Preparing Secondary Subject Area: Teachers to Teach Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students

ore and more subject matter area teachers find themselves working with students whose native language is not English. A report from the National Center for Education Statistics (2003) showed that close to four million students nationwide were classified as English language learners (ELL) in the school year of 2001–2002, a 30 percent increase from a decade ago. In Queens, New York City, one in every six high school students is an English language learner (New York City Department of Education 2003). These students spend a few periods a day in English as a second language (ESL)/bilingual classes. However, they spend most of their school day with subject area teachers in either selfcontained ESL content classrooms composed of ELL students or regular content classrooms filled with both ELL students and non-ELL students. To advance in their academic careers, these students are under pressure to not only catch up to their native English-speaking peers but also meet state standards and pass Regents exams in English. Therefore, there is an urgent need for all teachers to develop culturally sensitive and language appropriate instruction so that all students can succeed. Carrasquill and Rodriguez (1996), Cummins (1997), Genesee (1993), and Mohan et al. (2001) emphasized the importance of developing all subject area teachers’ abilities to work with linguistically and culturally diverse students. Second language researchers have identified four major areas of teacher preparation: building empathy toward second language learners’ language difficulties and cultural differences, increasing understanding of the process of second language acquisition, adapting the curriculum and instruction to these students’ cultural and language needs, and integrating discipline specific language and literacy skills into area of instruction (Genesee 1993; Meyer 2000; Mora 2000; Teemant et al. 1996). Teachers who have had training in these areas have shown great sensitivity toward these diverse learners and have subsequently developed effective language and content integration strategies to work with them (Byrnes et al. 1998; Dong 2002; Duff 2001; Franson 1999; Harklau 1999; Verplaetse 1998). However, teachers who have not had adequate preparation for these challenges in their teacher training programs often feel ill-equipped to deal with the changing student body. As a result of this frustration, they unwittingly reduce these learners’ opportunities by diluting the course content, providing few modifications to the way they speak, and ignoring or excluding these students from class discussions and learning (Byrnes et al. 1998; Duff 2001; Penfield 1987; Verplaetse 1998). To better prepare preservice teachers for working with non-native English speaking students at the secondary school level, New York State’s Department of Education requires teachers to have teaching credentials in this area. This requirement ensures all teachers at this level have the knowledge, skills, and sensitivity necessary to work with students whose native language is not English. Secondary teacher education programs at Queens College, an inner city public institution serving one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse cities in the nation, also established competency requirements and developed a course entitled “Language, Literacy, and Culture in Education.” As a required course for all preservice teachers, the course focuses on “knowledge about the principles of first and second language acquisition and sensitivity to the needs of their students with limited English proficiency, and an awareness of the differences in language, backgrounds, expectations, needs, roles, and values held by the teacher and the students in their classrooms” (New York State Department of Education 1999). Preparing Secondary Subject Area Teachers to Teach Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students