Teaching Communication Language and Literacy

Running head: TEACHING COMMUNICATION LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
TEACHING COMMUNICATION LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
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1TEACHING COMMUNICATION LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
Language is an important tool for being able to think and learn and without the help of
the skills of advanced languages, the ability of the students to access to the texts in their
academic years and also the ability to examine the abstract ideas and concepts in them will
decrease (Murray & Christison, 2019). As the classrooms become more diverse both
linguistically and culturally, it becomes more significant that all of the teachers and not just
the language teachers, acquire a sound notion of the language and the literacy development.
Methods of contemporary teaching is basically an act of using philosophies and idea of the
educators of the past, combining those with the ideas of contemporary educators in order to
form a new way of teaching the current generation. Moreover, for diverse learners in an early
childhood education setting, it is a vital task that the classroom teachers find creative ways to
teach them. It is in fact a challenge keeping in mind the fact that the catchall assigned to
students are of different types because of their culture, race. Religion, native language and
other groups.
In accordance to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act which is also known as
ESEA, meeting all the educational needs of the diverse learners is a responsibility and is not a
bonus. There are many teachers who have committed to ensure that all the students receive
adequate and equal education in their classroom but the act of providing equal education is
complicated. Thus., there are certain contemporary approaches which allows all the diverse
learners to be able to keep themselves up with the other students in the classroom; the
approaches include tried- and- true strategies, research based approaches and techniques that
are approved by teachers to make the education process for the diverse learners a little bit
easier. The first contemporary approach is the creation of an IEP cheat sheet which are
basically individualized education plans that are detailed documents that would show the
teachers the ways to teach and reach the diverse learners (Gunderson et al., 2019). Especially
students in early education setting need to be reached individually for learning. This approach

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is for the benefit of the teachers so that they can keep reminding themselves what is needed to
teach a class full of diverse learners and what laws are needed to be abided whilst teaching
them. The next approach is to encourage the act of active learning in the classroom; there are
times when an educator plans a lesson and thinks of the way that he/she is going to teach it in
the class. But when they start teaching it does not go the way they planned. This issue
demonstrates an important contemporary lesson that teaching facts should be shared with the
students so that they start participating. It might be a challenge to keep the learners engaged
and actively involved especially for the ones who speak diverse language; in such cases the
teacher can incorporate learning methods like group learning, group discussions, case- based
learning, memory matrixes or even one- sentence summaries. Another contemporary
approach proved that grouping on the basis of ability is more productive than grouping on the
basis of learning style. However, it is also known that grouping by learning style also makes
teaching easier, but this approach does not boost the struggling students; instead it boosts the
students at intermediate levels to higher level. Hence, it would be more effective if students
are grouped in mixed ability groups so that it can promote learning; mixed ability groups
easily promote learning since the students get a chance to coach their peers (Du Plessis,
2019). Next, project -based learning is also a well- known and contemporary approach which
is suitable for teaching diverse learners. Early childhood setting students would be in fact
more interested in project- based learning than whatever that is taught to them in regular
classes. In this type of learning the kids learn to solve real world problems and come up with
a solution together if they are put in a group together. Thus, not only they are educated, the
diverse learners get a chance to connect and communicate with the other students to feel
included.
Inclusion is the practice that ensures that all the children are included and they feel
included in their early learning regardless of their differences, in this case difference in

3TEACHING COMMUNICATION LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
language culture; some students might speak aboriginal English, some of the students might
be bilingual or multilingual and there might be students who were delayed in their language
advancement. An inclusive practice culture helps in laying the base for participation by every
little learner. A curriculum that supports inclusive practices considers all the differences of
the children whilst making decisions regarding their participation. Thus, inclusive teaching
strategies would ensure that all the students are getting adequate support and are getting
access to learnings, especially the multilingual students, bilingual students or any other
student with diverse language culture. The first step to inclusive strategies is to design the
course with the concept of inclusivity in mind (Gargiulo & Bouck, 2019). This strategy
allows perspectives to be included and also communicates to students who have multiple
views and are engaged and valued. This strategy would require including content from
diverse and multiple perspectives; it would mean that for the creation of inclusive teaching
strategies, universal design theories and practices must be considered and implemented in the
strategies. Most importantly, scholarly literature on inclusive teaching would also be helpful
regarding the creation of inclusive teaching approach for the students with diverse language
culture (Howard, 2019). The next strategy is to maximize the diverse educational
backgrounds of the learners and also their personal experiences, since students do not learn in
the same way as the other student would learn. The next strategy is one of the most important
strategy in the arena of inclusive education; it is the creation of respectful and a productive
learning ambience. In order to do so, there must be some ground rules that should be
established for interactions (Rucinski et al., 2019). In cases of children in early childhood
education setting, the right way to create an appropriate environment is through correcting
them right at the moment any child is seen to interact rudely to a diverse student for his/her
diverse culture. It includes making fun of the accent, or any such other acts. The inclusive
teaching methods should be assessed from time to time and it can be done either by keeping

4TEACHING COMMUNICATION LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
track of the learning progress of all the students or by taking feedbacks from students or their
parents, whatever deems appropriate. In accordance to the feedback gathered, the inclusive
teaching strategies could be altered or improved for the benefit of all the students in the
classroom. As a matter of fact, the teaching practices implemented in inclusive teaching
should also be reflected upon so that the teachers are also able to get professional growth and
the practice of inclusive practice could be made better for the students with culture of diverse
language.
The fostering of inclusion in a classroom and taking approach to teach in such strategies
benefits all the students and not just the students with diverse culture. There is the fact that
students who received education in an inclusive education environment are more likely to
develop a multicultural awareness and also inclusion helps all the students with diverse
backgrounds to succeed (Mindes, 2019). It encourages acceptance in the minds of the
students and helps them to prepare for thriving in a world that is exponentially diverse in
nature. All of this takes place when diversity is included in the class in the form of diverse
learners. Thus, the presence of diverse learners not only prepares the student for their future
and encourages acceptance in them; instead it also helps in their optimal language learning.
When diversity is incorporated in the classroom through their lesson plan, it imposes an
impact on all the students and not just the learners with diverse culture and background.
When the other students learn about the background of the diverse learners, they start
growing a sense of respect for their language and start helping their diverse learner peer in
learning their native language. Hence in a way, it is improving their language learning more
than what the diverse learners are learning in the class (Veilz & Hossein, 2020). Not only it is
making them a good human being who has respect for all the cultures in the whole wide
world, it is making them a better learner through giving them the opportunity to coach their
diverse learner peers. The more the students are exposed to the diversity through frequent

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interaction with their diverse classmates, the more they become socially responsible. Through
the interactions, they also get a knowledge about the diverse language that their diverse
classmate belongs from and hence it is creating a culture of learning of multiple languages in
the classroom (Hyland, 2019). The students are getting an opportunity to educate themselves
because of the presence of diverse learners in the class and it would be helpful to them in
their future years to come. With a sense of empathy and awareness, the students are learning
about new perspectives and are being open- minded because of their diverse classmates; most
importantly it is making each of the student feel unique in spite of being a part of the group.
And most importantly, schools are meant to prepare the students for their future life and not
just help them achieve their academic intelligence; and keeping this in mind, the presence of
diverse learners are helping every student to learn about real world and help them in their
process of acceptance. It is through empathy, love and understanding, that the native learners
are also being able to learn their language through their teachers and also along with the
diverse cultural viewpoint.
It can be concluded that, in the contemporary teaching methods, the needs of the
students are given more importance. Diversity is being included in the lesson plans and
students are being put into groups on the basis of their ability and not their learning style
since every individual might possess diverse learning style. Inclusive teaching strategies are
also being incorporated into the academic lesson plans keeping in mind the wide impact that
it imposes on the students benefiting them not only in their education but also by contributing
to make them a better human being with acceptance, tolerance and respect for other cultures.
Moreover, it is also observed that inclusive education and the presence of diverse learners are
actually helping them in their overall optimal learning of language in various ways.

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References: 14
Du Plessis, A. E. (2019). Barriers to effective management of diversity in classroom contexts:
The out-of-field teaching phenomenon. International Journal of Educational
Research, 93, 136-152.
Gargiulo, R. M., & Bouck, E. C. (2019). Special education in contemporary society: An
introduction to exceptionality. Sage Publications, Incorporated.
Gunderson, L., D'Silva, R. A., & Odo, D. M. (2019). ESL (ELL) literacy instruction: A
guidebook to theory and practice. Routledge.
Howard, T. C. (2019). Why race and culture matter in schools: Closing the achievement gap
in America's classrooms. Teachers College Press.
Hyland, K. (2019). Second language writing. Cambridge university press.
Mindes, G. (Ed.). (2019). Contemporary Challenges in Teaching Young Children: Meeting
the Needs of All Students. Routledge.
Murray, D. E., & Christison, M. (2019). What English language teachers need to know
volume I: Understanding learning. Routledge.
Rucinski, C. L., Sutton, E., Carlton, R., Downer, J., & Brown, J. L. (2019). Classroom
racial/ethnic diversity and upper elementary children’s social-emotional
development. Applied Developmental Science, 1-17.
Veliz, L., & Hossein, S. (2020). EAL teachers’(un) preparedness to implement classroom
practice for multiliteracies pedagogy. In Multilingual Education Yearbook 2020 (pp.
63-80). Springer, Cham.