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Narrowing English learner (EL) achievement gaps: A multilevel analysis of an EL-infused teacher preparation model

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ABSTRACT   This non-experimental correlational study assessed the effectiveness of a model of teacher preparation that infuses a focus on teaching English learners, the One-Plus model, by examining pre-service teachers’ (PST) effectiveness in narrowing English learner achievement gaps during their final student teaching experience. The study spanned five semesters of internship data, exploring how each semester’s PST effectiveness changed over time. This study utilized teacher work sample data that interns collected and submitted to the institutional effectiveness division of the college, with an n of 20,809 K-12 students who attended the 768 One-Plus PSTs’ classes during their semester-long internship. The results showed that there remained a statistically significant achievement gap between student groups based on their sociodemographic characteristics, and the biggest gap was between EL and non-EL students. Students had statistically significantly higher posttest scores compared to

Does Infused ESOL teacher preparation program hold promise toward narrowing the English Learner achievement gap? A Multilevel analysis of the One-Plus Model

👆    ABSTRACT This study examined the effectiveness of the pre-service teacher (PST) candidates who participated in an infused ESOL One-Plus model teacher preparation program (TPP) in a large public university located in the Southeastern United States. PST’ effectiveness was measured using the value-added model of teacher evaluation by means of reported pre- & posttest score through teacher work samples (TWS). The data included K-12 students’ achievement scores on tests designed and administered by One-Plus PSTs before and after teaching a unit in the content area and language arts courses during their internship. The procedure involved measuring students’ existing/baseline knowledge of the unit using the pretest scores later compared to their posttest scores to assess the learning gains and achievement gap among students of various demographic characteristics including ELs. In addition, the study measured the interactional effects of student-level variables on achievement gap and

Issues of Identity in Second Language Acquisition: Is there a way out?

SLA is the determination of the linguistic systems of learners and how it evolves over time. One of the youngest and probably the most pervasive add-ons on Second language research, identity has now been a prominent field of research in its own right. Identity theorists believe that language is intricately associated with one’s being (both physical and imagined realities and identities), and they seek to identify how one’s race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and culture impact one’s language learning and teaching journey (Norton, 2013). Identity theorists directly draw on Bourdieu’s notion of the symbolic power relation between the people that take part in communication of any form. Any successful communication, as Bourdieu puts, follows an unspoken agreement that the person who speaks is worthy of speaking and the person who listens is worthy of listening. In addition, the person who dictates how the conversation goes, what to be said and discussed always have higher social ca

Language Variation: How Dynamic is Your Language?

Variation in language, as can be perceived, means the distinction in speaking or writing a language among the people of same language based on their places of living or demographic, individual, social or other characteristics. The study of language variation tells an important story about a language and its change over time. Primarily the distinction was associated with the regions (regional variation), but afterward, researchers discovered that the variation does not only exists between places but within them as well. They sought to decipher the subtle differences based on peoples’ social and cultural background, age, gender, race, occupation, and loyalty to a group, which is popularly known as social variation in language (Wardhaugh,. & Fuller, 2015). One of the most pioneers is William Labov, who is famous for his prominent voices in American sociolinguistics since 1960s. He spent much of his time devising an approach to investigating the relationship between language and s