialogues with specialist EAL teachers, I have been able to critically reflect upon and analyze my results, expanding my repertoire of instructional practices as a multilingual classroom teacher. By allowing me into their professional spaces, and by sharing their teaching practices as English language specialist teachers helping students, I have been both inspired and enlightened.<p>
EAL students in our communities and classrooms will bring their personal experiences and rich cultural backgrounds, created from their multigenerational histories. As teachers create welcoming classrooms, all students will receive the language support that they need, without losing their cultural beliefs and values. School families and communities can become the threads that will eventually create a fabric, rich in design and texture. In representing the Canadian mosaic of individuals, this journey metaphorically takes our students, from individual fabrics to quilts of many hues and patterns.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-09172010-131141 |
| Date | 17 September 2010 |
| Creators | Symon-Lungal, Margaret Robina |
| Contributors | Wason-Ellam, Linda, Ralph, Edwin, Balzer, Geraldine, McIntyre, Laureen |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-09172010-131141/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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