European Journal of Education & Language Review
Research Article
2025, 1(1), Article No: 4

“Awareness is just the first step”: Preservice teachers’ changing views of teaching multilingual learners in an ESOL course

Published in Volume 1 Issue 1: 20 Dec 2025
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Abstract

There is an urgent need to prepare highly effective teachers to meet the challenges posed by an increasing number of multilingual students from different backgrounds in U.S. public schools. Traditional teacher preparation programs tend to offer English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses to meet the state’s ESOL endorsement requirements; however, these courses tend to focus on language acquisition theories and methods, failing to equip future teachers with the knowledge and skills to implement pedagogical approaches that leverage on students’ prior knowledge and backgrounds, which would contribute to their academic success and language proficiency development. In this study, researchers employed a longitudinal case study design to explore how preservice teachers perceive their preparation to promote a humanizing pedagogy beyond ESOL training. The case was an upper-level undergraduate ESOL course at a university in Southwest Florida. Multiple sources of data (e.g., course assignments and discussions) were collected from 27 volunteer participants enrolled in the course in the fall of 2023 and analyzed using analytic coding. The findings indicated that participants had a limited willingness to reflect on their prior assumptions about teaching multilingual learners and to understand the educational, cultural, and social needs of these students. The study’s findings emphasize the crucial need for focused, intentional training in self-awareness and humanizing pedagogies in teacher preparation programs to equip future teachers with the skills and knowledge to support the academic success of multilingual students.
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APA 7th edition
In-text citation: (Halpern et al., 2025)
Reference: Halpern, C., Aydin, H., & Halpern, B. (2025). “Awareness is just the first step”: Preservice teachers’ changing views of teaching multilingual learners in an ESOL course. European Journal of Education & Language Review, 1(1), Article 4. https://doi.org/10.20897/ejelr/17567
AMA 10th edition
In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Halpern C, Aydin H, Halpern B. “Awareness is just the first step”: Preservice teachers’ changing views of teaching multilingual learners in an ESOL course. European Journal of Education & Language Review. 2025;1(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.20897/ejelr/17567
Chicago
In-text citation: (Halpern et al., 2025)
Reference: Halpern, Clarisse, Hasan Aydin, and Bruno Halpern. "“Awareness is just the first step”: Preservice teachers’ changing views of teaching multilingual learners in an ESOL course". European Journal of Education & Language Review 2025 1 no. 1 (2025): 4. https://doi.org/10.20897/ejelr/17567
Harvard
In-text citation: (Halpern et al., 2025)
Reference: Halpern, C., Aydin, H., and Halpern, B. (2025). “Awareness is just the first step”: Preservice teachers’ changing views of teaching multilingual learners in an ESOL course. European Journal of Education & Language Review, 1(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.20897/ejelr/17567
MLA
In-text citation: (Halpern et al., 2025)
Reference: Halpern, Clarisse et al. "“Awareness is just the first step”: Preservice teachers’ changing views of teaching multilingual learners in an ESOL course". European Journal of Education & Language Review, vol. 1, no. 1, 2025, 4. https://doi.org/10.20897/ejelr/17567
Vancouver
In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Halpern C, Aydin H, Halpern B. “Awareness is just the first step”: Preservice teachers’ changing views of teaching multilingual learners in an ESOL course. European Journal of Education & Language Review. 2025;1(1):4. https://doi.org/10.20897/ejelr/17567
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