Keywords
ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT; ENGLISH LEARNERS; SYSTEMATIC ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, EDUCTORS
Abstract
Multilingual English Learner (MLL) students are the fastest-growing student population in the U.S. and are often academically behind their native English-speaking peers. One factor in the achievement gap is MLL students' ability to gain English proficiency and inadequate teacher professional development. An explanatory study was conducted to explain the perspectives of teachers, and principals and assistant principals on Systematic English language development (SELD). The study collected data from five English Language Development (ELD) teachers and three principals and two assistant principals who supervised the ELD program at their school sites. The participants engaged in one-to-one interviews with ten semi-structured interview questions. These research questions guided the study: What are teachers' perspectives of SELD professional development? What are administrators' perspectives on SELD professional development? Based on the document review, are the instructional materials adequate to help MLL students gain English proficiency? Two themes emerged from the data: Lack of depth, lack of support for instructing MLL students. Recommendations included restructuring professional development into a multi-tiered system based on an interest development model, providing more frequent, targeted, consistent professional development.
Multilingual English Learner (MLL) students are the fastest-growing student population in the U.S. and are often academically behind their native English-speaking peers. One factor in the achievement gap is MLL students' ability to gain English proficiency and inadequate teacher professional development. An explanatory study was conducted to explain the perspectives of teachers, and principals and assistant principals on Systematic English language development (SELD). The study collected data from five English Language Development (ELD) teachers and three principals and two assistant principals who supervised the ELD program at their school sites. The participants engaged in one-to-one interviews with ten semi-structured interview questions. These research questions guided the study: What are teachers' perspectives of SELD professional development? What are administrators' perspectives on SELD professional development? Based on the document review, are the instructional materials adequate to help MLL students gain English proficiency? Two themes emerged from the data: Lack of depth, lack of support for instructing MLL students . Recommendations included restructuring professional development into a multi-tiered system based on an interest development model, providing more frequent, targeted, consistent professional development.
Recommended Citation
Beavers, Yvette and Bell, Nichole
(2025)
"EDUCATORS PERSPECTIVES OF SYSTEMATIC ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT : A QUALITATIVE EXPLANATORY STUDY,"
Mid-Western Educational Researcher: Vol. 37:
Iss.
1, Article 17.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25035/mwer.37.01.17
Available at:
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/mwer/vol37/iss1/17
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25035/mwer.37.01.17
