PUSH-IN LANGUAGE SUPPORT IN ENGLISH-MEDIUM INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS

Abstract

The number of English-medium international schools implementing a second language acquisition instructional model using push-in language support is increasing. With the escalation of push-in comes increased interaction between English language learner (ELL) teachers and classroom teachers. This quantitative survey-based study aimed to explore ELL push-in support in the early and primary years in international schools. Within the construct of English-medium international schools, the researchers sought to investigate teacher expectations during push-in. Areas explored include language policy and the specification of teacher roles, availability of planning time, in-class expectations for ELL teachers, and teacher satisfaction with push-in. The study results revealed that slightly less than half of the participants reported having a school language policy that defined teacher roles, and approximately one-third of the participants in schools using push-in were not provided with planning time. The researchers also found statistically significant differences in the rankings of ELL teacher roles during push-in between ELL and classroom teachers. Further, the study revealed no statistically significant difference in the reported level of satisfaction with push-in between the two groups; however, when the two groups were combined, only about half of the participants reported that teachers were satisfied with push-in ELL support in their school.