This research documents one junior high school's mainstream teachers' perceptions of the
ESL students in their classrooms and the ESL program that services these students. Using
qualitative methods appropriate for descriptive case study research, the open-ended
questionnaire and the semi-structured interview (Johnson, 1992), the study sought to
discover the emic perspective of mainstream teachers who taught ESL students on a daily
basis.
It was found that a variety of "effects" surrounded the ESL phenomenon at the
research site both at the classroom and programmatic levels. At the classroom level the
diverse cultural backgrounds and attitudes of ESL students were seen to have both
beneficial and challenging effects on mainstream teachers and classrooms. Conversely,
mainstream classrooms had effects on ESL students which were manifested in both
desirable and undesirable ways.
At the programmatic level, it was found that the model of ESL service delivery,
wherein mainstream teachers were responsible for a substantial percentage of the ESL
students' education, effected perceptions of particular responsibilities and needs among
mainstream teachers, most notably more communication with ESL "experts". Respondents
in the study also suggested ways ESL service could be delivered more effectively, given
the cognitive and affective needs of ESL learners and the communication and ESL
expertise needs of mainstream teachers.
The study has a number of implications at both practical and theoretical levels. In
practice, a number of useful functions for the ESL classroom have been suggested, specifically as a place for the fostering of self esteem, social networks, social and cultural
skills and academic remediation. The ESL program is also implied to be in need of more
funding, and a recommendation is further made for increased ESL training in pre-service
teachers. The study concludes by reiterating a call for more ethnographic research
describing different facets and perspectives of the ESL students' experiences in
mainstream classrooms.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9053 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Garnett, Bruce William |
| 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 | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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