Date of Award

Fall 11-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Primary Advisor

Dr. Joyce Harth

Abstract

This study investigated how well pre-service teachers felt prepared to teach English Language Learners in the areas of second language (L2) acquisition and culture. 62 preservice teachers responded to a survey sent out to education majors at Southeastern University. Majority of the participants in the study indicated that they had less than adequate knowledge in the area of L2 acquisition and were less than adequately prepared to educate ELLs in the area of L2 acquisition. The participants indicated that they wanted professional development opportunities that focused on pedagogy for the specific stages of L2 acquisition. Regarding culture, a little more than half of the participants felt they had adequate or more than adequate knowledge in culture to educate ELLs, majority of participants felt they had some knowledge of culture but not specialized knowledge of culture, and more than half of the participants felt they were adequately or more than adequately prepared to teach with regards to culture. The participants indicated that they wanted professional development opportunities that focused on specialized cultural knowledge and cultural responsive pedagogy. The goal should be that all students feel more than adequately prepared regarding L2 acquisition, culture, and pedagogy. To help achieve this goal, the researchers suggest that ESOL instruction should be thoroughly integrated within all education classes through specific instruction and application of pedagogy for the L2 acquisition process and culturally responsive pedagogy.

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