Abstract
This chapter identifies and analyzes a small number of open access resources for bilingual teacher training that build capacity to better serve multilingual language learners with disabilities. The resources are targeted for improving pre-service and in-service teacher preparedness by (a) expanding teachers' background knowledge on emergent bilingual skills, (b) expanding bilingual teachers' background knowledge on inclusive education, (c) applying the concept of differentiation to classroom assessments created by bilingual teachers. Working within a conceptual framework that applies ideas from the work of Mahoney and Geraci, as well as standards for best practices in teacher training based in a global context, the author argues that teachers' skills can be advanced when engaging with carefully curated open access educational resources. The resources explored allow for expanding a professional base of knowledge and support teachers in taking action as a result of exposure to free professional resources.
TopConceptual Framework
This chapter positions bilingualism as a global norm, reflecting data that the majority of humans have multilingual capabilities, with notable differences on different continents. For example, in one survey, 56% of citizens of the European Union reported speaking more than one language (Marian & Shook, 2012) whereas in the U.S., 22% reported speaking more than one language (Dietrich & Hernandez, 2022). Several benefits of bilingualism are stronger cognitive skills (Marian & Shook, 2012, Marian, Shook & Schroeder, 2013, Marian, et. al, 2018) and stronger performance in school (García, 2008a; García, Johnson & Seltzer, 2017). Furthermore, research demonstrates that the multiple languages of MLLs are always operating in the brain, whether students are in a bilingual setting or not. It is very common that MLLs use their multiple languages in school and community settings, a language phenomenon referred to as translanguaging (García, Johnson & Seltzer, 2017; García, 2008a).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Response to Intervention (RTI): A model developed in the U.S. to work with students with learning differences that may or may not qualify as disabilities. The model proposes three tiers of teacher support before a school refers a student for an official and interdisciplinary evaluation of a disability. One goal of implementing the RTI model is to improve efficiency in extending extra educational services to struggling students as opposed to waiting for an eligibility process that may delay offering extra educational support to the student.
Bilingual Teacher: Those teachers who, through practice and training, integrate one or more home languages and the school language in their teaching. They seek to develop literacy and numeracy in the target language of the educational program and students’ home language. These teachers may teach in programs officially labeled as bilingual, or they may carry out bilingual practices outside of settings officially labeled bilingual.
Multilingual Language Learner Students (MLLs): A descriptive term for students who use and learn in more than one language. It’s closely related to plurilingual, bilingual and emergent bilingual. One difference between the term MLLs and bilingual student is that MLLs recognizes and normalizes the fact that some communities use more than two languages and some bilingual programs seek to educate in more than two languages.
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS): A model developed in the U.S. to improve the delivery of education to students with learning differences due to one or more disabilities. It is inclusive of the RTI model explained below, but it goes beyond pedagogical practices carried out by teachers to include the dimension of improving school and district leadership and teacher training in order to create more inclusive learning environments for students with disabilities. This model and its associated language is emerging as the primary term, particularly in regions of the U.S. with large numbers of MLLS.
Learning Disability: Learning disabilities may include verbal and non-verbal disabilities. By some accounts, the most common among them are: dyslexia, dysgraphia and auditory processing disorder.
Speech and Language Impairment: A difference or disability in the domain of language that is not connected to hearing loss or emotional disturbances. The disability can manifest as a phonological processing disorder that affects how the student produces sounds; a lexical deficit which may manifest as a difficulty in acquiring vocabulary; an above average level of difficulty with the internal grammar of sentences; and verbal sequencing problems, among others.
Emotional Disturbance: This U.S. term is used to refer to psychologically-based problems that impede learning. Although it is a part of the legal special education code, it is rarely used and a common alternative in the U.S. is to use the acronym (ED) or emotional disability. Typical problems that fit into this category are students who appear unmotivated, chronically disengaged, angry, inattentive, or chronically absent from school or class. These behaviors may manifest externally or internally, and it has been proposed that anxiety and depression are among the most common underlying causes, although not necessarily the only causes.