Supporting English Language Learners and Emergent Bilingual Students’ Linguistic Repertoires for Academic Success

Abstract

Attitudes and beliefs about language play a significant role in the educational experience and performance of English Language Learners (ELLs) and emergent bilingual (EB) students. Language ideologies can determine the value an individual sees in their linguistic practices; this is especially true for bilingual and multilingual individuals. Therefore, I wanted to acquire further understanding on language ideologies and how it presents in the classroom learning space of ELLs and EB students. I utilized García’s (2020) translanguaging pedagogy to explore my overreaching question: How can teachers utilize ELLs linguistic repertoires for academic success? Thus, some of the challenges that create this problem are the deficit perspectives towards ELLs and EBs home languages in the classroom, the inferiority that languages other than English have in a learning space, and the insufficient implementation of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) in instruction. To mitigate this problem, I’m providing educators with Professional Development (PD) that takes place withing four sessions during the school year. The goal for my PD is for participants to be able to reflect and understand their language ideologies and how these play a role their instructional practices, and the implementation of strategies that support students’ linguistic repertoires as a resource for learning and academic achievement.