Abstract of

Offering or Limiting Opportunities: Teachers' Roles and Approaches to English-Language Learners' Participation in Literacy Activities

Bogum Yoon

After examining the teachers of sixth-grade English-language learners (ELLs) in their regular classrooms, the authors of this study found that the ELLs' active or passive participation was much influenced by the teachers' approach to the students but not by the teachers' use of specific methods only. While the teachers' focus on American monoculturalism provided little room for the ELLs' participation in the cultural discourse, the teachers' approach based on the students' cultural and social needs promoted the students' participation. The study aims to help reading teachers be aware of their roles and teaching practices as supports or constraints on ELLs' active participation in the mainstream classroom.

Abstract from Yoon, B. (2007, November). Offering or Limiting Opportunities: Teachers' Roles and Approaches to English-Language Learners' Participation in Literacy Activities. The Reading Teacher, 61(3), 216–225. doi: 10.1598/RT.61.3.2