English Language Teaching Strategies

[English Language Professors]

Several authors (Hakuta, 1990; Tucker, 1999) discuss the need for
research studies that
develop an international perspective for the teaching of English
learners. A number of international studies, such as the one by the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD, 1989) and the comprehensive review of research on
the use of first
and second languages in education, carried out for the World Bank
(Dutcher & Tucker,
1994), have shown that the United States is not alone in experiencing
major changes in
the linguistic and cultural diversity of its student body. Indeed,
many nations of the
industrialized world are facing similar issues and hold similar
beliefs related to learning
a second language. Additionally, we need to go beyond merely
describing programs or the
start up of programs and instead examine the instructional strategies
used by teachers as
they help students to acquire a second language with ease and fluency.
Toward this goal,
this study looked closely at teacher behaviors, lesson delivery and
sequence of content,
and learning expectations used by teachers of classes K-5 at one
school in New Delhi,
India. The focus of this work was to build a broader understanding of
strategies for
teaching English reading and writing to students whose first language
is not English.