Increasing numbers of English language learners (ELLs) and diminishing services
for those students is resulting in mainstream teachers across the United States taking on
the responsibility of teaching ELLs. This demands the preparation of all teachers to teach
ELLs. Yet adequate preparation of these educators depends on insight into the beliefs
that preservice teachers carry with them to the classroom. These beliefs are critical in
their impact on teacher behavior and teacher expectations of ELLs. Remarkably, what
preservice teachers believe about ELL issues is overlooked in research. The purpose of
the present study was to look beyond these previously explored paths of ESL, bilingual,
multicultural, and foreign language education to discover preservice Pre-K through 8th
grade mainstream teachers’ beliefs about language learning in order to better inform
future teacher preparation programs.
The research questions used to accomplish the purpose of this study focused on
what beliefs pre-service teachers at Texas A&M University hold regarding second
language learning and teaching before ESL coursework, how those beliefs change after ESL coursework, and what variables influence these pre-service teachers’ beliefs about
English language learning and teaching?
A total of 354 individuals participated in the study. They were involved in ESL
coursework during their participation in the study. The data were collected from August
of 2006 to May of 2007.
This study had a mixed method design. The research instruments included a
Likert-scale questionnaire and focus group interviews. The interviews were analyzed
according to the constant-comparative method. The questionnaires were analyzed based
descriptive statistics, paired sample t-tests, and hierarchical multiple regression.
Major findings of the study include that before ESL coursework, preservice
teachers largely undervalued ELLs’ L1, yet they were aware of ELLs in mainstream
environments and positive about ELLs themselves. Coursework was found to be
effective in that after ESL coursework there was an obvious shift toward greater
alignment in beliefs with principles of ESL education. Interviews underscored the role
of field experience, teacher educators and ESL courses in impacting belief change.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2705 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Clark-Goff, Kylah Lynn |
| Contributors | quiroz, blanca, rasekh, zoreh eslami |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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