Understanding the Experiences and Needs of Mainstream Teachers of ESL Students: Reflections from a Secondary Social Studies Teacher

This case study addressed issues of ESL mainstreaming by examining a teacher’s experiences and needs in teaching a social studies class where ESL students were mainstreamed. Extended observations, semistructured interviews, and documentary analysis served to unravel classroom dynamics, showing that the teacher modified various aspects of teaching to accommodate the needs of ESL students, which facilitated their access to the content, but at the same time created problems that had not been examined or predicted by past research. This study exposes the dilemma of providing comprehensible instruction to ESL students and highlights the role of differentiated instruction in diverse mainstream classrooms and the place of students’ first languages in learning academic content.