Service-Learning as Authentic Practice for Teacher Candidates to Work With English Language Learners

Introduction

The number of English language learners (ELLs) in the classroom across the U.S. has been growing rapidly, approaching 10% of all public-school students (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2018). Of importance in this demographic trend is the increasing presence of ELLs in classrooms beyond border states, across the more rural settings of the U.S. Midwest. For example, Kansas has witnessed the largest percentage-point increase in ELL enrollment---4.9 percentage points---in the country between 2002-2003 and 2012-2013.

In increasingly diverse classrooms, the skills necessary to adapt lessons to ELLs’ linguistic and cultural competence is of central significance to prospective teachers who will be working with such diverse learners (Garcia, Arias, Harris Murri, & Serna, 2010). Yet, there is a mismatch between cultural and linguistic diversity in the student population and the comparative lack thereof within the teaching profession. Over 80 percent of classroom teachers in the U.S. identify as non-Hispanic White on the National Teacher and Principal Survey (National Center for Education Statistics, 2015-2016). In their study of a rural teacher education program in Wyoming, Cho, Rios, Trent and Mayfield (2012) found that white teacher candidates’ attitudes towards classroom language diversity as a whole were positive, but that a sizeable percentage (30%) reported feeling “fearful/anxious about working with ELLs” (p. 75). Gándara, Maxwell-Jolly, and Driscoll (2005) also found lower levels of instructional confidence among teacher candidates without significant preparation for working with ELLs. In rural areas, challenges in working with diverse populations were especially acute due to scarce resources. Therefore, teacher educators face the imperative need to implement curriculum and learning experiences in the teacher education program so that they can better prepare future educators to work with culturally and linguistically diverse students. It is in this context that service-learning stands as an opportunity for preservice teachers to engage authentically with such diverse student populations and prepare themselves for the realities of their future classrooms.