How to best serve language learners in educational contexts

Sarah’s Learner Profile

Pedro’s Learner Profile

María’s Learner Profile (must use Moreland login to access)

Considerations

There are several considerations to keep top of mind when thinking about how educators can best serve the learners described in the sample learner profiles we reviewed and created this week. In my mind, these considerations must all achieve two goals: aid in their language acquisition, while respecting and honoring their cultural background.

One of the first priorities must be to foster a risk-taking attitude by creating a safe space for language learners. Our three learners have varying degrees of comfort trying new things and making mistakes, and without a doubt each of their profiles indicate some level of worry or frustration with making mistakes or not being able to express themselves in the way they would like. In many cases language learners will only work past this if they feel safe to make mistakes or fall short of their own high standards without judgment or criticism.

One of the best ways for an educator to create a safe environment is to cultivate culturally sustaining practices (Chajed, 2020). According to Chajed, this means that teachers need to “embrace diversity, get to know their students, and…help students feel welcomed and seen in school” (2020). One way teachers can do this is by validating many ways of speaking and communicating. A teacher could try to create activities or opportunities for students to use their full linguistic repertoire. For example, our sample learners could create a written or oral presentation to teach their classmates about a word, idiom, or other interesting bit of their native language, as a way to feel pride and accomplishment in their multilingual identity.

Concerns

The main concern that comes to mind when thinking about how to accommodate, support, and celebrate our sample learners is that a teacher could spend a great deal of time crafting activities and experiences to meet their needs. 

However, I believe I also have a solution to this concern. One thing I have learned teaching students with ADHD and executive functions disorders is how much the strategies that benefit these students can benefit a wide variety of students, not only those with a formal diagnosis. I believe the solution here is similar; rather than responding to the needs of particular language learners in the classroom, a teacher will use their time most efficiently while also supporting the greatest number of learners by integrating these strategies into their regular practice. This way the teacher has the strategies at the ready for students who truly need them, and they can also benefit students who are linguistically proficient but feel culturally excluded, or who suffer from social anxiety, etc.

Questions

There are several questions I would like to explore or learn more about in order to support our sample learners. I have outlined them below:

For Pedro and María: how can we create an environment that is low-pressure enough that they feel safe to try new things? Would it help them to be language buddies with younger students, who pose no potential/perceived threat to their social status? Will boosting their confidence in other areas carry over to their language learning?

For Sarah: what is the reason behind the plateau she mentions being so frustrated by? How could her teachers offer her the right kind or right amount of challenge to work through that stage and continue to advance?

For all three: how could their teachers make use of the principles of growth mindset to further their learning? Particularly for Pedro and María, who have some apparent sense of trepidation at getting things wrong when they speak, read, or write, it seems inevitable that a fixed mindset is at play, and holding them back from embracing the challenge of progressing with their language learning. Even for Sarah, who feels frustrated at not being able to express herself as fluently in her L2 as her L1, I wonder if she could consider that plateau a challenge to be tackled rather than a shortcoming to hold her back.

Finally, are their community organizations that could help. Both Pedro and María experience a lack of the type of support at home that we would hope to see in our ideal world due to their parents being busy out of the home. As Breiseth lays out in her piece, “Working with Community Organizations to Support ELL Students,” organizations can “play an important part in helping schools bridge language and cultural gaps” (n.d.).

How understanding learner identities promotes multiculturalism and enhanced learning outcomes for students, and why understanding learner identities is important

In order to respond, I must break this idea into its component parts. How can understanding language learner identities promote multiculturalism? The most important way is by illustrating to educators the multicultural diversity and strength in their classroom community, school, and beyond. As Chajed puts it, “students who are excluded from [the norms of monolingual, white, middle class students] are often viewed through a deficit lens” (2020). By deeply understanding the identities of the language learners in their classroom, a teacher must acknowledge the many strengths they bring, even if English reading, writing, speaking, and/or listening is not yet on their list of strengths.

How can understanding language learner identities promote enhanced learning outcomes for the student? This answer leads directly from my answer to the first part. By deeply understanding the learners in their classroom a teacher can best serve and support those same learners. As NPR reported several years ago, teacher expectations can influence how their students perform academically (Spiegel, 2012). This influence can extend beyond a child’s time in a particular classroom, and indeed, for several years. Therefore, if a teacher views their language learner students through a deficit lens, it is more likely that a student will live up to the expectation of possessing deficits as a learner and possibly as an individual. Conversely, if a teacher can appreciate the full range of gifts a student brings, and cultivate a multicultural environment that respects many learners’ identities, it might just set them up for success for years to come.