| This study is a year-long investigation of how features of the curriculum, a teacher's instructional practices, and patterns of interaction among students in one 6th grade, bilingual middle-school classroom contributed to these students' academic language acquisition in English and their learning of 6th grade social studies content knowledge.;As an ethnographic, classroom-based study of language acquisition processes and products, data were gathered primarily through observational fieldnotes, audiotaping of both the teacher and the students during whole-class and small group instruction and interaction, and analysis of students' written work products. Audiotapes were transcribed and coded for discourse features and analyzed for markers of academic language form and function. Students' writing was analyzed and scored for both content and mechanics. Observation data provided contextual support and additional information to inform the analyses.;The results found that certain contextual features created by the teacher's implementation of Complex Instruction, a set of instructional and curricular strategies intended to produce more equitable classrooms, both promoted and sometimes limited the students' acquisition of academic English. The bilingual students in this study increased their use of academic language, both written and oral, when they were exposed to challenging curriculum texts and tasks and were provided with the appropriate scaffolding necessary to make meaning from them. The findings suggest that, first, bilingual students benefit from a balance between implicit and explicit instruction. Second, hands-on tasks alone will not elicit the students' use of content-specific language but incorporating students' formal presentations of their final products will. Third, tapping into and building students' background knowledge for both content and language learning is a key factor in promoting academic language learning. Fourth, status may play a significant role in determining a bilingual student's use of L1 or L2. And fifth, teachers of English learners must integrate strategic language instruction into their content lessons.;Implications for the preparation of both pre-service and practicing teachers of English language learners are explored. Thus, this study makes a contribution to understanding what teachers can do to help ELLs acquire academic English language and literacy skills, in both a bilingual and English-only classroom setting. |
