Unprepared: Are Educator Preparation Programs Effectively Training Pre-Service Teachers to Teach English Learners?

Authors

Lorie Johnson, Auburn City Schools, AL

Abstract

All students deserve high-quality, strategic instruction, yet pre-service teachers are not always taught best practices for instructing English Learners (ELs), students for whom English is not their native language. Almost 10 percent of the students in American public schools are classified as ELs, yet research indicates most educator preparation programs across the country have not yet integrated best practices for teaching ELs into their pre-service programs in meaningful ways. It is important for educator preparation programs to provide pre-service teachers with opportunities to understand the unique needs of ELs and to learn effective teaching strategies to meet those needs. This article provides an overview of the dearth of critical instruction related to ELs in educator preparation programs, the need to include it, and questions remaining for further research.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Johnson, Lorie (2017) "Unprepared: Are Educator Preparation Programs Effectively Training Pre-Service Teachers to Teach English Learners?," ECTESOL Review: Vol. 1: No. 1, Article 4.
Available at: https://jagworks.southalabama.edu/ectesol_review/vol1/iss1/4