Showing papers in "TESOL Quarterly in 2015"
TL;DR: The Tool for the Automatic Analysis of LExical Sophistication (TAALES), which calculates text scores for 135 classic and newly developed lexical indices related to word frequency, range, bigram and trigram frequency, academic language, and psycholinguistic word information, is introduced.
Abstract: This study explores the construct of lexical sophistication and its applications for measuring second language lexical and speaking proficiency. In doing so, the study introduces the Tool for the Automatic Analysis of LExical Sophistication (TAALES), which calculates text scores for 135 classic and newly developed lexical indices related to word frequency, range, bigram and trigram frequency, academic language, and psycholinguistic word information. TAALES is freely available; runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems; and has a simple graphic user interface that allows for batch processing of .txt files. The tool is fast, reliable, and outputs results to a comma-separated value file that can be accessed using spreadsheet software. The study examines the ability of TAALES indices to explain the variance in human judgments of lexical proficiency and speaking proficiency for second language (L2) learners. Overall, these indices were able to explain 47.5% of the variance in holistic scores of lexical proficiency and 48.7% of the variance in holistic scores of speaking proficiency. This study has important implications for second language acquisition, for assessing L2 learners' productive skills (writing and speaking), and for L2 pedagogy. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.
288 citations
TL;DR: The authors propose a framework for identifying major causes of underachievement among low socioeconomic status, multilingual, and marginalized group students and implement evidence-based instructional responses to address them.
Abstract: The construct of identity text conjoins notions of identity affirmation and literacy engagement as equally relevant to addressing causes of underachievement among low socioeconomic status, multilingual, and marginalized group students. Despite extensive empirical evidence supporting the impact on academic achievement of both identity affirmation and literacy engagement, these variables have been largely ignored in educational policies and instructional practices. The authors propose a framework for identifying major causes of underachievement among these three overlapping groups and for implementing evidence-based instructional responses. The framework argues that schools can respond to the devaluation of identity experienced by many students and communities by exploring instructional policies and strategies that enable students to use their emerging academic language and multilingual repertoires for powerful identity-affirming purposes. Drawing on projects involving First Nations and immigrant-background multilingual students, the authors document the profound transformations in academic, intellectual, and personal identity that multimodal identity text work is capable of engendering.
163 citations
TL;DR: This article found that the ideal candidate is overwhelmingly depicted as a young, White, enthusiastic native speaker of English from a stable list of inner-circle countries, and that these sites place more emphasis on the opportunities to make money, travel, and experience adventure in exotic cultures that come with the TESOL jobs being advertised, rather than on the jobs themselves.
Abstract: Over the past few decades, scholars have paid increasing attention to the role of native speakerism in the field of TESOL. Several recent studies have exposed instances of native speakerism in TESOL recruitment discourses published through a variety of media, but none have focused specifically on professional websites advertising programs in Southeast Asia. In this article, the authors report findings from a critical discourse analysis of textual and visual features in 59 websites recruiting for specific language schools located in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. They find that the ideal candidate is overwhelmingly depicted as a young, White, enthusiastic native speaker of English from a stable list of inner-circle countries. Furthermore, they find that these sites place more emphasis on the opportunities to make money, travel, and experience adventure in exotic cultures that come with the TESOL jobs being advertised, rather than on the jobs themselves. The authors conclude by providing a discussion of their findings informed by work in cultural studies and critical race theory, and suggest ways in which readers can fight against the entrenchment of native speaker and White privilege in the field of TESOL.
163 citations
TL;DR: This paper found that out-of-class learning composed of diversified constituents that met the varied needs in language learning and complemented inclass learning by striking a balance between focus on meaning and focus on form were positively associated with good English grades, English language learning efficacy, and enjoyment.
Abstract: Out-of-class learning constitutes an important context for human development, and active engagement in out-of-class activities is associated with successful language development. However, not all out-of-class experiences are equally beneficial to learning, and it is of paramount importance to understand what quality out-of-class English language learning entails. This study surveyed 82 middle school EFL students on their out-of-class English language learning in order to identify the characteristics of the experiences that are associated with good learning outcomes. The study found that out-of-class learning composed of diversified constituents that met the varied needs in language learning and complemented in-class learning by striking a balance between focus on meaning and focus on form were positively associated with good English grades, English language learning efficacy, and enjoyment. It also found that parents and teachers were significant sources of influence on the quality of students' out-of-class learning.
123 citations
TL;DR: This paper conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the overall effectiveness of extensive reading, whether learners' age impacts learning, and whether the length of time second language learners engage in extensive reading influences test scores.
Abstract: The purposes of this study were to investigate the overall effectiveness of extensive reading, whether learners' age impacts learning, and whether the length of time second language learners engage in extensive reading influences test scores. The author conducted a meta-analysis to answer research questions and to identify future research directions. He included two types of empirical studies—those including group contrasts based on a comparison of a control group and experimental groups, and pre–post contrasts that only include experimental groups—in the analysis. After a thorough literature search with numerous search engines and manual and electronic examination of related journals, the meta-analysis included 34 studies (two PhD dissertations and 32 research articles) that provided 43 different effect sizes and a total sample size of 3,942 participants. Findings show a medium effect size (d = 0.46) for group contrasts and a larger one (d = 0.71) for pre–post contrasts for students who received extensive reading instruction compared to those who did not. In sum, the available research to date suggests that extensive reading improves students' reading proficiency and should be a part of language learning curricula.
118 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the multimodal compositions of students in a course in English for science at a Hong Kong university and generated a theoretical model of remix practices, which can be applied to the teaching and evaluation of multimodi-al compositions in English language courses.
Abstract: A number of scholars maintain that the affordances of digital media to easily copy, edit, and share digital content has led to the development of a remix culture in which the amateur creation of cultural artifacts—often remixes, mashups, or parodies based on the creative works of others—has proliferated. At the same time, in TESOL there is increasing interest in engaging students with processes of digital multimodal composition, focusing not only on language proficiency as it is traditionally conceived but also on the strategic use of multimodal resources and collaborative tools to reach a wide authentic audience on the Internet. One issue which such approaches must face is the tendency for some students to draw upon and remix existing creative works in their digital compositions. In particular, the issue is whether this practice of remix promotes or compromises the expression of learner voice. This article considers these questions by examining the multimodal compositions of students in a course in English for science at a Hong Kong university. The analysis generates a theoretical model of remix practices, which can be applied to the teaching and evaluation of multimodal compositions in English language courses.
108 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined a specific case in which English language learners (ELLs) made short videos about sustainability and social justice, to determine the diverse literacy practices such activities entailed, and they found that children produced storyboards and scripts, and videos with titles, and engaged in several other literacy activities, discussing what "made sense" in sequencing in a documentary story, what sustainability, social justice meant, how to report on information they had gathered, and so on.
Abstract: Many observers have argued that minority language speakers often have difficulty with school-based literacy and that the poorer school achievement of such learners occurs at least partly as a result of these difficulties. At the same time, many have argued for a recognition of the multiple literacies required for citizens in a 21st century world. In this study the researchers examined a specific case in which English language learners (ELLs) made short videos about sustainability and social justice, to determine the diverse literacy practices such activities entailed. The researchers found that children produced storyboards and scripts, and videos with titles, and engaged in several other literacy activities, discussing what “made sense” in sequencing in a documentary story, what sustainability and social justice meant, how to report on information they had gathered, and so on. They also examined how new materiality theories might assist us in analyzing how ELLs engage in digital literacy activities. These theories encourage us to think about how human beings interact with other kinds of materials to accomplish perhaps novel tasks. With respect to language learning, such a view might challenge our conceptions of language and literacy learning. For new materiality theorists, language and literacy cannot be an “out-there” kind of “thing” that learners put “inside” themselves. Rather, languages and literacies and people and their activities and other materials accompany one another, and are entangled in sociomaterial assemblages that rub up against one another in complex and as yet unpredictable ways.
102 citations
TL;DR: The authors investigated first language (L1) effects on listener judgment of comprehensibility and accentedness in second-language (L2) speech and found that comprehensibility was associated with several linguistic variables (segmentals, prosody, fluency, lexis, grammar, and discourse).
Abstract: The current study investigated first language (L1) effects on listener judgment of comprehensibility and accentedness in second language (L2) speech. The participants were 60 university-level adult speakers of English from four L1 backgrounds (Chinese, Romance, Hindi, Farsi), with 15 speakers per group, performing a picture narrative task. Ten native English listeners used continuous sliding scales to evaluate the speakers’ audio recordings for comprehensibility, accentedness, as well as 10 linguistic variables drawn from the domains of pronunciation, fluency, lexis, grammar, and discourse. While comprehensibility was associated with several linguistic variables (segmentals, prosody, fluency, lexis, grammar), accentedness was primarily linked to pronunciation (segmentals, word stress, intonation). The relative strength of these associations also varied as a function of the speakers’ L1, especially for comprehensibility, with Chinese speakers influenced chiefly by pronunciation variables (specifically segmental errors), Hindi speakers by lexicogrammar variables, Romance speakers by variables spanning both pronunciation and lexicogrammar domains, and Farsi speakers showing no strong association with any linguistic variable. These results overall suggest that speakers’ L1 plays an important role in listener judgments of L2 comprehensibility and that instructors aiming to promote L2 speakers’ communicative success may need to expand their teaching targets beyond segmentals to include prosody-, fluency-, and lexicogrammar-based targets.
97 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce the notion of individual network of practice (INoP) as a viable construct for analyzing academic (discourse) socialization in second language (L2) contexts and illustrate how INoP was applied in a study that examined the academic English socialization of Mexican students at a Canadian university.
Abstract: This article introduces the notion of individual network of practice (INoP) as a viable construct for analyzing academic (discourse) socialization in second language (L2) contexts. The authors provide an overview of social practice theories that have informed the development of INoP—community of practice (CoP; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) and social network theory (Milroy, 1987)—and review relevant literature on academic discourse socialization and more general L2 learning studies that have used either CoP or social network as theoretical frameworks. Next, they illustrate how INoP was applied in a study that examined the academic English socialization of Mexican students at a Canadian university. Findings from the INoP analysis of three participants provide evidence of its rich potential for examining academic (discourse) socialization processes in other contexts and possibly using complementary forms of data analysis involving the analysis of interactional data. The authors suggest future applications of INoP in TESOL to help refine and validate this construct. Investigating the INoPs of other groups of English language learners in English-medium institutions will help scholars, educators, and students better understand the often unseen but vital social processes that mediate learning and consider ways of maximizing the potential of social networks and practices for their own educational purposes.
96 citations
89 citations
TL;DR: This paper presented an empirically grounded approach to storytelling as interaction in an L2 English interview with an adult immigrant in the United States, where they examined the interactional practices through which the storyteller and story recipient launch, produce and end the telling of a story that furthers the purpose of the interview.
Abstract: Autobiographic research interviews have become an accepted and valued method of qualitative inquiry in TESOL and applied linguistics more broadly. In recent discussions surrounding the epistemological treatment of autobiographic stories, TESOL researchers have increasingly called for more attention to the ways in which stories are embedded in interaction and thus are bound up with the social contexts of their production. This paper advances these efforts by demonstrating an empirically grounded approach to storytelling as interaction. Drawing on the research tradition on storytelling in conversation analysis, the article offers a sample analysis of a story produced in an L2 English interview with an adult immigrant in the United States. By engaging sequential conversation analysis, membership categorization analysis, and occasioned semantics, it examines the interactional practices through which the storyteller and story recipient launch, produce, and end the telling of a story that furthers the purpose of the autobiographic interview. By following closely the participants' coordinated actions as they unfold in time, we trace how the parties accomplish the storytelling as an intelligible and meaningful activity through sequence organization and turn design. We conclude with recommendations for extending storytelling research in TESOL to meet the evolving needs and interests of the field.
TL;DR: The authors investigated the relationship between second language (L2) listening and a range of task and listener characteristics, and found that L2 listening task difficulty correlated significantly with indicators of phonological, discourse, and lexical complexity and with referential cohesion.
Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between second language (L2) listening and a range of task and listener characteristics. More specifically, for a group of 93 nonnative English speakers, the researchers examined the extent to which linguistic complexity of the listening task input and response, and speed and explicitness of the input, were associated with task difficulty. In addition, the study explored the relationship between L2 listening and listeners’ working memory and listening anxiety. The participants responded to 30 multiple-choice listening items and took an English proficiency test. They also completed two working memory tasks and a listening anxiety questionnaire. The researchers analysed listening input and responses in terms of a variety of measures, using Cohmetrix, WebVocabProfiler, Praat, and the PHRASE list, in combination with expert analysis. Task difficulty and participant ability were determined by means of Rasch analysis, and correlational analyses were run to investigate the task and listener variables’ association with L2 listening. The study found that L2 listening task difficulty correlated significantly with indicators of phonological, discourse, and lexical complexity and with referential cohesion. Better L2 listening performances were delivered by less anxious listeners and, depending on L2 listening measure, by those with a higher working memory capacity.
TL;DR: This article reported a study of children's incidental grammar acquisition of two grammatical features (plural -s and copula be) in two types of instruction: focus on form (FonF) and focus on forms (FONF).
Abstract: Incidental grammar acquisition involves learners “picking up” a grammatical feature while their primary focus is on some other aspect of language—either message content or another language feature that is taught directly. This article reports a study of children's incidental grammar acquisition of two grammatical features—plural -s and copula be—in two types of instruction—focus on form (FonF) and focus on forms (FonFs). The two features were not directly taught, but opportunities for learning them occurred in classroom interactions. Thirty young beginner Japanese learners were divided into two groups (FonF and FonFs) and received nine repeated lessons over 5 weeks. The study examined learners' acquisition of the two structures as measured by tests and sought explanations for the results in terms of the differences in interactions that arose in the two instructional contexts and, in particular, opportunities for attending to the two grammatical features in these interactions. The children in the FonF classroom demonstrated acquisition of plural -s but not of copula be. Neither structure was acquired by the children in the FonFs classroom. Analysis of the classroom interactions show that there was a functional need to attend to plural -s (but not copula be) only in the FonF classroom.
TL;DR: The authors investigated the learning experience and reflections of 14 Chinese learners who had received English private tutoring (EPT) during their secondary education in Hong Kong and found that participants did not regard EPT as an effective way to increase their English proficiency because of its excessive focus on examination skills instead of the use of English as a language of global communication.
Abstract: Given that private tutoring has received increasing attention in research as a global educational phenomenon with significant implications for educational practices, it has become necessary for TESOL researchers and practitioners to become aware of its impact on language learning and pedagogy. This study investigated the learning experience and reflections of 14 Chinese learners who had received English private tutoring (EPT) during their secondary education in Hong Kong. Each participant completed a background questionnaire and participated in a one-to-one semistructured interview. The analysis revealed participants' ambivalent and paradoxical attitudes toward EPT. Although they considered EPT indispensable for secondary education, they did not regard it as an effective way to increase their English proficiency because of its excessive focus on examination skills instead of the use of English as a language of global communication. The findings were interpreted with reference to contextual conditions where learning for assessment and competitions prevail. This study sheds light on the world of shadow education that exists beyond the boundaries of mainstream classroom settings. Further research on shadow TESOL practices is needed to help researchers and practitioners in TESOL appreciate the unintended consequences of educational changes and their profound impact on learning as mediated by sociocultural conditions.
TL;DR: In this paper, a brief intervention that reduces negative language attitudes and thus promotes communication between NS undergraduates and NNSs who are international teaching assistants (ITAs) was demonstrated. But the intervention was limited to cooperative problem-solving exercises with ITAs.
Abstract: Intelligibility problems between native speakers (NSs) and nonnative speakers (NNSs) of English are often attributed to some perceived inadequacy of the NNSs. This emphasis on the NNSs’ role in successful communication is highly problematic, given that intelligibility is a negotiated process between speaker and listener. In some cases, NSs have negative attitudes toward NNSs that impair their willingness to communicate with NNSs and to acknowledge proficient NNS speech. Thus, NS attitudes are also important factors in the success of NS–NNS communication. This article demonstrates a brief intervention that reduces negative language attitudes and thus promotes communication between NS undergraduates and NNSs who are international teaching assistants (ITAs). Two studies are reported. In both, undergraduates engaged in cooperative problem-solving exercises with ITAs. Results show that undergraduates exposed to structured intergroup contact subsequently rated ITAs higher in instructional competence and comprehensibility. Future applications of contact theory promise to improve NSs’ comprehension of nonnative English and to cultivate their global citizenship.
TL;DR: This paper investigated the effects of different lengths of pretask planning time (nil, 30 seconds, 1-minute, 2-minutes, 3minutes and 5minutes) on learners' oral test performance in terms of both the quantity and quality of the test-takers' linguistic output using discourse analytical measures.
Abstract: The effect of planning on second language (L2) learners' oral performance is a hotly debated topic in the field of second language acquisition. However, studies on the effect of different amounts of planning time have been quite limited, especially in a testing context. The present study investigated the effects of different lengths of pretask planning time (nil, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes) on L2 learners' oral test performance in terms of both the quantity and quality of the test-takers' linguistic output using discourse analytical measures. The findings suggest that the provision of planning time positively influenced both the quantity and quality of oral production; of the three aspects of quality (fluency, accuracy, and complexity), accuracy improved the most, with 1-minute planning time being the threshold that led to significant improvement. Concerning different planning lengths, a positive effect of planning was not always observed in line with the increase of time: too short a time (e.g., 30 seconds) was inadequate for improvement, whereas too long a time (e.g., 5 minutes) engendered a diminishing effect.
TL;DR: This paper investigated how ESL learners used English to express ideas that were first developed in Cantonese (the students' first language) using a discourse analysis of the criticality and elaborateness of the utterances of one group of students.
Abstract: Critical thinking is believed to be an essential skill for 21st century survival and therefore has been widely promoted in education. In Hong Kong, critical thinking is one of nine generic skills to be developed across all subjects, including English. How students do critical thinking in ESL, which is seldom used outside school and yet holds high social value, has, however, been underresearched. This article is concerned with how some low-English-proficiency senior secondary students in Hong Kong conducted critical talk in English. The study specifically investigates how the students used English to express ideas that were first developed in Cantonese (the students' first language). Based on a discourse analysis of the criticality and elaborateness of the Cantonese and English utterances of one group of students, the authors discuss findings that reveal a significant contrast between the students' more elaborated discourse in Cantonese and a restricted discourse in English characterised by reduced content and limited lexicogrammatical structures. The findings call for more attention to the impacts of linguistic proficiencies on critical thinking performance of ESL learners and to how the communicative gaps in critical literate talk revealed in ESL learners' first and second languages can be gradually reduced.
TL;DR: In this article, a research project investigating leadership practices which support ESOL teaching and learning in two New Zealand schools, where English language learners are a minority in the classroom is presented.
Abstract: With a substantial increase in the numbers of English language learners in schools, particularly in countries where English is the primary use first language, it is vital that educators are able to meet the needs of ethnically and linguistically changing and challenging classrooms. However, despite the recognition of the importance of effective leadership for successful teaching and learning, there is a lack of research into leadership of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). This article reports on a research project investigating leadership practices which support ESOL teaching and learning in two New Zealand schools, where English language learners are a minority in the classroom. A number of successful leadership practices for ESOL emerged, including establishing clear goals, enabling leaders to be role models, providing ESOL professional learning, and empowering teaching and learning for ESOL. A number of challenges to successful leadership were also revealed, such as the marginalisation of ESOL and a business as usual approach, with English language learners expected to fit into existing practices. This article concludes that as numbers of English language learners continue to grow in schools, a strong focus on developing leadership practices and capacity to support ESOL teaching and learning is essential.
TL;DR: The authors argue that nonnative preservice teachers are just as susceptible to foreign language anxiety as are inexperienced language learners, a claim carrying important implications for the EFL classroom, and propose steps toward helping preserve teachers cope with and hopefully overcome their language anxiety.
Abstract: This article argues that nonnative preservice teachers are just as susceptible to foreign language anxiety as are inexperienced language learners, a claim carrying important implications for the EFL classroom. The results of the study described in this article indicate that anxious preservice teachers experience significant levels of language anxiety to a degree that may cause them to avoid using the target language and language-intensive teaching practices in their classrooms. The article also proposes steps toward helping preservice teachers cope with and hopefully overcome their language anxiety.
TL;DR: In this article, a middle school English teacher in South Korea discusses the ways in which neoliberal reforms in education intersect with English, and how such links have entailed the class-based polarization of education in Korean society.
Abstract: Drawing upon the experiences and dilemmas of the author, a middle school English teacher in South Korea, this article illuminates the ways in which neoliberal reforms in education intersect with English, and how such links have entailed the class-based polarization of education in Korean society. Given the prominent role that English plays in neoliberal policies—namely, serving as a direct index of elite schools and track placement—unequal access to English across the class spectrum restricts the prospects of disadvantaged students in the neoliberal education market. Tracking is one way in which this unequal access is manifest in the Korean educational landscape. Tracking refers to placing students in accordance with their academic abilities in order to tailor instruction to best meet students' needs (Oakes, 1985). Contrary to its intended purpose, however, tracking has been vehemently criticized for exacerbating educational inequalities (Gamoran, 2010; Hallam & Ireson, 2005; Oakes, 1985; Oakes, Gamoran, & Page, 1992). By locating the tracking policy against the backdrop of the local significance of English, this article identifies hidden agendas underlying tracking practices surrounding English, and further highlights how the interplay of English and neoliberalism mediates relations of class and inequality while justifying policies and practices surrounding English as the imperatives of globalization.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss how drama as a multimodal performance can be a powerful means to represent marginalized identities and to stimulate critical thought among teachers and learners about material conditions of existence and social inequalities.
Abstract: University of British ColumbiaVancouver, British Columbia, CanadaThis article discusses how drama as a multimodal performance canbe a powerful means to represent marginalized identities and to stim-ulate critical thought among teachers and learners about materialconditions of existence and social inequalities.doi: 10.1002/tesq.235
TL;DR: In this article, a transdisciplinary, translocal literature review of the relationship between English and conflict is presented, concluding that teachers need to be equipped to facilitate critical and creative engagement with English not apart from broader sociopolitical realities but in relation to these, and that the implications of conflict for language learning are relevant across the wider TESOL community.
Abstract: Skyrocketing military spending, ongoing military conflicts, and human displacement worldwide have significant consequences for the teaching and learning of English. TESOL increasingly requires a robust research base that can provide informed, critical guidance in preparing English language teachers for work in and near conflict zones, for teaching refugees and asylum seekers, and, more broadly, for teaching English in highly militarized times. This investigation, which takes the form of a transdisciplinary, translocal literature review, consolidates and extends TESOL’s peace–conflict studies through a close examination of two areas that are connected but rarely considered in tandem: TESOL’s multiple involvements and entanglements in armed and militarized conflicts and their aftermath, and the challenges of teaching English in a conflict zone or for students who have escaped or been exiled from one. Implications for pedagogy and further research are suggested. The argument is, in short, that the dialectical relationship between TESOL and conflict is in urgent need of collegial scrutiny, that teachers need to be equipped to facilitate critical and creative engagement with English not apart from broader sociopolitical realities but in relation to these, and that the implications of conflict for language learning are relevant across the wider TESOL community, given world developments. doi: 10.1002/tesq.187
TL;DR: The authors argue that poetry, if reconceptualised as a multimodal genre, can rejuvenate literacy, particularly in classrooms where English is not the first language of students, by integrating multimodality and orality, two fields of study that deal with meaning making.
Abstract: This conceptual article theorises the role of poetry in English classrooms from a multimodal perspective. It discusses the gap between the practices of poetry inside and outside South African schools, particularly where English is taught as an additional language (EAL). The former is shown to be monomodal and prescriptive, while the latter is multimodal and exciting. The reconceptualisation of poetry as a multimodal genre is effected through the integration of multimodality and orality, two fields of study that deal with meaning making. The article attempts to bridge the divide between poetry in print and in performance. It begins with a critique of the current conceptualisation of poetry that underlies the EAL curriculum, practice, and assessment in South Africa. Through bringing multimodality and oral studies together complementarily, and building on empirical studies, an alternative conceptualisation of poetry is constructed. An English poem by a South African Xhosa-speaking poet is used to demonstrate the curricular, pedagogic, and research implications of this alternative approach. The authors argue that poetry, if reconceptualised as a multimodal genre, can rejuvenate literacy, particularly in classrooms where English is not the first language of students.
TL;DR: In this paper, a qualitative study focused on the potential influence students' English as a second language status has on teachers' placement decisions and found that even when teachers are asked to base their recommendations only on academic achievement, some teachers still attend to arbitrary factors such as a learner's group membership.
Abstract: This qualitative study focuses on the potential influence students’ English as a second language (ESL) status has on teachers’ placement decisions. Specifically, the study examines 21 teachers’ responses to and decisions regarding fictional student record cards. Findings reveal that some teachers’ placement decisions were influenced by factors beyond a student's academic achievement, such as a student's ethnicity or ESL status. This study demonstrates that even when teachers are asked to base their recommendations only on academic achievement, some teachers still attend to arbitrary factors such as a learner's group membership. Teacher educators may use these findings to sensitize teacher candidates to the implications of their unchecked stereotypes and biases.