Examining the Challenges of Content Teachers' Readiness to Educate English Language Learners (ELLs)

Abstract

This project aims to support general education teachers to be prepared to teach English Language Learners (ELLs) in their classrooms. With the increasing number of ELLs in public schools across the United States, teachers who have the background, training, and/or knowledge of how to successfully teach ELLs has increased now more than ever. However, there have been an alarming number of teachers who find themselves unprepared to teach the ELLs being placed inside their classrooms. Research has identified three reasons that teachers find themselves illprepared to teach ELLs: inadequacy of proper training programs for pre-service teachers, insufficient professional development (PD) opportunities for teachers, and a misunderstanding of cultural needs/diversity within the classroom. Solutions to this problem is for colleges to have training programs for preservice teachers, holding mandatory PD meetings for teachers, and to get to know your ELLs. To address these problems, a PD meeting is designed be held at Laddie A. Decker Sound Beach School (LADSBS) to inform and train teachers on how to successfully teach ELLs. The goal of this PD is to provide general education teachers with information, strategies, and additional resources on how to successfully teach ELLs. Recommendations for future research include training pre-service teachers before getting into the classroom on how to omit preconceived ideas on ELLs, to be more compassionate towards ELLs and to learn how to co-teach effectively with other ENL teachers.