The Role of ESL Teacher Support in Facilitating School Adjustment

252 Pages·2015·1.45 MB·English

Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
DigitalCommons@PCOM
PCOM Psychology Dissertations Student Dissertations, Theses and Papers
2011
The Role of ESL Teacher Support in Facilitating
School Adjustment in English Language Learners
Mary Sharp-Ross
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, [email protected]
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Sharp-Ross, Mary, "The Role of ESL Teacher Support in Facilitating School Adjustment in English Language Learners" (2011).
PCOM Psychology Dissertations.Paper 189.
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Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
School Psychology
Department of Psychology

THE ROLE OF ESL TEACHER SUPPORT IN FACILITATING SCHOOL
ADJUSTMENT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

By Mary L. Sharp-Ross
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Psychology
June 2011
Committee Members' Signatures:

Diane Smallwood, Psy.D., Chairperson

Rosemary Mennuti, Ed.D.

Dr. Lucila Hernandez

Robert A. DiTomasso, Ph.D., ABPP, Chair, Department of Psychology
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Acknowledgements
Completion of this dissertation was a family effort. My deepest gratitude goes
first and foremost to my wonderful husband John, for always unselfishly supporting my
efforts to pursue my degree, despite the many challenges that life threw our way in the
process. Your love, encouragement, and regular reminders to “have fun” as I left for the
seemingly endless drives to PCOM have sustained me through the years of schooling. To
our precious children Laurel and Jack, I hope that my attaining this goal has helped you
learn that hard work is worth the effort, despite years of putting up with Dad‟s cooking
while I was away at classes. Also to our mothers Laurel and Lal, you have both been an
inspiration, support, and comfort to me through this journey.
A heartfelt thank you to my committee members, Dr. Diane Smallwood, Dr.
Rosemary Mennuti, and Dr. Lucila Hernandez. You have each been an inspiration to me
during my school psychology training, and I consider myself exceptionally fortunate to
have had your guidance during the preparation of the dissertation. To Dr. Diane
Smallwood, I owe you a special debt of gratitude. Your encouragement through the ups
and downs of the last two years has not faltered, even when I was not sure that I could
sustain the effort while balancing “the stuff of life”. Thank you for providing valued
insights and the generous gift of your time to seeing this study through.
I am very grateful to the numerous friends who have supported me in completing
this dissertation, especially to those mentioned here. Thank you to my dear “ESL”
friends Beth Clark-Gareca and Kathleen O‟Donnell, who in effect acted as my fourth
committee members during the course of researching and writing this work. A special
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acknowledgement goes to Doris Correll, who so generously provided guidance regarding

ELL research throughout this project; you do more for promoting the school adjustment
of ELLs than anyone I know. To Dr. Mary Heim Elberson, thank you for your friendship
and moral support through our PCOM years, most of all for keeping my spirits up
through the low points. Thank you to Lorna Rodriguez-Medina for the special gift of
sharing your culture and amazing wisdom to better enlighten me about the cultural and
linguistic obstacles facing our immigrant students. To Linda Oplinger, your calm
guidance and expertise in formatting of the final document was deeply appreciated.
Finally, I dedicate this work to the ESL teachers of Pennsylvania. Your tireless
work on behalf of our ELL students very directly impacts their lives and school outcomes
for the better.
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Abstract

Immigrant students are the fastest growing sector of the US school population.
These students are English Language Learners (ELLs) who enter our schools with a
constellation of social-emotional risk factors that predispose them to psychological
disorders, as well as undermine their learning and educational outcomes. English to
Speakers of Other Languages (ESL) teacher support is indicated to be a primary
protective factor for ELLs facing the pervasive task of acculturation to a new society and
school culture. This study surveyed 200 ESL teachers in Pennsylvania in order to gather
information regarding their beliefs about the social-emotional and acculturation needs of
their students, and the supports they provide to address those needs. Responses were
analyzed to determine if descriptions of teacher supports and student behaviors were
consistent with the motivational constructs of teacher involvement, relatedness, and
engagement found in the general school adjustment literature. Survey results indicated
that ESL teachers perceive that academic stress and inadequate instructional adaptations
in the mainstream curriculum undermine self-efficacy in ELLs. The findings suggest that
ESL teachers attempt to instill perceived academic self-competence in their students
through targeted involvement supports, including acculturation strategies that perpetrate a
sense of classroom and school belonging.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ..........................................................................................................................1
Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1
Statement of the Problem .................................................................................................4
Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................................7
Research questions………………………………………………………..... ..............7
Definitions…………………………………………………………………………........8
CHAPTER 2 ......................................................................................................................10
Literature Review…………………………………………………………………….......10
Risk Factors Associated with School Adjustment among ELLs…………………. .......10
Acculturation and biculturalism .................................................................................11
The migration cycle ...................................................................................................14
School-specific risk factors ........................................................................................17
Teacher Support for ELLs ..............................................................................................22
The Role of the ESL teacher ...........................................................................................24
ESL teacher stress .......................................................................................................28
A Theoretical Framework for Conceptualizing School Adjustment in ELLs ................30
Theories of school adjustment ...................................................................................30
The role of teacher-student relationships in school adjustment .................................34
Motivational Theories of Self and School Adjustment...................................................35
Relatedness ................................................................................................................38
Teacher involvement support .....................................................................................41
Student engagement ...................................................................................................44
CHAPTER 3 ......................................................................................................................48
Methodology ......................................................................................................................48
Recruitment .....................................................................................................................48
Research Design..............................................................................................................51
Survey Instrument ...........................................................................................................54
Final survey format ....................................................................................................54
Procedures .......................................................................................................................57
CHAPTER 4 ......................................................................................................................60
Results ................................................................................................................................60
Sample Demographics ....................................................................................................61
School Adjustment in ELLs and Related Supports.........................................................67
ELL frustration...........................................................................................................67
ELL stress ..................................................................................................................69
School climate ............................................................................................................70
Sense of school belonging .........................................................................................72
Behavioral and emotional engagement during ESL instruction ................................75
Social-emotional needs and supports .........................................................................78
Acculturation needs support ......................................................................................81
Social outreach supports ............................................................................................86
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Consultation and school-related support of ELLs and ESL teachers ........................89

ELL feedback as validation of ESL teacher support .................................................93
ESL teacher frustration, satisfaction, and closing comments ....................................96
CHAPTER 5 ....................................................................................................................103
Discussion ........................................................................................................................103
Research Question 1: What are the Beliefs/Perceptions of ESL Teachers
Regarding the Social-emotional and Acculturation Needs of ELL Students? ............103
Need for empathy and support from adults..............................................................104
Need for self-efficacy ..............................................................................................105
Need for belonging ..................................................................................................107
Need for direct English language instruction...........................................................108
Research Question 2: What is the Nature of the Strategies/Supports that ESL
Teachers Provide to Address the Social-Emotional and Acculturation Needs of ELL
Students? .....................................................................................................................109
Social-emotional and acculturation supports ...........................................................110
Social service supports .............................................................................................113
Relationship support ................................................................................................115
Research Question 3: Is There an Association between ESL Teacher
Strategies/Supports and the Observed Engagement of ELL Students? ......................116
Research Questions 4 & 5: Are Descriptions of ESL Teacher Strategies/Supports
Consistent with the Constructs of Teacher Involvement and Supports that Fulfill the
Need for Relatedness?.................................................................................................118
Other Findings ..............................................................................................................119
Limitations ....................................................................................................................121
Conclusions and Recommendations for Future Research ............................................122
References ........................................................................................................................125
Appendices .......................................................................................................................141
Appendix A Invitation to Participate in Survey to Explore the Role of ESL
Support in the School Adjustment of English Language Learners .............................141
Appendix B Survey ......................................................................................................142
Appendix C Survey Comments ...................................................................................152
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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Demographic Characteristics of Respondents & School Settings…………….. 62
Table 2 ESL Teacher Work Assignments……………………………………………… 64
Table 3 Demographics of ELL Population Served…………………………………….. 66
Table 4 Stress-Related Behaviors Observed in ELLs………………………………….. 69
Table 5 Perception of School Climate…………………………………………………. 71
Table 6 ELL Engagement……………………………………………………………… 75
Table 7 Social-Emotional Needs of ELLS……………………………………………... 79
Table 8 School Acculturation of ELLs………………………………………………… 82
Table 9 Cultural Supports to ELLs…………………………………………………….. 86
Table 10 Social Outreach Supports to ELLs…………………………………………… 88
Table 11 Consultation between ESL and Non-ESL Teachers…………………………. 90
Chapter 1
Introduction
Children of immigrants compose the fastest growing segment of the US
population (Pumariega, et al., 2005; Suarez-Orozco, 2005), with their numbers growing
at a rate 7-times faster than those of children of American-born parents (Park-Taylor,
Walsh, & Ventura, 2007). The population of first- and second-generation children of
immigrants in the United States grew 29.5 percent between 2000 and 2008, to over 17.5
million, or nearly one in four of all U.S. children (Child Trends, 2010). This
demographic transformation has resulted in the reality that over 20% of the total
population of K-12 students enrolled in school in the US today are “immigrant children”,
meaning that they are new immigrants born outside of the United States or second
generation American-born children of at least one foreign-born immigrant parent (Child
Trends, 2010; Ruiz-de-Velasco & Fix, 2000). The term "generation 1.5" is commonly
encountered in the educational literature to refer to immigrant children born outside of
the US who have completed most of their schooling here (Roberge, 2009).
The accelerated growth of the immigrant population means that US schools
nationwide are attended, with increased numbers, by children who have a primary home
language other than English. The federal government refers to these students as Limited
English Proficient (LEP), but researchers and practitioners prefer the term English
Language Learners (ELLs) to refer to these students who are acquiring English as their