English learners' opportunities to use English: Inside, outside, and beyond high school.

摘要

The goal of this study was to examine how Spanish-speaking adolescents who were enrolled in an English Language Development class used English in their high school, at home and in the community. Data included field notes of observations of their ELD3 and content classes, tape recording of interviews with the students, their teachers and administrators at the school, journals written by a focal group of seven students about their language experiences, and tape recordings of the meetings in which they discussed those experiences. Emergent themes were developed through a grounded theory approach.;Findings revealed how discourse communities facilitated or constrained the students' access to linguistic resources. Students' uses of English in school were limited, but their out-of-school uses of English were diverse. Speaking English depended on whom the students were talking to and the accommodations for language employed by the interlocutor. Motivation and confidence when using English were socially constructed and issues of position were central. Findings also revealed that writing and talking about their daily language experiences helped students in the focal group gain an awareness of the ways they used language in a variety of settings. These discussions also helped them develop strategies for pursuing meaning when communication broke down. Findings have implications for helping English learners access English speaking discourse communities, for improving classroom practices, and for informing school-level policy.