In-Service Teachers' Perspectives on Adolescent ELL Writing Instruction

Abstract

As writing has assumed increasing importance in discussions of pedagogy for diverse classrooms, attention to the contexts in which secondary teachers develop and implement writing instruction for adolescent English language learners (ELLs) is of great importance. Drawing on ecological language learning theories and situated teacher learning theory (van Lier, 2003;Borko, 2004), the authors present findings from participants in a focus group (N = 10) and follow-up interviews (N = 6) conducted with a set of secondary English language arts and English as a second language (ESL) teachers. Within overlapping institutional/professional and pedagogical contexts, teachers identified teacher expertise, high-stakes testing, classroom assessment and grading, placement and tracking, and disciplinary disconnects as the ecological factors most influential in their instructional choices related to ELL writers. Implications of these findings for research and teacher education are discussed.

K-12 ESL Writing Instruction: A Review of Research on Pedagogical Challenges and Strategies

“…Lack of writing pedagogy skills. A lack of writing pedagogy skills revolves around issues related to stating the expectations of writing tasks explicitly, aligning teachers' understanding and expectations of writing with those of students, good practices in error correction, feedback, and assessment, providing responsive assessment and strategic scaffolding, addressing individual student needs and skills development, use of metalanguage, skills and knowledge to recognize different identities of L2 writers and their specific strengths and weaknesses, and the ability to scrutinize ESL writers' work (Enright & Gilliland, 2011;Kibler, 2011b;Kibler et al, 2016;Larsen, 2013Larsen, , 2016Ortmeier-Hooper, 2013;Shin, 2016;Wong, 2016). Kibler (2011b) found that tenth grade teachers' expectations about writing tasks were at best implicit, and they shared their expectations with students only through feedback as opposed to explicit "lessons focused on writing" (p. 223).…”

“…Consequently, students' skills for content area writing were underdeveloped. Other studies underlined the importance of teachers' in-depth knowledge of L2 writing pedagogy and assessment practices (Kibler et al, 2016;Larsen, 2016;Wong, 2016) as well as a need for "responsive assessment, instruction, and strategic scaffolding" (Wong, 2016, p. 64). Enright and Gilliland (2011) found that ESL writing teachers did not focus on addressing students' individual needs or skill development.…”

“…A number of studies have noted the constraining effects of standardized tests on ESL writing instruction. It was found that high-stakes tests forced teachers to follow state-or jurisdiction-mandated curriculum for writing instruction (Enright, 2013;Enright & Gilliland, 2011;Gebhard et al, 2010;Kibler et al, 2016). Following these curriculum mandates resulted in no flexibility in planning and executing creative ways to teach ESL writing.…”

“…For example, Enright (2013) found that a one-size-fitsall curriculum was not able to address students' individual English language and writing needs, whereas Gilliland (2015) found that teaching writing was constrained by high-stakes writing exams, as teachers were mandated to focus on preparing students for those exams. Kibler et al (2016) noted that due to high-stakes tests, teachers felt pressured about getting their ELLs to achieve the same standards in writing as non-ELL students. Enright and Gilliland's (2011) findings suggest that broad contextual factors such as district mandates (e.g., No Child Left Behind or NCLB) impacted ESL student writers' writing experiences in significant ways.…”

“What am I going to do?” A veteran teacher's journey of teaching writing to newcomer English language learners

“…All teachers (content‐area and ELL) are responsible for teaching ELLs and helping them be successful. Shared responsibility “describe[s] the mind‐set that all educators see themselves as equal stakeholders who must strive to positively influence the education of ELLs in the classroom as well as outside of school” (Staehr Fenner, , p. 29), even though there might be tensions between which teacher (content‐area or ELL) is responsible and/or qualified to teach the content and/or the language to ELLs (Kibler, Heny, & Andrei, ). In addition, content‐area teachers might not be prepared to teach ELLs in their classes (Ballantyne et al., ); they might need time, support, and varied learning experiences to integrate new learnings and skills that allow them to serve the ELLs in their classroom (Daniel & Pray, ).…”