Teacher's perspectives on content-based classes for K-12 Arabic speakers in an English-only context

This qualitative case study explored the teacher's experiences, attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of teaching content-based classes in tandem with English. This study included K-12 Arabic speaking, English Language Learners (ELLs) among the English-only context at 5 international private schools in Saudi Arabia. Second language acquisition (SLA) was examined through the lens of an English-only context that has long been debated as the preferred learning environment for ELLs. This study was concerned with understanding how teachers form their pedagogical attitudes, beliefs and perceptions towards the use of a student's first language (L1) to facilitate the learning of a student's second language (L2) within a monolingual teaching environment for content area instruction in K-12 classes. The study's findings revealed the views of 17 teachers' perceptions and how their attitudes and beliefs have influenced SLA. Additionally to filing the gap in the literature, this case study found that teachers preferred to use English-only in their classrooms, however; there was a need for the teacher to use Arabic translation when teaching ELLs. The student's L1 was needed to facilitate the student's L2 learning. The study recognized that teachers supported the efficacy of English L2 acquisition strategies and there were variant amounts of L1 used by the teacher and between the learners to facilitate the learning of L2. The study showed the teacher's L2 effectiveness across the curriculum and what had minimal and maximum impact on their students when learning L2. Teachers were sensitive to their student's sociocultural needs and used cooperative learning to facilitate L1 translation. This case study included 17 teacher interviews, classroom observations and documents as the data collection method. Recommendations for further research include a similar study to be conducted among the pre-school and pre-kindergarten populations.