Professional Development of Bilingual Teachers

Due to the rapid growth in the number of students who want to learn other languages, the need for bilingual teachers is also increasing, to facilitate better student-teacher interactions. The present study proves that professional development helps the articulation and contestation of bilingual teachers. It should be noted that every teacher comes from a different background and it is necessary that the nature of teaching and learning of the teachers must be emphasized. Here are some best practices for the professional development of bilingual teachers:

Balanced Literacy in the bilingual classroom

The balanced literacy approach addresses the academic elements like scheduling, organization of classrooms, grouping, etc. The teacher must take care of all these elements for better teaching. In this approach, the students also have hands-on activities to develop the classroom.

Dyslexia Assessment

Here it is necessary to assess the components that are required for the evaluation of ELLs for dyslexia. The teacher must be able to evaluate dyslexia in some students and need to change their way of teaching as per the student’s mentality.

Reading skills of Teachers

Teachers should also work on their reading skills just as well as their teaching skills. They have to learn how to structure their reading and use it effectively in their teaching. To teach professionally, the reading and quick learning skills of an individual are also very much mandatory.

Vocabulary development

As the bilingual teachers must be fluent in more than one language, they need to work on their vocabulary too. The choice of the vocabulary they use must be sophisticated and yet should be easily understood by the student. After all, the ultimate goal is to provide better learning to the students. Teachers must continually try to learn new words and reinforce them.

Enhancing Student Vocabulary

It is the responsibility of the teacher to enhance the vocabulary of the students and communicating with them allows him or her to understand their standards and hence help them to improve.

Academic languages are somewhat different from the social languages the students likely use, but it is necessary for the student to learn the formal written and spoken languages to succeed in the classroom or even at workplaces. Again, this is done through communication between the teacher and students, assignments and activities, and the teacher should help students improve from there. Bilingual teachers should also interact with other teachers, explore their way of teachings and learn.

Also, collecting feedback regularly helps the teachers to assess and evaluate themselves and try to change. Every student is different, and it takes an interesting and fun way to get the attention of all students. The feedback helps the teachers to find out where they can improve themselves or what they can do to engage the students and teach them properly. As the bilingual teachers teach two languages, their language proficiency is a fundamental and common element. The teacher should be fluent and must have a good command of vocabulary and grammar. The teachers can help each other and use collaborative efforts to provide a better learning experience for the students.

Derek Tan writes articles relating to education. Please visit Canadian International School for more information.

Derek Tan writes articles relating to education. Please visit Canadian International School for more information.