Abstract:

In schools across the United States and in other countries, the students who consistently score below their peers on state standardized tests are the children of immigrants who are acquiring the majority language as their second language. In the United States, under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), all 50 states are required to have English language proficiency standards and state assessments aligned to those standards. Every school’s English language learner (ELL) population must show yearly growth in English language proficiency in all areas: oral language, literacy, and content vocabulary. Education departments in colleges and universities must adequately prepare bilingual teacher candidates to meet the challenges of increased accountability for the ELLs they will educate. This phenomenon not only pertains to the United States. Similar scenarios are played out in many schools in countries which are grappling with educating students who are not proficient in the majority language. This paper will explore the linguistic and psychological conundrum teacher candidates must consider when teaching minority students in the majority language and possibly the students' native language.

Keywords:

Teacher dispositions, immigrant children, teaching, majority language, assessment.