Interaction and language development of ELL students in mainstream classrooms

摘要

English Language Learners make up more than half of the student population in the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada (u22Nevada Report Cardu22, 2008-09). This is a compelling enough number to motivate teachers, principals, and schools as a whole to reflect on the practices and programs set in place to meet the needs of these students. This study looks specifically at two classrooms in CCSD, observing the teachersu27 practices and strategies for effectively meeting the needs of their English Language Learners that are a part of their mainstream classrooms. Pervasive strategies that stood out during the course of the study were interaction in the classroom, differentiated instruction, and scaffolding. The teachers involved differed in their motivation, background, and knowledge in relationship to teaching ELLs. The differences became evident as a result of the observations in their classrooms, as well as their survey responses. This study could serve as a resource for teachers who would like to improve their approaches in meeting the needs of ELLs in their classroom, as well as assist in understanding the background of research based practices that are suggested to be effective when working with students that come from diverse linguistic backgrounds. The information included also illustrates the need to further teachersu27 education in relationship to teaching diverse populations.