ELL Challenges Annotated Bibliography

Batt, E. G. (2008). Teachers’ perceptions of ELL education: Potential solutions to overcome the greatest challenges. Multicultural education, 15(3), 39.

Ellen G. Batt an associate professor of modern foreign languages and education at The College of Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho, writes the investigative results of the research on perceptions of in-service teachers regarding the greatest challenges and needs for improvement in English Language Learners (ELL) education. The research takes support of focus group discussions by Board of Directors of State Association ESL and bilingual educators to develop research instruments for both quantitative and qualitative data collection on the issue. The instruments were piloted for verification of its purpose. Primary data were collected from 161 educators including 157 from Idaho and four from bordering county regions of Oregon. The study came up with significant challenges in ELL education including lack of ELL educator’s qualifications, understaffing, non-instructional activity burdens etc. The improvements suggested were restructuring of staffing in ELL institutes and professional development interventions for bilingual and ELL teachers.

Lucas, T., Villegas, A. M., & Freedson-Gonzalez, M. (2008). Linguistically responsive teacher education preparing classroom teachers to teach English language learners. Journal of Teacher Education, 59(4), 361-373.

Lucas, Villegas and Freedson-Gonzalez (2008) focus their research on needs of English language needs of mainstream classes. The purpose of the study is to find a set of principles for mainstream classroom teachers in order to help them provide a better linguistic foundation for the teaching of English language learners in the classroom. Based on these principles, the authors outline linguistically responsive pedagogical practices to help teachers incorporate knowledge and skills to prepare preservice teachers to be linguistically responsive.