Practitioner Inquiry: Teaching literacy with English language learners

After thirty years plus of teaching English language learners, Rosemarie decided to formally study a problem that she had had enacting instructional conversations with her English language learners. In her work, she grappled with this teaching issue and recorded her learning with a small group of English language teachers who simultaneously sought to understand how to better enact instructional conversations with their learners. Grounded in sociocultural theory and articulated with critical discourse analysis,narrative analysis,and grounded theory, findings show that practitioners’ discourse changed to include more positive appraisals of their students’ classroom discussions after working through readings about dialogic teaching and implementing dialogic moves in their teaching. An awareness of how English language students are positioned in higher education is revealed with an understanding of the complex nuances of English language practitioner discourse. This research adds to existing scholarship in professional development for English language teachers and in-service teachers as well as to narratives about teaching literacy with English language learners.