Reconceptualizing language in community-based adult ESL: A Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical professional development intervention

Open Access
- Author:
- Doyle, Nicolas
- Graduate Program:
- Applied Linguistics
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 15, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Karen E Johnson, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Karen E Johnson, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Deryn Phillips Verity, Committee Member
Matthew Edward Poehner, Committee Member
Uju Anya, Outside Member
Robert William Schrauf, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Community-based adult ESL
Vygotsky
Sociocultural Theory
second language teacher education
TESOL - Abstract:
- Although untrained volunteers represent a primary English language teaching force within community-based adult education contexts in the U.S. (Durham & Kim, 2018), researchers and practitioners alike are seeking to develop effective, sustainable, and meaningful ways to help volunteers develop more pedagogically-sound language teaching practices (Altherr Flores et al., 2019; Perry & Luk, 2018). Given that the majority of volunteers are assigned full teaching responsibilities despite having little to no prior training or experience teaching language or teaching adults (Durham & Kim, 2018; Pennycook & Coutand-Marin, 2003), the preparation of such teachers is of critical importance. Unfortunately, however, the available research (Belzer, 2006a, 2006b, 2013; Perry, 2013) has indicated that the predominant approaches to volunteer preparation have been largely ineffective. Moreover, the limited body of literature on community-based adult ESL teaching has been found to contain unclear, inconsistent, or absent methodologies (Mathews-Aydinli, 2008) and is often based on “conventional wisdom and experiential insights, with little emphasis on philosophical underpinnings” (Perry & Luk, 2018, p. 22). To address these concerns, this dissertation employs Vygotskian sociocultural theory (1978, 1986) and its extensions to activity theory (Leontiev, 1978; Engeström, 1987) and concept-based instruction (Galperin, 1999; Arievitch, 2008) to promote and trace the development of theoretically grounded and pedagogically sound language tutoring practices among a cohort of volunteer adult ESL tutors. By designing, implementing, documenting, and analyzing the outcomes of an SCT-informed professional development intervention, this study aims to provide a theoretically informed empirical investigation into the unfolding development of a cohort of volunteer adult ESL tutors as they progress through this intervention. A central goal of this dissertation to provide adult literacy researchers and practitioners with more theoretically robust understandings of how we might go about fostering greater levels of expertise among volunteer tutors who have little to no prior preparation for or experience teaching adult ESL.