A User Study: Technology to Increase Teachers' Linguistic Awareness to Improve Instructional Language Support for English Language Learners

This paper discusses user study outcomes with teachers who used Language Muse SM a webbased teacher professional development (TPD) application designed to enhance teachers’ linguistic awareness, and support teachers in the development of language-based instructional scaffolding (support) for their English language learners (ELL). System development was grounded in literature that supports the notion that instruction incorporating language support for ELLs can improve their accessibility to content-area classroom texts –in terms of access to content, and improvement of language skills. Measurement outcomes of user piloting with teachers in a TPD setting indicated that application use increased teachers' linguistic knowledge and awareness, and their ability to develop appropriate language-based instruction for ELLs. Instruction developed during the pilot was informed by the application’s linguistic analysis feedback, provided by natural language processing capabilities in Language Muse.