ESL and ELL Teacher Preparation Essay

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population of ESL has grown in recent years. While the population has grown, they have continually underperformed when it came to ESL classes and exams. ESL teachers must be better prepared and educated to deal with the hurdles ESL students experience as they learn English. They must also learn to adopt new strategies that provide a better learning outcome. This research paper will feature articles and studies that highlight the importance of teacher preparation and ways to improve ESL instruction.

In a 2013 study, the researchers drew on sociocultural theory, creating a study that investigated how Grade 6 children within an intensive elementary level ESL class supported each other while performing and engaging in cooperative learning tasks. The children, considered and classified as older learners, demonstrated capability in engaging in linguistically leaning support or scaffolding. The kinds of support seen within the study that appeared most commonly was other-correction and request for assistance. "Although a variety of scaffolding strategies were in evidence, the two most frequently used pertained to request for assistance and other-correction" (Gagne & Parks, 2013, p. 188). The least used were strategies associated with arbitration of gist in an interactionist viewpoint. This is an important thing to note because teacher preparation within an ESL classroom needs to include strategies that students can effectively utilize for grade improvement.

Teacher preparation often includes going over material that was previously taught. However, if the teacher in charge of the classroom can focus on what things mean and allow students to ask questions to figure out the meaning, this could help them more than a simple review of the questions. For teachers within an ESL environment to be effective, they have to discuss meaning behind words and grammar, tell students why things are done a certain way. In addition, they have to allow students to have a voice in the classroom and feel comfortable enough to ask for help.

Research Question # 1

What role does teacher preparation play in the final grade of student's ESL grade?

In a 2015 case study, researchers examined teacher feedback practices and beliefs they observed from a pre-service L2 writing teacher throughout one academic semester. The name of the teacher is Kim and they gave a brief background including Kim being a 2nd year MA TESOL student as well as teaching a university level ESL course to students involving English composition. This is a quantitative study where they coded students' essays in order to distinguish four kinds of WCF or written corrective feedback. These were indirect, direct, indirect with explanation, and direct with explanation.

The researchers also assessed Kim's journals and her interviews. The results gave an indication that Kim gave feedback based on universal concerns. On a lesser degree, she also gave feedback on local problems, offering explanations to instances labeled WCF. Her beliefs however, and her implementation, revealed mismatches. Although her beliefs were one way, her implementation was the opposite with local WCF far outnumbering global WCF. " ... local WCF (83.9%) significantly outnumbered global WCF (16.1%). Other beliefs included the following themes: Feedback needs to be contextualized, is time-consuming, is a process that requires practice, and can lead to better writing" (Junqueira & Payant, 2015, p. 19).

WCF is important, but also time consuming, especially when done in terms of local WCF. If a classroom such as an ESL classroom is to do well as a whole, things must be done with the class in mind. As earlier shown, students do support each other in the classroom. If the curriculum is explained for the majority of students to understand more easily, then what the students learn will be carried out better than assessing individuals.

There is a growing number of ELLs or of English Language Learners in recent years in the United States. Quality teacher education programs have been at the top of a priority list set by American schools in order to offer teachers all the necessary tools to effectively support their students. Local, state, including national mandates have also passed certain requirements in order to better guarantee that English Language Learners receive quality instruction with new content standards and language proficiency. Because of this, added pressure has been felt by those a part of teacher education programs attempting to engross teacher candidates with sound pedagogical strategies and practices So they can do their best with ELLs.

A 2015 mixed method study that examined 144 PK-12 less experienced teachers with five or less years of experience emphasized the significance of teachers' discernments and ability beliefs in teaching ELLs. "Findings revealed a statistical significance in efficacy beliefs for teachers with an ESL certification as opposed to teachers without the credentials.

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Five in-depth cases augmented the finding to support how individual classroom practices exemplified specific ESL pedagogy learned from pre-service contexts" (Tran, 2015, p. 1). Teachers are the key to better learning. If teachers are not trained properly, students like ELLs will have a more difficult time adapting to and absorbing the curriculum. Along with development of strategies should be the development of teacher education programs as teacher preparation requires a more educated and insightful perspective.

Research Question #2

What instructional strategies do teachers use as being effective in teaching English as a second language?

In a 2013 article, the authors set to examine major patterns underlying CBI or content-based instruction as it applies to end stage of an MA TESOL program. It is a quantitative study within lessons plans receiving codes for analysis. "One hundred and seven lesson plans were coded according to a typology developed to evaluate clarity and identify areas of potential difficulty in the design of content and language objectives by TESOL teacher candidates for use in PreK -- 12 ESL classrooms" (Baecher, Farnsworth & Ediger, 2013, p. 118). Those that participated in the study demonstrated difficulty when it came to designing language objectives and had an easier time within content objectives. Furthermore, they discovered a tendency in the participants to write language objectives with vocabulary in mind notably more so than adapting a focus on grammatical functions, structures, or language learning strategies.

This study showed that even in the program stage, teachers adopt ineffective teaching strategies. Focusing on vocabulary does not help nor is proven as effective as learning about grammar. Grammar is what adds the "why" to language and will help an ESL student excel more often.

In a 2012 article, the authors noted how improving teacher education programs provided better results when it came to teachers instructing their students and preparing them for the curriculum. Other things like collaboration within administrators and teachers also resulted in improved teacher performance. "Through her AR project and collaboration with teachers and administrators in the district, Calkins found that AR helped transform a working group of teachers and administrators into a professional learning community." (Thompson, Li, White, Loewen & Gass, 2012). They mentioned a term called Action Research or AR. Essentially what this means is AR alters the context of learning, offering a way of organizing collective work to allow for extended professional expertise. This in turn builds a strong professional learning community.

It is important to cultivate a strong professional learning community because they are the most important aspect to learning for students. If teachers lack resources and strategies to effectively teach their students, their students will underperform. Teacher preparedness begins with the level of resources available to them. A collaborative model of AR could prove beneficial in enhancing teacher preparedness.

In 2014, researchers attempted to observe a collaborative effort from five university ESL instructors who wished to analyze how students within their program's advanced writing course viewed, made meaning of, and responded to the feedback they received. Through the use of semi-structured interviews coupled with focus groups, the objective was to offer students a place to express their opinions, insights, and perceptions. The results demonstrated participants' relationship with feedback comprised of a set of exchanges with the text and comment on the "writing assignment itself, with classmates during peer review, and with the instructor during personal communication. Through examining these interactions, the teacher-researchers found that student views of feedback were often driven by an emotional response that was heavily influenced by grades and the teacher's written comments" (Best, Jones-Katz, Smolarek, Stolzenburg & Williamson, 2014, p. 332). Negative and mixed reactions came when students received peer-related feedback. Positive reactions came from one-on-one interactions with their teachers. The article concluded with asking administrators and teachers to make more space for expression of opinion and views by students as this may generate positive interactions and create a better chance of improving grades within the ESL student population.

Framework

If anything from the literature review reveals, is the need ESL students have for support as discussed in an article by Bunch (Bunch, 2013, p. 298). Because teachers may divert their attention away from one-on-one interactions with students by focusing on giving feedback instead of receiving feedback, they may miss out the most important aspect of the teacher-student relationship, support. ESL….....

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