Blog Post #4

For my final project, I would like to research digital media/new literacy practices for ELL students. There are many considerations that educators must take into account when teaching ELL students literacy. Traditional literacy is a narrow-minded idea that can negatively affect ELL students. In previous modules, we learned that ELL students who are proficient in their native language score higher in English. Additionally, we are learning that to be literate has multiple meanings instead of the traditional definition we have always used. Therefore, I want to look at the challenges as well as solutions for teaching literacy to ELL students. I would also like to focus on how digital media/new literacy practices will benefit ELL learners.

With the ELL population increasing in schools, the need for ELL trained educators increases as well. This topic resonates with me personally because I work in a very diverse school district with a high ELL population. I have personally seen my ELL students struggle with content due to a language barrier. In addition, science is a very reading heavy subject that furthers the gap and challenges for ELL students. This research will hopefully further my understanding of ELL students and prepare me as an educator to help build their literacy skills in science as well as across other disciplines.

Annotated Bibliography:

Crosby, C. (2018). Empowering English Language Learners and Immigrant Students with Digital
Literacies and Service-Learning. The Reading Matrix, 18(2). Retrieved from https://web-p-ebscohost-com.sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=0fddcd4e-4aeb-4f24-9393-53b1d3a36b5a%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=132008204&db=eue

This article describes a study conducted on the digital literacy educators are already implementing in their classrooms and if these practices help empower their ELL students. Teachers reported their ELL students being proficient in social media tools and creating presentations. The area ELL students were least proficient in were creating and completing webquests. Therefore, the author recommended using digital tools like social media and gamification aligned with service-learning projects which focus on social justice issues. These projects help empower ELL students while building their digital literacy. The author suggest that service-learning projects should be required in TESOL programs to inspire students to make changes.

Farjado, M.F. (2015). A review of critical literacy beliefs and practices of English language
learners and teachers. University of Sydney Papers in TESOL, 10, 29-56. Retrieved from
https://openurl-ebsco-com.sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/c/hefeo2/openurl?sid=Primo&volume=10&date=20150101&spage=29&issn=1834-3198&issue=2015&genre=article&prompt=true&title=University+of+Sydney+papers+in+TESOL&epage=56

This review article identifies the challenges that both ELL students and teachers face when learning/teaching critical literacy, as well as different practices that can be implemented to help both parties. Some of the challenges described were that ELL students had difficulty comprehending sociocultural texts and couldn’t identify the author's purpose of the text. However, the author argues that educators must not underestimate ELL students and continue to challenge their literacy. The author recommends that educators use multimodal texts that include pop culture and digital texts that interest their students to implement critical literacy among ELL students. This article gave useful recommendations that educators should use when teaching their ELL students.

Yeh, E. & Mitric, S. (2020). Bridging Activities: Social Media for Connecting Language
Learners’ in-School and out-of-School Literacy Practices. International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching, 10(3), 48-66. doi.org/10.4018/IJCALLT.2020070104

The authors of this article investigated if social media platforms like Instagram in a multimodal digital storytelling model can enhance the literacy skills of ELL students and give them an additional way of communication. The authors found that using Instagram as a tool increased the literacy skills of ELL students by fulfilling the 5 learning objectives outlined. The data proposed that the majority of ELL students found Instagram as a meaningful source of communication and visited the site 5 or more times daily. This article shows that social media is a valuable tool that can be used with the ELL population in schools and can also be utilized as an affinity space where students can find others who have similar interests.

Yeh, E. & Swinehart, N. (2022). Social media literacy in L2 environments: navigating
anonymous user-generated content. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 35(8), 1731-1753. doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2020.1830805

This recent article presents a study where researchers reviewed the characteristics and trends of social media use among ELL students and how social media use affects their language ability. The study also presented the challenges ELL students face while viewing online content and how they conquer these challenges. The results of this study suggested that social media does increase language ability and yet there is a decrease in social media use among ELL students. Additionally, there are many challenges that ELL students face when engaging in online environments including information overload, difficulty navigating, evaluating information, and language discrepancies. This study gives insight on the importance of educators being prepared to assist ELL students on improving their digital literacy.

Yuan, C., Wang, L. & Eagl, J. (2019). Empowering English Language Learners through Digital
Literacies: Research, Complexities, and Implications. Media and Communication, 7(2), 128-136. doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i2.1912

This article recognizes the tensions between ELL students and public education and emphasizes the need of digital literacy to empower ELL students. The article takes an “asset lens” approach which looks at student’s strengths as opposed to their weaknesses in a “deficit lens”. The authors highlight the dark side of education by explaining how for years, English-only programs were adopted in K-12 classrooms across the nation which deliberately hurt ELL students and widened the achievement gap. The article discusses how the use of technology in classrooms and promoting digital literacy empowers ELL students to participate as active learners in the classroom. By getting ELL students to participate it helps close the achievement gap.

References:

Crosby, C. (2018). Empowering English Language Learners and Immigrant Students with Digital
Literacies and Service-Learning. The Reading Matrix, 18(2). Retrieved from https://web-p-ebscohost-com.sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=0fddcd4e-4aeb-4f24-9393-53b1d3a36b5a%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=132008204&db=eue

Farjado, M.F. (2015). A review of critical literacy beliefs and practices of English language
learners and teachers. University of Sydney Papers in TESOL, 10, 29-56. Retrieved from
https://openurl-ebsco-com.sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/c/hefeo2/openurl?sid=Primo&volume=10&date=20150101&spage=29&issn=1834-3198&issue=2015&genre=article&prompt=true&title=University+of+Sydney+papers+in+TESOL&epage=56

Yeh, E. & Mitric, S. (2020). Bridging Activities: Social Media for Connecting Language
Learners’ in-School and out-of-School Literacy Practices. International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching, 10(3), 48-66. doi.org/10.4018/IJCALLT.2020070104

Yeh, E. & Swinehart, N. (2022). Social media literacy in L2 environments: navigating
anonymous user-generated content. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 35(8), 1731-1753. doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2020.1830805

Yuan, C., Wang, L. & Eagl, J. (2019). Empowering English Language Learners through Digtial
Literacies: Research, Complexities, and Implications. Media and Communication, 7(2), 128-136. doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i2.1912