Introduction
Indiana University, Bloomington, faces a problem common to other universities and states throughout the Midwest; this problem is the increase in the number of language minority and limited-English proficient learners enrolled in our schools and the lack of preparation programs available to help mainstream teachers meet their needs. As an example of the growth in the language minority population, for the 1987-88 school year, 11,745 school-age language minority learners were identified throughout Indiana. Six years later, 20, 899 students were identified as language minority -- an increase of fifty-six percent. As of 1994, language minority students were enrolled in 89 of Indiana’s 92 counties and in 249 out of 296 school corporations (Simich-Dudgeon & Boals, 1996), and they continue to make up an increasingly large percentage of the state’s K-12 and adult learners. These learners are vastly underserved in mainstream classrooms, and teachers in classrooms with these students are not equipped to deal with the special needs and problems of non-native English speakers. By learning techniques such as the appropriate use of visuals, ways to adjust readings to various English language competencies, and communicating in non-verbal ways, teachers can assist these learners in becoming full members of the classroom community. These learners then have the chance to succeed in school and go on to become productive members of Indiana’s workforce.
Higher education institutions in states with large language minority populations, such as Texas, New York, Arizona, and California, have excellent teacher education and professional development programs; these courses help teachers to learn about and meet the needs of language minority learners from a single language background (often Spanish) or in special pull-out classes in which all of the learners are from different minority language backgrounds. In Indiana, however, a more common scenario is that a regular classroom teacher will have English language learners from different language groups in a mainstream class. These learners could be speakers of any of the 196 native languages of language minority students in Indiana, and teachers are expected to accommodate their needs with no specific knowledge, training, or support. Urban areas such as Indianapolis are already under pressure from the federal government to train qualified teachers to deal with language minority learners; a proactive step to train teachers not only here but statewide will be instrumental in avoiding this situation in other areas.
The proposed course, a Web-based version of L442/L520, is an undergraduate/graduate course in methods of teaching language minority learners which fills a need in the state of Indiana and in the majority of other states which are in a similar situation. This course both supports a degree program that is available by distance education and provides workforce and professional continuing education. That teachers and administrators in the region recognize this need is becoming more evident as the number of teachers inquiring about opportunities for professional development in this area increases. This summer alone, the course served 26 pre- and in-service teachers and requests for information were received from school districts statewide.
The L442/L520 course will be accessible via the World Wide Web to pre-service and in-service teachers and administrators throughout the state and region and will provide opportunities to participants for asynchronous, yet interactive, learning. The Web-based version of this course includes tools to enable conferencing, file transfer of assignments, and sharing of assignments. Other technologies integrated into the course include computer-assisted language learning software, hard-copy of texts, and video clips. The course assignments will result in the on-going development of a set of pedagogically sound, classroom-tested resources and a network of teachers of language minority teachers throughout the region. The amount requested from IHETS for the development and implementation of the distance version of this course is $11,971.
Part 1. Needs to Be Addressed and Learners to Be Served
The need for teacher training in issues surrounding language minority learners
The state of Indiana is experiencing rapid growth in the number of language minority learners in grades K-12 statewide. The State Department of Education projects an exponential increase in the number of these learners in the near future. Native Spanish speakers comprise more than half of this group of learners who are scattered across the state with areas of concentration in Indianapolis, Gary, Elkhart, and other metropolitan and rural areas. These same trends can be seen in adult language minority populations throughout the state.
The large and growing segment of limited-English proficient students in Indiana is currently far underserved -- although 16% of the K-12 students identified as language minority are enrolled in Chapter 1 and other special programs, others have been placed in handicapped or special education classes and over half are regularly abandoned to "sink or swim" in regular mainstream classes. Funding for teacher education programs under Title IV is constantly in jeopardy, and resources for bilingual education (BE), English as a Second Language (ESL), and other focused programs are far below the level needed to address the special needs of these learners. In addition, a 1996 Office of Civil Rights review of the Indianapolis Public Schools cited IPS for noncompliance in several areas regarding the education of limited English proficient students. IPS and other districts are looking for ways to bring their personnel into compliance with federal law. To do so, they must provide more teachers, and eventually all of their teachers, with the proper training, a gap filled by the proposed course.
Due to a dearth of BE and ESL programs, trained in-state professionals, and government support for second language programs, already overburdened regular classroom teachers must most often find their own ways to address the needs of their language minority students. The proposed course offers teachers a structured, interactive, technology-based forum in which to learn new ideas, test applications, discuss critical issues related to language and culture, and to work with the support of colleagues throughout the state to better prepare themselves to serve their language minority learners.
Target audience and significance
The target audience for the proposed course is mainstream in-service and pre-service teachers in the state of Indiana who are or will be forced to find ways to address the needs of their language minority learners.
The School of Education at IU Bloomington and IUPUI recognize the importance of this task and audience and have made it an important focus of recent program development. The Bilingual Endorsement program on the Bloomington campus was developed during the 1994-5 academic year by a team of educators from the IU School of Education's departments of Curriculum and Instruction and Language Education and was funded as a special multi-campus program under the President’s Strategic Directions Initiative; this program continues to grow under the direction of Dr. Carlos Ovando. In conjunction with the program, IUB and IUPUI coordinate a summer institute, offered via satellite, for learners who can attend at a variety of locations. The L442/L520 course is offered as one of two courses that make up this institute. The response from Indiana educators has been positive; seventy-six pre- and in-service teachers at three Indiana sites attended the Institute in the summer of 1998 for university credit or for professional development. Many teachers in Indiana and other states, however, are not able to attend classes on the Bloomington campus or free their schedules to attend this special institute.
Information sharing
The target audience for this course will be able to obtain information about the course in several ways: Information will be posted in the IU school catalog and on a Web site which describes all of the distance courses in the School of Education at IUB. It will also be announced on statewide electronic lists, in mailings, and at conferences related to language minority learners. State departments of education across the country will also be notified of the course.
Part 2. Course Choice
L442/L520 includes approaches to and their application in English as a second language, native language, and dual language (bilingual) classes, and offers teachers a range of ideas for assisting language minority populations in mainstream K-adult classrooms. It is offered on the IU Bloomington campus at the undergraduate and graduate levels. It is a practice-based course available to pre-service and in-service teachers and administrators either as a part of the bilingual or English as a Second Language endorsement/minor, the Master in Language Education, or as a single course for professional development. Although participants are encouraged to study for the complete endorsement (which should be on-line in the future), this course is one that fulfills a growing need by providing theory and practice for teachers with language minority learners and by targeting a wide range of possible participants.
Technologies
Technology use in this course will be patterned after other successful Web-based courses developed on the Bloomington campus. Along with standard texts, the course includes a university-supported communications system (conferencing, e-mail, synchronous chat), upload sites for assignments, posting capabilities, and downloadable document access. A crucial component will be video segments of actual practice in classrooms with language minority learners. For an example of these technologies and their integration into instructional design, please visit the L530: Introduction to Computer-Assisted Language Learning distance course site (http://www.indiana.edu/~cell).
Part 3. Institutional Commitment
As noted above (under "Target Audience and Significance"), the School of Education in Bloomington and the university as a whole have made a tremendous commitment in terms of support and resources for the program of which the proposed course is a part. Over the past three years, the School of Education has redesigned and developed new courses on campus to address the challenges presented by language minority learners. Faculty time and matching support have been contributed to the SDI funded bilingual program. Interactive television resources have been allocated to the summer institute and new faculty with relevant backgrounds have been hired. The Departments of Language Education, Curriculum and Instruction, and Spanish, with help from the Indiana State Department of Education, continue to work to increase the number of participants in the regular courses and summer institute. The institution is committed to addressing this problem but is limited in its ability to get instruction to the people who need it.
Part 4. Instructional Design Plan
Goals
The goals for the course are for participants to be able to:
- discuss intelligently the language learning process and its relation to learning in the content areas
- develop appropriate instructional activities
- assess learner performance and competence and select appropriate materials
- integrate language skills into daily instruction
- access and develop resources, including trade books, computer-based information, and human resources
Course topics
Based loosely on the design of the on-site version of the course, the proposed course features modules based on critical issues and approaches to teaching language minority learners. Specific course topics included to meet the course goals include:
Language and culture: Drawing on existing strengths
Language learning environments: Modifying classrooms and tasks
Computer-assisted language learning: Resources for learning
Approaches and techniques for including language minority students
Sheltered Content Instruction: Modifying assignments
Authentic assessment: Noting and communicating progress
Activities, deliverables, and timing
Course activities which assist participants in mastering the goals for the course include discussion of text and video segments, materials reviews, materials development, lesson development, and field observations. Deliverables include an electronic reflective journal, reading logs posted to the class discussion forum, a discussion lead, lesson presentations, and a materials set. The on-site course requires a field experience working with language minority learners; the proposed course will implement the same requirement on an experimental basis. We expect that participants statewide will collaborate on the field experience as the on-site students do in classrooms in Bloomington and Indianapolis. The proposed course may run concurrently with the regular on-site course during the 16-week semester, but participants will determine how and when they go to "class."
Part 5. Course Evaluation Plan and Plans for Review and Acceptance
In gathering data that provides information about effective teaching/learning, we will examine, among other data, discussion forum transcripts, regular student evaluations, review of site by peers, and participant’s electronic journal entries
Important results will be presented or published in local and statewide workshops, university- and state-wide forums, field-wide journals, and national conferences.
Part 6. Schedule/Timeline
Preliminary design of the proposed course has already begun; this "draft" will be refined, implemented, and tested during the spring of 1999, with the goal of the course being beta-tested for the 1999 Summer Institute. Improvements to the course site will be made during and after the actual course implementation, with full implementation expected in fall 1999.
Part 7. Key Personnel
The following are key personnel on this project. Other consultants and designers may be included if needed.
Project Director - Dr. Joy Egbert. Dr. Egbert , an Assistant Professor in the Department of Language Education, is currently the instructor of the L442/L520 course. Her roles for this project are budget and oversight, media specialist, and instructional designer. A brief narrative outlining Dr. Egbert’s experience with related course content and using technology to support instruction is attached in the primary appendix.
Project Consultant – Dr. Carlos Ovando. Dr. Ovando is the Director of the Bilingual Education endorsement program at IU. He initiated and has taught the L442/L520 course and those that precede and follow it. He will consult on course content such as readings and activities.
Project Specialist -- Keng Soon Soo is a PhD student in Instructional Technology Design, an expert in computer-assisted language learning and English as a Second Language, and a former Webmaster at IUPUI. Keng will assist in site design and content.
Computer Support – This person will assist in the design and coding of technical aspects of the site, including integrating the video clips and making the course materials accessible to learners using a variety of technologies.
Reference
Simich-Dudgeon, C., & Boals, T.. (1996). Language and education policy in the state of Indiana: Implications for language minority students. TESOL Quarterly, 30 (3), 537-555.
Primary Appendix
The qualifications of the Director are noted below.
Dr. Joy Egbert has taught ESL at K-adult levels and undergraduate and graduate teacher education courses for a variety of organizations over the past 12 years. She is an award-winning teacher, researcher, materials designer, and software developer. She was a member of the School of Education’s 1997 Distance Education Task Force and has designed and implemented the School’s L530: Introduction to Computer-Assisted Language Learning distance course. She has published and presented widely in the areas of educational technology, second language learning theory and practice, and computer-assisted language learning. Her edited text, Computer-Assisted Language Learning Environments: Research, Practice, and Critical Issues, is due out this spring from Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL, Inc). As Technology Coordinator for IUB’s Center for English Language Training, Egbert was instrumental in using technology to support ESL instruction and in training other instructors to do so. She continues to integrate innovative practice and technology throughout her courses in the School of Education.
