Primary Teachers' Use of Communicative Strategies for Linguistically Diverse Learners: A Cross-Cultural Case Study

Authors

Geraldine Mongillo, William Paterson University of New JerseyFollow
Dorothy Feola, William Paterson University of New JerseyFollow
Rochelle Goldberg Kaplan, William Paterson University of New JerseyFollow
Vered Vaknin, Western Galilee College, IsraelFollow
Randa Abbas, The Arab Academic College for Education – Haifa, ISRAELFollow

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of communicative strategies employed by two primary grade teachers whose students’ home language differed from the language of instruction. The communicative strategies examined included verbal, gestural, and other visual modes of interaction within classroom discourse to promote student learning. One school we studied was in Northern Israel and one was in New Jersey in the US. In Israel, the teacher taught using formal Modern Standard Arabic while the children were familiar only with Spoken Arabic. In New Jersey, the teacher taught using English while the students were largely from Spanish-speaking homes. Neither teacher had special training in working with diverse language learners. Findings generated two major categories of communicative strategies utilized by both teachers: Concretization of abstract concepts and Situational Language Use. The significance of this study is that it addresses the need identified by practitioners and researchers worldwide for improved literacy and mathematics teaching and learning for diverse language learners.

Recommended Citation

Mongillo, Geraldine; Feola, Dorothy; Kaplan, Rochelle Goldberg; Vaknin, Vered; and Abbas, Randa (2019) "Primary Teachers' Use of Communicative Strategies for Linguistically Diverse Learners: A Cross-Cultural Case Study," The Language and Literacy Spectrum: Vol. 29: Iss. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/lls/vol29/iss1/5