Intersection of Language, Class, Ethnicity, and Policy: Toward Disrupting Inequality for English Language Learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 428-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Jiménez-Castellanos ◽  
Eugene García
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Low Income ◽  
English Language ◽  
Educational Inequality ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Social Constructs ◽  
Language Class ◽  
K 12

This chapter proposes a conceptual framework that merges intersectionality and policy analysis as an analytical tool to understand the nuanced, multilayered, compounded educational inequality encountered specifically by low-income, Latino Spanish-speaking students in Arizona K–12 public schools as a function of intersecting educational policies. In addition, it provides a conceptual framework that counters and provides an alternative to the Arizona model that strives toward interrupting inequality. The conceptual framework is grounded in culture, language, and learning that provides a pathway to interrupt inequality by acknowledging the intersectional social constructs of an English language learner (ELL).

scholarly journals The Segregation of American Teachers.

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Frankenberg
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Low Income ◽  
English Language ◽  
White Teachers ◽  
Racial Diversity ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Teaching Force

Data from a unique new survey of over 1,000 teachers in K-12 public schools across the country show that our teaching force is largely segregated. Using this new dataset, I find that teachers of different races are teaching students of very different racial composition, adding an extra dimension to growing student racial segregation. White teachers comprise an overwhelming majority of the nation's teachers. Yet at the same time, they were the least likely to have had much experience with racial diversity and remain remarkably isolated. The typical African American teacher teaches in a school were nearly three-fifths of students are from low-income families while the average white teacher has only 35% of low-income students. Latino and Asian teachers are in schools that educate more than twice the proportion of English language learners as schools of white teachers. Nonwhite teachers and teachers who teach in schools with high percentages of minority or poor students are more likely to report that they are contemplating switching schools or careers. The article concludes with recommendations for diversifying the teaching force and ensuring that schools serving students of all backgrounds have a racially integrated, highly qualified faculty.

Representations of immigrants and refugees in US K-12 school-to-home correspondence: an exploratory corpus-assisted discourse study

Corpora ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Berger ◽  
Eric Friginal ◽  
Jennifer Roberts
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Text Simplification ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
K 12

This study details a comparative, corpus-based discourse analysis of corpora containing educational documents distributed to parents and guardians of K-12 children in public schools in the United States (US). The exploratory local corpus (n=152,934) contains parent-directed educational documents collected from four public schools in a city located in the south-eastern US with an unusually high percentage of foreign-born residents. The comparison corpus (n=147,796) contains parent-directed documents collected from a sampling of K-12 schools across the US. Following Baker et al. (2008) , keyness and collocations were utilised as central theoretical notions and tools of analysis, in addition to a lexical sophistication comparison, in order to investigate text simplification across corpora. Results show that while the first corpus used labels for students that were superficially inclusive, English language learners themselves were discursively represented as outsiders facing barriers to inclusion that native-English speaking monolingual students do not face. Furthermore, the first corpus revealed an emphasis on identifying and categorising language learners so as to provide them with immediate services, while the non-geographically specific corpus focussed more on the long-term development of learners and on preparation for post-secondary education. We discuss the implications for language policy in public education and for policies related to K-12 school-to-home correspondence.

Differentiating Instruction for Young English Language Learners in the Content Areas

2018 ◽  
pp. 90-110
Author(s):  
Kristen M. Lindahl
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Differentiated Instruction ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Content Areas ◽  
Differentiating Instruction ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Academic Content

This chapter explores the practice of differentiating instruction for young English Language Learners (ELLs) in the academic content areas. While ELLs are the most rapidly growing demographic in US K-12 public schools, they are also the most diverse, and will thus benefit from dynamic instruction that meets their needs to provide challenge, success, and fit. Based upon earlier applications of differentiated instruction (such as those in Tomlinson, 1999), this chapter proffers four examples of differentiated activities for young ELLs in math, science, social studies, and language arts. It then extends traditional implementation of differentiated instruction to include students' funds of knowledge and their linguistic repertoire, thereby providing teachers of young ELLs more holistic means to extend student engagement with the content and the type of language favored in academic settings.

Differentiating Instruction in Mathematics for the English Language Learner

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 146-153
Author(s):  
Deandrea L. Murrey
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language Learner ◽  
English Language ◽  
Mathematics Classroom ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Differentiating Instruction ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Learning English

A commonly held notion is that students learning English will do well in a mathematics classroom because mathematics is not a subject dependent on language proficiency. However, a student who is an English language learner (ELL) may struggle to succeed in the mathematics classroom where only English is taught. In 2004, there were approximately 5 million children in grades K–12 who were considered ELLs (NCELA 2004). Students from various language backgrounds may be learning English at the same time that they are learning new concepts in mathematics taught through English. Further, students are also learning the academic language of mathematics. The NCTM states: “All students should have the opportunity and the support necessary to learn significant mathematics with depth and understanding” (NCTM 2000, p. 5). There are strategies for teaching mathematics to students who are ELLs. However, in addition to using these strategies, mathematics teachers also need to provide explicit language instruction for those students learning English (Rothenberg and Fisher 2007). By differentiating instruction in mathematics for English language learners, teachers can plan and provide access to mathematics curriculum for all students, with the added goal of language instruction for students learning English.

scholarly journals Fee-Paying English Language Learners: Situating International Students’ Impact on British Columbia’s Public Schools

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-79
Author(s):  
Ryan Deschambault
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
International Students ◽  
Public Education ◽  
International Education ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Educational Migration ◽  
K 12

This article examines the relationship between international education and English as an additional language (EAL) education in British Columbia’s public education system. Drawing on a wide range of data generated as part of a longitudinal study of high school aged fee-paying international students (FISs) in an urban school district in British Columbia, I make the case that FIS recruitment and presence is having a socializing impact on EAL education in British Columbia’s public schools. In contrast to the way FISs are accounted for in official government statistics, I show how, across multiple actors and dimensions of the public system, FISs are routinely treated and represented as English language learners (ELLs). I argue that these routinized constructions are evidence of the multilayered socialization of EAL education by internationalization efforts in British Columbia’s K-12 sector, and discuss some of the ways this FIS socialization is consequential for EAL learning and teaching in public high schools. I situate my discussion of the FIS-EAL relationship within the larger context of applied linguistics and education-related research on internationalization and educational migration in K-12 settings, and raise questions about how FIS socialization is relevant to discussions of public education.

scholarly journals Technology-Based Literacy Instruction For English Language Learners

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin L. White ◽  
Sharlett Gillard
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language Learner ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
English Language Acquisition ◽  
Viable Solution ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
K 12

There is a growing need to implement an alternative and viable solution in U.S. K-12 schools that will address the ever-growing gap that the rapidly growing English language learner (ELL) population presents. This article examines various technology-based solutions, and their potential impact. The systematic implementation of these technology-based solutions could aid in alleviating an already taxed educational workforce, as well as significantly aid in promoting English language acquisition among the nations K-12 ELL population.

scholarly journals Understanding the Gap of Reading Performance between ELL and EOL Children from Low-Income Families in Elementary School Years

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. p423
Author(s):  
Hsin-Hui Lin ◽  
Liping Wei
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Low Income ◽  
English Language ◽  
Fourth Grade ◽  
Reading Performance ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Spring Semester ◽  
Low Income Children ◽  
Scale Scores ◽  
Low Income Families

This study explored reading development in low income children of English Language learners (ELLs) from kindergarten to the fourth grade. Data used in this study came from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011 (ECLS-K: 2011). A sample size was 3,451 students below the poverty threshold. The independent variables were the indicators of home language and gender. The six dependent variables were students’ reading item response theory (IRT) scale scores in the fall and spring semester of the kindergarten year and all the spring semesters from the first to the fourth grade. Six full 2-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) models were used for the statistical analyses. The results found there is a gender difference in children’s reading performance, with female doing slightly better than male students. The low-income children’s performance in reading IRT scores has shown differences among the three groups. The English Only Learners (EOL) had the highest mean scores throughout the five years. The group of Multilingual Learners (ML) and English Language Learner (ELL) group had mixed results of the second or lowest scores among these three groups. Among the six subgroups the EOL female had the highest mean scores throughout the five years.

Group Counseling for English Language Learners to Promote Academic Navigational Capital

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 2156759X2097956
Author(s):  
Adonay A. Montes ◽  
Erika Ramos
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Group Counseling ◽  
English Language Learner ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Ell Students ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Minimal Research

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of an 8-week academic navigational capital group with English language learner (ELL) students. Minimal research exists examining ELL students’ acquisition of navigational capital skills (skills needed to navigate and succeed in academic settings) in school. We used a pre- and postintervention survey to measure the impact of the group. Results showed growth in the academic navigational capital skills of all participants. Such increases represent a starting blueprint to consider when working with ELL students.

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