Date of Award
5-2016
Culminating Project Type
Thesis
Degree Name
English: Teaching English as a Second Language: M.A.
Department
English
College
College of Liberal Arts
First Advisor
Dr. James Robinson
Second Advisor
Dr. Michael Schwartz
Third Advisor
Dr. Robert Lavenda
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Keywords and Subject Headings
culture, ESL, ELL, interviews, teachers
Abstract
When working with English language learners from diverse backgrounds, knowledge about the cultural backgrounds of the students can promote more effective teaching and interactions. To explore how novice teachers’ knowledge of their students’ cultures affects their teaching, this qualitative study used a survey and cross-sectional, one-on-one interviews with 10 graduate assistant teachers in an M.A. TESL program teaching courses in a collegelevel IEP and College ESL program. Analysis of the surveys and interviews revealed common themes including interpersonal interaction such as group work and conflict as well as pedagogical challenges related to cultural differences. All of the participants acknowledged the importance of understanding their students’ cultures and some effects of culture on their practice. The participants who had taken a for-credit ESL and Culture course prior to the interviews were more confident in their roles and identities as teachers, scored themselves higher on the self-assessment of cultural knowledge, and were more hesitant to make generalizations about groups of students.
Recommended Citation
Lindquist, Amy, "The Novice ESL Teacher and Culture in the Classroom: Understandings and Adaptations" (2016). Culminating Projects in English. 51.
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/engl_etds/51
