Abstract
Conducting online TESOL class is always both a challenge and opportunity for teachers to effectively support English language learners. Specifically, this study explores socially relevant teaching strategies to facilitate an engaging and equitable online classroom for educators with ELLs with diverse backgrounds. This research contains online language teaching strategies in the context of multicultural environment. Overall, three strategies are elaborated. One strategy is organizing whole-class discussion and various activity based on learners' cultural background. The second strategy is choosing and using socially relevant teaching materials with online technology, including neutral and authentic materials and giving learners timely prompts. The third strategy is counteracting inequitable relationships in society and in class, managing student emotions to create supportive relationships among students and the teacher. These strategies expand literature on how to conduct online program that are relevant and sustaining for culturally and linguistically diverse adult language learners.
TopConcept
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and Multilingual Classrooms
Language learning is a process of social practice (Murrey, 2018), it involves broad influences of sociocultural, sociopolitical, and sociolinguistic factors in a community or society context. Culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) as well as socially relevant teaching strategies are getting more attention from educators in bilingual and multilingual classrooms. CSP seeks to perpetuate and sustain linguistic, literate and cultural pluralism through education to challenges of social justice and change. This pedagogy helps teachers, learners, and researchers incorporate social justice into their practice (Paris, 2014). CSP calls for critical engagement of language learners about the impact of their words, and the range of their knowledge and background that are along with learners (Paris, 2014). Developing cultural and linguistic flexibility is central to CSP because multilingual and multicultural practice are closely related to power and access (Alim, 2017).
Socially Relevant Teaching Strategy in Multicultural Classroom
Along the same line, socially relevant teaching strategy pays attention to the application of various teaching instructions relating to diverse backgrounds of learners involved (Malebese, 2017). This strategy also considers the learning needs for learners with different backgrounds, as well as their learning capacities and learning styles (Armstrong, 2011). In addition, to ensure social relevance, the concepts of power and relationships in the classroom are included, which requires adopting values of mutual respect and care, working on different sociocultural factors and learners’ ideological diversity (Malebese, 2016). In this learning environment, learners should feel equally valued, both of the educator and learners are encouraged to come up with and solving real-life questions, discuss real-life situation (Mahlomaholo 2013), where reality is viewed as contextual and changeable (Lee, & Smagorinsky, 2000).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Andragogy: The art and science of helping adults’ learning ( Knowles, 1980 ).
Equity in Education: Reforming practices, policies, and procedures at the school and district levels to support academic fairness and inclusion and ensure that every child has the resources, teachers, interventions, and supports they need to be successful (Learning Circle, 2021 ).
Social Emotion: Any emotion that depends on one’s appraisal or consideration of another person’s thoughts, feelings, or actions (American Psychological Association, 2020 AU45: The in-text citation "American Psychological Association, 2020" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Multicultural Environment: The environment contains diversity in terms of ethnicity, gender, religious, social belonging, etc. (Chair, 2012 AU44: The in-text citation "Chair, 2012" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Culturally Sustaining Education: An education philosophy that calls for deliberately embedding students’ cultures into the very processes, inputs, and outputs of school (Pamela, 2021 AU43: The in-text citation "Pamela, 2021" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Affective Filter: A metaphor that describes a learner's attitudes that affect the relative success of second language acquisition. Negative feelings, such as lack of motivation, lack of self-confidence and learning anxiety, act as filters that hinder and obstruct language learning (Colorado, 2021 AU42: The in-text citation "Colorado, 2021" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Socially Relevant Education: Curriculum and teaching strategies connect learning to the needs of students as members of families, communities, and society, helping students to understand their situatedness ( Greene, 1993 ).