Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW 1

Literacy Review

Mallory Browning and Raigan Tarkington

Longwood University
LITERATURE REVIEW 2

Abstract

With the vast increase of English Language Learners being enrolled in public schools

within the United States, teachers must be properly equipped to support these students in

providing an equal academic experience. Although college teacher preparation programs fall

short in training regarding ELLs, which then activates negative perceptions, research

demonstrates many instructional approaches that are beneficial and should be implemented in the

classroom setting. To extend the essential research process on such an important topic, we raised

the following question: Is the most efficient place for training teachers how to support ELL

students in pre-service or in-service training? With the theoretical research plan conducted,

teachers’ perceptions and knowledge of how to support ELLs will shape the future of an equal

education for all students.

LITERATURE REVIEW 3

Importance of Supporting English Language Learners

The purpose of this literature review is to portray the importance of support for English

Language Learners in all schools. Within the United States school systems, the term English

Language Learners (ELLs), refers to students whose native language is different from English.

According to research, in 2015, there has been a substantial ELL student population increase of

8.1% from the year 2000 (Wissink & Starks, 2019). With the steady incline of English

Language Learners enrolled in schools across the country, a consensus of scholars hold that it is

essential for educators to adapt and determine best practices in supporting English Language

Learners in their classrooms. ELLs, like all other students, are deserving of an equal and positive

educational experience to be set up for success in their futures. In order for educators to

adequately support English Language Learners, they need sufficient training from teacher

preparation programs, positive perceptions, and available resources for suitable instructional

approaches.

A positive learning experience is essential in schools, therefore, it should be equitable

considering the differentiating needs of each individual student, especially ELLs. An important

role of educators is to help each student meet their maximum learning capacity; how are teachers

capable of doing so when they have negative perceptions towards ELLs and limited teacher

preparation? Teacher preparation programs must become properly equipped in best practices for

all students including ELLs in order for teachers to adapt efficiently. If teacher preparation

programs accurately instruct teachers in how to accommodate ELL students' needs, then ELLs

will have the opportunity to learn to their highest ability. Teachers need to gain background

knowledge and a variety of instructional approaches to support ELL students and teacher

preparation programs have an extensive impact to prepare teachers.

LITERATURE REVIEW 4

What Research has Shown

Universities within the United States support and prepare pre-service elementary teachers

to teach reading, writing, mathematics, social studies, and other subjects to their young students.

However, many universities are falling short when it comes to training and preparing teachers to

instruct and support ELLs (Wissink & Starks, 2019). Many of these teachers are native English

speakers and are attempting to instruct ELLs through the use of the English language (Wissink &

Starks, 2019). Research has shown that specialized knowledge such as the teacher understanding

the language experiences of the ELLs is required to effectively teach these students (Wissink &

Starks, 2019). However, many teacher preparation programs fail to effectively provide teacher

candidates with this knowledge and training prior to doing so. With this being said, the

effectiveness of pre-service teachers training comes into question.

Research has shown that many mainstream teachers hold negative perceptions and deficit

views toward the ELLs in their classroom (Rizzuto, 2017). In addition, researchers have also

determined that many teachers across the United State’s public schools have “largely developed

negative theories about mainstream ELL students’ ability to learn” (Rizzuto, 2017). If these

“unspoken theories” (Rizzuto, 2017) are not properly explored, they will continue to affect the

mainstream teacher view of ELL students and their instruction.

In order to determine the importance of and need for ELL training within teacher

preparation programs, it is critical to take teacher perceptions into consideration. A recent study

was done to analyze a group of new teachers who were teaching in a school setting where one

hundred percent of their student population consisted of ELL students. Based upon the teachers’

lack of college teacher preparation programs, many themes emerged from their negative

perceptions. These include the desire for teacher preparation programs to include “more specific
LITERATURE REVIEW 5

course work on how to teach ELLs… in order to produce teachers who are better prepared for

the reality of teaching in today’s classroom” (Wissink & Starks, 2019), reading coursework that

includes a larger focus on emergent readers in order to better support ELLs, learning another

language, and completing a student teacher placement that includes more experience working

specifically with ELL students (Wissink & Starks, 2019).

ELLs require differentiated instruction from teachers applying instructional approaches to

meet their developmental and individual needs. Based upon research, a variety of instructional

approaches are necessary in order to best support ELL students. At the intermediate grade levels,

it has been found that ELL students improve English reading proficiency when given the

opportunity to read books of their choice independently or silently (Liu & Wang, 2015). While

studies have shown that cooperative reading activities such as small group interventions are not

as effective as expected, it is important for teachers to consider and provide a balance of

independent and cooperative learning for ELLs (Liu & Wang, 2015). The balance between

individual and group work is critical for ELL students, as they have opportunities to learn from

their peers and practice social skills.

Another important instructional approach within the classroom setting for ELLs is the

usage of technology. Computer-assisted Instruction (CAI) is one example of a researched based

instructional approach that has shown to prompt great gains for ELL students when implemented

on a daily basis (Cassady, Smith, & Thomas, 2017). This program comprises four domains:

phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and text comprehension that has individualized

pacing and instruction to meet each individual's needs (Cassady, Smith, & Thomas). Another

study shows that utilizing the application of “Book Creator” on an iPad could have a positive

impact on ELL student’s written fluency, as well as motivation (Goundouvas, 2017). Lastly, the
LITERATURE REVIEW 6

use of creative digital storytelling (DST), has shown to “(a) serve as a creative space to

encourage language use, (b) foster multimodal communicative competence, and (c) engage

parents...” (Castaneda, Shen, & Berlioz, 2018).

Potential Research Questions

Although there is an abundance of information we do know about how teachers can better

support ELL students, there are many limitations and next steps of this topic of study that we are

unsure of. Most pre-service teachers who attend university teacher preparation programs for four

years are expected to learn the everyday roles of teachers, and upon graduation, be prepared to

teach the youth of America. With the curriculum requirements for pre-service teachers when

pursuing a professional degree, it would be challenging to find sufficient time to learn about

properly supporting ELL students. In order to allow time in learning how to support ELL

students in teacher preparation programs, researchers should explore which material is not as

essential for pre-service teachers to acquire. Which raises the question of, if teacher preparation

programs dedicate learning time towards support for ELL students, what would need to change

and be adapted in order to do so? On the other hand, is the best place for training teachers how to

support ELL students in pre-service or in-service teaching? In order to take these next steps,

more research needs to be conducted through teacher preparation programs and professional

development training. With the steady increase of English Language Learners in United States

schools, research regarding support for ELLs will continue to advance and more conclusions will

be developed.

According to Wissink and Starks (2019), the next steps they discussed in their studies

was to create a larger study including more participants and a longer procedural process. In their

case study of research they created, each teacher had an ESOL teacher in the classroom to use as
LITERATURE REVIEW 7

support. It is highly unlikely for each public school teacher with ELLs in their classroom to have

support from an ESOL teacher. With that being said, the study set limitations to this small

population of classroom teachers that were supported by ESOL teachers. When completing this

study again, Wissink and Starks (2019) would like to do so without providing support from

ESOL teachers in order to have less limiting results. The reason behind this is because most

teachers do not speak the different native languages of their ELLs or take the time to learn more

about their backgrounds (Wissink and Starks, 2019). With having a larger number of participants

in a similar case study and taking away the support from ESOL teachers, the findings will be

much more relative to teachers in a more traditional school setting.

After the possible limitations and furthering research steps, Wissink and Starks (2019)

discussed, they also had curiosity regarding how practicums with ELL students would impact

teachers and how college preparation programs could be improved. There was no research

regarding these two topics, but they wanted to know if teachers would feel more prepared if they

had a practicum opportunity with ELLs during their pre-service years or what courses they

would add or take away to have them prepared to teach ELLs. Their thoughts of continuing this

research would be completed through potential questionnaires (Wissink & Starks, 2019).

Theoretical Research Plan

Although there has been a large amount of research regarding how teachers can support

ELL students, research must be explored at deeper levels to determine how ELL students can be

benefitted on an everyday basis at school. This theoretical case study will explore how teacher

perceptions and their knowledge of ELL students will identify if pre-service or in-service

training is more beneficial. There is a small amount of research regarding negative perceptions

teachers may hold and how college teacher preparation programs should better prepare teachers
LITERATURE REVIEW 8

to support ELLs. However, there is currently not enough research which leads to propose the

research question of: Is the most efficient place for training teachers how to support ELL

students in pre-service or in-service training? We hypothesize that teachers' questionnaires and

interview questions will claim that teachers should learn about ELLs in undergraduate teacher

preparation programs before entering the education field as a teacher.

Research ● Is the most efficient place for training teachers how to support ELL
Question: students in pre-service or in-service training?

Purpose and ● The purpose is to portray the effectiveness and importance of teachers
Rationale: learning how to support ELL students whether it is in pre-service
training or in-service with the vast increase of English Language
Learners in our country.

Methodology: ● Qualitative Data Analysis

Participants: ● 200 teachers in the state of Virginia.

● Ranging in years of teaching experience (1st year to 30+ years).
● Both male and female teachers.
● Ranging in grade levels (K-12th grade) they teach.
● Primarily English speaking teachers.
● Attended at least 4 years of college.

Context: ● The study will take place in elementary, middle, and high schools
throughout Virginia.
● The schools with high populations for ELL students.

Outcome ● We will analyze teachers' questionnaires.

Measures: ● We will analyze the data from questionnaires responses to determine
if teachers believe pre-service or in-service training will be more
beneficial.

Hypothesis: ● We hypothesize teachers will believe that learning how to support

ELL students should be included in pre-service training such as
teacher preparation programs.
The methodology used for the data gathered is qualitative, using teachers responses on

the questionnaire to analyze and determine whether there is a common theme of beliefs regarding

the effectiveness of pre-service and in-service training for teaching ELLs. The questionnaire will

be given to teachers with a wide range of teaching experience of instructing ELL students.
LITERATURE REVIEW 9

Teachers responses on the questionnaire will inform both universities and school officials about

what next mesures can be taken in order to best assist teachers when instructing ELL students. If

teachers respond by stating pre-service training would be more effective, then this information

will be useful for universities to alter their training and education to meet these needs. This

would also pose the question of what instruction could be removed from the curriculum in place

of ELL training? Whereas, if they respond by stating that in-service training would be more

beneficial, then schools’ administration teams can use this information to determine how the

teachers would like to be supported, then implement those specific supports.

The procedural steps for the study would be to first identify the teachers that will be

participating in the study. A questionnaire will then be provided for these teachers to complete.

In order to keep responses to questionnaires as valid as possible, the participants will complete

the questionnaire in a safe environment where they do not feel threatened or pressured to respond

in a certain manner. The questionnaire will also be completely unanimous. Once completed, the

questionnaires will be collected and analyzed to determine themes across the response,

determining whether teachers believe pre-service or in-service training upon instructing ELL

students is more beneficial.

LITERATURE REVIEW 10

References

Cassady, J. C., Smith, L. L., & Thomas, C. L. (2018). Supporting emergent literacy for English

language learners with computer‐assisted instruction. Journal of Research in Reading,

41(2), 350–369. https://doi-org.proxy.longwood.edu/10.1111/1467-9817.12110

Castañeda, ME, Shen, X, Claros Berlioz, EM. This is my story: Latinx learners create digital

stories during a summer literacy camp. TESOL J. 2018; 9:e378. https://doi-

org.proxy.longwood.edu/10.1002/tesj.378

Goundouvas, Aristea. (2017). The Effects of Technology on ELL Students Writing

Fluency. Retrieved from Sophia, the St. Catherine University repository website:

https://sophia.stkate.edu/maed/241

Liu, Siping & Wang, Jian. (2015). Reading Cooperatively or Independently? Study on ELL

Student Reading Development. Reading Matrix: An International Online Journal,

15(1), 102–120.

Rizzuto, Carley, K. (2017). Teachers’ Perceptions of ELL Students: Do Their Attitudes Shape

Their Instruction? Teacher Educator, 52(3), 182–202.

https://doi-org.proxy.longwood.edu/10.1080/08878730.2017.1296912

Wissink, B., Starks, S. (2019). Elementary teachers’ perceptions of preparedness to teach

English Language Learners. Academic Journals, 14(10), 349-357. Retrieved

from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1216718.pdf