Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Curriculum and Instruction / Michael Holen / Research shows the practice of incorporating English language learner (ELL)
students’ native languages (L1) into instruction to be a major factor enhancing their
success in school. In this study, 327 predominantly English-speaking (PES) teachers in
the state of Kansas were surveyed on their perspectives and self-reported behaviors
related to this practice. Participants were divided among three targeted teacher groups:
pre-service teachers with no ESL-specific university preparation (PS), experienced
teachers with no ESL-specific university preparation (No-ESL), and experienced teachers
with significant (at least three courses) ESL-specific university preparation (C-ESL).
Findings from descriptive analyses indicated that while teachers generally
supported L1 use in instruction, they tended to show stronger support for its underlying
theory than for its practical implementation. Results from a series of ANOVA’s
suggested a clear link between ESL-specific university preparation and an increased
support for the theory and practice of L1 use in instruction. Findings further suggested
links among some combination of teaching experience and an increase in support for this
practice. A series of inter-correlations produced various modest to moderate significant
relationships among experienced teachers’ perspectives and demographic variables
(gender, experience with ELL students).
While both No-ESL and C-ESL teachers reported behaviors incorporating L1 use
into instruction to some degree, results from independent samples t-tests showed that CESL
teachers reported these behaviors significantly more often than No-ESL teachers.
For both experienced teacher groups, inter-correlations showed modest to moderate
significant relationships among a number of perspective items and behavior items. Results further indicated that although both groups shared some common relationships
among variables, for the most part, the relationships shown to be significant varied
considerably by group. Open-ended questions revealed a variety of approaches used by
teachers as well as a number of obstacles perceived by teachers in incorporating L1 use in
instruction. Findings from this study are discussed in relation to strategies and directions
for teacher educators with the responsibility of preparing PES teachers to effectively
serve increasing ELL student populations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:KSU/oai:krex.k-state.edu:2097/75 |
| Date | January 1900 |
| Creators | Karathanos, Katya A. |
| Publisher | Kansas State University |
| Source Sets | K-State Research Exchange |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | 803142 bytes, application/pdf |
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