Supporting Teachers of English Learners by Leveraging Students' Linguistic Strengths

• Published in: The Reading teacher Vol. 68; no. 6; pp. 406 - 412
• Main Authors: Jiménez, Robert T., David, Sam, Pacheco, Mark, Risko, Victoria J., Pray, Lisa, Fagan, Keenan, Gonzales, Mark
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newark Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.03.2015; International Literacy Association; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Adolescence; Beliefs; Childhood; Comprehension monitoring; Depth of (higher level; Depth of (higher level, literal level, etc.); Educational Practices; Educational Strategies; Elementary school students; English as a second language; English as a second language learning; English for speakers of other languages; English language learners; English language learners, English learners, English as a second language, English for speakers of other languages; English learners; English Teachers; etc; Faculty Development; First; First, second, etc., language (L1, L2,etc.); In-service; Knowledge; language (L1; Language teaching methods; literal level; Metacognition; Metalinguistics; Multilingualism; Pedagogical Content Knowledge; Preservice; Professional development; Qualitative; Reading Achievement; Reading Comprehension; Reading Improvement; Reading Instruction; Reading Strategies; second; Sociocultural; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Behavior; Teacher education; Teachers; Teaching Methods; Teaching Skills; THE INSIDE TRACK; Translation methods and strategies
• ISSN: 0034-0561; 1936-2714
• DOI: 10.1002/trtr.1289

In this paper, we seek to inform policy regarding the professional development of teachers of students who are learning English. To do this, we employ a framework that considers the pedagogical knowledge, practical teaching skills, and dispositions recommended by PD researchers and ELL teacher educators. We then present an approach that incorporates recommended teacher practices, dispositions, and types of knowledge that we call TRANSLATE, or Teaching Reading And New Strategic Language Approaches to English learners. We argue that translating carefully selected portions of grade‐level appropriate text has the potential to improve the English reading comprehension of ELLs. We illustrate this approach by highlighting how one of our research team's instructors was able to incorporate ELL students' linguistic expertise into their guided reading of a text so that they could engage in the kinds of metacognitive and metalinguistic behavior known to foster reading comprehension.