Course Description

As the number of English language learners in the U.S. increases rapidly, there is an urgent need to understand the academic needs of ethnolinguistically diverse student population. Today, the reality of globalization and the immigration requires all pre-service and in-service teachers to become more knowledgeable and sensitive about the affective ways to 1) teach English as a global language while respecting and embracing students’ home languages and discourses; (2) help learners improve their literacy skills in English (reading, writing and speaking), (3) teach content while teaching English language skills, and (4) create culturally relevant materials. In this context, it is crucial that all teachers are equipped with the necessary tools to create optimal learning environments for ethnolinguistically diverse students and move beyond “one-size fits all” approaches which, most of the time, do not take into consideration the economic, cultural and linguistic differences of diverse student population.

As we will discuss during this course, each language teaching context is different and unique. Therefore, our teaching practices and methods must be context-specific, particular and individualized. With this rationale in mind, this course aims to help pre-service teachers develop materials and pedagogical practices that accommodate academic and sociocultural needs of the 21st century’s diverse classroom contexts. Drawing on the principles of critical pedagogy and sociocultural theories of language learning, this course aims to raise pre-service teachers’ awareness on critical issues such as students’ rights to their own languages, multilingual approaches to literacy education, English-only language policies, culturally relevant material development in K-16 and first language maintenance of students.